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Description:
Beautifully engraved certificate from the Templar Motors Corporation issued in 1919. This historic document has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an eagle. This item is hand signed by the Company’s President (M. F. Bramley) and Secretary and is over 83 years old.
Certificate Vignette Templar Motors was formed by a group of Clevelend investors in 1916, with production starting the following year. Management took the name Templar from a military order founded in Jerusalem by the crusaders about 1118. It chose the Maltese cross as the car's emblem. The corporation's main building, a three-story brick, concrete and steel structure with 300,000 square feet of floor space, still stands at 13000 Athens Ave. It now houses 16 tenants, the largest of which is Lake Erie Screw Products Co. In 1917 a factory consisting of three frame buildings was erected at Halstead and Plover Streets, Lakewood at a cost of $2.5 million. Plant capacity was 5,000 cars a year, though production was never in excess of a third of that. Actually, total output during Templar's short span on the market was only 6,000 units. The first car was completed and displayed in July 1917. A. M. Dean, chief engineer, announced in the trade press that the plant would soon be ready for quantity production. However, with the United States at war, the plant was given over almost entirely to war work, making 155 mm. shells. Nearly 1,000 persons were employed in the munitions operation. Meanwhile, with only token production of automobiles, the organizing of sales and other personnel moved ahead to be ready for full production when the war would end. Save for its engine, the Templar was an assembled car; the engine being of original design and turned out in the company's own shops. It had four cylinders (3 3/8-inch bore, 5 1/2-inch stroke) with 197-cubic inch displacement and developed 43 horsepower at 2100 rpm. Its overhead valves led the engine to be called the "Templar Vitalic Top-Valve Motor." The valves were enclosed in an aluminum case. An article in Horseless Age said: "It was this remarkable motor that inspired the Templar ideals and enterprise." The engine was said to be smooth running despite its having only the four cylinders and was held to be more efficient than the engines in most American cars of that day. The power was transmitted through open Hotchkiss drive, not through a torque tube as on most American cars. The wheelbase measured 118 inches. The springs were semi-elliptical. The rear axle was the semi-floating type. The initial models included four- and five-passenger touring cars priced at $1,985, the four-passenger Victoria elite at $2,155, and a two-passenger roadster at $2,255—all built on the same chassis. The bodies were given twenty-seven coats of paint. Standard color options were Valentine red, Tiffany bronze, light wine and Allegheny blue, with fenders, chassis, and splashguards in black enamel. Wheels were natural finish woods. Striping and monograms or initials were extra. In addition to the standard body styles, the company announced it would furnish estimates on special enclosed bodies, built to individual specifications under Templar supervision in the shops of Cleveland specialists Lang or Rubay. One of the features of the Templar was its array of equipment—a host of accessories, which, if available at all, were "extras" on most cars. Probably the most unique of these were a folding Kodak camera and a compass, which could be neatly tucked away in their own single compartment in the side of the Templar's body. With the five-passenger touring and the four-passenger sportette, additional standard equipment included an inspection light and cord (powered from the car's battery), an electric horn, a tire pump and hose which operated from the engine, a tire pressure gauge, a clinometer (grade indicator), a muffler cutout, a keyless rim-winding clock, a spotlight, a dash light, a lock on the ignition switch, a motometer, a windshield cleaner (oscillating wiper), a one-man Never-Leek top with side curtains that opened with the doors, and a plate-glass rear window, plus a complete tool kit with jacks. The car came with a spare wheel rim, but in spite of all the other equipment, without a fifth tire. The new Templar was exhibited at the automobile shows in New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and Cleveland in early 1918. Later in the year the price for either of the above-described five-passenger touring and four-passenger sportette models was raised $100 to $2,085. For the two-passenger touring roadster, the price was increased $130 to $2,385. Templar adopted the slogan. "The Superfine Small Car." A 1918 ad for the two-passenger sport roadster said in part: "Those men of affairs, who like to do their own driving, are extravagant in their praise of this superlatively high-grade car. It is as serviceable as its originality is distinctive. It gives that complete satisfaction formerly associated with the extravagantly priced, cumbersomely built big machines. And its small size makes it a car of much greater convenience. There is no previous standard of design, or agile, economical performance by which to compare it." It was that model, the two-passenger roadster, which was considered the standout of the Templar line. Its standard equipment included the camera, the compass, and an aluminum step (in place of a running board) on either side. Also included were six wire wheels, all with tires and tubes, the two spares being stored in a rear deck well. Standard color options were the same as on the other models, plus khaki gray, and the fenders, chassis, and splashguards were painted the same color as the body. Upholstery options included red or black leather; the wire wheels were available in red, white, or black, the latter being furnished unless one of the others was specified. Added to the line was a
| Status: For Sale |
Reference#: temmotcor |
| Condition:
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Year:
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