And boy, it's been a while since Peugeot is represented by a lion. Today, where iconography plays a fundamental role in the world of communication, recognizing a brand by the object that represents it means that the public has that brand in mind and knows what it means.
Talk about the mark of the lion, the oval, the rhombus, etc. means to talk about Peugeot, Ford and Renault. But it is not necessary to mention the brand, just mentioning the icons that represent them is enough. That is why Peugeot today has reason to celebrate 150 years since the adoption of the lion as the brand's shield. In those years Peugeot did not make cars, but made tools. From that moment on, the animal was never separated from the brothers Jules and Emile Peugeot, accompanying them in a very extensive history full of successes.
Then I leave the official statement with the details of this story.
On November 20, 1958, Emile PEUGEOT notarized the emblem of his brand, representing a Lion with or without an arrow.
Today, the Lion is universally recognized as the emblem of PEUGEOT products, distributed in more than 150 countries.
The origin of the Lion Jules and Emile PEUGEOT, founders of the Peugeot Frères company, commissioned Julien BLAZER, a goldsmith and engraver from the Franche-Comté region, to create a logo to identify PEUGEOT brand products. The Lion was immediately placed on saws and laminated cutting tools. The choice of this animal was due to the comparison with the PEUGEOT saws that were already famous for the same characteristics that define them today: – the resistance of the teeth like those of a lion – the flexibility of the blade, in imitation of the flexibility of the lion's spine – the cutting speed, in the image of the lion when it jumps.
Over time, the graphics of the Lion evolved; with a majestic profile and walking on an arrow, in its beginnings it was oriented to the left but later we will find it without an arrow or, more rarely, oriented to the right. In 1882, the upper part of the Lion's mane was modified and the body appears somewhat more massive.
Quickly becoming the only PEUGEOT brand symbol, the Lion has adorned, since 1881, in addition to saws and other tools, coffee grinders whose production had begun in 1840, since 1882, bicycles and, from 1898, motorcycles.
The Leon enters the history of the automobile
Although the first production car, the Type 3, by Armand PEUGEOT dates from 1891, the Lion on an arrow did not adorn the brand's cars until 1906. Thus, the Lion accompanies what is one of the three world's leading car brands almost since its debut. In 1910, the two entities, PEUGEOT Frères and Armand PEUGEOT merged to become the PEUGEOT Automobile and Bicycle Company; The two ranges coexisted until the First World War and the last car of this period to have the lion on the front was the BéBé León, conceived by
Ettore Bugatti and presented at the Paris Salon in October 1912.
Subsequent vehicles were content to carry, at the top of the grille, the name of the brand in an old-fashioned script located within an oval space that, in some models, was combined with another script of the brand on the radiator, either directly glued on it or inside a shield (from model 201). In the 20s, the Lion became a symbol that united the "Peugeotistas" who used it as an ornament on their radiator caps. Through the network of distributors of the brand, two types of radiator caps were marketed with the
Lion as the protagonist, one, roaring, by the sculptor Marx and the other, ready to jump, by Baudichon.
For their part, bicycles and motorcycles adopted the Lion on the arrow on a background of a spoked wheel; later a Fighting Lion turned to the right in the 20s and, finally, the same but with the mark in wooden letters in 1960. For tools and household appliances, the Lion was chosen over the arrow within a shield or, in the case of coffee grinders, inside an oval plate.
The León jumps definitively to the front of the Peugeot
Starting in October 1933, with the launch of the so-called "streamline" for the global 201, 301, 601 range with the first 6-cylinder, a Lion's head made its first appearance at the top of the grilles. The 401 arrived in October 1934 for the Paris Motor Show. The idea was taken up again with the famous “fuseau Sochaux” line in the 402 (1935) and later in the 302 and a little later in the 202 in 1938.
guise of figurehead. A new bonnet lion was used on the 403 which was developed in 1955, a car that will surpass the symbolic threshold of one million units. Both ornaments, deemed dangerous in the event of a crash, disappeared in September 1958.
The Lion strikes a pose… heraldry!
With 203, the heraldic Lion appeared for the first time, emblem of the Franche-Comte and the Duchy of Montbéliard.
It was installed on the trunk hood of the 203 until October 1952 and then migrated to the front hood in September 1958 until the model was discontinued in February 1960. During that same period, the Heraldic Lion was also featured on all PEUGEOT Motorcycles products. .
That same Leon would be placed inside a small shield in the center of the 403 grille from April 1955 until 1966 before being replaced by a larger model released by the 404, signed by Pininfarina in May 1960. In the 60s, all the brand's models adopted this shield.
A new version with an already frameless Leon (gold or chrome) first debuted in September 1968 on the 504 before being immediately adopted on the 404, 204, 304 and 104.
Another generation, the 604 “hollow wire” Leon, launched in September 1975 would later be declined in the 305 (November 1977) and 505 (May 1979) before being presented on a black background in 1982 on the 205 and up. 1993 in the 306.
The Lion successfully consolidates
One of the features of the 406, launched in October 1995, was its thicker-lined Leon which was quickly adapted by all "6" generation models. It was the precedent of the contemporary Leon which, with its more stylized shapes and angular lines, adorns the front and rear of PEUGEOT cars and scooters. In the year 2000, the Aventure Peugeot association, to highlight its heritage vocation, placed the Lion on a shield bordered by a yellow border and a blue background, similar to the one that characterized the brand in other times.
Peugeot Sport and the concept cars of the style center, for their part, recover the profile lion of the 403 to underline the dynamism and aesthetics of the cars they present.
Today, the notoriety of the Lion is universal and its image is perfectly associated with the PEUGEOT name.