| is modern era of mass marketing, we are | | | | decorating theme of your home or business. |
| bombarded by electronic messages. After awhile, | | | | Many companies would provide merchants with |
| advertising and promotions all start to sound, feel | | | | durable metal and tin signs in order to promote |
| and look the same. There was a time when the | | | | their products. Among the most popular collectible |
| perfect combination of artistry, imagination and | | | | signs are those that have anything to do with |
| originality could be found in vintage metal and tin | | | | Coca Cola. Coke was able to create their brand |
| signs. Many of todays most recognizable brand | | | | by extensive promotion. From big cities to rural |
| names got their start as metal signs. | | | | farming communities, merchants who offered |
| Products too numerous to mention have been | | | | Coke products for sale may have had several |
| promoted with a style and wit that today seems | | | | metal signs advertising that fact. |
| all too nostalgic. Vintage tin and metal signs were | | | | Manufacturers of tractors and other farm |
| produced by the hundreds of thousands from the | | | | equipment produced metal signs that were often |
| mid eighteen hundreds through the advent of | | | | fixtures at general stores, Grange halls and feed |
| television in the late nineteen forties. Most were | | | | stores all over the country. Companies such as |
| painted or screen printed using enamel paint and | | | | John Deere, International Harvester and Ford |
| many were given a porcelain overcoat to increase | | | | produced many styles of metal signs. These farm |
| their durability. The irony of all this is that many | | | | equipment signs are favorites among collectors of |
| vintage metal signs outlived the very companies | | | | items that reflect classic Americana. |
| and products they were meant to promote. | | | | The great outdoors and the sporting life are |
| This is not say that metal signs have completely | | | | amply represented by a number of famous brand |
| disappeared from the landscape. Highways signs, | | | | names. Metal signs from Winchester, Remington |
| street signs and metal signs of kinds are still with | | | | and other gun producers helped to create these |
| us, though most serve a more utilitarian purpose. | | | | now famous brand names. Much of the illustrative |
| The golden age of vintage metal signs has been | | | | artwork used for this genre was produced by |
| maintained through reproductions and the zeal of | | | | some of the best known artists and illustrators of |
| collectors to preserve a piece of advertising and | | | | the day. The combination of beauty nature |
| artistic history. | | | | illustrations and catchy slogans make metal |
| Aging metal and tin signs that have begun to rust | | | | depicting the growing market in sporting goods. |
| should never be refinished. Vintage metal signs | | | | No discussion of vintage metal and tin signs is |
| that are in good condition are highly prized by | | | | complete without looking at the automobile |
| collectors. A little rust may devalue the sign just a | | | | industry. The famous slogan used by the Packard |
| bit, but the nostalgic value is priceless. When | | | | Company, ask the man who owns one, was |
| buying any type of antique or collectible signs, the | | | | made popular in prints ads and was emblazoned |
| well informed collector must be able to know the | | | | on a variety of metal signs. Other early car |
| difference between vintage metal signs and | | | | manufacturers such as Studebaker, Desoto, |
| reproductions. The rule is always buyer beware. | | | | Dodge and Ford produced metal signs that are |
| Reproductions of famous metal signs can be | | | | clearly classics. |
| found almost everywhere. Even though they are | | | | Whether advertising or just for decoration, metal |
| not true antiques, quality reproductions of metal | | | | and tin signs have a long history and provide us |
| and tin signs are a great way to accent the | | | | with a glimpse of the past. |