CLAVEAU AUTOBLOC / FRANCE

 

The French man Emile Claveau was a  very innovative constructor in the motoring field.

He founded the AUTOMOBILE CLAVEAU in Paris in 1926 when he was 34 years old.

He showed a very unconventional light car at the Brussels Motor Show in December 1926. This car had a rear mounted 1100 cc flat-four engine, no fenders but two radiators, one on the right side and one on the left side  behind the door. He called it the AUTOBLOC.

He showed this car again in Paris in 1927. He even advertised this car in the "French Automobile & Allied Trades Exporter" but it is doubtful that he sold a single car so the AUTOBLOC emblem is a very,very rare item .

 In 1930 he presented a completly new designed front wheel driving car with front engine. His next project was presented to the public in 1946. It was a four door streamlined saloon with a 2292cc V8 engine. The last project was seen in 1955 when he showed a two door saloon.

None of his cars went in regular production  as he had no facilities for manufactures. I guess he tried to sell licenses.

Size	12.2 cm x 3.5 cm
Year	1926- 1927
Estimate

backside without makers mark

CLAVEAU AUTOBLOC seen in Paris at the 1927 Motor Show

close up of the front with emblem AUTOBLOC and script CLAVEAU

1927 CLAVEAU advertisment

details of the CLAVEAU AUTOBLOC

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

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PILAIN / FRANCE

 

The SOCIETE AUTOMOBILE PILAN  was founded in Lyon / France by Francois Pilain in 1901.

Francois Pilain was the uncle of Emile Pilain who later founded the ROLLAND PILAIN in Tours.

Few cars were made by Francois Pilain before 1904.  In 1906 he offered a chassis with a 6.2 liter and even a 8.6 4-cylinder engine. The cars had round radiators in the Delaunay - Belleville  or Hotchkiss style.

Francois had to leave his own company in 1909 and the  new directors introduced a range of smaller cars.

In 1913 a vee-shaped radiator was adpopted. The last PILAIN was sold in 1920 under the name S.L.I.M - PILAIN.

1906 PILAIN painted brass emblem

 

Size	6.7 cm x 5.0 cm
Year	1906
Estimate

 The vendor of this particular emblem told me that this emblem was from a 1906 model.

Years later I was able to verify it as I found an article about French radiators  in the  journal OMNIA of February 1906:

left column, third picture from top:  the PILAIN radiator

All enameled PILAIN emblems have the shape of the car radiator with the filler neck on top:

For a short time the AUTOMILES PILAIN were called SAP:

SAP emblem. Repro made with the original dies

On the 1911 emblem you can read the name of two French towns: LYON and PARIS.

It is clear that LYON is the home town of PILAIN, but why did they add the town of PARIS ?

1911 PILAIN emblem of the model 4.0

Size	6.2 cm x 6.2 cm
Year	1911
Estimate

 

The "regular" radiator emblem with LYON only:

Size	6.2 cm x 6.2 cm
Year	1912 - 1920
Estimate

backside without makers mark

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

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WIKOV / Czech republic

The WIKOV car company is a quite unknown Czech car manufacturer who was active in the automobile business from 1925 to 1937. At that time you found seven Czech car manufacturer: TATRA, PRAGA, SKODA (click here), AERO, ZETKA (click here), WALTER and WIKOV.  The WIKOV was the smallest one with a market-share of around 1 % only in its own country !

 In 12 years they built less than one thousand cars. Nevertheless there are still more than 20 WIKOV automobiles in existence.

The WIKOV company ( short form of the two names of the founders WICHTERLE and KOVARIK ) presented their  first car in 1925 that was inspired by the Italian ANSALDO ( ANSALDO emblems click here. The WIKOV car had a radiator script only but no emblem:

contemporary photo showing the radiator without emblem

 

 

The emblem on top of the advertisment was never on a car

 

Finally in 1929 / 30 you find the first emblem on top of the radiator shell:

WIKOV typ 7/28 - 353 seen in a Czech museum

Original emblem showing  traces of 90 years

Original WIKOV emblem of my collection

Size	3.5 cm x 4.4 cm
Year	1929 - 1935
Estimate

backside without makers mark

In 1931 WIKOV proudly presented a stream - lined experimental car, the typ 35 - 606, called "KAPKY", that means drop in the Czech language.

WIKOV on the 1931 automobile exposition

This experimental car had a large round front emblem:

this car was reconstructed in 2012 including the front badge

There was also a round emblem in the middle of some hub caps:

WIKOV aluminium badge on the motor block

From 1932 onwards there was also a radiator mascot on some models typ 40

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

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Presentation: Historic radiator emblems