Birthday shopping? What do you get for someone who has everything? How about a custom bronze mascot for the bonnet of their car!
It has been a big few weeks for Queen Elizabeth.
Fresh from celebrating her Platinum Jubilee as the longest-serving British monarch, it’s now time to celebrate the Queen’s Birthday, which isn’t actually the Queen’s birthday (it’s on April 21).
Should you be thinking of a gift for ‘Liz, or perhaps your next-favourite royal, why not consider a bronze mascot to fit on the bonnet of their car?
Recent footage has shown the Queen driving about the Sandringham Estate in a third-generation L322 Range Rover with a Labrador motif affixed to the middle of the bonnet.
Furthermore, we saw a Ford Escort once owned by Princess Diana head to auction last year, with a leaping frog on its hood, and the Queen’s Bentley State Limousine has done away with a pedestrian ‘Flying B’ on the grille, replaced with a statuette of Saint George slaying a dragon.
These mascots are a bit of a ‘thing’ for the royal family, but they are all created and supplied by an English company, Lejeune, that has been crafting them for over 100 years.
These ornaments rose in popularity with the advent of car ownership in the early twentieth century and by 1929 the family-run business was known as the world’s largest motor car mascot manufacturer.
Today, as well as supplying HRH, Lejeune offers a range of bronze animals and figurines for ornamental display, or for use as trophies and awards, and, of course, to mount onto your car.
Choose from a myriad of dogs, horses, and ‘safari’ animals, as well as mythical beasts like dragons, unicorns and a ‘pigasus’.
Mercedes-Benz owners could (it was a limited production item) even swap the three-pointed star for a nude figure for the ultimate in ah… questionable taste.
Bonnet ornaments waned in popularity as safety rules made it harder for manufacturers to include items that would either obscure the driver’s vision or skewer a passing pedestrian, with brands like Rolls-Royce forced to engineer a mascot that would ‘collapse’ in an impact.
Although, you can order an authentic Jaguar ‘Leaper’ for your XF, which I wouldn’t recommend standing in front of.
Lejeune has this covered though, with a list of UK rules as to where and how you can mount your favourite Irish Setter or standing otter (yes, really) included on the website.
Australian rules are a little less clear, with specific information a little challenging to find, except in Western Australia where the transport rules state:
Your car must not have: any ornament or fitting which may cause injury in a crash; or any toy or mascot attached to any part of the vehicle that may obstruct the driver’s view or cause distraction.
Assuming then, it’s not positioned in your way and won't cause injury (at least, no more than say a bulbar) in an accident, then taste aside, you should be OK.
Maybe check before you order a bronzed ‘Speed Nymph’ for the RAV4 though.
Lejeune hand make all their orders to individual specification and will ship internationally. Prices vary, but a standard chrome-plated dog is around £300 (AU$530).
So if your Range Rover needs a tad of ‘Lizzing up’ this Queen’s Birthday, you know where to shop to give it the final Royal touch.
James has been part of the digital publishing landscape in Australia since 2002 and has worked within the automotive industry since 2007. He joined CarAdvice in 2013, left in 2017 to work with BMW and then returned at the end of 2019 to spearhead the content direction of Drive.
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Copyright Drive.com.au 2022ABN: 84 116 608 158
Copyright Drive.com.au 2022ABN: 84 116 608 158
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