POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

FE or FC Holden lion logo car badge

Object No. 2005/67/2

This car badge is one of a collection of twelve badges which are representative of the top three Australian car manufacturers between 1960 and 1980, General Motors Holden Australia, Ford Australia and Chrysler Australia Ltd. The badge features the Holden lion logo from an FE or FC Holden dating from 1956 to 1960. The first Holden emblem was a life-size wooden horse which stood above the entrance of the Holden & Frost saddlery works in Adelaide. When the firm became Holden's Motor Body Builders they used a large engraved brass plate to put on their vehicles, the foreground of which featured a figure representing industry with a background of factory buildings. This design was too complicated to be embossed onto a small plate so a new emblem was needed. The image decided upon was the 'Wembley Lion' on the medallion of the Wembley Motor Exhibition held in London in 1924. The lion was the symbol of the exhibition depicted in an Egyptian style. Interest and popularity of Egyptian antiquity at the time influenced everything from clothes to furniture and film. According to a fable, the principal for the wheel was suggested to primitive man when observing the lion rolling a stone. Several sketches of the lion were made and it was decided to go ahead with the design. George Rayner Hoff, one of Australia's leading sculptors, was commissioned to develop the design in the solid. From a plaster model, small metal replicas were produced for nameplates. These were fixed to all bodies built from 1928 till 1939 on the lower near side of the cowl. The design was also adopted as a trademark in all Holden advertising. The Holden lion also became the emblem for the first Australian GM car, the Holden. Although updated in 1972 and again in 1994, this symbol was subsequently used on all Holden cars. Over the 20 year period (1960-1980) the three companies, Holden, Chrysler and Ford, vied for supremacy of the six cylinder four door family car market. Local car manufacturing was at a peak during this period heralded by Holden who by 1958 held over 50 percent of the local market share. Slowly the share became more divided with the companies watching and competing against each other. The badges also illustrate and represent the emergence of locally-made cars in Australia motor sport of the period associated with names such as Monaro and Torana where a win at Bathurst was associated with increased car sales. Furthermore names such as Kingswood and Premier are part of the cultural identity of Australians and their cars. The badges also show an interesting development of graphic design with the change in printing and lettering styles over the 20 year period as well as material construction from chrome to plastic. Margaret Simpson, 2005 Curator, Science and Industry