Posted by Mike Jackson on February 18, 2004
Robare M. NovouHowdy collectors!
Spanjer Brothers supplied the sign industry with cut out and carved lettering and ornamentation in the 20's and later. I don't when the company started, but Catalog H, shown above, is from 1929. The company is still in business, though they don't make wooden letters anymore.
This catalog is the best one I own. It has 103 numbered pages which include numerous photos and illustrations. Maybe I can post more of them later. Todd Swormstedt at the American Sign Museum tells me he has one from about the same period that also has a lot of pages and photos. Seems like I remember it as Catalog E, but I'm 50 now and I have an excuse if I can't remember details!
I'll post a scan of the front cover of Catalog M in a minute. I know there are few book and catalog collectors out there. You'd have to assume there were catalogs A-G I don't own, and I, J, K and L, too. Catalog M is much thinner and lacks the numbers of photos. They had apparently whittled down their product line--so to speak.
Does anyone else have other Spanjer Catalogs? Let us know!
Mike Jackson
Mike JacksonSpanjer Bros. were originally furniture makers in Michigan. I have Catalog "G" of 1916 vintage containing 92 pages. Also Catalog "J" of 192? vintage with 104 pages. I will post a picture of the covers, sometime soon.
I got a xerox copy of catalog "S" with 32 pages of 1927.
And also some catalogs from the 30's and 60's and 70's.
A future issue of AMAL will be doing a few pages of pictures and spanjer history. Anyone with any info large or small should send it off to Jeff Lang at the AMAL home office. He will take care of and send back anything you supply for this effort.
The Spanjer Website was put together by Wally Woodbury...he's a fantastic wood turner in Florida. And avid spanjer collector...he told me of a friend of his that strolled into his office one day....wally had a spanjer catalog on the desk. His friend saw it and then explained to Wally that he used to be a spanjer salesman.... I got some questions for that guy!!
Wally also has a nice copy of a "Chicago Sign Board Catalog" vintage 1902. One of several competetors to the Spanjer Boys. Some pics and info from that catalog made it into a past issue of AMAL. We Xeroxed off several copies of the catalog and put them up for sale...he sold out.
Since then, I have acquired a 1900 Chicago Sign Board Catalog...A lot of the pages are stuck together...If I could pry them apart I would be glad to make copies for a small fee. I just need someone to tell me how to get these pages apart. Is there a magic fluid that will release this bond?
RMN
Robare,
Jeff Lang sent me a few scans of the covers of his Spanjer Catalogs. Hopefully I can get them on the site someday, somewhere? I suspect Jeff has to balance holding information that might appear in an upcoming AMAL magazine and sharing it here. Percentage wise, this Forum has a fairly small reader base, so I doubt he would ruin the "freshness" by letting a little of it appear here before it appears in the magazine. On the flip side, sharing it here helps "kick over a few stones" and allows more information to surface.
I am always amazed by the breadth of the knowledge found by the collective readers. It seems someone in the group has information or access to information on just about any topic.
Quite a few of us have one or two Spanjer Catalogs, but none of us really have much of a "full picture". Danny has a Catalog W which has an early date. That doesn't make sense to me if I assumed the catalogs would be chronologically sequenced by their alphabetical order.
Mike Jackson
Mike Jackson
Mike Jackson - Walnut: Carved RI was planning on scanning this page when I saw it on Spanjer's site. I just linked to their photo above. Those are some absolutely beautiful letters!
I hand carved the R in the third row in a piece of walnut. I know that's a hard material to carve, but I did it for the challenge. It took a long time, mostly because it was so ornate. Wow, they were good.
Spanjer's Web Site
http://eturnings.com/spanjer/page1.html
Mike Jackson
I saw this old R the other day while cleaning in the garage, otherwise I'd have no idea where it got off to. I carved it using the Spanjer catalog example as a guide, though it looks like I changed it a little. It's a little dusty, but in good shape otherwise.
Needless to say, it wasn't something we did all the time at the shop.
When I lived in Oklahoma, I used to find and collect a lot of Spanjer carved letters. I have a few that are a couple feet tall in the spurred roman style. Many came from the fronts of businesses like Ben Franklin dime stores. I did some painting for a billboard company in Shawnee, Oklahoma. They had a few letters lying around in the warehouse and sign graveyard and I talked them out of a few. Some billboards had the cut out letters attached from behind. They were almost always gilded.
On a slightly unrelated note, the name of the company was Switzer Outdoor. I got to talk at length to the old guy running the plant (a skeleton of its original operation) and they told me a lot about the old days of the sign business. One of the Switzer families moved to California and according to my source, they had a young kid who appeared in the Our Gang tv shows. His name was Alfalfa Switzer. I was already watching shows but paid closer attention to them afterwards. There were several references to Alfalfa being from Oklahoma.
Mike
Danny Baronian
Kent SmithHere's a Spanger N.
Danny
Jeffrey P. LangI also have some of the old catalogs but I have the very last one printed, 1991.
Henry Spanjer, Jr. came with Skip Spanjer to the Parsippany meet in '86 since they were just "across the road" at their NJ plant. They were only there for a brief time because of hurricane Hugo. He and I visited for a while since I recognized him from his photo and new Skip, they looked around a bit and left without visiting much more. He was telling me that they indeed were the primary suppliers to all of the big circuses around the turn of the century. They acquired that business by way of one of their carvers who had worked for the company who supplied PT Barnum originally. I don't remember much else from the conversation but had talked to Skip many times over the years at NESA/ISA conventions.
Mike JacksonMike,
I have 4 of the catalogs & they are good resource books for raised letter signage still today.
1909 - 97 pages lots of wood letters, scrolls, ornaments ets, but no circus wagons.
this catalog states they were established in 1897 in Newark, NJ. The also offer a patented prismatic glass sign.
Catalog "J" - 104 pages many of the same items as earlier catalog, but it does have the circus wagons & it is on page 75 just like the page you posted earlier.
Catalog 41 - 1941 - 78 pages & this one has more art deco style letters & panels. they offer vehicle & billboard raised lettering.
& the last one I have doesn't have a date but says "for over 40 years" so I suppose the late '30's & has 24 loose leaf pages.
Jeff
Mike JacksonHere's the cover of the Spanjer 1909 catalog just sent to me by Jeff Lang. He sent a few more, some of which had a definite deco feel.
The cover above apparently stayed about the same for quite a few years.
Be sure to check out the link to Spanjer's page. It shows a lot of photos from their catalogs. I won't need to show as many now!
Thanks to Jeff for his help.
Spanjer Bros. Historical catalog pages
http://eturnings.com/spanjer/page1.html
Mike Jackson
Mike JacksonHere's one more nice plate from Catalog H.
The panel with the dragon was $42 at 30" tall, double faced. 30% off that price if only single sided.
The rest of the panels on the page were only $36 at 30" tall. 30% off that price if only single sided.
I'd like two or three of each, please!
Mike Jackson
Mike JacksonThere was a letter from Spanjer Brothers, Inc accompanying the catalog. It was written to Kratz Goettling Sign Co in Eugene, OR, offering an additional 15% discount.
However, there is a small sheet still fixed inside the front cover that says "Notice!, These Prices Effective Oct. 1, 1926"
It goes on to say the prices printed in the book will be wholesaled out at 50% of the listed prices.
So, just for a reminder, the prices for the panels above were:
The panel with the dragon was $42 at 30" tall, double faced. 30% off that price if only single sided.
The rest of the panels on the page were only $36 at 30" tall. 30% off that price if only single sided.
The sign company would pay half those prices, and the letter sent to Kratz gave them an additional 15% off. Kranz could have purchased a single sided version of the panel with the carved dragon for just under $15. Ouch!
Mike Jackson
Mike JacksonHere's just one plate from the Spanjer catalog H. More than likely they did a lot of the carving on the circus wagons we have seen over the years.
Mike
This Spanjer Bros. catalog is only 5" x 8.5" and has only 24 pages. It has 1936 scribbled in pencil on the front and that lines up fairly well with Catalog H being the 1929 catalog, with one a year. I'd more likely bet it is 1934, but that's probably close enough.
Seems like I might have at least one other catalog, but I don't see it right off.
Mike Jackson
Danny Baronian
Mike JacksonHere's catalogue E, date unknown.
On the inside cover is printed:
"Do not cut, mark or tear,
Have it on hand, always there;
No, don't multilate or destroy,
Some day its value may bring you joy."
It is a pleasure to look through, and has appreciated in value. They requested a $ 1.00 fee for shipping an extra catalogue.
Danny
Danny BaronianDanny,
My H catalog has a dated letter inside from 1929, so I have to assume it came from that year. If that date is correct, and you allow one year for each letter, then you have a 1926 catalog.
At least on the initial glance, yours looks very similar to my H catalog.
How many pages does E have? F & G are probably ver similar.
Thanks!
Mike
Danny BaronianIt has 108 numbered pages.
They must have employed a lot of carvers!
Danny
It's interesting what you find on your bookshelves. I'll have to look more later.
Here's catalogu W, no date other than the handwritten 1923 on the cover. 58 pages.
Anyone know how many catalogs there were?
Danny
Denver Chapter of the Letterheads