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cca 1904 Panhard Levassor Berline de Voyage, with a body by Kellner, built for Prince Orloff of Russia

Another interesting photo from a forum of old photos and asking for information on the make of vehicle. - Preliminary investigation found a website suggesting this is a French c1906 CGV, possibly made in America; however, our veterans expert Ariejan Bos and his incredible records advised this is indeed French, but is a cca 1904 Panhard Levassor Berline de Voyage, with a body by Kellner, built for Prince Orloff of Russia, who introduced the Tsar to motoring, Car was shown at the 1903 Paris Salon. It was hit and destroyed by a tram a year later. 

This at first glance appears to be a standard four seater Open Drive Landaulette, with a conventional roof baggage rack, but with additional exterior seating. Adding up all possibilities if was actually probably a ten-seater. Two for chauffeur, two for principal passengers and two probable folding seats in the cabin for children, two seats for the footmen outside at the back, and two seats on the roof. Precisely what the purpose for the roof seat was, depended on the person ordering the car. At the time of this car being ordered by Prince Orloff, he was the Russian Tsar's right-hand man and was introducing the Tsar to motoring by driving him around in his cars. It is quite possible, or probable, that the roof seating was specifically for armed guards to have a clear vantage view of any impending attack. It is also possible he may also have wanted to give some of friends an exciting experience by putting them up there, which they could not have got elsewhere.

Prince Vladimir Nikolayevich Orlov (1868-1927) (sometimes written as Orloff; Russian for 'eagle') was one of Tsar Nicholas II's closest advisors and headed the Tsar's Military Cabinet between 1906 and 1915. Orlov was also a member of the Russian Olympic horse riding teams at the 1900 Olympic Games. He was also a keen technologist who was interested in military applications of the motor car, and is the person who introduced the Tsar to the automobile. The Tsar asked to be driven in "this kerosene thing" and was so impressed that that he had Orlov drive him almost every day as a personal chauffeur, until it was suggested that the Tsar should perhaps have his own car. The Tsar readily agreed and asked Orlov to choose one for him. The car Orlov chose was the one he drove in 1906 for the Tsar, and it was a Dealunay Belleville with the big circular bonnet.

Orlov was also the sponsor of Frenchman Adolpe Kegresse who had gone to St Petersburg and had risen to being the Head of the new Tsar's Motor Garage. Kegresse later on developed for the Tsar the bolt-on half-tracks enabling Tsar's cars to travel in snow. Just pre-Revolution, Kegresse escaped back to France where he teamed up with Andre Citroen to manufacture the Citroen-Kegresse halftrack lorries famous for cross Sahara and other desert exploration. Orlov however managed to get himself banished by the Tsar in 1915 to the Caucasus after losing the struggle for power to the infamous 'Mad Monk' Rasputin. Orlov had made an unsuccessful attempt to discredit Rasputin and the Tsarina in a newspaper. - The Tsar then took supreme command of the Russian armies fighting on the Eastern Front of the First World War with all the disastrous consequence and losses that this incurred; by 1917 he was forced to abdicate and in 1918 had been assassinated with his complete family. But all this was to come later and a different story.

At that time in history, having a very high outside seat was not unusual, and was quite common for drivers of hackney horse cabs where the driver would sit above and behind the passenger. This transferred for a while to electric and motorised cabs where the chauffeur was similarly placed high above/behind the passenger compartment, steering wheel up behind the roof of the vehicle. The passengers were therefore foremost and having un-restricted access to forward facing centrally opening doors to the cabin. They were also the first to be hurt in any forward accident.

Acess to the roof seats on this particular Orlov car was via disguised steps on the outer bodywork on both sides of the car, with external handles to hang on. It is unlikely that access to this seat was ever designed or intended for any ladies. It is interesting to note that the feet of the roof passengers were actually inside the upper part of the main cabin, forward of the passenger door, and that the feet would be dangling near the chauffeur's head. It is not quite clear if the feet were in the eye-line of the principal passengers. It is noticeable that the forward window glass in the exhibition photo is plain, but that it had vertical bars in the crash photo, suggesting that dangling feet had broken the said glass! What is interesting from the exhibition photo is that all the external seats were fitted with roof covering hoods against the rain. it is also probable that the foot-dangling compartment was a separate rain-tight area, not connected with the cabin.

The name for the external outside rear seats came from the coach era, when they were called Jump, Rumble or Dickey seats. The origin of the word Jump Seat has been suggested as originating from era when the staff who were attending the master would have to jump off the coach, before it had stopped moving, and run so they could be attending/opening the doors as soon as vehicle halted. Quite impressive as to how they managed to do this while being completely unsighted and having everything obscured by being tucked away blind behind the massive coach bodywork.

In some cases historically all the four corners of an important coach would have small external Jump Seats for soldiers and guards to be able to jump off quickly and defend the master. This feature was quickly transferred to motor vehicles built for royalty and presidents, - and gangsters. The emperor of Mexico's first FIAT had fold-up Jump Seats back and front; most precarious. The name 'Rumble' came to be associated with the position of the Jump Seat in coaches, often directly over the unsprung axle of the coach where the road bumps could be at their most painful and uncomfortable. A single seat version of the jump seat, often of spindly appearance, was called a Spider.

Many early horse drawn carts had a box as the driver's seat where the coachman would put his dirty boots; this was called a 'bote', a box. Most early horse drawn coaches had a Chest or Trunk fitted to the rear of the coach under the Jump Seat in which could be carried goods or valuables. These chests could be small and removable or big, strong, fixed and lockable, and were frequently used as the Jump Seat. Alternatively, on shorter trips the chest or trunk would be used to carry the muddy boots of the occupants, and was called the Boot Locker. As coaches morphed into motor cars, so names for the rear luggage part of cars were shortened and transferred to Trunk or Boot.

In the US the Rumble Seat carried on into early roadsters where a spindly external seat was fitted at the rear of the car. Also, as the early fashion for cars was to have square box bodies, there was no space for luggage. Cars were therefore fitted with permanent trunks to the rear luggage carrier. As the backs of cars became bigger, and more rounded and enclosed, so the Rumble Seat moved into the car and on many sportier cars became an integral part of the design. The seat remained out in the open without any hood or roof, but eventually became part of the boot lid, which could close the opening when not in use.

In Britain these seats were called Dickey Seats. It is possible that the term 'Dickie' came from the first tonneaus that covered the opening being rolled up when occupied, but which tended to unroll in a curve just like the front of the starched shirt front insert then called a Dickey. Cockney rhyming slang for shirt, is 'dickey dirt'. It also got the unkind name as Mother-in-Law Seat. In some flashy US Roadsters a small collapsible fold-up seat was positioned outside the car adjacent to the passenger (wife), again referred to as Mother-in-Law Seat, and just above the running board, feet on the running board; windy, dusty, muddy and wet. In some countries the rear luggage compartment of the car is still called a Dickey-Boot.