Triumph TR logo

> I started with the old Triumph "Open Book" logo which looked a bit like
>> an old "heater" shield.

Actually, it was never an open book, but believe it or not, the Standard-Triumph shield was a stylised representation of the truncated wings of the Wyvern of Mercia.

A Wyvern being the mythical two-legged Dragon that ruled the ancient Albion Kingdom of Mercia in Middle England with Coventry as it's capital.

(The Wyvern also appears on the door badge of all the Police cars in the Warwickshire Constabulary)

This was imparted to me many years ago by Brian Blackwell, the then historian of the Standard Motor Club who was a very knowledgable if slightly eccentric individual and owner of an Edwardian Standard Motor car!

Hope that information is of interest.

Regards

Lion F Guyot

From John Macartney:

The logo itself first appeared in the late 1940's on the Standard Vanguard saloon. Opinion seems to be divided on what it actually represents but I recall it being referred to at the factory as the *Standard Shell" design. I've heard it referred to as Griffon's Wings as well, but Vauxhall (General Motors) have used a Griffon on its logo for decades and I can't see how the Standard design applies to the Vauxhall bird. Rolls Royce also had a sort of logo for the Griffon engine which was a development of the Merlin V12. Maybe one is upside down and the person who drew it up in the first place had had a good day (or night) with some marijuana or was *high* on some other narcotic?

Jonmac

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