The reason this all came to my mind is because of another emblem I saw on a Beautiful Untouched/unrestored '61 Galaxie that sold at BJ for over 110K!
The buyer said that this emblem came on exactly THREE and only 3 '61 Galaxies, and this is the first one, by the way. Wow…cool.
Now, what struck me was that apparently the Oros Studio Cougar that was initially tried out as the front emblem on a MUSTANG in '62-64 during it’s developement had a very similar looking cat in it’s front grille…as seen here…
I have an aluminum-cast cat like the one above that I found on Ebay a few years ago…i’ve never seen another like it. I am now coming to the conclusion that the “paw” pointed up was not put that way to fit into the “corral” but was actually just a derivative of all of these earlier Ford “lioness” (thanks Dave) emblems and the “cougar” was just a modified version of the lion to give it a more contemporary and Cougar-like appearance.
Very interesting…I’d love to hear and read some opinions of how this all came about if anyone knows more!?
Heck, even on my 68 torino gt formalroof my C pillar emblem has the 3 lioness on one side of it and on the other it has a crown with a checkered flag. I know this going to take some investigating, but this is just my thought. The lioness logo reminds me of what may be interpreted as a Egyptian hieroglyphic. Back in the late 1800’s and into the 1900’s there was a Egyptian craze going on after they found all those tombs in Egypt. Maybe Henry Ford had the craze himself and implemented that as part of his logo’s. Just a thought… who’s next?
Very Good link, Jon! I’ve been out of the loop too, apparently. I’ll have to show that link to the fellow who now owns the Lincoln and the Galaxie from Barrett Jackson. Hopefully he can research why his car was one of only 3 with that ornament. It is absolutely beautiful (as is the whole car!)
The transformation from the Lion to the Cougar is fascinating…
I am often tempted to put my old cougar emblem out on Ebay with some links and marketing thoughts to get people excited about it and see what it is really worth. But I dont’ want to give it up
I’d die to learn more about where it originated. It is an exact leplica of the Oros Studios emblem. And it fits perfectly in an original Mustang Emblem corrall…
