{{Short description|Defunct American automotive coach builder}} {{Infobox company | name = Rollston Company | founded = {{Start date and age|1921}} | founders = Harry Lonschein, Sam Blotkin | defunct = {{end date|1938|04}} | fate = Bankruptcy | industry = [[Automotive]] | successor = Rollson, Inc. | hq_location = [[Manhattan, New York]] | location_country = [[United States]] | key_people = Harry Lonschein, Sam Blotkin, Julius Veghso, Rudy Creteur | products = [[Coachwork]] }} [[File:Minerva 8 Al Rollston 1931.jpg|thumb|1931 Minerva - Rollston Coachwork|280x280px]] '''Rollston Company''' was an American [[coachbuilder]] producing luxury automobile bodies during the 1920s and 1930s readily acknowledged to be of the very highest quality.<ref name="coachbuild">[http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/r/rollston/rollston.htm Rollston at coachbuilt.com]</ref>
After bankruptcy in 1938 some of the same owners began a very similar business under the name '''Rollson.'''<ref name="coachbuild" />
==History== Harry Lonschein was 16 when he became employed by [[Brewster & Co]].<ref name="coachbuild" /> He would found '''Rollston Company''' together with his partner Sam Blotkin in 1921. The business began as a repair shop at 244 West 49th Street in Manhattan.<ref>''Automobile Quarterly'', 2005</ref> Their first factory was in a building on the corner of 12th Avenue and West 47th Street later expanding to all its four floors, 48,000 square feet.<ref name="coachbuild" />
Rollston built bodies for chassis supplied by [[Bugatti]], [[Buick]], [[Cadillac]], [[Chrysler]], [[Cord Automobile|Cord]], [[Duesenberg]], [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]], [[Hispano-Suiza]], [[Lancia]], [[Lincoln (automobile)|Lincoln]], [[Mercedes-Benz]], [[Minerva (automobile)|Minerva]], [[Packard]], [[Peerless Motor Company|Peerless]], [[Pierce-Arrow]], [[Rolls-Royce Motors|Rolls-Royce]], [[Stearns-Knight]] and [[Stutz Motor Company|Stutz]].<ref name="coachbuild" />
Rollston closed in April 1938.<ref name="coachbuild" />
==Rollson, Inc.== {{Infobox company | name = Rollson, Inc. | predecessor = Rollston Company | founded = {{end date|1938|09}} | hq_location = [[Plainview, New York]] | location_country = [[United States]] | products = Marine manufacturing | founders = Harry Lonschein, Rudy Creteur, Hjalmar A. Holm, Frank Sever }} [[File:Rare 1941 Packard Rollson 180 Limousine (Warbirds & Wheels museum).jpg|thumb|1941 [[Packard Custom Super Eight]] One-Eighty Town Car - Rollson coachwork|280x280px]] '''Rollson, Inc.''' was formed in September 1938 by four partners; Lonschein, Holm, Sever, and Creteur and continued to make bodies mainly for Packard chassis at 311 West 66th Street and West End Avenue.<ref name="coachbuild" />
During [[World War II]], Rollson Inc. switched to small components for ships and fuselage sections and nose-cones for aircraft. A contract for [[Liberty ship]] cowl ventilators, toilet fixtures, life boat food tanks, storage bins, galley equipment, ship's doors, Pullman beds, berths and furniture.<ref name="coachbuild" />
After the war, Rollson did not produce car bodies but fitted out luxury ships, yachts and private aircraft in Plainview, Long Island, New York.<ref name="coachbuild" /> In 2022 Rollson Inc. is listed as a marine hardware manufacturer operated by Rudolph Creteur.
==See also== * [http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/r/rollston/rollston.htm Rollston and Rollson at Coachbuilt.com] * [https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/rollston-coachbuilt-to-the-nth-degree Old Cars Weekly article on Rollston] * [https://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/coachbuilder.aspx?cbID=25 Coachwork by Rollston at Conceptcarz] {{commons category|Rollston Coachwork|Rollston}} {{commons category|Rollson coachwork|Rollson}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
[[Category:Coachbuilders of the United States]] [[Category:Vintage vehicles]] [[Category:1920s cars]] [[Category:1930s cars]] [[Category:Pre-war vehicles]]