MTFCA Forum

I always see post about Ford script, the Ford blue oval , and patterns.... but my favorite of all time is this one...Also, why did Ford quit using it?

That style of a Ford emblem or some really close to it showed up in the early 50’s on hoods. As I remember it changed again in the 60’s.

Seems like the Ford script is the one that has stood the test of time.

I'm no whiz on the interweb, but right off, I can't seem to find anything on the history of the "Ford coat of arms" emblem. My dim remembry tells me it didn't appear until after WWII but I may well be wrong.

Here's what I do know about automotive emblems designed around a coat of arms. I'm not aware any were used prior to 1928. That was the year James Ward Packard died; his brother and partner in establishing Packard Motor Car Co., William Doud Packard had preceeded him in death in 1923. To honor the family, the company chose to put the Packard family coat of arms on the top tank of the radiator shell in a small, oval enamelled emblem in 1929, and it continued to be used until the demise of the marque in 1956. By all accounts, according to rules of heraldry rigorously kept up in the UK, it is an authentic family coat of arms.

Following Packard's lead as a prestige marque, other makes apparently decided that sort of emblem was "classy", and would lend a quality appeal to their product. So in the years that followed, Buick, Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Nash, Hudson, Hupmobile, Crosley, Kaiser-Frazer and of course, Ford (to name a few) all followed suit with emblems of their own based on the pattern of ancient coats of arms. The imagery even spread to other items, home appliances for example; among others, Maytag and Kelvinator adopted emblems of that type as well.

So far as I know, other than Packard, none of them (including Ford) was based on an actual, authentic coat of arms. Why were they abandoned ? Presumably by the 1960s they were perceived as too "old-fashioned" looking. Too bad, they were all interesting, fanciful, appealing, and their loss was just another step toward the visually sterile in the design of almost everything the past 50 years or so.

1950-51
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1950-1951-Ford ... 0#viTabs_0

Dennis Carpenter Ford reproduction products has this style of Ford coat of arms emblems in stock. They were used in different but closely related styles until 58.
The crest style was the most common. He makes the plastic inserts for crest style moldings that were on the hoods of Ford cars and trucks in the 50’s era. I guess Ford thought the crest style was getting outdated is why they changed.