FAUN / GER

FAUN / Nürnberg , Ansbach / Germany  ( 1918 - 1990 )

The  German FAUN (= Fahrzeugfabriken Ansbach und Nürnberg) started truck production in 1918.
In 1924 to 1927 they offered a private car without any commercial success.   Commercial trucks were built from 1918 to 1990. 

FAUN is the ancient Italian god of nature and the forest. This is the origin of the image of his rustic face, as seen on the FAUN emblems. 

The first enameled truck emblem I was able to identify comes here:

first FAUN truck emblem

Size	5.6 cm x 5.6 cm
Year	1919 - 1920
Estimate

1921 advertisement,  emblem with FAUN head

In the mid-1920s, FAUN attempted to expand its model lineup and, and for a short time—with relatively little success—offered a private car. Here I present to you the rare radiator emblem of the private car of 1924:

emblem for the only private car they offered

Size	c. 6 cm
Year	1924 - 1927
Estimate

1925 FAUN car type K2

Back to FAUN trucks:

In 1923, the FAUN truck radiator had only embossed lettering on it; it did not yet have an emblem, as this illustration of German truck radiators from 1923 shows. 

FAUN in the second row, on the left

 

I was able to find this beautiful emblem, which depicts the FAUN's face with a historic tower from Nuremberg as a headdress. I don't have a contemporary photo, but the design of this emblem was patented in 1928, and an advertisement shows a very similar, triangular emblem.

 

 

Size	7.0 cm x 7.4 cm
Year	c. 1930
Estimate

 

 

 

the emblem design was patented in 1927

 1930 brochure showing a triangle FAUN emblem:

I see the difference between the drawn emblem and the actual emblem as a result of artistic creativity.

 

 

The tower from the FAUN emblem still exists in Nuremberg's Old Town 

The next enameled truck emblem appeared in 1931:

Size	7.0 cm x 7.4 cm
Year	1931
Estimate

this emblem design was patented in 1931

one of the rare survivor showing an emblem with traces of decades of use

In the late 1930s the emblem was modernized:

Size	7.0 cm x 7.4 cm
Year	c. 1936
Estimate

backside without makers mark

After WWII there were metal emblems only like this nice radiator cap.

Front of a fire truck, seen in a German museum:

FAUN emblem made in the nineteensixties

Very few FAUN trucks have survived. But there was a drawing of the  FAUN 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:

 drawing made by Gustaf Moeller in the 1920s 

Back to the beginning. Before 1918, there was a fairly simple emblem, which can be seen here on a radiator painted in military camouflage colors.

 

 

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

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