|
|
The sad decline of the English pub has recently awakened interest amongst dealers and collectors in its few surviving pictorial signs. The best examples of these - competently painted traditional subjects
![]() Of course all trade signs have ancient origins. The necessity of displaying a symbol to advertise goods, a craft or profession, must be as old as trade itself. Until recent times most people could not read but a picture was easily understood, even by a foreign trader. Long before the earliest towns were established, itinerant merchants would have displayed some emblem of the goods or services they offered, typically attached to a tall staff. In Ancient Rome the shop sign was well established. There is a carving on an inn in Pompeii of two brewers shouldering a pole from which is slung a large barrel. This exact image can still be seen today on at least one Oxfordshire pub called The Two Brewers. However the carved stone phallus over the doorway of a Pompeii brothel remains to this day a lone example, advertising that other ancient profession. ![]() ![]() Country pub names recognised rural activities; Wheatsheaf, Barley Mow, Drovers' Arms, Woolpack, Plough (there was a Plough and Ship, an odd combination now gone), and of course lots of Bulls (red, Black and Pied), Horses (White and Black), and Nag's Heads. In the shires the sporting activities, mainly of the gentry, were commemorated in such pub names as Fox and Hounds, Hare and Hounds, The Talbot, Stag, Pheasant, Huntsman, Dog and Duck and Bird in Hand (Falconry). ![]() For whatever the historical reasons, Britain is the repository of this huge variety of drinking establishments with colourful names and signs. In the 17th and 18th centuries signage across the whole of Europe seems to have developed along similar lines and the carvings which hung from the wrought iron brackets outside a Parisian 'Gantier', and a London 'Glover' would have been very similar. ![]() Grierson Gower started his career in the antiques trade in 1963 as a “runner” – taking antiques to the door of established antique shops to sell from his car. Dealing in architectural antiques, fairground art, shop and pub interiors and advertising art he soon emerged with his own business, Relic, in 1964, trading from the Chelsea Antiques Market on the Kings Road. After four hectic years in the thriving and very fashionable centre, he moved to Islington Green in North London to open his own shop where notable sales included a horse drawn hearse to Jack Palance, a well known American film star of the day. After Islington Green came Camden Lock and Camden Passage in North London where he and partner Malcolm Glikstein traded before their move to Brillscote Farm in Wiltshire in the late 1970s where they held the famous regular auctions of their eclectic stock – the auctions were attended by most of the well known British, American and Continental trade. Grierson’s next stop was at the Antiques Emporium in Tetbury, Gloucestershire and then Bath, Somerset. Grierson now trades exclusively from his private address just south of Bath where he is available by appointment only. Grierson Gower Bath Somerset Email Grierson Gower |
|
|
The sad decline of the English pub has recently awakened interest amongst dealers and collectors in its few surviving pictorial signs. The best examples of these - competently painted traditional subjects
![]() Of course all trade signs have ancient origins. The necessity of displaying a symbol to advertise goods, a craft or profession, must be as old as trade itself. Until recent times most people could not read but a picture was easily understood, even by a foreign trader. Long before the earliest towns were established, itinerant merchants would have displayed some emblem of the goods or services they offered, typically attached to a tall staff. In Ancient Rome the shop sign was well established. There is a carving on an inn in Pompeii of two brewers shouldering a pole from which is slung a large barrel. This exact image can still be seen today on at least one Oxfordshire pub called The Two Brewers. However the carved stone phallus over the doorway of a Pompeii brothel remains to this day a lone example, advertising that other ancient profession. ![]() ![]() Country pub names recognised rural activities; Wheatsheaf, Barley Mow, Drovers' Arms, Woolpack, Plough (there was a Plough and Ship, an odd combination now gone), and of course lots of Bulls (red, Black and Pied), Horses (White and Black), and Nag's Heads. In the shires the sporting activities, mainly of the gentry, were commemorated in such pub names as Fox and Hounds, Hare and Hounds, The Talbot, Stag, Pheasant, Huntsman, Dog and Duck and Bird in Hand (Falconry). ![]() For whatever the historical reasons, Britain is the repository of this huge variety of drinking establishments with colourful names and signs. In the 17th and 18th centuries signage across the whole of Europe seems to have developed along similar lines and the carvings which hung from the wrought iron brackets outside a Parisian 'Gantier', and a London 'Glover' would have been very similar. ![]() Grierson Gower started his career in the antiques trade in 1963 as a “runner” – taking antiques to the door of established antique shops to sell from his car. Dealing in architectural antiques, fairground art, shop and pub interiors and advertising art he soon emerged with his own business, Relic, in 1964, trading from the Chelsea Antiques Market on the Kings Road. After four hectic years in the thriving and very fashionable centre, he moved to Islington Green in North London to open his own shop where notable sales included a horse drawn hearse to Jack Palance, a well known American film star of the day. After Islington Green came Camden Lock and Camden Passage in North London where he and partner Malcolm Glikstein traded before their move to Brillscote Farm in Wiltshire in the late 1970s where they held the famous regular auctions of their eclectic stock – the auctions were attended by most of the well known British, American and Continental trade. Grierson’s next stop was at the Antiques Emporium in Tetbury, Gloucestershire and then Bath, Somerset. Grierson now trades exclusively from his private address just south of Bath where he is available by appointment only. Grierson Gower Bath Somerset Email Grierson Gower |
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Contact Us