There was a thread a while ago about the origins of the MG badge and
particularly the Octogon. As I remember the when and the where were
established but not the who or the why.
Well, this months MGOC mag has an article on the very subject, taken from a
1981 interview for Classic Cars. Briefly, a chap called Edmund (Ted) John
Frank Lee was born in Oxford and knew Cecil Kimber, who offered him a job
with Morris Garages. In 1924 Kimber introduced what is described as a "13.9
Oxford-based M.G. vee-front saloon". The article speculates that he may have
been inspired to use the initials by AC, a firm he worked for between 1916
and 1918 (shades of the Bugatti badge). The May 1924 issue of The Morris
Owner carried a full-page illustrated advertisement for what was described as
"the MG (for Morris Garages) Super Sports Morris". No dots, and the intials
were presented, for the first time, within an octagonal outline that had been
designed for Kimber by Ted Lee. Apparently Ted had seen the initals used and
drew the outline on his own initiative. Kimber liked it, presented it to
William Morris who declared it was the best thing to come into the company,
adding "it will never go out of it". Ted said he was inspired by nothing
more than the angular designs that were popular in the ninteen-twenties,
"known today as Art Deco". Ted worked for MG and the parent company in its
various guises until his retirement in 1961.
As a footnote, I have often been confused between Art Deco and Art Noveau,
but thought Art Deco was the colourful, irregular style popularised by Claris
Cliff (amongst others), which was a reaction against the previous angular Art
Noveau style. Yesterday I saw an antiques program that included objects from
an Art Deco market, and sure enough, there was the Claris Cliff style. Just
to confuse things though, there was also an octagonal teapot!
PaulH.
|