18th Century and Earlier Signs

18th or 19th century French ship chandler's trade sign, circa 1800, an oval pine double sided sign built with large dove-tails, advertising Cooperage and...

A large carved and polychrome painted tobacconist's figure almost certainly 17th or early 18th century For a related example see Edward H. Pinto, Treen and other Wooden Bygones, Bell and Hyman, London 1969. Page 412, plate 436. Originally this may well have been a tobacconist's shop window figure. For a similar, but slightly earlier unpainted example, see Sotheby's, The W. J. Shepherd collection of treen, 30th November 1983, Lot 393, illustrated in Pinto "Wooden Bygones of Smoking and Snuff Taking", plate 1. Carved wooden figures, often painted, were placed outside tobacconist's shops as signs from the 17th century onwards. The earliest of these figures is the 'black boy' or 'blackamoor'. 'At the sign of the black boy' or 'at the sign of the blackamoor' was a popular address for tobacconists since the early 17th century. The 17th century figures...

An item for the zinc collectioneur or someone who loves items that are quirky and rare to find. This is a French enseigne/sign, from the very short period in French history "incroya...

An 18th century trade sign from a Dutch West Indies shipping merchant. The carved and polychromed sign depicts a winged-foot mercury surrounded by ga...

18th Century Apothecary sign was created with wrought iron, fer forge. Beautiful details of the medical symbol of a winged staff with two snakes intertwined.

A Folk Art two-sided sign maker's sample board in original paint, one side having square color samples with various border treatments, each panel numbered (one through 25), the other...