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Larry's version of the Labelle sign might appear large to most of us used to making smaller "Letterhead" sized signs...ones you can fit under your arm or cary with you to a meeting. As I mentioned in his post, many of the Rawson & Evans signs were actually very large as illustrated above.
The image above is in the Rawson and Evans section of TheLetterheads.com . It also gives you an idea of the size of their pieces. This was their New York Show Room. That would have been fun to walk through!
This shot comes from Danny Baronians Rawson and Evans 21 page booklet. We are used to seeing a lot more silvering in the background, but it is apparent they occasionally chipped and either silvered or gold leafed the ornaments and lettering against a black or dark background.
Seeing that interior photo of the showroom in New York reminded me of the Raiford brothers' shop in Houston. They were two old time glass men whose work covered the Houston area. Their showroom was like going into a museum, something like Rick's. Shortly before their death someone broke into the shop, possibly trying to find something to steal, and then set it on fire. Everything was destroyed. What a sad ending to a lifetime of creativity.
When we had our Lone Star Letterhead gathering in '83, one of the brothers was going to attend, but then became sick and had to go into the hospital. Steven Parrish was also planning to attend and then fell in his yard and hurt his knee and couldn't make it. I was really looking forward to seeing two great gold men meet each other.
Steven did call during the meeting and talked to almost everyone there. He must have had a tremendous phone bill. Of course, he told the story of his knee accident over and over to each person, along with a lot of other stories too I'm sure. Mike Jackson can recall some of those stories almost word for word. He was really a "character".
I thought I'd throw myself into the picture so you could get a better idea of the scale of this sign. I wanted to do a large cigar sign for some time now... guess I got that one under my belt. I was a bit more motivated to complete this one in a timely fashion so as to keep an interest in the ongoing post on it's production. From start to finish, 15 days. ...one of my next projects is a replica of an old R&E storefront sign... better get busy...
Seeing how this post was started back in 2004...
the R&E storefront style sign was completed quite awhile ago...
I ordered some custom beveled "tile" glass pieces for the letters which are 8" high.
Then I rearranged several stained glass, clear beveled clusters to create the fancy border.
It was then all mounted onto a routered and finished board. The finished size is 112" x 22" · The letter tiles have been glue chipped and silvered and the border pieces have been angel gilded.
Denver Chapter of the Letterheads