Tag: Buick radiator badge

I found this radiator emblem when I was out junking the other day:

It’s not in the best condition, one end is broken off, but I brought it home anyway because it belongs on a 1929 Buick and you just don’t see them for sale very often.  It would have been on the front of a car like this gorgeous example:

The ’29 Buick was the Silver Anniversary Buick and, according to the Standard Catalog of American Cars, was the first completely styled by the GM Art and Colour Department.  Incredibly, it was offered in more than 40 color combinations!  The paint colors available had exotic names such as Venetian Blue, Boulevard Maroon and Chermonte Cream.  Fifteen different shades of green were included in the mix with monikers like Scaraba, Pinehurst, Boise and Asheville.

Apparently, GM took this color selection very seriously.  A newspaper article from 1929 stated that, “The choice of colors is not a hit or miss proposition.  When a selection is made it is the result of a careful research that embraces the fashion salons of Europe . . . . . The pleasing harmonies on canvas by famous painters are another source of color ideas.  Even the wings of butterflies, the scintillating hues of rubies, emeralds, sapphires and other precious stones furnish the General Motors artists and the Buick engineers ideas on color tones and combinations that are finally transferred to Buick and Marquette cars.”

This article appeared on October 19, 1929, just days before the stock market crash that contributed to the Great Depression.   Sales soon plummeted, and Buick went from focusing on the “fashion salons of Europe” and “the wings of butterflies” to mere survival.