Le Pneu Michelin poster à Vaincu le Rail – Ernest Montaut – 1905
We have a lot of really cool posters on offer here at heritage-posters.co.uk. One that always makes it into our top ten is this fabulous Ernest Montaut advertising poster produced to advertise Michelin tyres. Montaut’s delightful image captures what is consodere one of the most legendary exploits from the early days of motoring. The Le Pneu Michelin poster depicts a race between the American Racing driver, George Heath against a train.
Across the top of the automobile racing poster, in bold red letters, the poster title reads ‘Le Pneu Michelin a vaincu le rail’ or ‘The Michelin Tyre has conquered the rail’. The message is reinforced with more detail in the stylish hand-lettered text in the bottom left quarter of the poster’s design. It reads: “Heath sur Voiture Panhard bat de 30 minutes sur 600 kilometers le train le plus rapide du monde’. This translates into English as “Heath on a Panhard car beats the fastest train in the world by 30 minutes over 600 kilometers’.
The French Le Pneu Michelin affiche features an image of the handsomely mustachioed Captain Georges Heath and his intrepid teammate Eugene Lajunie as the race progresses. The daring duo are depicted rattling along a countryside dirt track at speed. One of Ernest Montaut’s original tecniques was to include speed lines and clouds of dust and smoke to emphasise the feeling on movement and speed. The poster’s image depicts the car almost comically passing a local who looks completely dumbfounded at the scene that is unravelling in fornt of him. The train is shown some distance behind Heaths Panhard #7.
The race is believed to have been a 400-mile race between the American Captain Heath’s Panhard Grand Prix car and what was at the time, the fastest train in the world. The 120 HP Panhard is reproted to have been the train by more than 30 minutes over the 600km distance. The Michelin company were keen to advertise the success putting the victory, at least in part to the quality of the tyres it manufactured.
George Heath
George Heath was born in 1862. He came from Long Island, New York. He was a pioneering racing driver who spent most of his time in France. Drawn by the lure of France’s blossoming automobile industry he relocated to France through the 1890s. He soon secured a job at the Panhard & Levassor factory. He first appeared as a driver of one of the Panhard company’s race cars in 1898, participating in the grueling, 889-mile Paris to Amsterdam to Pau Race. He finished 13th.
In 1899 he was one of just nine drivers to complete the 1,350-mille Tour de France race, finishing sixth. This was followed by a fourth-place finish in the 1899 Paris-Saint Malo race. Following several more successes, Heath was rewarded with a works Panhard in 1904. However, other than another sixth-place finish at Belgium’s Circuit Des Ardennes in 1902, Heath enjoyed little more success.
Then, Heath reached the pinnacle of his career. 1904 turned out to be the greatest year of his driving career. That year he scored two major victories, the first at Circuit Des Ardennes and then the crowning achievement of his career, a win at the inaugural Vanderbilt Cup Race in his native Long Island, New York.
George Heath’s Panhard #7 automobile
Despite the Ernest Montaut’s Le Pneu Michelin poster suggesting otherwise George Heath’s Panhard No7 was actually painted blue, the racing colour of France. The front of the car, which was the air intake for the radiator, was black with the number painted on in white. In fact, the colour scheme was the same for all three Panhard cars entered in to the Vanderbilt Cup race.
The Panhard radiator had enough capacity for almost 10.4 gallons of water, as compared to one to three gallons for car radiators today. Fuel capacity was 34 gallons, about the size of a late model Chevrolet K2500 pick-up truck. Weighing in at 2,204 pounds, the blue machine was up to the limit of the Vanderbilt Cup Race rules.
Several successes in the earliest automobile speed contests, such as the 1895 Paris-to-Bordeaux–to-Paris open road race, established the company as one of the best car manufacturers in the world. They continued to reign as one of the leading forces in auto competitions until losing interest in 1907. In addition to George Heath’s Vanderbilt Cup win, the company scored victories in the Gordon Bennett Cup, Circuit de Nord, and Circuit des Ardennes (three times) between 1901 and 1904. In 1901 eight Panhards made up a large part of the field for major road races across Europe.
Who won the first Vanderbilt Cup?
The Vanderbilt Cup was the first major trophy in American auto racing. Officially known as The First International Race for the William K. Vanderbilt, Jr. Cup the inaugural event was held on October 8, 1904. Against considerable objections against the race proceeding, Vanderbilt prevailed. A 30.3 mile course of winding dirt tracks and public roads was set out in Nassau County on Long Island, New York. The contest was to be a 10-lap race with drivers stopping in two “controls” on each lap of the course. The controls were positioned in the towns of Hicksville and Hempstead.
Just as the junior Vanderbilt had envisaged, the race was an international affair. It attracted five representatives from the USA, six from France, five more from Germany and two from Italy. Willie K as the young 26 year old Vanderbilt was known, invited leaders of the automotive industry to attend. They were allocated seating in a rough-hewn wood plank grandstand, holding 2,500 people. A further 25,000 to 50,000 spectators were estimated to have lined the thirty-mile course. There’s a short but fascinating two-minute video on the loc.gov website titled Automobile Race for the Vanderbilt Cup. The footage captures some of the race action as well as the behaviour of the spectators. Obviously, the race was carried out well before safety issues were dreamed up. There are no barriers whatsoever. The spectators simply form a narrow line either side of the dirt track, a la the Tour De France cycle race today, whilst the racing cars speed down the middle of them. As the caption on the Loc.gov website explains ‘In looking at these pictures it seems a miracle that more people were not injured.’
Despite seventeen cars starting the Vanderbilt race. The contest became a good-old, hard-fought battle between two racing drivers at opposite ends of their careers. The seasoned veteran, George Heath, a 42-year-old American expatriate living in France, found himself pitted against a driver half his age in the form of Albert Clement Jr., the son of car manufacturer Adolphe Clement of Clement-Bayard fame.
After six hours, 56 minutes, and 45 seconds, George Heath’s French Panhard was the first car over the Westbury start/finish line on the Jericho Turnpike. Heath had averaged 52.2mph throughout the race. The Clement-Bayard finished in second place arriving just one minute and 26 seconds behind the race winner. With the two leaders having completed the race, the crowds near the grandstand swarmed onto the course. Fearful for the lives of the spectators and drivers, the race was stopped. When the race was called, the American Pope-Toledo driven by Herb Lytle was in third place.
George Heath entered the following year’s Vanderbilt Cup. He didn’t manage to achieve a win in 1905, however, he did come a very respectable second place. He was beaten by Victor Hemery who won in the Darracq, averaging 61.5 mph.
As the Vanderbilt Races website states, What followed over the next six years was a tumultuous spectacle of romance, intense competition, and reckless danger. The Vanderbilt Cup Races, held on Long Island between 1904 to 1910, were the greatest sporting events of their day. More importantly, they were the first international automobile road race held in America and the start of things to come.
Ernest Montaut – an original automotive artist
Ernest Montaut was born in France in 1878. Even as a young boy he was fascinated with “l’automobile”. They were a new development in transport and intrigued the young artist. He was soon attending early race meetings to produce his artwork. Then turning the artwork into stone lithographic prints to sell. It wasn’t long before his work was recognised and Montaut became the most popular automotive artist of the era. He gained success creating advertisements and posters for French automobile manufacturers and race meetings. In addition, his work would be used to promote all aspects of the automotive industry, creating adverts for products such as carburetors, brakes, shocks and tyres.
Montaut developed an artistic technique that gave his images a real sense of speed and movement. He is widely credited with the invention of speed lines and plumes of dust and smoke to emphasise motion. He also distorted the perspective of his drawings by foreshortening his vehicles to create more dramatic images. Techniques that are still commonplace with today’s artists. Using the Pochoir method Montaut would often create the outline of his images in stone lithographs. The prints would then be individually hand colored by himself or by his group of students which included his wife Marguerite.
It wasn’t only cars that fascinated Montaut. The entire transport landscape was changing. His interest in speed and power speed ensured that motorcycles, biplanes, speed boats, and even bicycles were part of his artistic cannon. Montaut’s hand-colored lithographs are both decorative and historic.
Le Pneu Michelin à Vaincu le Rail poster estimated at between $15,000 & $20,000
The Le Pneu Michelin à Vaincu le Rail poster is Ernest Montaut at his very best. It is one of the most enduring and rarest of all the Michelin Tyre Company’s posters. One that, just for once, doesn’t feature Bibendum, the famous character made out of white tyres. Original lithographic prints of this Michelin achievement advertising poster have become incredibly hard to find. Some survive but in its original form they don’t show up at auction very often. Original 1904 lithographic prints change hands for thousands of pounds. An original copy was put up for auction way back in 2015 with a very impressive guide price of between £15,000-£20,00.
Of course, if you can find an original copy and can afford to buy it, you’re on to a winner. There’s nothing like owning an original vintage poster and they often make a great investment. Chances are in just a few years you’ll be able to sell it for more than you paid for it. Unfortunately, for most of us, an investment, even at the entry-level prices of the collectible poster isn’t even close to being a possibility.
This is where our stunning high-quality reproductions come into their own. They cost a fraction of an original, for example, our high-quality 50x70cm reproduction print of this wonderful poster is available on this listing priced at just £14. What’s more, it looks incredible framed and mounted on the wall!
