, 1884-02-20
sIGN-MAKING.
How Signs OF Centuries Ago ara
Kept to the Front
Curtosities OF sIgn-Boards and Fig.
ures---Fashion To-day and Ten
Years AEo---Chicaxo and
PompeiL


Inter Ocean1
Sign making is a good business In
Chicago said n manufacturer. There are
n great many engaged in 1t, and a good de-
mhnd for handsome boards. The manu-
facture is divided into branches, each dis
tinct from tho rest. Signs are made OF glass,
iron, copper, nickel, and wood. A large
number Of trades are involved. There are
grainers, painters. moulders, iron and brass
workers. and so on. The most popular signi
The showiest genorally IS tho favorite. You
can do a great deal with wood We carve a
sign all except tho letters, and sometimes even
them too, out of a solid block. Painted and
gflded it makes a snowy and expensive de
vice for drawing business. There's the pol
ished metal sign, and the glass sign The lat
ter Is often ornate. 1t is framed with mir
rors painted in bright colors, and makes a
brilliant affair. OF course none OF them
equal the illuminated sign That Is built
under a patent, and is expensive and SPLEEN
did as every one knows Some merchants in
New York keep Illuminated signs over their
stores all night though the doors are closed,
simply 70 keep their names before the public
The nearest approach TO 1t In Chicago is In
the handsome lamp-posts that some mer-
chants support"
~Sign-boards undoubtedly had their origin
In the times when reading was a scarce ac-
complishmont. In tho beginning they were
symbolical. 1t Is remarkable that the earli-
est and most popular are preserved to the
present day. The image signs OF certain
trades have been the same for hundreds Of
years. Everybody knows that the BARRIERS
pole had its origin in Italy nearly a thousand
years ago, when BARRIERS added surgery to
the tonsorial requirements. The alternate
stripes Of white and red running dingonally
around the pole represent a limb that had
been bled and the white ~bandages around
it. Bleeding in A d. 800 was the
popular punacea for all ills of the flesh, as
indeed 1t continued to be up to twenty years
age. The three gilt balls of mine uncle orig
mated in Lombardy. 1t was tho sign Of a
wealthy family OF bankers The essence of
their trade it still advertises. The lock-
smiths key. the blacksmith's hammer, the
apothecary's mortar and pestle, the glover's
glove, hosier's stocking, are all the same
that have served TO designate those trades
since they became branches of industry. The
original of the picture of a merry drinker
astride a cask, which hangs above the en-
trance to many drinking places, was
unearthed in Pompeii, painted in
the imPerishable colors whose CO.
cret was lost with the Pompeiians
nearly two thousand years ngo. "Good wine
needs no bush." wrote Shakespeare of a popu-
al oAihhAbk sign VI nlS blho- 1uB shIne
fourishing bush sign-board may yet be met
with at the old-fashioned inns of some of the
older states. The tea chest with the grinning
Chinnman beside 1t was seen in London two
centuries ago. The crude Indian figure In
front OF the little shop in the strand, where
nearly three centuries since was sold the
strange weed Sir Walter Raleigh brought
home from Virginia, is repeated in the sym
Dol OF q tobacconist's shop Of to-day. But
this image and the appropriate others which
indicate the shops of other tradesmen, are
no longer crude, unshapely, ADD false to
nature. On the contrary, they are frequently
works of art
11mage signs, most Of them at least, are
made in Albany, N. T." said a gentleman
In the trade. They are made of zinc and
iron, nodded just as cornices are, only fast
ened together more carefully and painted to
initiate nature as closely as possible. The old
wooden signs ave mostly disappeared. They
were too bulky and clumsy. Besides no such
work could be done by wood-carvers as Is ao-
complished by the present process"
@What are the favorits signsf'
You mean for tobacconists, for the signs
Of other trades are just the same as they have
always been. For cigar shops sometimes
one figure will have a great run and then be
replaced by another You remember the
tall. aim, thin-legged oarsmnn of a few years
agoi 1t was very popular. Another was
q lady with a Grecian bend. Thousands Of
each were sold all over the country and in
Europe. We beat tho world in making
image signs and export them everywhere.
You meet with more images of celebrated
characters us signs in Europe than in this
country.
Gen. Grants image was a great favorite in
London, and Is yet, for all / know. Bis
rnar~kia faca aud Rur,,.a var ~1-;.l -
American firm and the image sent TO Paris a
few years ago. The tobacconist who bought
1t had the temerity to put it up n year or two
after the war with Germany. They had al
most to call out the military to save h shop
from destruction. The mob went viii over
the poor zinc representation OF their hated
foe.
Probably the wild Indian, male and female,
Is the staple in this country. Images are
manufactured costing nearly 81, 900, and are
readily sold when the trade Is lively. 1t Is
very spasmodic."
-What has become Of the unknown artist
who produced the Indian in woodf'
@He has disappeared-swept away by the
machine worker. He did some rood work,
though. ] have seen carved modern images
that were startling in their reality, done by
an unknown workman who made no preten-
Eons to ability asa sculptor. l remember one
on Clark street before the fire. 1t represented
an Indian %crouching with his tomahawk in
hand Tho paint had worn of, the figure
was old and weather-beaten still it was won
derfully lifelike. The wooden signmaker of
old is gone"
"And the artist who painted window-shut-
teBf'
ale Is gone too. When merchants put up
their shutters thirty or forty years ago they
displayed interesting and stirring pictures,
that also were of merit sometimes That
painter Is gone with the shutters, and left
neither his name nor any of his work be-
hind"
IA Farce OF Royal sportsmanship-