ALBA / AUSTRIA ( ITALY )

 

ALBA Automobilwerke Aktiengesellschaft / TRIEST (AUSTRIA later ITALY ) 1907 - 1909

This is my first post about a radiator emblem that I have never seen in real life.
But this post is about one of the nicest emblems ever made and I have found some material so a review makes sense. 

In 1906, the Austrian ALBA brand was founded in Trieste, a medium-sized city that at that time still belonged to Austria. Please do not confuse with the French company ALBA ( 1913 - 1928 ).

The word "ALBA" is Italian and means sunrise.  The emblem shows two finely depicted hands grasping a steering wheel. By the way, this is a motif which the Italian company "DE VECCHI" already had in 1905 (click here). In the background you can see a rising sun according to the name of the company. In addition, you can see a plant  in the upper left corner, which I could not identify yet.

And here it is:

 

 

Size	c. 7.5 cm
Year	1906- 1908
Estimate	for an original

First I found the emblem in this 1907 advertisment:

you can read in German: * VERTRETUNGEN OFFEN*  that means agencies wanted

 

Later I found some more photos, of course all in black / white:

 So the question is what colors did the original emblem have ?

 

Here is the colored result of my reflections after long discussions with my friend Giuseppe T. from Torino.

Background in yellow - orange: the sun always has this color. The sea ( below) is always blue. The plant on the left: always in green.  The arms and hands: in the original probably made of brass like the entire base of the emblem. The letters: difficult. But on the advertisments for an ALBA automobile you can see that the letters are clearly visible, so white should be the right color or also made of brass.

The start of this newly founded company was professionally managed:

Here the representative entrance of the factory. This picture was published in a magazine in 1907. But beware, it is a drawing. There was probably nothing to photograph yet.

 

1907: Interior shot of the factory. But here, too, you can see that everything is provisional so far.

1907: from the outside, the factory already looked busy.

Brochures were printed as well  with the charming emblem in the center

There was an impressive stand at the 1907  Paris Motor Show, but no complete car, only a chassis.

technical details of the ALBA 4-cylinder engine

Front view of the ALBA, again no reference to the colors of the emblem.

In the two years of existence,  only 9 automobiles were sold, none of them have survived to this day, but may be an emblem ?!

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

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