The A-Z entries provide details of the history, activities and specialties of every mainland European coachbuilder that operated between 1919 and 2000, with 450 illustrations.

A-Z of British Bus Bodies sets out to offer a first port of call for anyone with an interest in those who built bus and coach bodies in Britain and Ireland between 1919 and 1975. From charabanc to service bus, from luxury coach to municipal double-decker, the sheer variety of public service vehicle (PSV) bodies is astonishing. The alphabetical listing of British bus body builders between 1919 - 1975 covers the well-known larger companies and small local companies, and is illustrated with period and modern images, including contemporary advertising material. It includes a substantial introduction looking at operators of the period, the body building process and the development of bus body building throughout the period. A comprehensive guide to bus bodies 1919-1975 and a valuable reference work for the bus enthusiast. Superbly illustrated with 300 colour and black & white photographs including period and modern images and contemporary advertising material. James Taylor has been researching and writing about motoring history for over thirty years and has been interested in classic buses since childhood.

Coachbuilding on motor car chassis evolved from carriage building, and the development of the coachbuilt body closely followed that of the motor car. From the beginning of the 20th century until the arrival in the late 1930s of unitary construction for motor cars, in which the separate chassis and body gave way to a combined body/chassis structure, coachbuilding flourished in Britain, with hundreds of firms exhibiting their latest designs at motor shows year after year. But by the outbreak of World War 2, the industry was already in terminal decline. Many coachbuilders, like Barker or Hooper built one-off bodies for the `carriage trade', the noble and wealthy who sought the distinction of choosing a style of body and interior to suit their personal tastes and requirements, and such bodies were naturally to be found on the most expensive makes of motor car, like the Rolls-Royce, Bentley and exotic marques from the Continent. Other coachbuilders aimed to produce inexpensive bodies in series for volume manufacturers who wanted, for example, to be able to offer a convertible version of a certain model but did not wish to have to make the bodies themselves. Yet others established a special relationship with a single manufacturer, like Charlesworth with Alvis, in order to procure a steady flow of work. This book is a comprehensive study of coachbuilding, and coachbuilders, in Britain. The author sets the scene by describing advances in fashions and techniques of coachbuilding in separate chapters on the 1920s, 1930s and the postwar period. He then gives a unique A-Z coverage of more than 300 British coachbuilders. In addition, there is a chapter offering useful advice on assessing the condition, and likely repair needs, of a coachbuilt body today. A glossary of coachbuilding terms and what they mean completes the picture. More than 400 photographs, 50 of them in color, have been painstakingly hunted down to illustrate coachbuilding fashions and methods as well as the work of the coachbuilders described in the A-Z section. This new enlarged and revised edition features brand new entries.

This encyclopedia is the most comprehensive guide available to international product design of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It includes 300 entries on influential designers and studios and the most important design-led manufacturers worldwide, both past and present.

The years between the two World Wars was an extraordinary period for the French luxury car trade and during this time, Carrosserie Gaston Grümmer was one of the leading coach building houses in Paris.Descended from a long line of coach builders, Gaston Grümmer was the son of Antoine-Joseph whose company, J. Grümmer formerly V. Morel, produced first, from 1845, exceptional horse-drawn carriages and from the 1890s automotive bodies. Trained in the family business before World War I, Gaston Grümmer, spent the war as a soldier, first on horseback and in the trenches and then in the air as a pilot. At the end of hostilities, he brilliantly re-launched the family business transforming it into the Société Anonyme des Etablissements Grümmer. As the company moved towards the production of series bodywork for various manufacturers, Gaston decided that he wanted to break away to build custom cars and in 1924 he created his own company under the name of Carrosserie Gaston Grümmer. For the next ten years he achieved great success on both aesthetic and technical levels.Thanks to recently discovered and previously unpublished archives, his son, Philippe Grümmer, in association with one of the best French automotive historians, Laurent Friry, takes us back to this glorious period during the "Roaring Twenties" recalling the major events of the Concours d'Elégance and Les Salons de l'Auto, and describes the bodies that Gaston Grümmer produced for the chassis of around 54 manufacturers and the hundred or so prizes which he won.Illustrated with photographs, press articles and period documents, including the reproduction of a series of design drawings, this reference book on bodywork of the time is a must for any student of the period.

Yearbook of International Organizations is the most comprehensive reference resource and provides current details of international non-governmental (NGO) and intergovernmental organizations (IGO). Collected and documented by the Union of International Associations (UIA), detailed information on international organizations worldwide can be found here. Besides historical and organizational information, details on activities, events or publications, contact details, biographies of the leading individuals as well as the presentation of networks of organizations are included.

In the age of overseas colonization and rise of intercontinental trade, Western Europe's intercontinental trade with East-Central Europe did not diminish either, but considerably increased in both quantity and significance. Commercial relations within Europe also became a substantial factor in the emerging system of world economy. The 'Western challenge' had a profound impact on this region, and the 15th-17th centuries proved to be a crucial period for the 'economic destiny' of the countries of East-Central Europe, among them Hungary. The papers are now provided with supplementary comments, giving information on research and debates since the articles were first published.