Bugatti Type 30 Sales File, Milan 1926

The Type 30 was the first Bugatti production car with an eight-cylinder engine. Ettore Bugatti joined two four-cylinder blocks into a two-litre straight-eight, raced it in the Type 29 cars at the 1922 French Grand Prix at Strasbourg, and then built around 600 Type 30s between 1922 and 1926. The papers come from the Società Commerciale Italiana delle Automobili Bugatti of Via Colletta 27, Milan, whose letterhead claims the sole Bugatti agency for Italy and the colonies. This file follows one Milan customer, Signor Italo Rainoldi, through the purchase of an eight-cylinder Type 30 with a torpedo Sport body in the first months of 1926.

The sales contract of 5 January 1926, on the red-bordered printed form, is completed by hand: a Type 30 chassis with torpedo Sport body at 62,500 lire, leather and colour as chosen, delivery at once, cash on delivery of the chassis, with a revenue stamp and the company's violet stamp, countersigned by its managing director. A typed letter of 14 January acknowledges a cheque for 20,000 lire; another, of 15 February, reminds the buyer that the second instalment of 20,000 lire fell due the day before. The contract of 5 January gives the chassis as number 4620, and the April invoice bills the eight-cylinder Type 30 chassis under the number 4670, with five wheels and tyres, electric lighting, starter, tools and the torpedo Sport body, at 62,000 lire, typed as 62,500 and corrected by hand. Revenue stamps worth 19 lire are cancelled 13 April 1926. Filing holes, folds and age toning throughout.