As part of the interior design scheme for my office, I am looking for an automobile hood ornament from the thirties to mount on a base, something sleek, expressing motion. An Art Moderne example would probably be ideal. However, I've had little luck prospecting on the Internet. Can you refer me either to a site or retailer focused on classic hood ornaments?

-- Doug Campbell (dougcgr@aol.com), June 09, 1999

Answers

Dear Doug,

Did you find a hood ornament dealer? If not, here's a link that talks about one in Detroit. http://detnews.com/1998/joyrides/hoods/hoods.htm. If yes, I'd appreciate it if you could let me know about them. I am a journalist writing a story on hood ornaments and I'd like to interview different people about hood ornaments.

Best regards,
Isaac

-- Isaac Hernandez (isaac@mercurypress.com), December 05, 2000.

nash ramblers of the early 1950's featured sleek hood ornaments designed by pin-up artist Petty, they are usually shapely women resting arms folded on "wings". i suggest looking on ebay as they come up fairly often.

-- tom connolly (fresno1950s@webtv.net), January 28, 2001.

American Arrow, http://www.donsommer.com/aa/catalog.html, offers reproductions of crystal Lalique radiator mascots. They also offer a lighted adaptor which mounts to a variety of classic era radator caps.

-- Joel Shprentz (jshprentz@his.com), February 01, 2001.

Hi, I make hood ornaments. My URL mollycarpenter.com

-- Molly Carpenter (sculptor@mollycarpenter.com), October 03, 2002.

we have an art deco hood ornament made by Krone & Sebek Co. of Chicago. It has patent No. 78825 embossed on its base, but the number is listed to an entirely different invention. I'm trying to find out more about this. Its a bird with its wings behind its back and its head pointing down.

-- j pawlik (jpawlik@schiffhardin.com), February 25, 2005.