RABAG BUGATTI / GERMANY

 

The RABAG BUGATTI / MANNHEIM / DUESSELDORF / GERMANY  ( 1922 - 1926 )

This is the second post I am publishing without being able to show an original emblem of the vehicle manufacturer. The first post  was  written about the Italian ( Austria ) company ALBA without being able to show an original emblem. 

And now RABAG BUGATTI.

 

This is certainly not an original RABAG emblem ( but a desperate attempt to make one yourself )

 The first RABAG BUGATTI was built in September 1922:

However, there are numerous black / white and color advertisements that show an emblem. The question is how exactly the artist reproduced the original emblem. It seems that the designers were given a great deal of freedom and did not look for a perfect reproduction.

 

the emblem shown in this early RABAG BUGATTI ad looks to be made by fantasy

If you believe the illustrator, Paul Neumann, of the advertisement shown above, the emblem looked like this:

However, the drawing does not match the best contemporary photo I could find. This is a factory photo, so the authenticity is guaranteed!

It is a completely different emblem ! In P. Neumann's drawing, the letters are arranged in a semicircle, whereas in the original photo the letters are on a straight line. In addition, the three letters LIC (for license) are missing in the middle of the emblem

close up of a factory photo showing an original emblem ( photo collection Claus H. Wulff )

But these are by no means all the variations that can be found. Here is an overview of many more variations:

overview made by Dietrich Conrad, for more information click here

 

It looks like an original, but it isn´t ! Look at the distance between the letters "A" and "T"  which is not correct. The crossbar of the letter “T” should cover part of the letter “A” .

for the wrong distance look at the blue arrow

1923 advertisement;  compare it with the first advertisement from the same dealer shown above you will see that there is no more fantasy emblem but the complete car without details from the badge.

In the literature you can read that around 100 RABAG BUGATTIS were built; it is therefore hard to imagine that there were numerous different emblem versions installed on the car.

Don´t forget to look at my post about other BUGATTI emblems and click here.

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

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