Page after page of dazzling chrome car ornaments from Ken Steacy's huge collection revealing the best an exuberant Detroit could offer through the mid-thirties to the late fifties.
Page twenty-seven shows famous pin-up artist George Petty working on a 1949 Nash ornament, possibly the only one in the world that had the artist's name stamped on it, page forty-one has a 1935 Hupmobile hood rocket ship straight out of a Buck Rogers thirties comic and pages sixty-four and five, with a space-age style background, with four futuristic rocket hood ornaments from a fifties Oldsmobile.
Not only hood ornaments but horn buttons, emblems and my favourite section 'Scripts' with its Imperial, Fleetside, Ultramatic, Roadmaster, Futuramic, Dynaflow and Super DeLuxe, in bright, chrome cursive-bold-italic typography.
The back pages has some interesting comments on collecting and restoring these objects, most of which were made from cheap potmetal and then plated with copper, nickel and lastly chrome. Obviously not made to last for decades though nearly every example on the author's collection looks immaculate.
All of the images just jump of the page thanks to the lovely photos taken by Rob d'Estrube and the layouts by Ken Steacy. I doubt there is a better book of Detroit's brightwork.
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