Posted by Henry Payne (The Detroit News) on Sat, Aug 15, 2009 at 9:38 PM
Ornaments
The cruise is in the details. Two great hood ornaments: one obscure, one famous.
On the left, the ornament of an all but forgotten brand, the AMC Marlin.
On the right, a hood ornament known to all. But do you know how the famous Rolls Royce "Spirit of Ecstasy" came to be?
Designed by Charles Robinson Sykes in 1911, the ornament was sculpted after model Eleanor Thornton, the secret lover of John Walter Scott, a pioneer of the automobile in England. Scott was married and Thornton was his secretary, a secret known to a small circle of his friends. As a result, the ornament is also known as "The Whisper."
Royce himself always hated the ornament and called it a useless bauble. It became his habit to rarely drive a Rolls with the mascot in place.
