Fading painted signs

Alcohol

A couple of years ago these two well-preserved ghost signs were revealed in Paris (see Streetview), presumably by the removal of billboards that covered and protected them. [Update via Caroline’s Miscelleny: The uncovering was in 2012, and the works can be seen underway in the […]

Two Paris Beauties Under Wraps

This entry was posted in Sign Preservation Signs of Note and tagged Alcohol Bénédictine Conservation Eugène Charles Paul Vavasseur France Grafitti liqueur Paint Paris Protection Restoration Reveal Ripolin Wim Dammers on December 7, 2018 by Sam Roberts

Painted sign for Red Hackle Whisky fading and cracking on a wall — Derek sent me a link to this discussion about lost streets on Urban Glasgow because he spotted the prominent Red Hackle Whisky sign in this photograph. The picture is from the 1960s and was taken on Holmhead Street, now known as Cunningham Street. The brand […]

Red Hackle: Scotland’s Best Whisky

This entry was posted in Sign Stories and tagged Alcohol Glasgow Red Hackle Scotland UK Whisky on September 24, 2014 by Sam Roberts

This was the scene on Cazenove Road, Stoke Newington, on the morning of Monday 28 July. The photo was snapped from the top floor of flats overlooking this famous ghostsign for John Brown Whiskies. I received it via email with a message concerned about the […]

Who You Gonna Call?

This entry was posted in Sign Stories Signs of Note and tagged Alcohol Cazenove Road John Brown John Brown Whiskies London N16 Stoke Newington Stokie Tours UK Whisky on August 27, 2014 by Sam Roberts

Hand-painted lettering on a wall saying 'Furniture Bought, Sold Or' — This is a detail from one of my all-time favourite ghostsigns. It’s on Dulwich Road in South London and already features in the History of Advertising Trust Ghostsigns Archive. I had never actually seen it ‘in the flesh’ so it was a great surprise addition […]

S Errington and some other South London Ghostsigns

This entry was posted in Individual Signs and tagged Alcohol Beer Bovril Brixton Chemist Cigarettes Clothing Craven A Dulwich Road Food Furniture Ghostsigns Inch & Co John Lovibond London Mari Boman Our Sons Menswear S Errington Sam Roberts Tobacco on September 22, 2013 by Sam Roberts

Hand-painted sign advertising Asahi beer on side wall of pub — Regular correspondent Ross Corben sent me this newly painted sign for Asahi beer on the side of the Earl of Portobello pub in West London (close up below). It’s an unusual brand for a piece of hand-painted advertising in my opinion, at least in light of the […]

Hand-painted Asahi beer sign at the Earl of Portobello

This entry was posted in Individual Signs and tagged Alcohol Asahi Beer Earl of Portobello Modern Brickads Pub Ross Corben on November 24, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Large hand painted sign on a wall in France advertising Dubonnet — I had to share this as it is a brilliant example of the classic ‘Dubo, Dubon, Dubonnet’ campaign with illustrations in the hand painted form. It was captured by Scott Phillips in Paris in 1983 and, on his blog, he describes how he was able to create this wonderful image. The original artwork […]

Dubo, Dubon, Dubbonet in Paris, 1983

This entry was posted in Individual Signs and tagged Alcohol Cassandre Dubonnet France Paris Scott Phillips Slogan on August 25, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Yellow hand painted sign on a wall advertising Meteor beer — Les murs peints s’affichent is a blog written by Philippe Célérier on the topic of ghostsigns in France. He adds updates quite regularly and it is well worth following if you are interested in hand painted signs on buildings from this country which seems to have […]

French ghostsigns blog: Les murs peints s’affichent

This entry was posted in Sign Collections and tagged Alcohol Beer Blog France Les murs peints s'affichent Meteor People Philippe Célérier on July 29, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Fading hand painted sign on a building in Baltimore — This is the first ever example from the modern era that I’ve come across of hand painted advertising on buildings used for political purposes. There are the ancient ghostsigns of Pompeii which I’ve written about before and also the murals of places like Nicaragua and […]

Vote Against Prohibition Ghostsign in Baltimore

This entry was posted in Individual Signs and tagged Alcohol Baltimore People Political Prohibition Samuel Adam Johnson USA Vote on July 23, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Photo of newly painted sign on Great Western Road, London, W9 — This new hand painted sign on the building housing the Union Tavern was sent to me by regular correspondent Ross Corben. It is advertising the famous Fuller, Smith & Turner brewery from nearby Chiswick and has clearly been produced to have a dated look, in […]

Fuller, Smith & Turner: Chiswick Ales & Stouts

This entry was posted in Individual Signs and tagged Alcohol Ale Beer Brewery Chiswick Faux Fuller Smith & Turner Fullers Great Western Road London Received Ross Corben Stout Union Tavern W9 on July 7, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Jack Daniel's Declaration of Independence poster — Today is Independence Day in the USA. Last year, to celebrate, Jack Daniel’s worked with letter-press experts Yee-Haw Industries and the team at Colossal Media to first produce poster designs and then to scale these up into large scale pieces of hand painted advertising around […]

Declarations of Independence campaign from Jack Daniel’s

This entry was posted in Sign Folk Sign Making Signs in Media and tagged Alcohol Calligraphy Colossal Media Craft Embroidery Golden West Sign Arts Helms Workshop Independence Day Jack Daniel's Jon Contino Letter-Press Lettering Signwriter Type USA Whisky Yee-Haw Industries on July 4, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Captain Morgan Roofad at Ninian Park Cardiff — I’ve been sitting on this for such a long time that I almost completely forgot about it. In fact, Mark sent me details of it back in June 2009 so hands up for my complete slackness on that front! It is another example of a ‘roofad‘ […]

Record Breaking Roofad

This entry was posted in Individual Signs and tagged Alcohol Captain Morgan Cardiff Kent Kings Head London Ninian Park Pub Received Research RIP Roofads Rum Slogan World Record on February 11, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Hand painted sign on building for W.E.Baxter Ltd Printers Bookbinders Stationers — A number of new additions have been made to the History of Advertising Trust Ghostsigns Archive. Some of these are new photos of signs already covered in the archive but many are completely new material for the collection. Here are a handful of my favourite […]

HAT Archive: January 2012 Additions

This entry was posted in Sign Collections and tagged Agriculture Alcohol Ale Archive Baxter Bookbinder Builder Drink Dunlops HAT Hotel Inn Printers Richards Royal Oak Inn Stationery Stout Thompsons Tradesman UK Water Whitaker on January 31, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Hemmingway Ales gable end ghostsign in Leeds — This wonderful gable end sign for Hemingway’s Ales (Big Ben’s brand) ceased to exist as of 9th March 2011. It was a truly remarkable ghostsign and featured as the backdrop for my interview with John Seargent in the piece broadcast on the One Show. Incidentally […]

Hemingway’s Ales (RIP)

This entry was posted in Individual Signs and tagged Alcohol Ale Beer Hemmingway Leeds RIP UK Yorkshire on January 15, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Hand painted advertising on a building for various motoring brands — Since handing over day-to-day responsibility for the archive to the History of Advertising Trust there has been a steady influx of new material. 49 new signs have been uploaded to the online galleries and this means that c.750 are now documented through the collective efforts […]

49 New Signs

This entry was posted in Sign Collections and tagged AA Alcohol Archive Beer Bookbinder Bovril Coca-Cola Coke Darvill's Drink Furniture Gramophones HAT Household Jewellery Little Miss Barber Motoring Music Pianos Printers Puck Matches RAC Soft Drink Stationery Tea Transport Twinings Vaux on August 5, 2011 by Sam Roberts

Bull Dairies painted sign on wall by Nick Stenning — I received an email this morning from a mural artist with an interest in working to restore/repaint Ghostsigns in the UK. She found me via a great project being run by the London Mural Preservation Society. I started drafting a response and then realised I’ve […]

Fresh lick of paint

This entry was posted in Sign Preservation and tagged Alcohol Ale Animals Archive Baker Banks's Beer Bile Beans Black & Son Bread Bulls Dairies Cake Coal Coke Corn Dairy Daren Donovan Bros Fish & Chips Food Forage Grocers Health Illustration Isaac Marsh Lime Medicine Melox Clarke's Melox Marvels Merchant Stores Milk Paper Bags Pies Price Tickets Protection Puddings Pulbis Dog Food Restoration Retail Seed Signwriter Stage Wagon Stationery Strong Carrier Bags The Tulketh Transport Travel William Swan on May 7, 2011 by Sam Roberts

Sheffield, Photo by Nicky Roberts My Aunt captured the above picture in Sheffield recently (Westfield Terrace, just off West Stand). This adds to the growing number of locations in this nationwide campaign by Jack Daniels (see previous posts). Photos of those discovered so far are […]

Jack Daniels Update

This entry was posted in Photo Essays Related Work and tagged Alcohol Brighton Jack Daniel's Leicester Modern Brickads Newcastle Sheffield UK Vristol on April 29, 2009 by Sam Roberts

Schlitz Beer USA — Click here for some interesting notes on the production of Ghost Signs from the USA Museum of Beer Brewing. It implies that the sign writers (or Wall Dogs in USA) used sheets of paper to create a dotted chalk outline on the wall which they […]

Production Process

This entry was posted in Sign Making and tagged Alcohol Beer Museum of Beer Brewing Production Research Schlitz USA on June 27, 2007 by Sam Roberts

Colossal Media Dewars New York Home is where the mortgage is — Colossal Media I came across an old email from Faris that he sent me after he got back from New York. It had this picture attached with has been painted onto a concrete blocked out window. It was on North 6th, Williamsburg, New York City […]

Dewars (New York)

This entry was posted in Individual Signs and tagged Alcohol Colossal Media Dewars Faris Modern Brickads New York USA Whisky on June 23, 2007 by Sam Roberts

Collosal Media Dewars Fish — The art of large scale sign writing lives on in New York, USA through the work of Colossal Media A full gallery of their work is available on their site but here are a couple of highlights, one more old school and one much more […]

Colossal Media

This entry was posted in Related Work and tagged Alcohol Colossal Media Dewars Games Grand Theft Auto GTA Illustration Modern Brickads New York Slogan USA Whisky on June 20, 2007 by Sam Roberts