The moving assembly line, the $5 workday, a steadfast belief in mobility for the masses. These were the foundation of Henry Ford's epoch-making success as an automaker.
But not the whole story.
Ford Motor Co.'s true cornerstone — little-remembered and perhaps lost to history — is made of cut glass.
Years before the first Model T rolled out of Ford's Piquette Avenue plant in Detroit, the formation of the nation's second-largest automaker hinged on a turn-of-the-century punch bowl etched in a classic strawberry, diamond and fan pattern.
It's been missing since 1951. Buoyed by the good fortune of suddenly finding Steve McQueen's 1968 Mustang Bullitt, on display at the Detroit auto show, the Ford family would like America to check its attics and basements one more time.