The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-09-14
THE STORY OF SIGNBOARDS.
ORIGIN OF THE CUSTOM OF HANG
ING OUT SIGNS.

StRnbOnrds III Ancient Tfmes-Some Curious
English Comb nations - How striped
Poles Came to be Used FOR Barber Shops.
The signboard was the earliest kind
Of Advertising practiced, and was in
us at a very ancient time. Whose
bright intellect first hit upon the idea
is not known, but its use dates back to
the time when men began to ira le and
dicker. The 1.-THE nilotic-looking trad
ers of ancient Thebes and Memphis
were adopts in the science of sign
boards, as were also the lean, bearded,
turbaned Assyrian and Babylonian.
This was at least two thousand years
BIC.
The first signboards were nothing
more than pictures of the goods sold
within. When the large mass of peo-
pie could not read, it was necessary for
shopkeepers and traders to call the at
tention of customers by some rude de-
wise. If man kept sandals and shoes
for sale representation of a sandal
hung above the door, announced the
fact. So, if he were fishmonger or a
jeweler, he simply hung out IL wooden
fish or pair of scales. In the buried
cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum
many of these signboards have been
found. a bakers sign at Fompeii
represented an ass bearing a huge
cruet, which would be mysterious
enough if we did not know that the
loaves of bread in that city were
stamped with this uncouth device.
During the middle ages shops and
inns were designated 10y the quantest
signs imaginable. Even as late as the
time of Addison writerin the Spe, ta-
tor complained of the streets being
"filled with blue boars, black swans
and red lions The same writer, in
speaking Of the singular combinations
to be met with, says: "The fox and
the goose may be supposed to have
met; but what has the fox and the
seven stars to do together? And
when did the lamb and dolphin ever
meet, except upon a signpost:"
Some of these curious combinations
came about in way that was natural
enough. For instance, a glover who
sold gloves at the Sign of the Angel,
wishing to indie ate the kind of goods
he sold, took for his sign rather
chunky angel grasping a long glove
or gauntlet. In referring to this par
ticular shop, people confounded the
sign of the shop with the picture of
the goods sold within, and termed it
the Angel and Glove" In the same
way we have the Lamb and Brooches,
the Negro and Comb, and the Lion
and Shoe. Sometimes an apprentice
who had served out his time and was
setting up in business for himself.
would add the sign of the master
under whom he had learned his trade
to that which he chose for himself.
One young man, who had served his
apprenticeship at a shop called the
Three Nuns, chose hare for his de-
vice, and addel it to his masters signs,
which thus be,a the Three Nuns
and Hare, most absurd combina-
ton.
Innkeepers very often put up for
signs the coats of arms of their patrons
or of the great man of the neighbor-
hood, and their houses would be called
after them. The Somerset Arms, the
Norfolk Arms, etc. The Kings Arms
was naturally great favorito, and was
represented by the English coat of
arms, which, as is well known, has for
supporters a lion and unicorn. Not
unfreGuently, in speak ng of the house,
travellers would designate it by the in
dividual names of the supporters, and
in time the Kings Arms would give
place to the Lion and Unicorn. In the
same manner the Warwickshire Arms
became the Bear and Ragged STAT, and
the Worcestershire Arms the Boars
Head. =. ~ --'-
again, the tenant or dependent of a
house bearing lion gules for its crest,
in adopting the crest as the sign of his
shop or inn, as the most natural thing
bin the world, would translate the
heraldic term lite rally, and paint a red
lion upon his sign board This ac-
counts for all the White Bulls, Blue
Boars, Black Swans, Golden Eagles,
and other fanciful names which any
one who has taken up an old English
book must have stumbled acl0,s
Some CT the old innke .pers and ale
sellers were in the habit of emb allish-
ing their signs with bits of dorgerel
verse, some of which are very curious.
One OF these gentlemen, who had
opened an aehouse in the neighbor-
hood of four others called respective
the Bear, the Angel, the Ship, anu
The Three Cups, wrote under his sign !:
any White Horse shall bite the Bear,
And m Ike the Angel fly;
Shall turn the Ship her bottom up,
And drink the Three Cups dry"
The sign of the Fox at a country inn
bore the following quaint inscription {:
~ ham a cunen Fox
You see. Tier his
No harm attached
To me, 1t is my Mrs.
Wish 20 place me
Hese, 20 let you no
He sells good Beere."
An innke per of Warwickshire, who
was determined that the public should
not complain for any reminder of the
fSl1 Il.