Description
Author: Tim Nicholson, Illustrations by John Stokes, Hardbound, 138 Pages, ISBN: 9780304933433 - First Edition, , 1970 **DUST JACKET SLIGHTLY FRAYED BUT THE BOOK IN EXCELLENT UNREAD CONDITION**
The motor car has always carried its distinctive identification where the feudal knight bore his, proudly and prominently in front, where it could give friends comfort and rivals warning.If the focal point of the car has always been its radiator or grille, the centre of that is the badge, of which over 130 are illustrated in full colour and described here. This is the knight's blazon, where men look first.
The feudal analogy is not as fanciful as it seems, for heraldry, real or bogus, is a fertile source of badge design. Here can be seen the double-headed eagle of Austria-Hungary on the Austro-Daimler; the red and silver of Bremen on the Borgward; the Scottish thistle on the Argyll; the arms of Bristol city on the Bristol; of Nizhni-Novgorod on the Volga; of Neckarsulm, Wiirttemberg and the Teutonic order on the NSU; and of Antoine de la Mothc Cadillac on the Cadillac; the griffin's head of Fulk le Briant on the Vauxhall; and the sea-unicorn of German origin on the Lea-Francis—unless, of course, this was a design that Mr. Lea picked up from an hotel's wallpaper, as William Crapo Durant did the Chevrolet's.
The sources are, indeed, legion. There are references to the makers' other products (the crossed cannon and shell of Hotchkiss, the anchor, and navigation light colours, of Ballot, the Saab 18 aircraft of Saab); there is mythology for the deities of Minerva and of Mercury; symbolism for Rover's Viking ship, Pontiac's Indian head, the three spires of Hillman and Peugeot's Lion of Belfort; play on words like Lancia's lance; very personal allusions like Carlo Abarth's scorpion, which is his zodiacal sign; obvious sources like the ubiquitous wings or arrows, symbolising speed, or the maker's initials; and the very far from obvious—things which simply caught the manufacturer's eye as an attractive emblem, and those which are wrapped in mystery, such as the (apparent) Masonic symbols on the Amilcar, and the Voisin's Egyptian scarab.
Some sources are cruelly mixed in one badge, producing a horrible confusion.
Here they are, nevertheless, in all their boundless and fascinating diversity, from 13 countries and every age of the motor car, providing a fund of good stories that no mere herald could relate.
