This may help but put a nose or two out.
The term Concours d'El'egance which appears now to have anglicized, dictates in itself the general principles which need to be followed in connection with judging .
A Concours d'Ele'gancce is, literally translated, a competition of elegance, in which connection it is necessary to remember that the word 'Elegance' is defined as follows: "Polished; refined; pleasing to good taste ; graceful; well-formed in its parts , proportions and distribution; beautiful in form and in colour; that which pleases by its nicety, symmetry, purity or beauty".
'Thus in Concours d'El'egance the marking clearly should be based principally upon beauty and harmony of the lines and colour scheme. Next could come symmetry , good taste and utility of the interior arrangements and fittings ; next the comfort afforded to the occupants , bearing in mind such important matters as adjustability of seats , range of vision afforded , control of ventilation , and in case of open cars , efficiency and ease of erection of the all weather equipment . Cleanliness, in , either of the bodywork or of the chassis and engine should not be regarded as a matter of special importance . The work of cleaning the remote chassis parts to "showroom" standards is so extremely laborious as automatically to restrict enteries , whilst cleanliness even of the bodywork should be obviously subsidiary to the various characteristics which have been outlined above'.
Judges today have wandered away from the true concours d'el'egance.
Hope this helps you out.
All very true, JTL, but the competition might have been a Concours d'Etat, could it not? In which case the originality aspects would have been favoured much more highly over the 'Elegance' aspects, would they not?
