Ian Cooling - Jaguar Automobilia Column

Ian Cooling first began collecting Jaguar automobilia as a schoolboy in the 1950s, when Jaguars were winning everything in sight. A little later came the cars themselves – and then he was hooked! His automobilia collection eventually reached back to the early Swallow Sidecar days in the 1920s. En route, he was commissioned to write his book, Jaguar Collectibles. Then, like many collectors, he moved into dealing, buying and selling by mail order. Today, he is not only a well-known dealer in the Jaguar collectibles market, but he also runs a Jaguar automobilia auction once or twice a year. 
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Some of Ian's Articles:  Jaguar Automobilia

Jaguar Leapers... Frederick Gordon Crosby’s Mascot Bounds into history.
​Issue 20 Jan/Feb 2022

Frederick Gordon Crosby’s leaping Jaguar is one of the most instantly recognizable motoring symbols in the world. 
 The Jaguar line of cars was launched by SS Cars in 1935, but the brochures and other sales literature for model year 1935/36 did not feature the feline. The catalyst for SS Cars adopting a mascot may have been the sight of a Desmo mascot on the radiator cap of a car in the Foleshill works in central England, probably sometime in late 1937 or early 1938. The stories vary, but either Bill Rankin, SS Cars marketing chief, or William Lyons himself saw the mascot and described it as a “cat shot off a fence.” Rankin was told to arrange a Jaguar mascot of their own.