Car hood ornament
Hood ornaments and automotive mascots: An introduction Mascots and hood ornaments saw a period of high popularity in the 1930's to early 1950's, with some holdouts still in use today on some models. The concept began with the earliest automotive temperature gauges, which were mounted on external radiator caps. The idea has lost much of its appeal with the passage of time, but the era of the elaborate radiator decorations we now call mascots, was impressive.
Before the first temperature gauges, or motometers, drivers were at the mercy of overheating engines with no warning. But the new improvement also offered manufacturers a new artifact on which to display some distinctive emblematic form or stylized logo, which could be seen by everyone, perched, as it were, prominently on the hood of the vehicle.
Motometers began displaying wings and other features as the manufacturers jumped on the bandwagon with increasing creativity. Soon we saw sculpted pieces into which the motometer was attached, making the motometer more or less an addition to the ever more predominant ornamental mascot.
Two design developments then occurred changing the appearance of hood ornamentation. The need for an exterior heat gauge was eliminated with the introduction of water temperature gauges mounted in the passenger compartment, on the dashboard. And exterior radiator caps also began to disappear as manufacturers opted for radiators accessed beneath the hood. These two changes suddenly left the hood ornament as completely ornamental, and with the loss of any need for functionality, the beauty of the mascot took full flight.
By 1930 the mascot was being promulgated industry-wide, in all sorts of beautiful examples from the elaborate to the simple, from the detailed and realistic to the completely stylized. The human form became a popular concept, with many examples of figures, both clothed and naked. The goddess was an extremely popular motif, with examples found on Buick, Cadillac, DeSoto, Plymouth, Packard, Oldsmobile, Studebaker, and Graham. Forms based on inanimate objects included a crescent moon (Moon), a sail (Talbot), a diving helmet (Dagmar and Checker), and a crown (Briscoe, all the way back to 1918). The winged wheel was a motif shared by Studebaker, Austin, Charron, Pierce-Arrow and Chevrolet, some of them well before the most popular rendition surviving today was adopted as the symbol for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Animal forms were very popular, with everything from rabbits to roosters to elephants. Lions were depicted by Peugeot and Franklin. And birds especially became fashionable. Packard had the Cormorant. Ford used the quail in flight. Hispano Suiza, Fonck and Morgan adopted separate versions of the stork. Oakland, Chevrolet and Marmon had eagles. In addition to the very popular goddess motif, other mythological figures also had their moment, as found in the Gardner griffin, Chevrolet\'s Gryphon, and the Duesenburg Pegasus.
Beauty is subjectively defined, but many authorities have recognized certain examples as perhaps the most beautiful renditions of all. These might include the later version of the Lincoln greyhound, the Pierce-Arrow Archer, Rolls-Royce's Spirit of Ecstasy (commonly known as the Flying Lady), and stylized examples like the Cadillac Goddess of 1934, Duesenberg's Duesenbird, and even one found on a truck. The REO truck of the 1930's had an almost too pretty (for a truck) stylized eagle.
The custom houses and other manufacturers of these works of art constitute a subject for another article, but include some now famous names that are synonymous with the success and the appeal of the period, and with the works of art themselves. These names include Louis Lejeune of London, Rene Lalique of France, and manufacturers as early as the turn of the 20th century like Elkington in Britain, and the Doehler Jarvis Company in the United States.
Today many car companies consider neither the hood ornament nor the notion of a mascot fashionable. It has become something of a symbol of excess or perhaps even gauche ostentation. Thus the concept that was so popular in the 1940's is found only on a handful of marques, usually on those in a higher price range with little or nothing to lose by being thought excessive or extravagant. We still see the Mercedes star and Jaguar's big cat as perhaps the very end of an era. Sporadically we find small vestiges of the idea on a few models, particularly as badges or side ornamentation rather than as hood ornaments. And Dodge still utilizes the Ram on some of its trucks, but the glory days of mascots and hood ornamentation passed out of vogue forty years ago in the early 1960's.
There are several very helpful sources available on the subject of automotive mascots. One book in particular is increasingly difficult to find, but is perhaps the most helpful source of all. Motoring Mascots of the World by William Carlos Williams has apparently been produced in three editions which offer a brief history of mascot production and an explanation of the process of casting examples in stainless steel.
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