ANSTED

Ansted Engineering Co. (1921, 1926)

Connersville, Indiana

This is an Ansted engine serial plate (unknown date)      mjs

In the early 1900's E W Ansted was a manufacturer of buggy springs but quickly moved to the manufacture of springs for automobiles. 

Ansted took his business to Connersville, Indiana, where he became an important business leader with interests in many industrial activities, including the manufacture of lamps and bodies for automobiles. The Ansted Engineering Company was also making automobile engines. It was a logical step for Ansted to manufacture complete automobiles.

In 1913 Ansted bought the Lexington Motor Car Company and made an agreement to produced the Howard Six automobile (see Howard) at the same plant used to build the Lexington (see Lexington). On two occasions cars were made using the Ansted name. 

In 1921, Ansted offered a special Ansted-Lexington Roadster mounted on a Series T Lexington chassis  with a new Ansted radiator, emblem and hubcaps, and luxurious custom made interior trim and accessories. The body was hand-hammered aluminum over a seasoned ash frame with the interior finished in natural wood and wicker, including a walnut dash and an inlaid hardwood parquet floor. Very few of these Ansted-Lexington Custom Built Roadsters were built. 

Later, in 1926, some Lexington cars were re-badged with Ansted emblems for sale in Chicago by the Ansted agency located in that city.

Emblems

I well remember one of the most exciting times in emblem collecting for my son, Murray, when, looking at some emblems for sale, I saw an emblem with two entwined letters "DD" finished in green enamel, see photo below:

This is the entwined "DD" emblem I found

I knew that the French Darracq car had emblems with the entwined letters "DD" but this was not a Darracq emblem. However, the shape of the emblem reminded me of a Lexington emblem, see example shown below:

This is a Lexington radiator emblem

Turning the "DD" emblem over, revealed the exciting find shown below.

Under the dirt was the front of a nickel plated radiator emblem from one of the very few Ansted-Lexington Custom-Built Roasters built in 1921. This Ansted radiator emblem is ultra rare.

Ansted-Lexington Custom Built Roadster radiator emblem (1921)  mjs
Size: 97mm wide 48mm high    MM: Unknown

It appears that an Ansted-Lexington Custom-Built Roadster was ordered by someone with the initial "D" or initials "DD" but, rather than use the Ansted-Lexington radiator emblem, the buyer wanted to have his own monogram on the automobile. To achieve this, an Ansted-Lexington emblem was turned over and had the entwined "DD" monogram design finished in green enamel on the reverse side of the emblem, which was then attached to the radiator. 

I have not seen the Ansted radiator emblem reportedly used on some Lexington cars sold in Chicago in 1926. If you have details of this or any other Ansted emblems, please let me know in order to update this post.