Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Lizzie_Zoom on 19 March 2011, 13:01:25
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I have posted a version of this on the Bus Nostalgia thread, but for those not interested in buses and coaches, I thought I would start a separate thread on this subject, which one way and another has affected our lives, even if you are young, old, or in-between! :D :D
Sign written advertisements were once part of our childhood; a wonderful form of artwork that fascinated certainly my young mind and has stayed with me ever since.
The enamel signs that still adorned so many railway walls, fences, chimneys, in fact everywhere you looked. No tatty paper, short term advertisements then, but long term statements of intent - we have a great product - it is quality - you should buy it, and it is here for good like our enamel sign!
In my early years in retailing, in the newsagent, confectioners and tobacco trade, quality advertisements for "Player's Senior Service", or "Weights Tipped", and Capstan Full Strength" cigarettes were still everywhere. Even confectionery could still be found in jars and tins; I still have a Squirrel's Confectionery tin that contained Floral Gums (mmmmmmmmm!!), which inside the lid proudly, permanently, states "Squirrel Confections" made by The Squirrel Confectionery Co. Ltd., Stockport, England
Although a container for use once, it was permanent; it reflected a society that was not going to change! It was there; British society, safe, stable, reliable, of quality, and permanent!! So were the enamel signs, and the other handwritten ones on the sides of the buses and coaches we have been reviewing. It was all quality, and then of course it was legal to advertise tobacco products, so with the vast majority of the population then smokers in some form or another, they were advertised everywhere!
To remind me of what we had then I have pictures in my many treasured railway books which show the "Virol" , "Castings West Yorkshire Foundries Ltd.", "Mackinlay's Scotch Whiskey", Drink Camp It's the best", "Sunlight Soap", "Player's Please!", and many more enamel advertising signs of a past golden age on railway walls of every description! Yes, the huge advertising hoardings were starting to reflect the "new" products of the exciting, different, age of the late 1950s and 1960s, with the paper-on advertisements. But the old enamel signs were still there, and the signwritten ones specifically for the sides of buses, above shop windows, and along the front of Pickford's and the like, were still reflecting another old skill, trade, that now, like so many of the products advertised, have gone. Swept aside by cheaper, international brands in a world were things do not need to last; so reflects the advertising hoardings with flimsy paper adverts, with no need for long term sign written forms! Quality, gone; longevity, gone; the skills and trades that went with them, gone!
Our brave new world has pushed aside the signwriters and enamel sign makers, with computer generated graphics doing everything far cheaper. But is it what we really love? History will tell! ;)
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...............and to remind you all of the type of signs involved that were still around in the 50s that I particularly loved!!
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk247/lizziefreeman/All%20Things%20Interesting/EnamelAdvertsigns.jpg)
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk247/lizziefreeman/All%20Things%20Interesting/fryssign.jpg)
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk247/lizziefreeman/All%20Things%20Interesting/robin-starch-advertising-sign.jpg)
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk247/lizziefreeman/All%20Things%20Interesting/lyonstea.jpg)
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk247/lizziefreeman/All%20Things%20Interesting/RowntreesSign.jpg)
and of course the Brand on the side of the bus in the Bus Nostalgia thread
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk247/lizziefreeman/All%20Things%20Interesting/StJulienSign.jpg)
...........and how it was on the side, top end, of horse drawn London Omnibuses (well before I was born!!! :D :D)
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk247/lizziefreeman/All%20Things%20Interesting/LastofLondonOmnibus.jpg)
If you would like to take a trip down memory lane, or to a time before you were born, I recommend you look at this site:
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=476&q=Railway+Enamel+Advertising+Signs&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=
8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) :y :y
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That remind me Lizzie ,with the price of petrol it may be back to the horse and cart ,
nostalgia wonderful :( ::)
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Well of course the art of signwriting is dead. Companies have the telly and internet to showcase their wares nowadays.
If we're not careful, buses and trains will replace the stagecoach as well.
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Well of course the art of signwriting is dead. Companies have the telly and internet to showcase their wares nowadays.
If we're not careful, buses and trains will replace the stagecoach as well.
are you suggesting one day steve we will all own our own means of transportation ie car and have no need for said horse drawn vehicle ::)
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Well of course the art of signwriting is dead. Companies have the telly and internet to showcase their wares nowadays.
If we're not careful, buses and trains will replace the stagecoach as well.
are you suggesting one day steve we will all own our own means of transportation ie car and have no need for said horse drawn vehicle ::)
No H, because Steve has realised we are all going back to the future and the expensive to run, hard to fuel, vehicles of today will be replaced by the very futuristic method of using horse drawn vehicles, which are sooo green and can run on recycled food! :P :P :P ;D ;D ;D ;D ;)
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Well of course the art of signwriting is dead. Companies have the telly and internet to showcase their wares nowadays.
If we're not careful, buses and trains will replace the stagecoach as well.
are you suggesting one day steve we will all own our own means of transportation ie car and have no need for said horse drawn vehicle ::)
No H, because Steve has realised we are all going back to the future and the expensive to run, hard to fuel, vehicles of today will be replaced by the very futuristic method of using horse drawn vehicles, which are sooo green and can run on recycled food! :P :P :P ;D ;D ;D ;D ;)
hence why this year i shall be using a baby from said animal and using shanks,s pony ;D
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on a serious note lz yes i love old signs and adverts there was time put into them and it showed,nowadays a woman runs through a hall draped in silk and a goose flys over her head while a piano on fire still plays a tune to a soldier smashing through a window holding a round box and inside that box is a glass bottle and in that bottle is a message that says HAD A TRIP OR FALL AT HOME OR AT WORK THEN CALL THE NATIONAL HELPDESK haha that actually sounds pretty cool,no its rubbish
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Yes H, totally different than a Pears Soap enamel sign. Straightforward, simple message, and permanent! 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-)
How many TV adverts, which of course reach a far bigger audience in one go than the Pears Soap signs ever could, give you a lasting message that lasts in your head? Some do, but as in the case of the example you describe, how many do we even understand, that give a clear message on the product and what it can do? :-/ :-/
So many I certainly forget very quickly, and what the real message was...............well that could be anyones guess! :D :D :D
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Yes H, totally different than a Pears Soap enamel sign. Straightforward, simple message, and permanent! 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-)
How many TV adverts, which of course reach a far bigger audience in one go than the Pears Soap signs ever could, give you a lasting message that lasts in your head? Some do, but as in the case of the example you describe, how many do we even understand, that give a clear message on the product and what it can do? :-/ :-/
So many I certainly forget very quickly, and what the real message was...............well that could be anyones guess! :D :D :D
Yes. But that has very little to do with the advert and more to do with your age. ;D ;D
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Yes H, totally different than a Pears Soap enamel sign. Straightforward, simple message, and permanent! 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-)
How many TV adverts, which of course reach a far bigger audience in one go than the Pears Soap signs ever could, give you a lasting message that lasts in your head? Some do, but as in the case of the example you describe, how many do we even understand, that give a clear message on the product and what it can do? :-/ :-/
So many I certainly forget very quickly, and what the real message was...............well that could be anyones guess! :D :D :D
Yes. But that has very little to do with the advert and more to do with your age. ;D ;D
But I am not that old Steve! ::) ::) ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;)
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All say ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! :D :D :D :-* :-* :-*
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk247/lizziefreeman/All%20Things%20Interesting/PearsSoap.jpg)
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk247/lizziefreeman/All%20Things%20Interesting/PearsSoap2.jpg)
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All say ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! :D :D :D :-* :-* :-*
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk247/lizziefreeman/All%20Things%20Interesting/PearsSoap.jpg)
I know we're skint but bubbles for dinner? Kinnel.
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk247/lizziefreeman/All%20Things%20Interesting/PearsSoap2.jpg)
Right. Let's see how long this little bastaard can hold it's breath.
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All say ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! :D :D :D :-* :-* :-*
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk247/lizziefreeman/All%20Things%20Interesting/PearsSoap.jpg)
I know we're skint but bubbles for dinner? Kinnel.
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk247/lizziefreeman/All%20Things%20Interesting/PearsSoap2.jpg)
Right. Let's see how long this little bastaard can hold it's breath.
Trust you!! ::) ::) ::)
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D :y
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Looking at that St.Julien advert for cigarettes - i had no idea how open victorian society was to homosexuality ;D
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Looking at that St.Julien advert for cigarettes - i had no idea how open victorian society was to homosexuality ;D
Have a look when you can BJ at the Camp Coffee adverts!! Talk about a hidden signals!! ;D ;D ;D ;)
It is I am sure where the term and description "camp" for certain men came from! :D :D ;)
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All say ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! :D :D :D :-* :-* :-*
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk247/lizziefreeman/All%20Things%20Interesting/PearsSoap.jpg)
I know we're skint but bubbles for dinner? Kinnel.
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk247/lizziefreeman/All%20Things%20Interesting/PearsSoap2.jpg)
Right. Let's see how long this little bastaard can hold it's breath.
brilliant. ;D ;D
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signwriting is something i took up at an early age, ive done a few shop signs & many a static steam & loco/ engine lining out mainly for bass museum. not done owt for years now though.
so, not a totally lost skill. :y
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signwriting is something i took up at an early age, ive done a few shop signs & many a static steam & loco/ engine lining out mainly for bass museum. not done owt for years now though.
so, not a totally lost skill. :y
Now that is a skill I admire RB! On the Mid Hants Railway I used to watch the experts line out, and transfer up engines and their tenders, a few of them having done it in BR days. What a delightful art, and the results on a well painted loco were stunning :-* :-* :-* 8-) 8-)
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& almost theraputic/relaxing tbh. i really did enjoy it.
i remember one day when i was at bass lining the robey tandem compound engine out, a lady came in & thought i was one of those dummies that museums have, until i moved, ha did she scream. ;D
i was good friends with ernie taylor, an ex br signwriter. he has done many a loco all over the country. strange how br laid him off then he went back to derby loco(when it was there) contracting painting loco,s. 8-)
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When I was a lad, a couple of roads away was a company called The Patent Enamel Company, who used to make those signs.
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When I was a lad, a couple of roads away was a company called The Patent Enamel Company, who used to make those signs.
You may then be interested in this piece on that company AA which I found fascinating:
http://streetjewellery.org/home/patent.html
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When I was a lad, a couple of roads away was a company called The Patent Enamel Company, who used to make those signs.
You may then be interested in this piece on that company AA which I found fascinating:
http://streetjewellery.org/home/patent.html
Thank Lizzie :y
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This is to me a prime, lovely and beautiful example of loco lining out at its best that Red Barron has touched on.
It is U Class 31806 on "my" railway, the Mid-Hants Railway at Ropley. One of many I have seen patiently lined out by hand by the experts, although the BR crest is in transfer form, but has to be applied with great care.
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk247/lizziefreeman/UClass31806.jpg)
and Bullied West Country Pacific Bodmin 34016 also at Ropley
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk247/lizziefreeman/y1pk176idNrUKOsZeQ7hIi6NvEKKrPdwXfQ.jpg)
8-) 8-) 8-) :y :y :y