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H.H.Day and signcraft

Hand Lettering topics: Sign Making, Design, Fabrication, Letterheads, Sign Books.

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Doug Bernhardt
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H.H.Day and signcraft

Post by Doug Bernhardt »

Hats off to Mike for showing off all those great sketches in last issue of Signcraft Mag. I almost missed it at the back like it was but just a terrific addition. Would love to see or hear anymore from this guys sketch book and how you came upon it.
Mike Jackson
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Re: H.H.Day and signcraft

Post by Mike Jackson »

Hi Doug,
Someone affiliated with the publishing company had the manuscripts and sketches, many years after the book could have, or would have been published. That person contacted a broker who handled the sale including making scans of quite a few of the images and pages. She then started contacting possible buyers, one of which was the American Sign Museum. Tod was interested, but he couldn't get them to supply a price. They continued contacting other people. I believe one of them was House Industries. Somehow, my name came up and the lady gave me a call and forwarded the scans through an email.

Eventually, I made a fair offer and they took it. At the same time, I contacted Tod at the museum to see if they were still interested and I offered to sell it to them for the price I paid. I made a few scans and copies and figured I could get a couple of articles out of it while still in my possession. After this initial article, I'd like to see them add a page in each SC for a while similar to what ST did with the Atkinson plates and the Becker alphabets. I could still write my other articles and that page would be a freebie, so to speak.

I have good images of all the pages now, and I considered doing a page or two this site. It'd be a shame to see them just go onto a shelf in a closed section of the library at the museum.

As I mentioned in the article, it is amazing how accurate his pencil line drawings were. Many were done on thin cardboard so it would have been almost impossible to have been tracing over a light table. There were almost no construction lines on any of them. To me, these pencil sketches are more "telling" of the man's skill than if we had been seeing the final inked or lettered plates in a book.

Maybe I can find some time to post a few here on the forum if nothing else.

Mike Jackson
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Doug Bernhardt
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Re: H.H.Day and signcraft

Post by Doug Bernhardt »

Mike, Have you or have you seen any of the published books that go with Mr.Day? It reminds me of the Brooks topic sometime ago. For the uninitiated Brooks was the craftsman that produced the glass sample book Rick Glawson was so proud to own. Apparently there is a book by him also and Todd had a lead on it. Smithsonian I think I heard. That was the last I heard about it other than the Brook's book wasn't as interesting as hoped.
Dave Dubé
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Re: H.H.Day and signcraft

Post by Dave Dubé »

Mike,

Since the pencil is my only design tool and I don't subscribe to Signcraft, I'd surely appreciate any and all examples of the pencil sketches you could put up right here. I don't scoff at anybody who uses technology to do their design work and could do it myself if I had a mind, but I like my pencil. I'd like to see some of it.
Robare M. Novou
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Re: H.H.Day and signcraft

Post by Robare M. Novou »

I had the pleasure of locating the book "The American SignWriter", that Mr. Brooke had co-authored back in 1877 with Mr. Collins.

The book consists of 20 blank pages with an actual sepia tone picture adhered to each page. 20 pages, 20 photos.

The book is located in the Library of Congress, in Washington D.C.

I made black and white xerox copies of the book, but sadly, one page was missing. (the book originally has 21 pages)

It is also located in one of the Libraries of the University of Southern California, "USC". That volume supposedly has all 21 photos.

The table of contents page is a picture showing the 20 pages laid out around the edges of the photo, with the title and picture portraits of the two authors in the middle, Mr Brooke being one of them. The layout was similar to an AMAL page. Now I know where Doc gets his Ideas from!

The B&W xerox copies do it no justice...got to go back and get color copies, of those sepia toned pictures.

The contents are lettering plates, scroll plates, and panel plates.

....Unbelievable Increadible Lettering and Artwork. These guys did sepia tone photos cause I guess they realized that simple black ink on white paper would not show all the detail and shading effects of their work...Im sure they would have done color photos if they could have.

The glass plates are special...and so is the book!
The workmanship of all the plates is astounding.
In a way I consider it right up there with Atkison and Strong, if not higher. Considering the taste and styles of the era, it would be the best ever. These guys were dedicated!!!

A few years ago Jeff Lang purchased a "Collins and McGinness" business card off ebay. He let me examine it, and while doing so I noticed how it resembled the book by Collins and Brooke. It was a sepia toned picture mounted to a business card. On one side was the picture, on the other was the names and address of the business.

The picture was a snap shot of the front of the building, with all types signs and wall paintings, some sticking out windows. Down on the street below was a horse and wagon, that may have been there delivery vehicle. One of the signs stated "House and Steamboat Painting".

After a while it dawned on me that this must be the Collins of "Collins and Brooke", authors of the "The American Sign Writer". I have never seen another card or book like these.

Collins and McGinness were located in St. Louis, Missouri.

Collins and Brooke were located in San Fransico, California.

RMN
What's On Your Book Shelf ?

http://www.milwaukeesignworks.com
Robare M. Novou
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Re: H.H.Day and signcraft

Post by Robare M. Novou »

Here is a photo of the contents pages from "The American Sign Writer".

If this does not post good, I will do a re-posting of this photo.

RMN
Attachments
C and B - Letterhead Pic.jpg
C and B - Letterhead Pic.jpg (74.48 KiB) Viewed 5727 times
What's On Your Book Shelf ?

http://www.milwaukeesignworks.com
Robare M. Novou
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Joined: Thu May 06, 2004 11:18 am
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Re: H.H.Day and signcraft

Post by Robare M. Novou »

That was not a good posting of the photo.

Heres another stab at it.

RMN
Attachments
C and B - Letterhead Pic 4.jpg
C and B - Letterhead Pic 4.jpg (196.69 KiB) Viewed 5714 times
What's On Your Book Shelf ?

http://www.milwaukeesignworks.com
Robare M. Novou
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Re: H.H.Day and signcraft

Post by Robare M. Novou »

Here is the print side of the Collins and McGinness business card.

I will try to post the other side next.

RMN
Attachments
C and M Card - Side 1.jpg
C and M Card - Side 1.jpg (125.73 KiB) Viewed 5691 times
What's On Your Book Shelf ?

http://www.milwaukeesignworks.com
erik winkler
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Re: H.H.Day and signcraft

Post by erik winkler »

Well it looks like some art-historians are doing their work here.
Makes me hungry for more knowledge. Nice.
Realizing we are in the 2nd renaissance of the arts.
Learn, copy and trying to improve...
Still in the learning phase ;-)
Amsterdam Netherlands
www.ferrywinkler.nl
www.schitterend.eu
www.facebook.com/Schitterend.eu
Robare M. Novou
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Joined: Thu May 06, 2004 11:18 am
Location: Milwaukee
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Re: H.H.Day and signcraft

Post by Robare M. Novou »

I uploaded a Black and White version of the card, when I should have uploaded the original color version instead :oops:

So to make up for my mistake...here is the original color version.

RMN
Attachments
C and M Card - Side 1 - Color.jpg
C and M Card - Side 1 - Color.jpg (57.88 KiB) Viewed 5654 times
What's On Your Book Shelf ?

http://www.milwaukeesignworks.com
Robare M. Novou
Posts: 424
Joined: Thu May 06, 2004 11:18 am
Location: Milwaukee
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Re: H.H.Day and signcraft

Post by Robare M. Novou »

Here is the Scan of the Sepia Picture that is on the back. Its a pic of the front of the Collins and McGinness Sign Shop.

Due to byte size limitations with the uploaded pictures to this site, its fuzzy at best. So you cant read all the signs that are in the picture. You might see the ghoust image of the guy walking on the sidewalk next to the horse and wagon. He seems to be checking out the store fronts below the sign shop.

They must have taken the picture from second or third floor of the building across the street.

Maybe someday I can post a high rez scan somewhere else on the net and provide a link to it.

RMN
Attachments
C and M Card - Side 2 - Sepia.jpg
C and M Card - Side 2 - Sepia.jpg (65.92 KiB) Viewed 5647 times
What's On Your Book Shelf ?

http://www.milwaukeesignworks.com
erik winkler
Posts: 1097
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 5:48 pm
Location: Amsterdam Netherlands
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Re: H.H.Day and signcraft

Post by erik winkler »

Robare M. Novou wrote: Maybe someday I can post a high rez scan somewhere else on the net and provide a link to it.

RMN
Robare,
I think you still could upload the maximum filesize to photobucket and post the "http-link" here instead of the ""img-link".
Then you will not get a file-size warning/error.

Erik
Realizing we are in the 2nd renaissance of the arts.
Learn, copy and trying to improve...
Still in the learning phase ;-)
Amsterdam Netherlands
www.ferrywinkler.nl
www.schitterend.eu
www.facebook.com/Schitterend.eu
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