Americans call them hood ornaments but in the United Kingdom they are known as car mascots. Their origin dates back to the infancy of the automobile. The early automobiles had radiators located on the outside of the car and the radiator caps were mounted on top of the grille. These early automobiles also tended to overheat and without any warning to the driver, steam poured out of the radiator. This led to the design of a temperature gauge that was mounted on top of the radiator cap.
Then decorations were placed on the gauges to improve their appearance. So began the life of the hood ornament. As technology improved, radiators were mounted under the hood and the temperature gauges moved to the dashboard but the hood ornament remained. They were popular from the 1920's through the 1950's but then fell out of favor.
The hood ornaments were usually cast in brass, zinc, or bronze and then plated with nickel, chrome or silver. Some even featured a light bulb that lit up at night. They were usually designed to symbolize the car company or a feature of the automobile that the manufacturer wished to emphasize.
The hood ornaments, especially on luxury automobiles, soon became a work of art and were often crafted by artists rather than the manufacturer. Today, most of these are collector's items.
Perhaps one of the most famous adorns the Rolls Royce. It was crafted by Charles Sykes who referred to it as "A graceful little goddess, the Spirit of Ecstasy, who has selected road travel as her supreme delight and alighted on the prow of a Rolls Royce motor car to revel in the freshness of the air and the musical sound of her fluttering draperies."
The Spirit of Ecstasy is three inches high and is now crafted of stainless steel. Originally it was made of white metal. The sculpture depicts a woman with a finger to her lips as though cautioning against revealing a secret.
Another artist, famous for his mascots, was Rene Lalique. Lalique first won fame as a jewelry designer whose innovative creations attracted the attention of the rich and famous who became his devoted clientele. In 1893, he started to work with glass at first specializing in perfume bottles. Then in the 1920's he began producing car mascots in clear glass, satin finish, frosted finish, and tones of amethyst, pink, purple, blue, topaz and gray.
His most famous and largest is the "Spirit of the Wind" an Art Deco style that measured ten inches in length and was mounted on a Minerva, displayed at the 1928 Paris Motor Salon.
Probably his most infamous was an eagle's head that was mounted on Nazi officers' cars during World War II. One wonders that the Nazis would agree to use America's symbol of freedom as their car mascot.
The one surviving maker of custom mascots is Louis Lejeune Ltd, a small brass foundry located in England. It was originally founded in 1910 by Emil Lejeune and then taken over by his son. In 1979 Sir David Hughes, a well-known sculptor of heraldic animals and crests, purchased the company and started to produce the mascots once more. To date he has crafted a pheasant for the Queen and a polo player for Prince Charles.
