ATELIER GERMAIN / BELGIUM

ATELIERS GERMAIN / Monceau sur Sombre / Belgium   ( 1898 - 1914 )

La Société anonyme des  Ateliers GERMAINS  was founded in 1897 and presented their first automobile in 1898, based on with the help of DAIMLER and PANHARD LEVASSOR.  (1898 - 1914). After World War I, the company focused on streetcars and railcars. 

To my knowledge an emblem wasn't used until the 1907/08 model. Since regular automobile production ceased at the start of World War I, emblems from this brand are extremely hard to find. 

 

The two letters “AG” (standing for Ateliers Germain) appear in the small blue circle within the emblem.

Size	4.5 cm
Year	1913 -
Estimate

 

 

1913 GERMAIN showing the emblem above

 

1903 / 1905 brochure for the STANDARD  (I added the emblem for exposition purposes)

 

 

The 1912 GERMAIN  did not yet have an emblem

 

Only a few vehicles of ATELIERS GERMAIN have survived and I couldn't find any surviving vehicles with the emblem shown above, only the black-and-white photo from 1913. But there was a drawing of the 1913 emblem, which was made by the Swedish boy Gustaf Moeller back in the 1920s. Gustaf lived near the ferry port in Helsingborg / Sweden and drew the emblems of the waiting cars there. What a great hobby that still helps and delights us a hundred years later: 

 

The last GERMAIN 20CV model used a sleeve valve engine from the British company Daimler, licensed by Charles Knight. For more information about car makers with Charles Knight engines and emblems please click here!

For more emblems see older posts or top right ( list of car makers ).

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MAYBACH / GERMANY

 MAYBACH MOTORENBAU GmbH / Friedrichshafen / Germany      (1921 - 1940)

Prof. Dr. Ing. Karl Maybach, the son of the famous engine and automobile designer Wilhelm Maybach and a partner of the German automotive pioneer Gottlieb Daimler, became a designer of airship engines and founded the luxury automobile brand MAYBACH. Maybach vehicles were manufactured from 1921 to 1941. Among the models were the large 5.7-liter 6-cylinder engines and the 12-cylinder versions, which were introduced in 1929. This large model was given the additional designation “ZEPPELIN,” and approximately 330 units were built between 1929 and 1940.

In 1966, the brand name was revived, and even today there is still a particularly expensive, luxurious Mercedes model called MAYBACH.

  

unrestored MAYBACH emblem with traces of decades of use

 

Size	8.0 cm x 5.7 cm
Year	1924 - and following
Estimate

 

unrestored MAYBACH seen in a German Museum

 The following advertisement dates from October 1921; it is the oldest one I was able to find. In it, the Maybach emblem is shown in blue, a color that never actually existed:

 

a blue Maybach emblem was never see; it is a matter of artistic freedom

 

 

 

This photograph shows the first Maybach model from 1921, the W3. The emblem is barely visible. Not a single vehicle is believed to have survived, only one radiator of the type W3 is left:

 

W3 radiator seen in a Germn museum

 

Even the following year in 1922, the emblem was depicted in blue in two different advertisements:

 

 

 There was a small and a large version of the MAYBACH emblem. Here the large version still missing the enamel:

 

 

 

 

 

backside of an original emblem ( without makers mark )

 

 Anything that is rare and expensive gets reproduced. The same goes for the MAYBACH emblem:

reproduction of the large MAYBACH emblem

 

backside of the large repro emblem

 

 

 

 And here is the small version:

 

 

Size	5.2 cm x 3.7 cm
Year	1921 - onwards
Estimate

 

 

backside of the small original MAYBACH emblem ( no makers mark )

 

repro of the small MAYBACH emblem

 

 

In the following advertisement from 1927, the MAYBACH emblem is depicted in the correct colors, with a white border and an orange background for the letters MM:

 

MAYBACH did not patent the emblem's design until eight years after production of the vehicle had begun:

MAYBACH motor emblem made of aluminium

1928 advertisement for the MAYBACH with overdrive  (Schnellgang)

this 1928 advertisement shows the motor emblem

The ANSBACH Fahrzeugfabrik A.G. also installed the 6-cylinder Maybach motor.

MAYBACH with flat emblem on the back

You find the MAYBACH logo also on the gas cap

All too often, the story ends with a plastic emblem:

MAYBACH LANDAULET ( 2008 - 2009 )

For more emblems see older posts or top right ( list of car makers ).

When using a smartphone please use the button webview. 

MATHIS / FRANCE

SA MATHIS  / STRASBOURG / FRANCE  (1910 - 1950) 

Emile Mathis was an Alsatian automobile manufacturer who started out as a car dealer in Strasbourg in 1898 and became the general agent for “DE DIETRICH” in 1901. He was in contact with the young Ettore Bugatti, and in 1904 they agreed to develop and build a vehicle together: the HERMES SIMPLEX.

The partnership had already ended by 1906, and Emile Mathis did not begin producing vehicles under his own name until 1910.  In 1934, a joint venture was formed with FORD SAF, and vehicles were produced under the MATFORD name; starting in 1935, this included 8-cylinder vehicles and, later, trucks as well (see MATFORD).

 Car production came to an end in 1950. The plant was later taken over by Citroën.

 The first MATHIS vehicle even had two emblems, one on top of the radiator and the other on the radiator core:

 

 

Size	7.3 cm x 8.1 cm
Year	1910 - 1920
Estimate

 

 

backside without makers mark ( as usual in Germany and FRance )

 

The oldest MATHIS advertisement I was able to find is this one from 1911, which is still in German. It clearly shows the emblem pictured above and the one shown below.

 

 

Size	10.4 cm
Year	1910- 1920
Estimate

 

 

1924 advertisement for MATHIS in Cyclecars, Motos et voitures

 

 

What a magnificent photograph, taken in Berlin, Germany, likely in the early 1920s, showing that MATHIS was competing with BUGATTI ( photo collection T.H. Ulrich )

MATHIS, too, could not escape the prevailing trend and began offering its vehicles with pointed radiators in 1925. Note, once again, the second emblem mounted on top of the radiator.

 

 

 

 

 And here it is, the second emblem on top:

 

Size	5.7 cm x 6.1 cm
Year	1924- 1925
Estimate

 

 

backside without makers mark

 

The best-known and perhaps most beautiful MATHIS emblem is the following one, which is enameled in blue and white:

Note the ribbed ring around the emblem

 

Size	with ring  5.5 cm
Year	1928
Estimate

 

The MATHIS Type 123 also featured a hood ornament depicting a flame, which was presumably meant to symbolize the car's fiery spirit.

 

two stars for this quite simple mascot

 

Size	6.6 cm x 7.5 cm
Year	1928 - 1929
Estimate

 

 

1929 ad in Automobile et Tourisme  showing a MATHIS with mascot

 

 You can see the hood ornament much more clearly in this photo:

MATHIS Type EMY SIX, still with flat radiator

 

 

there was also this version with a flat, chromed ring. I suspect it´s a newer version

 

 The MATHIS EMY 6 model was developed during the collaboration between MATHIS and FORD and had a v-shaped radiator:

 

 

 

Size	4.9 cm x 6.3 cm
Year	1930
Estimate

 

 

 

 

ROCHET SCHNEIDER; DE DION BOUTON and MATHIS radiator for sale in Reims / France in 2022

 

 For emblems see older posts or top right (list of car makers).

When using a smartphone please use the button webview.

For more information about the collobaration with MATFORD please click here!