Terry Bond

It might help to tell us what year the car is. Big difference between brass era and later. Terry

This stuff can get interesting when trying to categorize it. Looking through my collection, songs about specific automobiles are of course a big category, but there are others like product advertising that are interesting, even if they don't depict an automobile on the cover. I've got several with gas and oil mentioned too. Some advertise specific products. Others advertise tires, lamps, horns and of course Champion spark plugs. Many of them seem to be corporate theme-songs. Here are some examples- Terry

Oh no! I've known John for years. He was a prolific writer and I always enjoyed spending time with him. This is a big loss to our forum and the old car world. Terry

I'd be interested in hearing about the OPs long search for a suitable car. This particular conversation began in 2020! Terry

I was just about to post something similar. I think there are a lot of choices but for many it boils down to plain old-fashioned quick customer service. Our local Advance is very close and convenient but there have been many times I've seen people coming into buy small off-the shelf stuff and there is nobody able to just man the cash register to take care of them quickly. I too have observed one clerk out in the parking lot installing a battery, another on a ladder rearranging some stuff on the shelves and the only other person in the store trying to look up the right fan belt for someone who doesn't know the year, make and model of their car. People just don't want to wait in line for small off-the-shelf things like a gallon of windshield washer fluid. Supermarkets and big-box hardware stores got that figured out long ago with self-checkout lines. Terry

Here are a few photos of a basic bracket. These could be made easily using brass. Polished, painted or even plated using a do-it-yoursef home kit would give it a nice finish. You cold even use stainless steel and polish it so it looks like a plated bracket. The photos will give you an idea of how they are assembled. Since you don't intend to actually mount them in a vehicle you can do away with the set screw to simplify making them. I've also added a couple of other photos showing some different styles of brackets. Photos are of items in my collection. Terry

The vase on the left is one of the most commonly seen. It should be easy to find one with its proper bracket (or two if you want a pair). The only difficulty you might have though is finding an "exact" pair with the same color shading. They were all made individually so coloring will vary. There are usually a few listed at any time on evil-bay. You should be able to find a nice for for $75 or so. A large quantity of these was discovered years ago in a Baltimore warehouse so there are plenty of them around. The vase on the right will need a different size/shape of bracket and is more difficult to find. For anyone collecting these it's well worth a visit to the Hershey swap meet. There will be plenty to choose from. This weekend I'll take some photos of different brackets so you can see how they are constructed. That might help in duplicating something that will work. Happy collecting. Terry

Was just pointing out they were not correctly identified on the listing. Terry

Typical misidentified item on evil-bay. These are not for use in an automobile. Terry

Following on to Phillips post, Bud vases were not sold in pairs. They were sold individually and if you wanted two you just bought two. It was just as common to mount a single vase at the center of the front dashboard or in the center of the front seat back. This was done in open cars. I've collected them a long time and not long ago wrote an article in the Model T Ford Club International magazine on them. It's been a popular item for a long time. I always felt that when a car changed hands in those days, a couple of things were saved - the mascots and bud vases. Brackets for them are indeed not often found separate from the vases and they were designed to fit specific sizes/styles of vases as Wayne has noted. Please add some photos of your vases and we might be able to help with some ideas on how to create your own. The vases themselves usually would have a small set screw on them that screwed into a light depression on the vase. Tightening that screw (finger tight) would prevent the vase from bouncing out of its bracket on rough roads. The vases most often had a partly covered lip at their top end to keep water from splashing out. There were however some earlier vases that had outward-flaring tops but those flares were designed to be large enough to catch any slashed water. There is a vendor in the Chocolate field at Hershey every year who sells brackets made for some of the more common varieties. They are not cheap but are nicely done. I don't have their contact information but perhaps someone here on the forum knows them. In these photos of some vases from my collection you'll see a variety of brackets. Note the set-screws to hold the vases firmly in. The Green glass vase shown in photo 7 and the blue vase in photo 8 use the opened sided spring steel clip without a set screw. Grooves are made into the glass vase itself for those brackets to grip into. Once we see photos of yours perhaps we can tell what kind of brackets might have been used. Beware - the next to last photo shows a commonly seen flower vase that is often misidentified as for an automobile. It is not. Other vases, without the dimple for a set screw, were designed for use in a table setting known as an "epergne" as shown in the very last photo. Terry

Yes, looks like another fly-by. Has not even looked at this site since posting those pics. Obviously this post needs to be moved to another forum but until we find out what the OP intends how can that happen? Probably should just be deleted to let him try again later, once he figures out why it's called a "DISCUSSION FORUM." Terry

So...tell us more?

This post gas been moved to the proper forum.

This is quite suitable for a chilly, damp night beside a warm fireplace, one hand on a glass of single malt Scotch. Oh, and put on some bagpipe music too. Years ago while living in Scotland, we were very involved with a local antique automobile club. I was helping to organize what would prove to be one of the largest antique car shows ever held there, at a historic nearby castle. One major attraction was a number of large steam traction engines. These were well-decorated "showman's engines" from the 1900s often used in traveling circus and fairground events. There were several of them that planned to attend the event. One in particular was a sort distance away and some of us had offered to help get it there. The owner had recently purchased an antique Gypsy Caravan (a highly decorated small travel trailer) to tow behind it. He had purchased it at an auction in Wales and it had quite a story. Allegedly, it was haunted. Supposedly, a Gypsy Princess had lived and traveled in it. In the early 1900s she contracted a fatal disease and died in that caravan. She was said to occasionally make appearances. Most often, the soft glow of a flickering candle flame would mysteriously appear and quickly disappear late at night. Of course if you want to sell something like that, a good story is wonderful marketing. The new owner thoroughly cleaned it, did some light restoration and made it travel-worthy once again. It retained its original character and was quite suitable when attached to that beautiful old traction engine. It would make a great addition to the show! While the big traction engine wasn't suitable for use on the roads and made its way to the show via large flat-bed trailer, I offered to help some car club friends get it separately to the show towed behind a tractor. We took the opportunity to load some club related items into the caravan like trophies, tables, chairs, and whatever we could cram in. One club member drove the tractor, while two of us rode in the old caravan to help steady the load as needed. After a few miles, we began to notice a choking stench. We looked around but couldn't find the source. We even inspected our shoes to see if perhaps we'd stepped in something around the farm while loading the caravan. We proceeded to open as many windows as we could reach, but the terrible smell got even worse. There was an unmistakable smell of something that was dead and rotting. By the time we reached the car show location we were ready to vomit. We could not get out of that wagon fast enough, and struggled for a few minutes to get our breath. We did not want to go near it and quickly passed the unloading duties along to some other club members. We warned them, but after a few minutes of airing out, one of the volunteers opened the door and took one step inside. "Ah - here's your problem" he shouted, pointed to a well-dead, decomposing raven right on the floor in plain sight. Odd we'd looked hard for the source of that stench but could not find it. Surely we could not have overlooked something like that right in plain sight! Eventually, the air cleared up and the caravan got unloaded. When we told the owner about what had happened, he took us to the rear of the caravan to show us one spot on the large beveled glass window at the rear where the Gypsy Princess had died in her bed nearby. There were a lot of random scratches on the inside of that glass window, allegedly made by a large diamond ring she wore s she was dying in agony. The owner simply said "there are more scratches there now than when I bought it." A short time later he sold the caravan. When asked why he had sold it so soon after acquiring it, he simply said " he did not like it." Terry

Denatured alcohol will do it. Any greasy film remaining will come off with regular window cleaner. Yerry