With the cross etched into the glass, was this a hearse or an ambulance?

Is there a body makers name on it? The fenders look like they're from a 1937 Packard 110/115, 1938/39 Packard Six/Eight.

The 1937 Buick needs a lot of work, but it's far more desirable than the 1947/52 Studebaker parked next to it.

 

Pretty sure it's a hearst. At least judging by the view from "inside". Here is the description from the ad,
1953 HEARSE TRAILER--- FROM GERMANY--=TOTAL LENGTH 123 IN. WITH HITCH---BODY LENGTH 8 FT.---HEIGHT 4 FT. 10 IN. FROM GROUND TO TOP

 

The view only shows a platform. What would be used to retain the coffin in place, or a gurney?

The seller is probably calling this a hearse based its color.

But IMO, based on the crosses, this was an ambulance body.

 

i say hearse as you wouldn't need tie downs as the person is already deceased

 

You would need some sort of tie downs, because without them, the coffin could slide front/back, left/right, possibly spin around doing the hootchie/cootchie.

While I'm no expert on Professional Cars (Hearses & Ambulances), I do have several books on them.

These were made in the US by Hess & Eisenhardt, Sayers & Scoville, Meteor, Henney and etc.

Since I'm a long time Packard buff, I have a book titled The Henney Motor Co. Henney was Packards exclusive professional car body maker from 1936 thru 1954.

Pics show interiors of both types of bodies. Henney (and others) also made a 3 way combination that could be used for both.

The ambulances had crosses, the hearses did not.

 

Bill, you got me thinking so I did a little research to see if i could get to the bottom of this.
There was a company in Germany called W. Pfefferkorn of Dortmund/ Germany and the apparently hand built these funeral trailers in the 50's. Here is "supposedly" another one. I could not find out anything about that history. Since this is an old ford truck site i suppose I shouldn't be posting about it anyways. But i do find the whole thing a bit interesting, albeit not one i'm particular wanting to know about first hand. In the previous picture i do see what looks to be perhaps wooden boards attached to the floor thus perhaps keeping the coffin secure. It probably wouldn't take much as they aren't known to break speed records. It would be nice if we could see inside the one i just posted below but i could find any interior pictures. Right or wrong, ambulance or hearse, it's still history.