I always found this early tin sign from the Buerger Bros. Supply Company in Denver to be an interesting piece. The company used the slogan “Look Your BEST-It Pays” for their Daisy Hair Tonic product, which was made with quinine water. In the early 1900’s quinine water was all the rage as it was thought…
One of the more impressive pieces of early Americana is this Skinner’s Satin’s self-framed tin sign, circa 1900. The Skinner Satin brand of dyed yarn was well known for their early use of a cat image playing with a thread spool. In fact, this image was one of the more recognizable images in the 1900…
I have always loved the image on this tray which was produced by the Clysmic Springs Table Water Company, formerly based in Waukesha, WIsconsin. I often refer to this tray as the beauty and the beast image, simply because it is rare to find an advertising image with a beautiful woman on it portrayed next…
48th Annual Antique Bottle Show, St. Louis, MO, Sunday, March 18, 9am – 2pm Stop by the 48th Annual Antique Bottle and Jar Show this Sunday to see thousands of colorful antique glass and stoneware bottles. There will be over 115 tables worth of merchandise for sale at this show. Over the past 20 years, I…
Before the advent of the automobile in the late 1800’s, horse’s ruled the world for transportation. No one owned a horse without a saddle if they wanted a comfortable ride, and the Meyer-Bannerman Company in St. Louis, MO led the way in the U.S. for sales of their leather saddle ware. As a non-horseman, I…
I like this piece of advertising from the Kabo Corset Company for one simple reason…it is very unusual to find a more expensive piece of giveaway advertising memorabilia from this specific category. I don’t know why this is the case, but I suspect the idea of putting someone’s undergarments on full display for all to…
I have always liked the image on this Snow Boy Washing Powder Soap metal sign. I can only speculate the use of the Lautz Bros. & Company product would clean your clothes to look as white as fresh snow again. The use of a young boy gliding down a hill on his sled carrying…
I love this advertising sign because it has always been a great conversation piece for both collectors and non-collectors. The colorful image at first glance reminds me of a woman with a butterfly wing like appearance, perhaps coming out of her cocoon? While the eye typically goes to the top of the image, a closer…
The Moxie brand of soda was a very well-known soda brand which had a huge following in the Northeastern part of the United States for many years. This 1933 tin sign incorporated their commonly used slogan “distinctively different” in the advertisement. The use of the racing car was also something that collectors can find on…
Fake Signs being Passed off as Authentic A sad but realistic trend in the advertising collectibles hobby is fake signs being introduced into the market by some unscrupulous dealers. The cause of this is simple: antique signs bring extraordinary prices created by the strong demand from a very limited supply of antique items to their…