There’s a lot you can tell about a car by its radiator or hood ornament.
Long before vehicles were identified by unique grilles, it was sculptured art on the hood or radiator shell that revealed a car's manufacturer. Can you imagine a vintage or current Rolls-Royce without its Spirit of Ecstasy, left,? Or a classic Hispano-Suiza without a Stork gracing its polished radiator shell? And it’s probably hard to find a vintage Pierce-Arrow without its Archer or a Jag without a Leaper! When’s the last time you saw a Mercedes-Benz without its iconic three-pointed star?
But it wasn’t only luxury vehicles that had unique art on their hood and radiator caps. Consider the popular Chief that graced the hoods of 1950s Pontiacs. Or the "machine gun sight" hood ornament that appeared first on Harley Earl's 1938 Buick Y-Job Concept car and later on production Buicks.
Originally called Mascots, they later became simply hood ornaments. Many were functional as well as decorative. Early production vehicles had popular “dogbone” styled Boyce MotoMeters incorporating thermometers that kept drivers aware of the temperature of water vapor in the radiator. Vintage Peugeot, right, has luxurious MotoMeter.
For more Auto Art coverage please check out Mike Gulett's My Car Quest Blog, http://mycarquest.blogspot.com/2011/05/hood-ornaments-art-created-for-car.html
Additional information sources:
http://www.team.net/www/ktud/masc_fin.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hood_ornament