DURANT / USA

 DURANT / USA   ( 1921 - 1932 )

William C. DURANT, who had built up the GMC and CHEVROLET when it was independent, started his own DURANT brand in 1921 that lasted until 1932. He founded  many other firms as FLINT, FRONTENAC, STAR and RUGBY.

Most of his cars were in the lower price range. In1922 he sold 22,615 DURANT cars. The best year was 1929 with a production of 34,163 cars. In 1926 only a few cars were built and in 1927 not a single car was built.
He restarted 1928 with a production of 28,000 cars. The last year (1932) only 843 cars were sold.

When collecting DURANT radiator emblems you will see that there are four common versions.
All are easy to find and quite inexpensive. Only the fifth version, the 1921 prototype, is a hard to find item.

The first regular DURANT emblem is showing a dragon on the top:

Size	4.5 x  6.5cm
Year	1921 - 1926
Estimate

backside without makers mark

Here you see the same emblem in three different shapes:

left: original                   middle: restored             right: attic find

1923 brochure

The second and the third DURANT emblems are showing the letter D.
Now the dragon moved down to the bottom and became much smaller.

Size	3.9 x  6.0cm
Year	1928
Estimate

1928 advertisment  - radiator with oval emblem

In 1929 the letter D became white:

Size	3.9 x  6.0 cm
Year	1928 - 1929
Estimate

1929 sales brochure

In 1930 there was a completly new design  of the emblem with red and white fields:

Size	3.0 x  5.5 cm
Year	1930 - 1932
Estimate

backside with makers mark from FOX CINCINATI

1930 - 1932 sales brochure

To avoid confusion with the British STAR automobiles, made in Wolverhampton,  exported vehicles from the Durant STAR factory were named RUGBY. They had the same design:

for more information about RUGBY click here

Nevertheless there is one extremly rare DURANT radiator badge:
In August 04, 1921 the first DURANT automobile was shown in New York. This emblem is believed to be a prototype  used on the first Durant Models A-22 that were manufactured for the show. This emblem has exactly the same size as the emblem of the Sheridan, the last car designed by William C. Durant before leaving GM.

original 1921 prototype emblem (NOS)

Size	4.5  cm x 6.5cm
Year	1921
Estimate

backside with makers mark 

Collection of radiator emblems of the DURANT family of automobiles

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