Customs Trying to identify what this grill is off of?

beat me to it

 

That looks like a pretty low-key hood ornament to me.

An article I'm looking at says the there were 44 American car manufacturers in the 1930s.

"This Big Three wheeled its power and affordable price as the number of U.S. car companies by 1929 had shrunk to 98. During the 1930s, this number dwindled to 44."

https://www.cjonline.com/story/spec...nd-todays-multinational-vehicles/53211295007/

 

Closest match I could find so far is 1933-34 Franklin Airman or V-12 - shape is right but the number of bars is either too few or too many.

 

Same here. I counted bars and there was not a match. However, Franklin offered 12 models its final year (1934) but with a total of less than 1,000 cars total. So who knows. I noticed that the various models of Franklins for '33-'34 had different grilles and, as you did, that the Airman & V-12 seem the closest

 

If yer gonna git all tecknickel, then really it should be offen.

 

...or from.

 

A lot of 33 era more expensive low volume cars have fancy stone gards covering what you're trying to see. I've tried Chryslers, Auburns, all sorts of things, but no luck so far.

 

I don't know about the grille, but the hood ornament would be cool on one of my vintage Schwinns

 

33/34 Essex? HRP

 

@HOTRODPRIMER I think you're close, but the Essex unit has a curve at the bottom that the OP grille does not have.

The search continues.....

 

I'm pretty sure it's European.
Bently , Alvis Etc.
Maybe even German.
I looked at export Fords and it's not one them.

 

Studapacford

 

Man, that Essex posted by @HOTRODPRIMER sure is a sexy lookin front end ! Well, most all in that era are, really

 

You guys figure out what model of dodge that thing is off of yet?

 

Some of the 1932 cars had similar grilles also, such as the ‘32 version of the Essex Terraplane that @HRP mentioned, so it may help to include the earlier year in your searches ?

 

Very possibly...Might be a prototype the Plethora of Companies that were vying for the almighty consumer were thinning around that time but remain sizable enough to make Id challenging...I like to see any info stamped but that may in fact take away the challenge...and this one is proving a challenge...

 

Hood ornament looks like a reworked ornament , as if someone had a ornament with broken off wings so they just started grinding away to make it look decent. As @lostmind says, ALVIS ( mid '30s ) is pretty close, even the ( cut down ? ) bird ornament. Going to google it looks like all Alvis owners like to mount a stone guard across the original grill bars .

 

Alvis had functional radiator caps into the '50s, and the grilles had at least space for the red, triangular badge.

I suspect that that is the right track, though. I think we're looking at the late '30s at the earliest, when radiator caps had begun to be hidden under the hood. We're also not looking for a smaller manufacturer operating at a low level of capitalization, as that pressing looks as if the tooling for it would have been expensive. The ornament recalled a sphinx, which got me to thinking Armstrong-Siddeley, but no match there.

 

The lack of a hole for a radiator cap suggests as much, too, as Franklins had no need of such; but this shell is deeper around the sides and top than the Franklins. Very close, though.

 

Whatever it is, it's really cool! What are your plans for it?

 

I think for this one...
The winner gets a chicken dinner... AND ice cream.

 

Do we know where this guy is from and where he got it?
That may be a little help.

 

I think this was the last question he asked before the aliens took him..............

 

from his sale adds it says, litchfield new hampshire.

 

Any comparisons should show these features; the shape and depth of the grille shell are what's unique:



What's said to be a 1934 Alvis Speed 20? Nope:

 

What's said to be a 1934 Essex K coupe has a deep grille shell, but it's shaped very differently, and the bars aren't vertical and straight.

 

1934 Jaguar SSI? Nope.

 

Buick.... Just thinkin' out loud....

 

Pontiac in 1933 had one that was close, but the bottom flared out, were there two models in 1933? Is the rare never seen model?

 

Be kind, it's his first post. Outside the classifieds.