Bruce Jackson's photo archive - 8 - Woollahra wine shop

[BruceJackson]

faded but fabulous. Woollahra is an inner suburb of Sydney.

This wine shop is a great example of the use of mirrors on the shopfront. Pubs typically used mirrors a lot and they were often attached to the outside walls of a pub for advertising. In this case, it's a retail shop, but follows the same tradition. The signs have suffered with the afternoon sun and the pictorial work of grapes have almost completely disappeared.

Interestingly, in reading the fine print on some of these mirrors, they often claim to remain under the ownership of the the wine brand that they promote.

[DAVE SMITH]

These have a simalar style to the Fry's chocolate advertising mirrors we see here Bruce. Are they fine acid etched?
Good to see they have kept them, maybe a restoration job for you? I Like the brass frames.
Thanks
Dave

[BruceJackson]

I have more photos showing various details, but obviously I just post a few select shots otherwise it will make the post too long.

Yes, they are acid-etched. Not all pub mirrors of this era were acid etched, but from the surviving examples, it seems to have been fairly common to etch the letter centres and a border.

I have a beer mirror in my own collection that is acid-etched and also shows an outline of bituminous paint (AKA asphaltum or black japan) backing up the gilding prior to the silvering.

As for restoration....hmmmm....I'd happily make new panels if they gave me the old ones...hahaha.
I know it's in fairly poor condition, but that doesn't detract from it's appeal. I just stumbled across this while on holiday in Sydney about 3 years ago. Another part of Sydney, called "The rocks" has a good collection of old gold signs. I may pick out a few examples for another post.

[Anthony Bennett]

Craking stuff Bruce as always, maybe you should be cheeky and make new panels, Show them to the owner and offer to swop them for the old one's