One look and Andy Faas was smitten. The Winged Goddess reclining atop the classic car's grille could have been a Siren from Greek mythology, the deceptively simple grille the western sea between Aeaea and the rocks of Scylla, for the spell that fell upon on him.
Not every hood ornament possesses such powers, though all have been so intended. This one certainly did, the day Andy Faas bought his 1933 Oldsmobile Convertible Coupe L33 in West Palm Beach, Fla.
"When you look at the ornament and the grille together, that's actually what attracted me," Faas says, remembering the Oldsmobile standing apart from the rest in the Ragtop Motorcars lot. "I thought, 'Geez, this is a beautiful, beautiful piece of art.'"
Ray Ouellette sent the L33’s radiator slats and hood ornament to a Quebec plater to get new chrome.
RAY OUELLETTE
Ray Ouellette, of Memory Lane Restorations in Thamesville, Ont., spent two years making the Convertible Coupe just the way it came off the assembly line. But while Ouellette is capable of every aspect of restoration, he sent the Winged Goddess and the rad's 56 vee-patterned slats to his favoured plater in Quebec for new chrome "because of the way they preserve all of the detail, the difference is all in the buffing."
Judge for yourself at the Art & The Automobile – Jewels exhibition at the Canadian International AutoShow (South Building, Level 700).
The Faas Convertible Coupe, named most elegant, pre-war, at the 2017 Cobble Beach Concours d'Elegance, is one of 16 classics on display, along with 21 ornaments or mascots from the Gilmore Car Museum of Hickory Corners, Mich., along with spectacular backdrops from photographer Michael Furman's two books, Automotive Jewelry and Bespoke Mascots.
The Goddess of Speed ornament from a 1929 Packard 655.
Michael Furman
Hood ornaments got off to a racy start in 1908, when Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, an advocate of motoring reminiscent of Toad of Toad Hollow, arranged for his personal secretary/mistress to pose, for the sculptor he patronized, to create a personal mascot for his Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost.
The Whisper, as Skykes's sculpture is known, portrays Eleanor Thorne with one finger to her lips, suggestive of their secret life, her robes swept behind her by the haste with which the Silver Ghost was known to proceed.
Rolls-Royce subsequently commissioned Sykes to create a marque mascot. Ms. Thorne reappeared in 1911 as The Spirit of Ecstasy, who, in the words of Rolls-Royce managing director Claude Johnson, "has selected road travel as her supreme delight … she is expressing her keen enjoyment, with her arms outstretched and her sight fixed upon the distance."
Rolls-Royce’s classic hood ornament, The Spirit of Ecstasy.
Michael Furman
Most cars had carried only Boyce MotoMeters up to then – external rad caps displaying coolant temps – that sometimes included the car-maker's logo. Then Ecstasy inspired legions of chrome-plated spirits, goddesses and scantily clad women, including the Winged Goddess on Oldsmobile's eight-cylinder models in 1934-35.
There was nothing salacious in the creation of the ornament that caught Andy Faas's eye. Bonnie E. Lemm, who received the patent for the Winged Goddess on Sept. 26, 1933, worked as a staff designer with Ternstedt Manufacturing, owned by General Motors. She also designed ornaments for Chevrolets and Cadillacs through the 1930s.
"Mascots served two purposes," Michael Furman, the photographer, says. "In the first case, the manufacturer serves its own purposes, and these tended to be more ethereal, expressing power, speed, grace – almost like a figure on the prow of a ship.
The archer hood ornament from a 1933 Pierce-Arrow.
Michael Furman
"Second, mascots as accessories, as in a Lalique or a Tiffany, or individual pieces that allowed car owners to express their interests or enthusiasms – someone's dog's head, for instance."
A collection of 30 Laliques sold for US$805,000 at auction in 2012. On the other hand, a wide range of collectible brand ornaments can be found on offer on eBay trading for less than $100. A 1934 Olds Winged Goddess was listed at $798 as this was written.
The Gillmore museum mascots include four Laliques, along with a Duesenberg Model A winged MotoMeter, an Amilcar Pegasus, a Plymouth Mayflower on Open Water, and a Bugatti Royale Elephant (sculpted by Rembrandt Bugatti, elder brother of company founder Ettore Bugatti).
Hood ornaments decorated the finest automobiles and the least-expensive alike for half a century, before fashion and safety regulations caused their decline.
Jaguar's iconic The Leaper chrome cat fell prey to the move to protect pedestrians. Mercedes-Benz now limits its stand-up three-pointed star to expensive S-Class models. Only the Spirit of Ecstasy seems secure, because Rolls-Royce pricing allows for a mechanism that has her retract on impact, but even she's diminished, to three inches tall.
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