PastImperfect:Car mascots
From the earliest days of motoring people sought to embellish and personalise their cars. The nobility emblazoned coats of arms on the bodywork and even today people hang 'lucky' items inside their cars. But in the early days of motoring as mass production took hold and brought the benefits of motoring to a wider audience, increased standardisation of design caused drivers to seek for new ways to personalise their vehicles.
Radiator caps provided an opportunity for the manufacturer to affix his badge or symbol but in an effort to personalise various accessories, manufacturers soon began to offer alternative designs which could directly replace the manufacturers original. In 1910 the directors of Rolls Royce became so alarmed at what they considered a disregard for the dignity of their vehicles that they commissioned the famous English sculptor Charles Sykes to design a suitable emblem which would be both dignified and exclusive. Sykes's "Spirit of Ecstasy" would become the most famous - and exclusive - of motoring emblems, but it had many rivals.
The manufacturer Vulcan was the first car company to have commissioned a mascot in the form of a figure of Vulcan, the blacksmith god. The present Lord Montagu's father was perhaps the first to commission a mascot - a St Christopher - the patron saint of travellers which he attached to the Daimler he bought in 1899.
After the first World War the popularity of motoring as well as bespoke mascots boomed and many were the accessory manufacturers who offered replacement car mascots in their catalogues. The offerings were certainly varied: Guy and Pontiac used an Indian chief's head; the Dutch company Minerva used the head of the goddess Minerva; Unic used a centaur firing a bow while the French Farman company, appropriately - given that company's associations with early aviation - used a representation of Icarus. Perhaps the most graceful was the flying stork of Alsace which graced the bonnets of Hispano-Suiza cars.
One of the most sought-after of mascots by collectors is the "rearing elephant", fitted by Ettore Bugatti to his Royale in 1927. This mascot was based on an original bronze sculpture designed by Ettore's brother Rembrandt in 1903.
The accessory manufacturers also made many humorous mascots. Various fanciful designs based on such themes as "The Goddess of Freedom" and the "Wind Nymph" were also very popular, but for me the most exquisite of mascots were those manufactured in glass by the jeweller and artist René Jules Lalique.