Note 1 — Chapter I · GENERAL SURVEY OF SIGNBOARD HISTORY.
Reading edition
Sir Gardiner Wilkinson’s Ancient Egyptians, vol. iii. p. 158. Also, Rosellini Monumenti dell’Egitto e della Nubia.
[2] Aristotle, Problematum x. 14: “As with the things drawn above the shops, which, though they are small, appear to have breadth and depth.”
[3] “He hung the well-known sign in the front of his house.”
[4] Hearne, Antiq. Disc., i. 39.
[5] “When the mice were conquered by the army of the weasels, (a story which we see painted on the taverns.)”
[6] Lib. ii. sat. vii.: “I admire the position of the men that are fighting, painted in red or in black, as if they were really alive; striking and avoiding each other’s weapons, as if they were actually moving.”
[7] De Oratore, lib. ii. ch. 71: “Now I shall shew you how you are, to which he answered, ‘Do, please.’ Then I pointed with my finger towards the Cock painted on the signboard of Marius the Cimberian, on the New Forum, distorted, with his tongue out and hanging cheeks. Everybody began to laugh.”
[8] Hist. Nat., xxxv. ch. 8: “After this I find that they were also commonly placed on the Forum. Hence that joke of Crassus, the orator. . . . On the Forum was also that of an old shepherd with a staff, concerning which a German legate, being asked at how much he valued it, answered that he would not care to have such a man given to him as a present, even if he were real and alive.”
[9] “There were, namely, taverns round about the Forum, and that picture [the Cock] had been put up as a sign.”
[10] The Bush certainly must be counted amongst the most ancient and popular of signs. Traces of its use are not only found among Roman and other old-world remains, but during the Middle Ages we have evidence of its display. Indications of it are to be seen in the Bayeux tapestry, in that part where a house is set on fire, with the inscription, Hic domus incenditur, next to which appears a large building, from which projects something very like a pole and a bush, both at the front and the back of the building.
[11] In Cædmon’s Metrical Paraphrase of Scripture History, (circa A.D. 1000,) in the drawings relating to the history of Abraham, there are distinctly represented certain cruciform ornaments painted on the walls, which might serve the purpose of signs. (See upon this subject under “Religious Signs.”)
[12] The palace of St Laurence Poulteney, the town residence of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and also of the Dukes of Buckingham, was called the Rose, from that badge being hung up in front of the house:—
“The Duke being at the Rose, within the parish Of St Laurence Poultney.”—Henry VIII., a. i. s. 2.
“A house in the town of Lewes was formerly known as The Three Pelicans, the fact of those birds constituting the arms of Pelham having been lost sight of. Another is still called The Cats,” which is nothing more than “the arms of the Dorset family, whose supporters are two leopards argent, spotted sable.”—Lower, Curiosities of Heraldry.
[13] Rather a heavy fine, as the best ale at that time was not to be sold for more than three-halfpence a gallon.
[14] “Purchaser, be aware when you wish to buy books issued from my printing-office. Look at my sign, which is represented on the title-page, and you can never be mistaken. For some evil-disposed printers have affixed my name to their uncorrected and faulty works, in order to secure a better sale for them.”
[15] “We beg the reader to notice the sign, for there are men who have adopted the same title, and the name of Badius, and so filch our labour.”
[16] “Lastly, I must draw the attention of the student to the fact that some Florentine printers, seeing that they could not equal our diligence in correcting and printing, have resorted to their usual artifices. To Aldus’s Institutiones Grammaticæ, printed in their offices, they have affixed our well-known sign of the Dolphin wound round the Anchor. But they have so managed, that any person who is in the least acquainted with the books of our production, cannot fail to observe that this is an impudent fraud. For the head of the Dolphin is turned to the left, whereas that of ours is well known to be turned to the right.”—Preface to Aldus’s Livy, 1518.
[17] The number of taverns in these ten shires was “686, or thereabouts.”
[18] “The original court roll of this presentation is still to be found amongst the records of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster.”—Lyson’s Env. of London, vol. iii. p. 74.
[19] “Whosoever shall brew ale in the town of Cambridge, with intention of selling it, must hang out a sign, otherwise he shall forfeit his ale.”
[20] “Art. XXIII.—Tavernkeepers must put up signboards and a bush. . . . Nobody shall be allowed to open a tavern in the said city and its suburbs without having a sign and a bush.”
[21] A Cheat loaf was a household loaf, “wheaten seconds bread.”—Nares’s Glossary.
[22] Froe—i.e. Vrouw, woman.
[23] This was in those days a slang term for a mistress.
[24] i.e. Walk about in St Paul’s during the dinner hour.
[25] “I have seen, hanging from the shops, shuttlecocks six feet high, pearls as large as a hogshead, and feathers reaching up to the third story.”
[26] “Koddige en ernstige opschriften op Luiffels, wagens, glazen, uithangborden en andere tafereelen door Jeroen Jeroense. Amsterdam, 1682.”
[27] “Het gestoffeerde Winkelen en Luifelen Banquet. H. van den Berg. Amsterdam, 1693.”
[28]
“Jacob was David’s nephew, but not his brother-in-law. All sorts of barbers’ tools ground here, also fishwives’ and butchers’ knives.”
[29]
“Moses was pick’d up among the rushes. Teeth and grinders drawn here.”
[30] The British Apollo, 1710, vol. iii. p. 34.
[31] Amusements for the Meridian of London, 1708, p. 72.
[32] Bell and the Dragon, still to be met on the signboard.
[33] Addison is wrong in this derivation, (see under Miscellaneous Signs, at the end.)
[34] From Martial and other Latin poets, we learn that it was usual for the bibliopoles of those days to advertise new works by affixing copies of the title-pages to a post outside their shops; but whether this method obtained in the last century, the history of Paternoster Row does not inform us.
[35] For the Three Balls of the Pawnbrokers, see under Miscellaneous Signs; for the Barber’s Pole, under Trades’ Signs.
[36] Probably John James Heidegger, director of the Opera, a very ugly man.
[37] For a full account of the “Exhibition,” see in the Supplement at the end of this work.
[38] The last streets that kept them swinging were Wood Street and Whitecross Street, where they remained till 1773; whilst in Holywell Street, Strand, not more than twenty years ago, some were still dangling above the shop doors. In the suburbs many may be observed even at the present day.
[39] Laws, Customs, Usages, and Regulations of the City and Port of London. By Alexander Pulling. London, 1854.
Under the 72d section of the 57 Geo. III. ch. 29, post. 315, Mr Ballantine, some years ago, decided against a pawnbroker’s sign being considered a nuisance, notwithstanding it projected over the footway, unless it obstructed the circulation of light and air, or was inconvenient or incommodious.
[40] Trades tokens were brass farthings issued by shopkeepers in the seventeenth century, and stamped with the sign of the shop and the name of its owner.
[41] Memorials of Nature and Art collected on a Journey in Great Britain during the Years 1802 and 1803. By C. A. G. Gœde. London, 1808. Vol. i. p. 68.
[42] Mementos, Historical and Classical, of a Tour through part of France, Switzerland, and Italy, in the Years 1821 and 1822. London, 1824.
[43] Un bon enfant is in French “a jolly good fellow,” as well as a “good child.”
[44] Taken from the Opera “La Somnambula.”
[45]
“Nature provides man with hair and beard, But I cut them both.”
[46]
“I devote my razors to all faces, And defy the criticism of faithful mirrors.”
[47] A sort of pun, “la belle occasion” implying the same idea that our shopkeepers express by their “Now is your time,” and similar puffs.
[48] Similar instances may also be occasionally met with in London; for instance, the Corsican Brothers, (Coffee-house, Fulham Road.)
[49] Two or three good examples are to be seen in the South Kensington Museum.
[50] Edwards’s Anecdotes of Painters, 1808, p. 117.
[51] J. T. Smith’s Nollekens and his Times, vol. i. p. 25.
[52] Tommy Burkett was the name of mine host. The painting is now gone, but the verses remain.
[53] M. A. Lower’s Essay on Family Nomenclature, vol. i. p. 201.