Skull hood ornament?

A friend mine who's in LA at the moment found this interesting bit of automotive art. The lower jaw is spring mounted (but broken), otherwise it looks to be in really good condition.

Anyone know the origin/history?

 

wow! that is pretty cool, and I dont usually go for "skulls".

 

looks like its from a jc whitney catalog from the 60's or 70's

 

Boy thats nice, i need one of those, it would go great on my car.

 

square nuts make it real old not..

some red silicone for gums and tongue complete the ferosity

 

Tha would make a cool Pez dispenser.

Doc.

 

I call them "Yappys" My son has an original, but they repop them now. From the late 40s. They have a counter weight on the jaw, so it moves up and down at speed. Originals are big $,,,,,,,,,OLDBEET

 

I think Mooneyes sells one similar to it, you might want to check it out.

 

I thought they were older than that Beet ......I know a guy with a couple of originals, very cool for skull accesories......

 

Ya! They may be much older.....Way cool!............OLDBEET

 

My buddy that found it collects and restores old coin-operated machines and he got it from another collector. I imagine it would be the real deal.

Square nut or not!

 

Mine is an original mascot from, I was told the late 20's, called "Gabby" as she has the scarf and moving jaw, looks just like the one pictured. SuperBell on here know's all about them.

 

early western auto accesory.

 

Brootal, my man K-member is right it is a female radiator mascot with a scarf and it is American made from the early 1930's, they may have been offered later in other markets. Some like yours were nickle plated but most were not. Most of the originals I have seen had a red and a green glass glob eye (I assume for the port and starboard effect), yours appears to be missing the counter weight that Beet mentioned. The counter weight was on the jaw for the purpose of making the mouth open and close at speed which happened at about 35 to 40 with the help of the wind hence the name "GABBY". Originals sell when you can find them for about $300.00 and up, there are repops around some good and some not so good.

 

Skull, scarf, flapping jaw...that's my Aunt Millie RIP.

 

Here's a few pics of mine on my A coupe, with new lower jaw courtesy of Superbell Rick.

 

I knew I'd seen it somewhere before.

Thanks for the info Superbell. My buddy paid a LOT less than $300 for it, so if it is an original, he'll be stoked. He's pretty handy too, so he might be able to fix it up.

Do you have any pics of the actual counterweight mechanism and how it goes together?

 

I cotter pinned my lower jaw on as I lost my original jaw after being hit by a semi truck leaving Bonneville in 98. I will try and take it apart and show a pic later.

 

anyone know who makes repos of this skull?

thanks

wayne

 

It'd be the perfect hood ornament for
a hearse!

Mart3406
============================

 

I want one for mine...

 

Here's the deal on these mascots. I did some research, since I got one (missing the lower jaw). They were made by the Franklin Die Cast Co., Inc. out of Chicago in the 1920's/1930's. Mr. Franklin is considered the father of die casting in America. He also founded the Franklin Automobile Co. This particular model is called the "Floating Spirit" & is listed as Item # 129 in the catalog. They are repoped & sold by Moon for about $100. By the way, Moon refused my request to buy a jaw (only). If anyone has any leads for a jaw, let me know.

 

Here's an ad for them, and a few others, from a 1939 Smith Johnson Novelty catalog. Cool to finally find out something about these and what they actually look like. I swiped the ad art years ago for some band tees.

$1.25. Nice. Fairly pricey compared to the others, which are all just a quarter.

 

Here's a shot of the page on the original Franklin Die Cast catalog. My guess is that the 1939 novelty catalog was a latter repop deal. Interesting stuff. The caption with this pics states "Skull, produced in the 1920's & 1930's. An American mascot made from pot metal & has a working jaw. Some had illuminated eyes. An unusual mascot & shown here against a page taken from the manufacturer's Franklin's catalog."

 

Here's another example on my '27 T sedan!

 

Just bringing this back to the top.

My friend who has this ornament now has the ability to weld die cast, and as the counterweight is missing on this one, he needs to see what it looks like so he can recreate it.

Someone posted a pic earlier showing the whole mechanism, but it's been deleted, so if whoever posted it is reading this, can you upload the pics again, please?

 

Still have mine and will be up to see her tomorrow, and will perform the surgery, remove the jaw and take a pic for you if someone doesn't beat me to it.

 

Sorry, a day or two late (Owning a business seams like I have less time) but, here she is.

 

And straight on it looks like the monkey in "the Hangover 2"

 

I'm not into skulls in the least and think that they are a bit tacky normally but that is cooler than all get out.