ROYAL TOURIST

Royal Motor Car Co. (1904-1906)

Royal Motor Car & Manufacturing Co. (1906-1908)

Royal Tourist Car Co. (1908-1911)

Consolidated Motor Car Co. (1911)

Cleveland, Ohio

This is a Royal Tourist radiator emblem (1908-1911)    ms
Size: Unknown 

The Royal Motor Car Company was established in late 1903 for the production of the Royal Tourist automobile. The first two-cylinder 18/20 hp Royal Tourist was introduced at the New York Automobile Show in January 1904 and a four-cylinder 32/35 hp model appeared shortly after.

The Royal Tourist was a big, attractive looking automobile and kept its body shape almost without change throughout its life. The Royal Tourist was well received and sales were initially good. The company was reorganized as the Royal Motor Car & Manufacturing Company in late 1906 with an increase in capital stock and a year later moved into a large new manufacturing plant.

A new six-cylinder model was planned for introduction in 1908 but this did not happen. The company suffered financial problems, went into receivership and was reorganized as the Royal Tourist Car Company in October 1908. In March 1911, Royal Tourist and Croxton, also based in Cleveland, merged to form the Consolidated Motor Car Company. But, this did not work and it was all over later in 1911 

Emblems

The first Royal Tourist cars did not carry a radiator emblem but most likely had a small maker's plate attached to the body.

The first indication of a Royal Tourist emblem is seen on original period photos from 1906, see example shown below:

Royal Tourist showing rad emblem (1906)  dpl

This same small rectangular radiator emblem is also shown on the 1906 Royal Tourist Manual, see below:

This is a Royal Tourist Manual showing a radiator emblem (1906)   ms

Close up showing the radiator emblem (1906)   ms

I have not seen this emblem in detail. It may be a radiator manufacturer's emblem but, given that this illustration is on a Royal Tourist manual cover, it is more likely to be a small brass Royal Tourist nameplate. If you have a photo of this radiator emblem, please let me have a copy in order to update this post. This Royal Tourist radiator emblem would be extremely rare.

Some Royal Tourist models also displayed a small brass "Royal Tourist" script attached to the radiator core from about 1906, see example below. Original Royal Tourist radiator scripts are very rare.

This is a Royal Tourist radiator script (c1906-1911)     sam
Size: 105mm wide  50mm high

The small rectangular radiator emblem is seen on original period photos of Royal Tourist cars up to 1907 but there was a change in the Royal Tourist radiator emblem from 1908, see original 1908 Royal Tourist trade show photo shown below:

Royal Tourist showing new radiator emblem (1908)   dpl

The same radiator emblem is seen in the original 1909 Royal Tourist photo shown below: 

Royal Tourist showing rad emblem (1909)  vintagecarcatalog

This is the brass Royal Tourist radiator emblem shown above at the top of this post and again below. It is believed that this Royal Tourist radiator emblem continued in us to the end of production.  This Royal Tourist radiator emblem is extremely rare.

This is a Royal Tourist radiator emblem (1908-1911)   ms
Size: Unknown 

The Royal Tourist also displayed the "Royal Tourist" name on the sill plates, see example below:

This is a Royal Tourist sill plate (c1908)     alt
Size: 250mm wide 37mm high