Hood ornament

Hood ornament on a Ford Roadster

Hood ornament of an early Horch

Temperature gauge at the top of an early radiator cap

A hood ornament is the name given to a specially crafted model of something which symbolises a car company like a badge, located on front center portion of the hood.

Examples of hood ornaments include:

• Spirit of Ecstasy on Rolls-Royce Motors cars
• The leaping Jaguar on Jaguar cars
• The three-pointed star surrounded by a circle on Mercedes-Benz cars
• The Lion on the Peugeot cars
• The Ram's head on Dodge cars
• The Crest and Wreath on Cadillac cars
• The three shields on Buick Cars
• The Rocket on Oldsmobile cars
• The Archer on Pierce-Arrow cars

Retracted Mercedes-Benz hood ornament

Occasionally, people will create their own hood ornament, as this Texas pick-up truck driver has done for a tailgate party prior to a college football game.

In the early years automobiles had their radiator caps outside of the hood and on top of the grille. The hood ornament was born as a way of decorating the cap. Hood ornaments (or car mascots as they are known in the UK) were very popular in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s and 1950s with many car manufacturers fitting them to their vehicles. As well as the car makers themselves, a very healthy business was created in the supply of accessory mascots available to anyone who wanted to fit a hood ornament or car mascot to their automobile. Most companies like Desmo and Smiths are now out of business with only Louis Lejeune in England surviving.

Hood ornaments are usually cast in brass, zinc or bronze and finished in a chrome plated finish. In the years when chrome plate was unavailable, they were plated in either silver or nickel. There is now a very strong collectors market for hood ornaments and car mascots. Sculptors such as Bazin, Paillet, Sykes, Renevey, and Lejeune all created very finely detailed sculptures in miniature.
The best-known glass mascots were made by René Lalique in France, but other sellers or producers of glass mascots include Sabino in France, Red Ashay in England and Persons Majestic in the U.S. The latter two had their products made in Czechoslovakia. The Lalique company, like Louis Lejeune, is one of the few survivors from this era of motoring.

Few current vehicles have hood ornaments, partly because they have fallen out of style and partly because they pose a risk for injuries in collisions with pedestrians (although this hazard has been largely mitigated by mounting modern hood ornaments to springs so that they will fold down if struck by a pedestrian). Hood ornaments still remain quite common on many models of luxury cars and are a target for vandals and thieves.