STORY OF THE ALFA CREST

[obersturm]

Hi all,

I suppose you all know that the crest has gone through some (very little) changes throughout its 115 year existence:



I was very surprised to learn that the snake/serpent it actually regurgitating or swallowing a child/man  depending on whose interpretation of the Coat of Arms of the prominent Visconti family you go by.





If the ALFA is the dragon and it is eating up children, I recon that is awesome.
Not sure if it should be on a family Wagon, though...

Are there any experts among us who know about all of it?  What is the story with the knot on early crests (Savoy knot?)?

A real conundrum, this....

[obersturm]

Hi again,

Just googled this up....

http://www.neatorama.com/2008/02/18/evolution-of-car-logos/

Surprise! Alfa Romeo, the car manufacturer and pride of Italy, traced its beginnings to France. In 1910, Milan aristocrat Cavaliere Ugo Stella collaborated with the French car company Darracq to market the line in Italy. When the partnership failed, Stella moved the company and renamed it Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili (Lombard Automobile Factory, Public Company) or A.L.F.A.

Alfa Romeo's distinctive logo was created in 1910 by a draftsman named Romano Cattaneo. One day, while waiting for a tram at the Piazza Castello station in Milan, he was inspired by the red cross in the Milan Flag and the Coat of Arms of the noble House of Visconti, which featured a biscione (grass snake) with a man in its jaws, symbolizing "Visconti's enemies that the snake [was] always ready to destroy." (Source) Two Savoia dynasty knots separated the words ALFA and MILANO.

The Romeo part came in 1916 when Neapolitan businessman Nicola Romeo bought the company and converted its factories to produce munitions and machineries for World War I. After the war, the company went back to producing cars and took on its owner's last name to become Alfa Romeo.