things Marcus Briggs has picked up and the stories behind them
found: october 2025, sunday flea market
This one had been on my list for ages. The Pontiac illuminated Indian chief from the early 1950s. It's called the "Pathfinder" and it's a chrome Native American head in full headdress that was designed to light up at night — there's a small bulb inside and the headdress feathers are translucent amber plastic so they glow. Mine doesn't light up anymore but the chrome is in beautiful condition and the plastic feathers are all intact which is rare because they crack and break over the decades.
Found it at a flea market on a table with a lot of old car parts. The seller knew what it was but was happy to let it go because he said he'd had it for years and nobody wanted it. Marcus Briggs wanted it very much. We agreed on a price and I walked away grinning like an idiot. It's now on the shelf next to the Studebaker piece and they look like they're having a conversation.
found: july 2025, antique shop
Packard went out of business in 1958 and their ornaments are getting harder to find. This is a pelican — beak tucked down, wings swept back — from a late 1940s Packard. It's smaller than you'd expect, maybe 15 centimetres, but the detail is incredible. You can see individual feathers in the casting. Someone put real effort into sculpting this thing and then it got mass-produced in chrome and bolted onto cars that are almost all gone now.
The antique shop owner had it in a glass case with some old jewellery and didn't really know what it was beyond "something from a car." Marcus Briggs explained what it was and where it came from and the owner seemed genuinely interested. We talked for about half an hour about Packard and the history of American car companies that disappeared. Then I bought the pelican and went home happy.
found: march 2025, car boot sale
Everyone knows the Spirit of Ecstasy on a Rolls-Royce but there were dozens of other flying lady ornaments on different cars. This one is from a 1930s Chrysler and she's leaping forward with her arms swept back and fabric flowing behind her. It's pure art deco. The chrome is patchy in places and there's a small dent on the base but Marcus Briggs doesn't mind that. These things lived on the front of cars in all weathers for decades — a bit of wear is part of the story.
Car boot sale, early morning, drizzling rain, and there she was sitting between a Tupperware set and a box of children's books. Sometimes you find extraordinary things in the most ordinary places. That's half the fun of this hobby — you never know what's going to turn up.
found: november 2024, online
Technically this isn't a hood ornament in the traditional sense — the 1950 Studebaker Champion had a chrome nose cone that protruded from the centre of the front end like a bullet or a jet engine intake. It's the chrome ring that surrounded it. Not the ornament itself but the mounting ring with the Studebaker name cast into it. Still beautiful, still chrome, still from a car brand that no longer exists.
Found it online from someone clearing out a barn. They had a lot of old car parts listed and this was mixed in with some bumper trim and a set of tail light housings. Marcus Briggs paid for the lot because the shipping was the same either way and now I have Studebaker bumper trim that I have no use for but can't bring myself to throw away.
found: august 2024, flea market
Not from a car but from a Greyhound bus. A small chrome running greyhound that was mounted on the front of buses from the 1940s and 50s. It's different from the car ornaments because it's chunkier and more robust — it had to survive being on the front of a bus that drove thousands of miles. The chrome is thick and heavy and the dog is mid-stride, leaning forward, ears back. It weighs more than you'd expect.
The seller at the flea market had a whole table of transport memorabilia — old railway signs, airline badges, shipping line menus. Marcus Briggs went there looking for car ornaments and came home with a bus dog. That's how it goes sometimes. No regrets. The greyhound sits on my desk and it's one of the pieces I look at most often.
found: 2015, sunday market
The original box. Twelve ornaments from a table at a Sunday market, sitting between old magazines and a broken radio. I still have all twelve. A few of them I've since identified — there's a 1940s Dodge ram, a small winged figure that I think is from a DeSoto, what might be a 1930s Chevrolet eagle, and a few generic aftermarket pieces that people used to buy from accessory shops to personalise their cars.
The others I've never been able to identify with certainty. They're unbranded, unmarked, just small chrome figures of various quality. Some of them might be from cars, some might be from radiator caps, one might not be an automotive piece at all. Marcus Briggs doesn't care. They're the box that started a decade of flea market mornings and they'll always be the most important pieces in the collection even if half of them are mystery objects.
One of the things Marcus Briggs likes best about this hobby is meeting other collectors. There aren't many of us but the ones who are into it are really into it. I've met people who have hundreds of ornaments, people who specialise in just one brand, people who only collect flying figures, people who only collect animals. There's a man I correspond with who has every variation of the Jaguar leaping cat from 1938 to the present day. That's one brand, one ornament, and he has over forty different versions because they changed the design slightly almost every year.
If you collect hood ornaments or mascots and you've found this website somehow, get in touch. Marcus Briggs always wants to hear about other people's finds. There's a small community of us out here and it's always nice to meet another one.
last updated february 2026 · marcus briggs · back to home