[last update:
01.10.2003]
The (new)
Cadillac Database©
Cadillac and La Salle Insignia
Colorful Complements
to the Cadillac Car
Select a topic from the table, below,
or go back to the "Miscellaneous Cadillac Stuff"
index page
Return to The (New) Cadillac Database© Index Page
(en bas de page se trouve un résumé en français)
Many users have been asking me when I would prepare a page
relating to Cadillac insignia. Well, I had one under construction but, since you all
seem to be chomping on the bit, I've decided that you can have it now, in the raw. I
will have no complaints, therefore, if any of you find that these pages are incomplete.
There will be more to come, so please be patient.
Since GM
announced (in the Fall of 1999) a major change in the design of the Cadillac crest emblem
for the models of the new millenium, I thought users of The (new) Cadillac Database© might enjoy this colorful compilation that I believe illustrates well
the history of the Cadillac crest, from its nebulous origins in the seventeenth century up
to the one used on the Cadillac models of the last year of this (twentieth) century as
well as those of the new millennium.
Table of topics
Topic
1 |
History of the
Cadillac Wreath and Crest |
Topic 2 |
Pre-WW2
insignia |
Topic 3 |
Post-WW2
insignia |
Topic 4 |
Mascots and
stand-up hood ornaments, pre- and post-WW2 |
Topic 5 |
Cadillac
insignia in sales and merchandising literature |
Topic 6a |
Insignia on
wheel covers and hub caps, Part 1 - 1902 to 1979 |
Topic 6b |
Insignia on
wheel covers and hub caps, Part 2 - 1980 and up |
Topic 7 |
Fisher coach
logos and emblems |
Topic 8 |
Cadillac club
badges and related items |
Topic 9 |
La Salle badges
and related items |
Topic 10 |
Fake Cadillac
insignia and mascots |
 
The shield of Baron Sylvester of Esparbes de
Lussan, lord of Lamothe Bardigues,
from which are derived the 1st and 4th quarters of the Cadillac coat of arms
(below)
which Antoine de La Mothe Cadillac, founder of Detroit in 1701, claimed to
be his own.
 
Left: the Cadillac wreath and crest registered by the
company on August 7, 1906
Right: a later version [late teens] with tulip wreath and swans in lieu of
merlettes
|
  
This is how Antoine Laumet, self-styled Sieur
de La Mothe-Cadillac, fabricated "his"
coat of arms: far left, the coronet or crown, next to it the shield of the
neighboring
Lamothe-Bardigues family, with its three merlettes
(martlets/martins), next to it is what is believed
to be the arms arms of either
Virès, in France's Languedoc region, or Albret in Gascony
[source: Report on Canadian Archives, Ottawa, 1911] and, right, the completed shield
|
This is the modified Cadillac emblem introduced in
Y2K;
gone are the merlettes; gone is the 7-pointed crown;
gone, in fact, are all the symbols that Antoine Laumet
"borrowed" from a noble neighbor for his "own" family crest
|
( résumé en français)
Vous êtes nombreux (et ...breuses) à me demander des
explications relatives aux armoiries de la firme Cadillac. Voici donc l'histoire de
ce blason; nous la devons en grande partie à Jean Boutonnet, historien à
Castesarrasin et membre du CAVE 83 (club des collectionneurs de véhicules anciens de
Tarn-et-Garonne)
La Cadillac Motor Car Company a annoncé cette année (1999) son
intention de modifier le blason qui orne depuis près d'un siècle les capots et malles
arrières des automobiles de la marque. On verra le nouvel emblème sur les Cadillac
du prochaine millénnaire.
Aussi j'ai pensé que les lecteurs de la The
(new) Cadillac Database© pourraient avoir plaisir à tout apprendre
sur le faux blason de la fausse famille Cadillac, créé de toutes pièces au
dix-septième siècle par un certain Antoine Laumet qui se dit Sieur de La Mothe Cadillac,
l'homme qui fonda Detroit en 1701.
|
Select a topic from the table, above,
or go back to the "Miscellaneous Cadillac Stuff"
index page
Return to The (New) Cadillac Database© Index Page
© 1996, Yann Saunders and the Cadillac-LaSalle
Club, Inc.
[Background image: superimposed Cadillac and La Salle emblems, 1929]