Does anyone know if there’s any significance behind the stretched-out Gompertz curve-like symbol often seen on hearses in the United States? Does it have a formal name? You’ve seen it before – it’s the curve with the balls at the ends and midpoint. Here’s some examples …
I believe the design is called a “landau”. It mimics the design of the hinge used on the two piece covers used on old-fashioned four-wheeled carriages made in the German town of the same name. Perhaps those carriages were typically used as hearses and the design was simply carried on by tradition.
The Landau is a kind of hinge that was used on convertible car tops for many years. As said, it comes from the use of said hinge on elegant horse-drawn coaches. I don’t believe the line goes from the horse-drawn coaches direct to hearses, but rather via the older elegant convertibles of times past. Horse-drawn hearses don’t seem to have these “Landau irons” ever, and I can’t recall ever having seen a convertible hearse that was either horse-drawn or motor dirven. So how this piece of equipment got from convertibles to hard topped hearses is still a mystery (at this point).
Slight hijack: British S.Dopers: Do your funeral directors still wear stovepipe hats with a black scarf?
My Uncles do when conducting funerals, they used to use a horse drawn carrage too (and horse) but when the most recent horse died they didn’t replace it and do now use a hearse.
I can’t speak for all, but a lot (in my experience) of others still wear them as well.