SHAD-WYCK

Shadburne Brothers Co.

Frankfort, Indiana (1917-1918)

Chicago, Illinois (1920-1923)

This is a Shad-Wyck radiator emblem (date unknown but possibly 1920-1923)   mjs
Size: 78mm wide 73mm high overall   62mm diameter center    MM: None

The Shad-Wyck name had an obvious association with the Shadburne brothers who decided to build this car but it was probably meant to sound like the well-known Chadwick car. Wade H Shadburne had been selling cars in Chicago since 1908 and in 1915 he was joined by his brother Leonard to take up the Moon car distributorship. Then in 1917 the Shadburne brothers announced that they had bought the Dixie Flyer and Bour-Davis car companies and a factory in Frankfort, Indiana in which to continue to build these cars along with a new Shad-Wyck car. The Dixie Flyer sale did not happen but the Shadburne brothers did build a few Bour-Davis cars at Frankfort in 1918 (see Bour-Davis).

The Shad-Wyck 6 DeLuxe was advertised in motoring magazines but the photo used in a Shad-Wyck advertisement in July 1917 was of a Roamer car, see example shown below:

Shad-Wyck advertisement (1917) 
chilton's automobile directory

There is no confirmed record of a Shad-Wyck car being built at Frankfort and the factory was closed in February 1918. The Shadburne brothers moved back to Chicago where, in the early 1920's, they announced their plan to build a Shad-Wyck touring model powered by a six-cylinder Rochester-Duesenberg engine. The new Shad-Wyck was promoted up to 1923 but there is no record of the car being built. 

However, radiator emblems were made for the Shad-Wyck Six for both Frankfort and Chicago but whether a prototype Shad-Wyck car was ever made or the emblems were attached to another car is not confirmed. At least one automotive reference notes that some Bour-Davis cars built at Frankfort were rebadged as Shad-Wyck and that some Shad-Wyck cars may actually have been built after the Shadburne brothers moved back to Chicago.

Emblems

The Shad-Wyck radiator emblem shown below was clearly made for the Shad-Wyck intended to be built in the Frankfort factory in Indiana. This emblem came from the John Webster emblem collection and is an unused, new old stock emblem and is ultra rare.

This is a Shad-Wyck radiator emblem (1917-1918)     mjs
Size: 78mm wide 73mm high overall   62mm diameter center    MM: None

The Shad-Wyck emblem at the top of this post is the same design as the emblem shown above except for the lack of a reference to Frankfort, Indiana. I guess that this emblem was intended to be used for the Shad-Wyck to be built in Chicago following the Shadburne brothers departure from Frankfort. This Shad-Wyck radiator emblem is ultra rare.

This particular Shad-Wyck emblem came from the S. Ray Miller collection and had been used. The photo below shows this emblem before restoration:

This is the Shad-Wyck radiator emblem shown at the top of this post before restoration 

It is interesting to note that the Shadburne brothers had two sets of radiator emblems designed and manufactured but there is no confirmed evidence that a Shad-Wyck car was ever built. The fact that the emblem shown above had been used suggests that at least a prototype Shad-Wyck car may have been produced in Chicago, although this is not confirmed.