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precursor to LED signs

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

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Patrick Mackle
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precursor to LED signs

Post by Patrick Mackle »

Shorpy site: http://www.shorpy.com/node/8978 or type in Buffalo Bank: 1908
Look closely under the SWIFT sign at the bulb pattern boards. (think Las Vegas to come) lol!!
Also there is a sign shop and United Cigar shop.
Check out the "eye" signs.
Not to mention all the oil stains in the street from the "horseless carriages".
Pat
BruceJackson
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Re: precursor to LED signs

Post by BruceJackson »

what an incredible photo. Amazingly crisp.

As for the signage in it...The thing that strikes me most is all the gold signs on those small windows up several stories. You just never see that here. No one puts a window sign about the second floor. Yet looking at the 12 story building one block behind the featured one, it has window signs right up at the top.
Patrick Mackle
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Re: precursor to LED signs

Post by Patrick Mackle »

Another Rawson & Evans style sign and more.
http://www.shorpy.com/node/7457?size=_original
Check out the partially visible R&E style sign (___NAN SHOES) with lighted jeweled letters and mirror bevel accents. Can't read the makers name clearly (bottom center)
and the bevel designs don't match the R&E style I'm generally familiar with.
Also check out "MISFIT CLOTHES PARLOR" a gilded glass sign with bright gold out lines (the brights also reflected in the store front window).
The big glass "CIGARS" wedge sign is cool with it's floral border. Check the "blurry man" across the street wearin' the sandwich sign "Goody Goody French Candy- Best Made 5c"
CRICKY! It's 2:00 AM and I need to hit the sack, but I love to walk these old "sign streets" till the wee mornin' hours on Shorpy lookin' for treasures- It"s like going back in time! OOPPS!! look out for the horse poop!! lol!
Pat
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BruceJackson
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Re: precursor to LED signs

Post by BruceJackson »

I love these photos.

On the MISFIT sign, you can clearly see the bright outline of the G at the end of "clothing". In light of my previous post (number 9) on the glass panels used on a verandah, this looks like the same type of thing. That's makes two examples.

The other thing I note which you rarely see anymore is the narrow glass panel below the main window and built into a frame that angles it upwards. It's on Erker Bros. and there's another one across the road for G.H.Boehmer shoes.

Also the windows of the Law offices...6/7 floors up...classic.

nice find...thanks.
erik winkler
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Re: precursor to LED signs

Post by erik winkler »

Pat your warning came too late....
I was looking up, to the signs, soo concentrated before I knew it I already stept into the horse poop.
You can see me in the corner at the end of the street whiping my shoe while looking at the signs.
Glass signage..... Those good old before-dibond times....

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
Doug Bernhardt
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Re: precursor to LED signs

Post by Doug Bernhardt »

and the wood letters "Opticians" way up there and across the street "Tailoring" just in front of the most remarkable cast and carved stone front anywhere!! Just a remarkable find there Patrice. Keep it up!
BruceJackson
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Re: precursor to LED signs

Post by BruceJackson »

Yes, Doug...The stone work on that building is pretty amazing. I'd love to see it directly in front. How's the size of the arched entrance. What a building.

I just picked up something else...the sign on the left for C.P.Stanley Cigars...Judging by the reflection, it looks like glass, and you can see the bottom corner of the reverse side, with a bit of the word retail. It also looks like there is a large light inside it, parts of which you can see both above and below the sign.

So it's a pretty safe assumption it was an illuminated sign. The light would have also been spilling out below the sign. Somehow it seems warm and inviting...whereas today's clean modern shops and illuminated signs seem cold.

Am I being misty-eyed with nostalgia?
Patrick Mackle
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Re: precursor to LED signs

Post by Patrick Mackle »

Bruce,
I think you nailed it! That is the "wedged shape CIGARS sign" I mentioned. Also the (possible R&E sign) with the jewels would be lit from within. (I see from the front wall sign now the it says "HANAN SHOES").
And look also at the _ Cook Specialist sign, also a wedge glass sign- looks like mat gilded centers with bright outlines and at night, the background glass would glow with Doctor Cook's name becoming a black silhouette. And the bent conduit pipe entering the sign could be gas light or electric. The wedge shape signs could have been open on top and bottom to allow heat and air flow around a gas fired lamp.
I have a US Patent copys of R&E's design for internally lighting their signs with gas or electricity detailing internal metal reflectors, also the patent for their jeweled sign construction.
I'm a friggin' glass sign nut!! (may have made some in an earlier life!) lol!
Pat
Doug Bernhardt
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Re: precursor to LED signs

Post by Doug Bernhardt »

Bruce....misty eyed nostalgia is my modus operendi (sp?) these days. Although I'm having a great time learning new ways to accomplish any given task I wish for at least a week or two to go back to being the showcard writer in the production shop I apprenticed in....especially at this time of year. All the Christmas show-cards and New Years Eve party signs were so much fun. The smell of my bosses cigar, the steam heated shop and the hustle and bustle of a downtown shop in Canadian winter. Nowadays I just look like Father Christmas.
Doug Bernhardt
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Re: precursor to LED signs

Post by Doug Bernhardt »

Also I should add that thanx to our pal Pat I was up REAL LATE last night snooping through the Shorby site
BruceJackson
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Re: precursor to LED signs

Post by BruceJackson »

Doug, and other misty-eyed nostalgia tragics, I have a book recommendation for you.

The palace of signs: Memories of hard times and high times in the Great Depression
By: Smith, Keith - published by Pan Macmillan, 1991

It may be hard to get in USA. I saw one on A...com for $80 which is pretty expensive for a simple paperback novel. However, it is basically an autobiography of a guy who did his apprenticeship in a signwriting business in the 1930's. Set in Melbourne, my home city, it gives you a very well-observed glimpse into the era and the culture of the signwriter's trade.
Patrick Mackle
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Re: precursor to LED signs

Post by Patrick Mackle »

Another Rawson & Evans style sign. Check the "KOLB" sign on the right side of the street.
http://www.shorpy.com/node/9432?size=_original
Pat
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Patrick Mackle
Posts: 478
Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 10:21 am
Location: Monrovia, Ca.
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Re: precursor to LED signs

Post by Patrick Mackle »

Another Rawson & Evans style double sided sign with mirrored/chipped bevels and lit jeweled letters sign on Shorpy. "The Illinois"
R&E may have done the balcony signs and the stained glass transom as well.
http://www.shorpy.com/node/9492
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