AUSTRIA. WIEN. Aktie über 200 Kronen. brown, black. No 7002. Stain in upper right corner (outside the printed part of the share). Stamped Muster, Wertlos. Previously known as Graf &Stift. The Graf brothers, since 1902 joined by Wilhelm Stift, first made bicycles and then branched out into motor car production inthe 1890s. Their first car was a small machine using a De Dion engine. A young Ferdinand Porsche inspected the car and was much impressed. The first vehicle to carry the Graf &Stift name was produced in 1907 when the company name changed to Wiener Automobilfabrik. The firm specialized in large vehicles for wealthier clients, but also produced trucks from 1909 onwards. Their cars were expensive and much favoured by Austro-Hungarian royalty. When Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo in 1914, it was while riding a Graf &Stift car. The firm produced trucks for the Austrian Army during WWI. After the war, a number of six and eight cylinder vehicles appeared, including 'the Austrian Rolls-Royce'. In 1927 they bought the Automobilfabrik Perl AG, a producer of small cars. From 1934, they built Citroen vehicles under licence and German Ford V8 cars under the GrafFord name. During WWII, the company built the Raupenschlepper Ost, a four-ton tracked vehicle for the German Wehrmacht. After the war, they manufactured a range of trucks, busses and tram bodies. The firm merged with OAF in 1970 and remains in business producing commercial vehicle bodies as 'OesterreichischeAutomobilfabrik OAF-Graf &Stift AG' in Vienna. Large and detailled underprint of one of the company's first cars. First time we see this early type.