JEWELL/JEWEL

Forest City Motor Car Co. (1906-1908)

Jewel Motor Car Co. (1909)

Massillon, Ohio

This is a Jewel Model B dash script (1907)     bonhams

The Forest City Motor Car Company from Cleveland came up with a prototype motor car and found investors in Massillon, Ohio. They called their car the Jewell. It was an 8 hp single-cylinder highwheeler runabout with rope drive. The seat and rear deck were hinged so the body could be tilted up for ease of maintenance. 

But, the Jewell was not popular, so Forest City changed the name to Jewel in 1907 and in 1908 a 40 hp four-cylinder standard touring model was added to the line of single-cylinder highwheelers.

Early in 1909 the company name was changed to the Jewel Motor Car Company. But later in 1909 the company changed completely. Herbert A. Croxton became president and was joined by Forrest M. Keeton.  A line of 20/30 hp four-cylinder Jewel-Keeton models was offered in 1909 alongside a range of 40 hp four-cylinder Jewel models. 

The company was reorganized later in 1909 as the Croxton-Keeton Motor Company to produce a new car called the Croxton-Keeton (see Croxton-Keeton).

Emblems

The following Jewell advertisement from 1906 shows what appears to be a flowing Jewell logo:

This is a Jewell ad showing a logo (1906)   ms

It is most likely that the Jewell highwheeler did not have an emblem but would have displayed the Jewell name on a small maker's nameplate/serial plate attached to the rear of the vehicle, as was the case for the subsequent Jewel highwheeler. An original Jewell nameplate would be extremely rare.

The following "Jewell" emblems do not follow the style of the logo shown above and are likely to be too large to have been used on the 1906 Jewell highwheeler motor car: 

This is an unknown Jewell emblem (dates unknown)     mjs
Size: 302mm wide 58mm high    MM: None

This is an unknown Jewell emblem (dates unknown)     dkc
Size: 285mm wide   MM: Unknown

If you can identify these Jewell emblems, please let me know, in order to update this post.

The following advertisement for the Jewel highwheeler in 1907 shows a new logo:

This is a Jewel ad showing the logo (1907)    ms

The Jewel highwheeler nameplate/serial plate shown below follows the shape of the logo seen above but without the sparkling jewels. Original Jewel nameplates are very rare.

This is a Jewel nameplate/serial plate (1907)     sam

Some Jewel cars displayed a brass script attached to the leather cover on the outside of the dash, see example shown above at the top of this post.

The Jewel name was also displayed on brass radiator scripts on some four-cylinder models, see original photo below of a Jewel Model 40 taking part in the 1909 Glidden Tour:

This shows a Jewel 40 radiator script (1909)     ms 

The "Jewel" name is also found on a small painted brass Jewel name plate, see example shown below:

This is a Jewel nameplate (c1909)    ms
Size: 82mm wide 30mm high

The Jewel name was also displayed on the step plates, see example below, which does not follow the logo style but does have sparkling jewels in the name:

This is a Jewel step plate (1908)    ms

The following Jewel emblem uses a different "Jewel" script style and is as yet unidentified:

This is an unidentified Jewel emblem (date unknown)     sam
Size: 48mm wide 33mm high