Although each brand featured in that post had a distinctive grille ensemble, the areas in question were never large (often just the upper part of the frame), rendering differences subtle in most cases.
The present post presents some designs that offered more distinction than usual, making brand identification somewhat easier for the casual viewer. Also, I've expanded the time frame to a few years on either side of 1927 so as to include some interesting examples.
Marmon was a luxury automobile maker, but late-1920s grilles lacked distinction. Here we find a rather heavy frame rounded at the top with a touch of sculpting and a brand medallion. This is typical of the times for American cars.
Packard was America's leading upscale brand in those days. The shaping of the upper part of the frame is more sculptural than Marmon's, but in itself nothing very special. Yet Packards were easy identify. Why? Because that grille frame design (with detail variations) was used on Packards for almost all of the firm's existence. Consistency was a virtue.
Buick's upper frame was superficially similar to Packard's, but not used as consistently as Packard. Most grilles had horizontal lower framing, but Buick's is more shapely.
Even more shapely was Oldsmobile's grille frame.
Chandler, on the other hand, made its grilles distinctive by adding chrome vertical bars.
Durant picked up on Chandler's idea and added a horizontal bar for good measure. Chandlers and Durants were easy to identify.
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