Country Images Magazine Derby Edition September 2017 | Page 26

Antiques
DERBYSHIRE ANTIQUES & COLLECTIBLES
by Maxwell Craven
Modern Collectibles
ENAMEL
ADVERTISING SIGNS
When I was young, I tended to take enamel advertising signs rather for granted. One
could see them on shops in the villages in which lived various aunts and grandparents;
they could be found especially at motor garages and adorning the railway. For
instance, on the main line from East Grinstead to London (Victoria) which I travelled
a lot as a child and in my youth they could be seen fi xed to the fences at wayside
stations like Lingfi eld, Riddlesdown and Dormansland.
More so they embellished the retaining walls as one approached Clapham
Junction, mainly all the same: orange rectangles advertising the virtues
of something called Virol. (Virol, by the way, was a malt extract vitamin
preparation which, I was told by friends at school, was really mildly pleasant
unlike radio malt. For the last forty years or so it seems to have vanished).
But I digress. A Virol sign might set you back £60 or £70 in good condition;
it is collectable because, although they all looked the same at fi rst glance,
the slogan beneath the name varied – ‘School children need it’, ‘Anaemic
girls need it’ or ‘For health and Vitality’. More to the point, they are also
collectible because the product is extinct.
Th e further back in time a product ceased to be sold, the more collectible
the sign will be. Another factor that makes a sign collectible is rarity. Th us,
generally, early ones, and more especially local ones. Quite small local outfi ts
would commission a batch of enamel on iron signs and, where they survive,
like the two I spotted when my wife and I were touring the Sussex and Kent
coasts in July: an interestingly shaped Tylers of Tonbridge (a snip at £35,
being largely un-corroded) and a nice brewery one from East Grinstead,
which in good condition would cost at least £100-£120, with corrosion, as
here, £70-£90.
26 | CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk
Th ey are also a veritable palimpsest of the remorseless changes in social
mores: witness the Craven ‘A’ cigarette sign: which declares that their ciggies
‘will not aff ect your throat.’ Th e cigarettes were originally made to order
for George Grimston, 3 rd Earl of Craven, in the mid-19 th century, and his
commission endowed the manufacturers with a sort of noble warrant under
which they were permitted to launch a ‘named brand’. Not so good for the
old lungs though, by today’s medical doctrine!
Condition is the main issue with these decorative signs. Once they get a
knock and a small area of the enamel comes off , the iron beneath begins
to oxidise and expand with visually messy results. Worse, it is hard to stop
it spreading. Furthermore, tightening up the fastenings too hard when
erecting them, usually cracks the enamel around the fi xing holes, which then
gradually take the weather and spread. Also, some users used fi xing methods
of their own - drilling their own holes or clamping the edges - with the same
lamentable result.
Th e commoner products should not cost a great deal. I saw ‘Players Please’ at
Kedleston in June, in moderate condition, for £100 – probably a bit on the
high side as it was without doubt post-war. With it was a Schweppes sign
of even more recent vintage but more reasonably priced at £50, although it