Automobiles were the rage in 1912, when U.S. production hit 356,000 and Chicago enacted an ordinance limiting the blowing of horns to certain hours and locations.
It was also the year that hood ornaments first appeared on automobiles.
The 2000 market is expected to reach 17.5 million vehicles, but only a small percentage will have a hood ornament, properly called a mascot.
The principals are the Mercedes-Benz Star, Rolls-Royce Flying Lady and Jaguar “bonnet leaper.” General Motors participates to a lesser extent with the base Cadillac DeVille and the base Buick Park Avenue.
Though these offerings are basically a logo or work of art, the early mascots were much more.
The first was a Boyce Moto-Meter, a circular glass gauge that was screwed on top of the radiator, which was on the outside of several cars then. A window in the Moto-Meter showed a vertical red-lined thermometer relaying data on engine temperature. Such information was vital then because the coolant in 1912 was water in summer or alcohol in winter, which evaporated whenever the weather turned unseasonably warm.
Those 1912 car owners wanted to dress up the Moto-Meter and bought figurines to clip to the gauge. Sensing a trend, automakers and owners quickly created and sought ornamental masterpieces.
Perhaps the most famous still exists, the Spirit of Ecstasy, or Rolls-Royce Flying Lady. Ecstasy, which was created for Rolls in the winter of 1911 but did not show up on the limousine until after World War I ended in 1918, was just one of the figures of women displayed on cars. Others included Buick (1926 to 1929), Cadillac (1929-1941), Packard (1925 for about two decades) and LaSalle (1927-1940), a lower-priced Cadillac.
Duesenberg also featured a Flying Woman from 1919 to 1937, which gave way to the famous and projectile-like “Duesen-Bird.”
Despite their beauty, those early mascots did not stand the test of time. “The mascots of yesteryear were cast in zinc and lasted about two years before they self-destructed,” says Donald W. Sommer, who makes reproduction mascots in some 200 designs at his American Arrow Corp. in the Detroit suburb of Clawson, Mich. “That made sense because those early cars were only built to run a couple of years.”
His stainless steel ornaments are cast in the Egyptian lost-wax process that dates to 4000 B.C. The technique, he says, allows his mascots to last forever.
Using the lost-wax production process, Sommer and his workers pour wax into a mold and trim it. It then goes to a foundry where it is coated with a ceramic and baked. The result is a hollow ceramic mold. The stainless steel liquid is poured into the mold at a temperature of 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The mascot is removed from the ceramic mold and quickly and naturally cooled. The final steps before shipment are machining and polishing.
He got into the business in 1966 when he couldn’t find a goddess for his 1930 Packard Phaeton. The aerospace engineer made his own and launched a career. Early advertising spread the word of his business.
The most popular and best-selling mascot, and Sommer’s favorite, is that Packard goddess from the ’30s. And though Sommer says he doesn’t know how many goddesses he has sold, his poorest seller may be the Stutz Sun Dial, with two deliveries in 30 years.
Sommer’s love of the auto began at age 9 when his father bought a Ford Model T for $15 and saved it for him. He drove it at 14, and it remains among the dozen antique cars he owns from Model Ts to Packards. And he is a founder of the Meadowbrook Hall Concours d’Elegance in Rochester, Mich. He owns about 3,000 original mascots, including a substantial number from the ’50s through the late ’80s.
Among the most expensive mascots were turned out by French artist Rene Lalique, who died at 85 in 1945. His themes included eagles, archers, nudes and birds. Lalique’s first mascot, Cinq Chevaux, or Five Horses, appeared in 1925 on the Citreon 5CV.
“Earlier creations until his death carried the name R. Lalique, and those crystals carrying the `R’ are astronomically higher in value,” says Sommer. Now his designs include elegant crystal centerpieces that bear the signature Lalique France.
Sommer, 67, buys the crystal Laliques and sells them with a lighted base. The Lalique eagle head commands $740 for the figure and $1,090 for a light adapter.
Sommer creates the adapter base, which includes a flashlight powered by three AAA batteries. Owners of Laliques moved them inside to the top of the instrument panel for fear of having them stolen .
Like Sommer’s stainless-steel objects, Laliques last a lifetime unless they hit a hard surface.
The golden era of mascots ran from the mid-’20s until the U.S. entered World War II in 1941.
There are several reasons for their demise.
Randy Mason, a consultant on automotive history and a former curator at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., notes that many parts of the early cars stood alone. Headlights, fenders and radiators basically were freestanding.
“When the gauge for the engine temperature moved to the instrument panel, that was the beginning of the virtual end of the mascot era,” he said. “Also, radiators moved from the outside to a place under the hood.” The temperature gauge moved from the radiator to the instrument panel in the mid-’20s, making the mascots purely ornamental.
Mason and Sommer also mention consumer crusader Ralph Nader’s role in the demise of the mascots. Nader and other safety advocates labeled them as dangers to pedestrians.
But rather than sound a death knell for the ornaments, the National Highway Safety Administration simply ordered mascots to be spring loaded so they would bend back and down in an accident. “I am not aware of a single pedestrian being speared by a hood ornament,” Sommer said.
Sommer sells his Pontiac Indian Heads for most model years for $350. The Packard goddesses run up to $450. Cadillac’s goddess ranges from $475 to $550 depending on the vintage. Duesenberg Flying Lady and Pegasus cost $450. An average mascot requires 10 to 12 weeks of work, and he will build to order.
American Arrow also produces and rebuilds chromed wire wheels and door handles (at $125 to $300 per handle). And if the antique buff wants to get really classy, there’s a tonneau windshield separating the driver and rear seat passengers for about $1,800.
Visit the company Web site at www.donsommer.com or call 248-435-6115.
FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION
Automobile mascots, or hood ornaments, have been around since 1912, when they doubled as temperature gauges. The designs were many and varied, and the early ones are the most coveted by collectors.
Italy’s Bugatti fronted a standing elephant on the 1929 Royale, only six of which were made. Britain’s Humber sported a snipe with a rubber beak from 1931 to 1939. Among domestic makes, Wills-St. Clair sported a flying goose from 1922 to 1926. Air-cooled Franklin’s Lion Rampant held its paws upraised from 1924 to 1928. Chrysler introduced a Cap with Wings in the late ’20s and featured 1933 vintage Gazelle.
A 1920 English Ford offered a squirrel holding an acorn or a nymph for the radiator cap.
In 1934, Plymouth carried a replica of the Mayflower sailing ship that brought the Pilgrims to Massachusetts in the 17th Century. The last of Chrysler pentastar hood ornaments adorned the mini-vans of the early ’90s. The Mercedes-Benz three-pointed star has been around since 1909 in various forms. A laurel wreath was added in 1934.
Jaguar came out in 1936, but the animal on the hood was delayed to the following year. Luxury Pierce-Arrow featured a helmeted and a bareheaded archer until 1934. P-A would last only four more years.
Chevrolet took the opportunity to cash in on the biggest story of 1927, Lindbergh’s solo flight across the Atlantic. Chevy’s mascot was the Spirit of St. Louis, Lindy’s plane. The miniature of the plane also adorned the hood of the Syracuse, N.Y.-built Franklin. Later Chevys offered a winged wheel and a screw-on Viking from 1929 to 1931.
Bombsights arrived with the 1934 Packard and continued on post-World War II Buick. The Buick version made its last appearance in 1958.
Pontiac’s Indian Head also vanished, along with a pair of silver streaks on the hood, in the ’50s after bowing in the late ’20s. Wags joked that the head of Pontiac, Robert Critchfield, also departed with the chief mascot in his hands and a foot on each streak in 1956.
A product of the late ’50s that came and went in two years carried a chrome circle with a big E in its center–for Edsel.
