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March 22, 2020

WINDSOR

Moon Motor Car Co. (1929-1930)

Windsor Corp.

St. Louis, Missouri


This is the first Windsor radiator emblem (1929)     mjs
Size: 59mm high 50mm wide  MM: Unknown (likely D L Auld)

The Moon Motor Car Company (see Moon) was already in trouble when it set up a subsidiary, called the Windsor Corporation, to take over the production and sales of the new Windsor line from 1929. Initially, the new car was to be called the White Prince of Windsor (see White Prince) with pictures of HRH the Prince of Wales and the fleur-de-lis included in the advertising, see marketing leaflet shown below:

The White Prince of Windsor (c1929)  cbc

When Buckingham Palace in London objected to this, the emphasis was put onto "Windsor" and the first eight-cylinder models introduced in January 1929 were presented as "Windsor" White Prince models and the fleur-de-lis emblem was retained, see marketing leaflet shown below:

Windsor..White Prince Models (c1929)   cbc

However, this was also objected to and, later in 1929, the decision was made to drop the connection with the Prince of Wales.

The Windsor was a smart looking automobile and Moon used "America's Smartest Motor Car" as their slogan. The Windsor was available in a variety of body styles powered either by an 88 hp straight-eight engine or a 66 hp six-cylinder engine. From April 1929 the Moon Motor Car Company built only the Windsor, production of which was discontinued in 1930, following a disastrous deal with New Era Motors, Inc. to build the Ruxton (see Ruxton).

Emblems

The black, white, blue and gold enamel Windsor radiator emblem shown above at the top of this post and again below has gold colored jewels on the crown and is believed to have been the first Windsor radiator emblem, as it uses exactly the same design and colors as the "White Prince" radiator emblem. This Windsor radiator emblem is very rare. 

This is the first Windsor radiator emblem (1929)    mjs
Size: 59mm high 50mm wide 
 MM: Unknown (likely D L Auld)

The Windsor radiator emblem shown below has the same design as the Windsor emblem shown above but has red colored jewels in place of gold jewels on the crown. This Windsor radiator emblem is rare. It is possible that these radiator emblems were used on different Windsor models but I cannot confirm this.

This is a variety of the Windsor radiator emblem with red jewels (1929)    mjs
Size: 59mm high 50mm wide   MM: Unknown (poss D L Auld)

Following objections from the British Royal household, a new Windsor radiator emblem design was developed by Moon engineer Al Korte, see his preliminary rendering shown below:

Korte's Windsor emblem rendering  cbc

The Korte emblem design was approved and the emblem was changed to the black, white and green enamel Windsor radiator emblem shown below. This Windsor radiator emblem is scarce.

This is the final version of the Windsor radiator emblem (1929-1930)     mjs
Size: 59mm high 50mm wide    MM: Unknown (poss D L Auld)





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