Standard Vanguard

 Do you recall the Unidentified Driving Object that we posted a couple of years ago, in one of Aidan O'Neill's station wagon photos from Québec in the 1950s?

After considerable  trawling, and some advice from experts ("British, 1948-52?" we've decided it's 1948 or '49 Standard Vanguard. These were produced by the Standard Motor Company in Coventry from 1948 to 1963 and exported across the Commonwealth-- e.g. Canada- and into other markets as well.

From motor-car.net: "The car was announced in July 1947. It was completely new with no resemblance to the previous models, and was Standard's first post-Second World War car. It was also the first model to carry the new Standard badge, which was a heavily stylised representation of the wings of a Griffin.

"In the wake of the Second World War many potential customers in the UK and in English-speaking export markets had recently experienced several years of military or naval service, therefore a car name related to the British Navy carried a greater resonance than it would for later generations. The name of the Standard Vanguard recalled HMS Vanguard, the last of the British Navy's battleships, launched in 1944 amid much media attention: permission to use the name involved Standard in extensive negotiations with senior Royal Navy personnel.

"The styling of the car resembled the pre-war Plymouth with a sloping 'beetle-back.' Russian media claimed that styling of this car had been in part influenced by Russian GAZ-M20 Pobeda, which had been in development from 1943 and went into production in 1946. In 1952 The Motor magazine stated that the Soviet Pobeda 'shows a certain exterior resemblance to the Standard Vanguard', disregarding the fact that the Pobeda had been  launched a year before the Vanguard. In Scandinavia, Standard marketed the Standard Ten saloon as the 'Vanguard Junior'."