More nameplates and great lettering! The French automaker Renault proved the timelessness of great design when they gave us this fine example in the art deco style during a time when that style was no longer popular. Cigarettes, of course comes from a vending machine, Stenorette from some sort of steno dictating office machine. The Coronet is an automobile model of the Dodge brand. Special is a Buick.

Frigidaire is, or rather was, a brand of General Motors for household appliances. O’Keefe & Merritt made stoves. One of my favorites, the marvelous Television is from an RCA television camera.

Other car badges shown include Plymouth Fury, Chrysler Windsor, and Chevrolet Impala and Bel Air. The Lark is possibly an interior nameplate for the Studebaker model of that name. Ghia was/is an Italian automobile designer and the beautiful enamel badge below is from one of their cars, probably a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. I can’t place the great Suburban nameplate but it may well have been from the GM vehicle of that name. Booth/Babylon and By Lake/Bay Shore are car tags applied by dealers to the rear of a car’s trunk in some parts of America.

It is unknown where the Firestone, Simplex, Temco, Princess, Notifier, Royal, Fujiset, and Mueller nameplates come from. But even when unknown, it’s fun to speculate from their styling just what sort of things nameplates were once attached to.

I can imagine the dishwasher the Automatic Dishwasher by Mullins badge was on. Quite a monster, I’ll bet. The BM button is from Bardwell & McAlister, a maker of movie lighting gear. The GE button is from a radio as is the older GE dial escutcheon to the right of it. The Arvin plate, like the Western Electric below it, is rather simple, flat, and plain, but the late-’60s styling is what we used to call “smart.” The Color badge is from a 1960s television set.

The wonderful National lettering is possibly from a National (NCR) cash register, but I don’t know for sure. Dynamatic Division of Eaton made use of this serious and impressive looking badge somehow, probably on something large and gray.

The Planet, Kenmore, and Zenith cloisonné badges are from sewing machines. The Webcor and Truetone badges are off of electronic sound equipment.

Don’t think that I cannibalize perfectly good collectibles to get these nameplates! I don’t have the heart for that. Yes, I’ve pulled off many a car badge in junkyards—but only just ahead of the crusher, and most of my other examples I’ve found in flea markets and such places where they wound up after earlier being pulled by someone else from their original homes. That explains, at least, why I don’t know where so many of them actually come from.

Below: Firestone-Columbus, from an automobile, c.1910.