At the 1950 Geneva Motor Show, Fiat revealed its first all-new postwar model – the 1400. Throughout the early 1950s, the 1400 served as a basis for many spectacular custom-bodied cars, designed and built by coachbuilders including Bertone, Pinin Farina, Ghia, Touring, and Vignale.

Presented here is a charming coachbuilt Fiat 1400 from the little-known Torino-based company Stabilimento Monviso, established by Alessandro Casalis in 1944 and acquired by Ghia in 1955. During this period, Monviso built a variety of high-quality custom bodies on Fiat and Lancia chassis. The pretty 1400 offered here hails from a series of coupes and cabriolets that Monviso dubbed Rondine, Italian for “swallow.” Produced in limited numbers between 1950 and 1953, these Giovanni Michelotti-styled cars featured clean, well-proportioned lines, rear-hinged doors, and in Coupe form, two-tone paint schemes.

Delivered new in 1952 to Professor Pietro Francesco Guerrini, the Rondine remained in his family’s ownership until 1992, when it was sold to journalist Giorgio Resca of Ferrara. Completely restored while under the ownership of late American collector Leo Schigiel, this Fiat is truly elegant in its grigio (gray) and amaranto (amaranth) color scheme. Beautifully presented and offered with an owner’s manual, tool kit, jack, copies of Italian registration records, and ASI Gold Certification (no. 20673), this is a brilliant example of a 1400 fuoriserie, an important chapter in the postwar coachbuilding story rarely seen outside of Italy.

*Please note that this vehicle is titled as 048757.