SPHINX

Sphinx Motor Car Co. (1915-1916)
York, Pennsylvania

This is a Sphinx nameplate/serial plate (1915)     mjs
Size: 55mm wide 29mm high   

The Sphinx Motor Car Company was established in September 1914 and the first Sphinx car appeared in 1915. The Sphinx was a 18 hp four-cylinder car offered as a five-passenger touring or a two-passenger roadster. A 17 hp four-cylinder 1/2-ton truck was was also offered in 1915.

In July 1915 it was announced that the Sphinx venture was to be reorganized as the Du Pont Motor Car Company and the specification for the new Du Pont was exactly the same as the Sphinx but it is not known if any cars were ever marketed as the Du Pont at that time. However in 1916 the car was still called the Sphinx but it was all over by the end of 1916. Total Sphinx production was 123 cars for 1915 and 228 cars for 1916.

Emblems

Sphinx advertisements show a logo which consists of the sphinx and two small pyramids and the name "SPHINX" forming a triangular shape overall, see example shown below:

This is a Sphinx ad (1915)   ms

The same logo is also shown on the Sphinx brochure, see illustration below:

This is a Sphinx brochure illustration (1915)  

The Sphinx logo is shown below:

This is the Sphinx logo

The Sphinx motor car carried a relatively large triangular radiator emblem, which was based on the Sphinx logo shown above. However, available photos of Sphinx cars do not show the Sphinx radiator with any detailed clarity and the only surviving Sphinx car has a made up radiator emblem only loosely based on the original emblem, see photos shown below:

This is a Sphinx showing a radiator emblem (1915)  yhs

Close-up showing Sphinx radiator emblem (1915)

The original Sphinx radiator emblem on this surviving Sphinx car has been lost and a crude made up reproduction put in its place during restoration, see below:

This is a made up reproduction Sphinx emblem   yim

The original Sphinx radiator emblem may still exist somewhere. If you have better details or a photo of the original Sphinx radiator emblem, please let me know, in order to update this post. An original Sphinx radiator emblem would be extremely rare and possibly ultra rare.

The Sphinx also displayed the "Sphinx" name on a small maker's nameplate/serial plate, see example shown above at the top of this post. This Sphinx nameplate/serial plate is very rare.