Belvallette Frères, often spelled "Belvalette Frères", was a French company that manufactured

carriage A carriage is a two- or four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for passengers. In Europe they were a common mode of transport for the wealthy during the Roman Empire, and then again from around 1600 until they were replaced by the motor car around 1 ...

s and other vehicles.

History

The Belvallette family company was founded by Jacques Belvallette (1785–1855) in 1804 in

Boulogne-sur-Mer Boulogne-sur-Mer (; ; ; or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Hauts-de-France, Northern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Pas-de-Calais. Boul ...

on the property at 139 rue Royale. In addition to carriage building, it also offered repairs, including for stagecoaches. At that time, the founder's two sons, Jacques and Norbert, who would later operate as Belvallette Frères, were not yet born. After completing their training in England, they took over the company in 1840 and established it in Paris in 1850. In addition to a shop on the

Champs-Élysées The Avenue des Champs-Élysées (, ; ) is an Avenue (landscape), avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, long and wide, running between the Place de la Concorde in the east and the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, where the Arc ...

at number 24, they also had a workshop on rue Bayard. In 1856 they moved to a larger property on Avenue de l'Impératrice and finally to rue Duret, number 21.''Carrossier BELVALETTE à Boulogne sur mer'' auf One of the brothers ran the factory in Boulogne, the other ran the factory in Paris. The Belvallette brothers exhibited their products at the Exposition Universelle in 1867, where they received a gold medal. They had previously presented it in London and received several awards. They also invented several innovations that made the vehicles lighter and more practical, including a friction nail attached directly to the car body and a folding door handle. Other inventions belonged more to the category of curiosities, such as the ''Cynophore'' by Alfred Norbert Jacques Belvallette, a three-wheeled vehicle powered by dogs running inside the wheels. The company fell victim to the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

of 1929 and was closed by Jean Belvallette in 1933.

Vehicles

A number of Belvallette vehicles have been preserved or at least documented. A

Break Break or Breaks or The Break may refer to: Time off from duties * Recess (break), time in which a group of people is temporarily dismissed from its duties * Break (work), time off during a shift/recess ** Coffee break, a short mid-morning rest ...

from around 1880 by Belvallette Frères is displayed in the Musée des Equipages in the

Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte () or simply Vaux-le-Vicomte is a Baroque French château located in Maincy, near Melun, southeast of Paris in the Seine-et-Marne department of Île-de-France. Built between 1658 and 1661 for Nicolas Fouquet, M ...

. Belvallette Frères supplied, among other things, the bodywork for one of

Panhard & Levassor Panhard was a French motor vehicle manufacturer that began as one of the first makers of automobiles. It was a manufacturer of light tactical and military vehicles. Its final incarnation, now owned by Renault Trucks#Military vehicles, Re ...

's first automobiles. The vehicle, built in 1891, was equipped with a two-cylinder engine from Daimler; it may have been driven by Hippolyte Panhard herself. They also built bodies for automobiles from a number of other brands, such as Charron,

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Delahaye Delahaye was a family-owned automobile manufacturing company, founded by Émile Delahaye in 1894 in Tours, France. Manufacturing was moved to Paris following incorporation in 1898 with two marriage-related brothers-in-law, George Morane and Le ...

De Dion-Bouton De Dion-Bouton was a French automobile manufacturer and railcar manufacturer, which operated from 1883 to 1953. The company was founded by the Marquis Jules-Albert de Dion, Georges Bouton, and Bouton's brother-in-law Charles Trépardoux. Ste ...

Gobron-Brillié Gobron-Brillié was an early French automobile manufactured from 1898 to 1930.P. Roberts (1973). ''A Picture History of the Automobile'', Ward Lock Ltd, London, UK. The original company, ''Societé des Moteurs Gobron-Brillié'', was founded by ...

Hispano-Suiza Hispano-Suiza () is a Spanish automotive company. It was founded in 1904 by Marc Birkigt and as an automobile manufacturer and eventually had several factories in Spain and France that produced luxury cars, aircraft engines, trucks and weapons. ...

, Hotchkiss,

Lorraine-Dietrich Lorraine-Dietrich was a French language, French automobile and aircraft engine manufacturer from 1896 until 1935, created when railway locomotive manufacturer ''Société Lorraine des Anciens Etablissements de Dietrich et Cie de Lunéville'' (k ...

Minerva Minerva (; ; ) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. She is also a goddess of warfare, though with a focus on strategic warfare, rather than the violence of gods such as Mars. Be ...

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French automobile brand owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was established in 1810, making it the oldest car company in the world. On 20 November 1858, Émile Peugeot applie ...

Renault Renault S.A., commonly referred to as Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English), is a French Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company curr ...

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

Voisin Voisin (French for "neighbour") may refer to: Companies *Avions Voisin, the French automobile company :* Voisin Laboratoire, a car manufactured by Avions Voisin * Voisin (aircraft), the French aircraft manufacturer * Voisin, a Lyon-based chocol ...

, and more. The

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

has an album with 110 images of Belvallette Frères vehicles from the Georges Sirot collection, mostly

albumen print Egg white is the clear liquid (also called the albumen or the glair/glaire) contained within an egg. In chickens, it is formed from the layers of secretions of the anterior section of the hen's oviduct during the passage of the egg. It forms aro ...

s. The carriages are usually presented here without horses.

Images from the George Sirot collection

File:Belvallette G 49704 Ausschnitt.png, One of the rarer photos with a horse and coachman File:Belvallette G 49781.png, A Belvallette built coach File:Belvallette G 49737 Ausschnitt.png, The production hall can probably be seen in the background. File:Belvallette G 49724.png, In the background, one of the company buildings with a name inscription

Literature

* ''Bodywork Belvallette. Avenue de l'Imperatrice in Paris. Maison à Boulogne-sur-Mer'', in: M. Levy, ''Les grandes usines'', M. Levy, 1874, pp. 49–80

References

{{Coachbuilders of France French companies established in 1804 History of Boulogne-sur-Mer French companies disestablished in 1933 Defunct manufacturing companies of France Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1933 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1804