Founded in Strasbourg in 1898 by Emile Mathis, Mathis built only a few prototypes in its early years and was also a dealer of Fiat, De Dietrich, and Panhard-Levassor cars, beginning to manufacture its own automobiles from 1904 with his friend Ettore Bugatti, who designed them, with their first car being the Hermes (or Hermes – Simplex).

The first Mathis, entirely designed and produced by Auto-Mathis-Palace, was the 8/20 PS in 1910, but Emile Mathis’ reputation would be built with a range of much smaller cars, starting with the 1,132 cc Babylette and the 1,300 cc Baby.

This allowed the company to claim fourth place among French manufacturers in the mid-1920s, behind Renault, Citroën, and Peugeot.