ADVICE ON COLLECTING ADVERTISING

Hello hope all is well, this new section added to my website will contain a wide range of information and personals advice on all areas of antique advertising. When I started dealing and collecting myself I was lucky enough to have some amazing tutors and veterans in all areas of advertising. I managed to absorb and learn a lot of valuable information from all of them. I realised that not everyone coming into the world of advertising, colllecting and dealing has that access to mentors and knowledgeable people, so I thought that I would add this section to my website to try and help all the new people and the younger people get into the hobby without incontering problems or spending unnecessary money. On this page I will be covering advertising signs, showcards, tins, cabinets, cigarette packets and all other areas. From how to spot restoration, things to look out for to tell if the signs original, how to date items. And just tips on how to spot certain things that you will need to know to have a successful and pleasant time in the hobby. I have also made this page as the increasing of price has driven the newer and younger audience scared to start, as I receive many emails weekly asking on the best way to start and how to spot problems that you should be aware of. This will all be personal advice I am no expert but it's just what's helped me get into the advertising world. Its only a guideline.

My first form of advice would be to buy a scrap book and Watch advertising items or whatever area interest you the most go through online auctions, print the images off and stick down writing the description the auctioneer has give and the price realised. This will not give you an exact price as sometimes auctions get carried away and the price could differ dramatically. I am a big believer in an item is worth what anyone is willing to pay. This scrap book will be like a bible to you once you've fillled it like I did mine. You will always be able to refer back to the contents of the book anytime this will also give you a good idea on what you can be expected to pay for a certain item and if the market is staying buoyant. 

My secound piece of advice to someone starting out would be to make sure you make a physical appearance to as many advertising fairs/antique fairs this will allow you to get familiar with people that are in the advertising circle. Also don't be afraid to string a conversation with them as I've never had a bad interaction with any in the circle as it is a very welcoming hobby. You may even be lucky enough to purchase a bargain, everybody rates prices differently.

My third piece of advice would be buy what you like, I'm a massive believer in buying what you like from a dealers perspective and a collector. If you like it as a dealer then the item not selling straight away isn't so much of a problem as you can enjoy the ownership. Not necessarily the rarest items are the most visual or likeable so as long as you like it that's all that matters. 
 

last piece of advice before we dove into the more physical advice would be buy the best you can afford. The best thing about the advertising world is that there are many items that can fit everybody's budget. Even if it's from a £3 cigarette packet up to a heavy money enamel sign. They are all considered a milestone in the history books. The meaning of best you can afford is focus on condition as this will be one of the main factors collectors would focus on as it really does set the standards apart from a rougher example. When looking at condition don't only look at scratches and damage, also take in to consideration, gloss, fading, colour loss this will allow you to buy as close to mint as you can get. If the price appreciates then having bought the best condition you will be in the top  price bracket if you ever wanted to shift it on. 
 

ADVERTISING SIGNS. 
Advertising signs have been at the forefront of collecting when it comes to advertising for a number of years now and some have got to large sums of money, often referred to as working man's art I feel that is the right word for it. Beautiful bright colours stunning pictorials all made in an industrial manner. From starting with a sheet of iron or the later example steel, cutting to shape, applying a base layer, stencilling the design on by a hand crafted stencil, then applying the powdered glass ready for the firing of the colours.This would be fired multiple times. There you have it a brief run down on how enamels are made.What a beautiful end result. 
Buying advertising signs

spotting reproductions
The first thing you need to make sure when buying an advertising sign is you need to make sure that the sign you are buying is original. This is plays a large part in why I am taking my time to put this information on my website. There is nothing more disheartening to me than a new collector being taken advantage of and being sold a reproduction sign and often paying heavy prices for them. This really does affect people's confidence in becoming part of the hobby. It's also seen as art fraud in my eyes. Unfortunately people have seen opportunities to make rip off versions of genuine signs being driven by greed, which is a massive threat to the survival of the advertising community. So I will listing the main things you need to look at when buying an is enamel sign. 
 

First thing to take into account when buying your first enamel sign and the first telltale sign that it's the genuine article would be the rear of the sign, this is in some cases art work in itself. It's also something that the con artist haven't managed to perfect yet. The back of the sign should itself be enamelled in a way in which it was used to protect the sign from any weather from the brickwork this will give the sign a nice glazed type colour. Depending on how early the sign is this could range from being completely grey which you will see on some sign manufactured from the earlier company such as pantent enamel company & Falkirk iron works. You will also see remains of the enamelling colour from the front running round the edges of the back of the sign in a chaotic pattern. This is from when the powered glass was fired the excess ran onto the back, hence the multitude of colours. Some enamels even have a batch number enamel to the back such as 33 ect these where brushed on before firing. A great example of this is my John ginger enamel sign for Huntley and palmers the rear of the sign being shown in (image 1).

I will now compare this to a Reproduction reverse of the sign hopefully this will help give some pointers. The more recent reproduction to the market have a more gloss black theme on the back and a mockery of the enamel swirling what looks like paint splatters. Some of the repros included very bright orange rusting to the rear to try and trick people in to beliving it's genuine aging which is horrendous. Sometimes they will even go to the extremes of painting the batch number to the rear. I belive they use a type of liquid nitrogen to perform the rust process and speed it up. Unfortunately I still see these go through high end auction houses listed as originals and people get caught out. I've attached an image of the back of a reproduction fremlins elephant (image 2) you can see the horrendous job. The only time a genuine enamel should have a black back is if it's a later example for example spratts enamel signs from the 40/50s or if it's a 1970s garnier sign which I class as a reproduction in my eyes. 

The next precautions you can take to insure that the signs that you buy are 100% correct and orignal is to check the sizes and screw hole positions and the amount of screw holes. This can be a great way of checking. The best thing to do would be look for a beat up example of the sign online (this will give you more confidence it's original) and check the measurements of it. Then compare this to the one you are looking to buy and if they are not within a few cm of the original one then I would personally leave it. mostly signs are batch made with nice even or round number such at 36" x 24" so that could be another factor to help you along the way. The screw holes also play an important part as some of the original have more screw holes than the copies made and also placed differently around the sign. So also look at this as a comparison. Do not completely rely on this method to guarantee originality as some enamels could have had extra holes drilled in the past for them to be used as coverings for allotments or sheds. In the odd case the reproduction is the same size as the orignal hence I wouldn't rely on this factor but it's a good help in some cases. 

The other major and probably most important giveaway with a reproduction enamel sign, is the front with the advertising. I've seen some shocking examples in the time I've been buying signs from spelling mistakes to wrong colours, nothing would surprise  me. The first thing I would say to look for would be the type face with the lettering sometimes this can be really quite awful. Sounds daft but spelling mistakes would be something I'd first look for as this would give you an answer rather quickly. The next I would see if all the letters look to a similar size to one another as this is another mistake the fakers make. Once seeing a few signs you will soon pick up on how crisp the lettering should be and how it should all be symmetrical and very nice line ups, as these where master craftsman making these stencils. The colour is anothe factor to take into account, some reproduction colours can be really quite shocking with some almost being fluorescent colours used instead of pastille type colouring. Again the orange type rusting can usually be a problem on the front of the sign as well as the back. As you can see In my comparison of 2 fremlins elephant enamel signs. In image 3&4 this is quite an easy to spot comparison that is why I used it sometimes it's a lot harder to spot them. You can really see the use of the fake rusting effect on image 3 and also you can see the quality difference. The difference shows that Image 4 (the original) is far superior. 

Hopefully this helps some of you new collectors get into the world of enamel signs as it really is a brilliant hobby with some exceptional people what quickly become very good friends. I am aware that some reproduction are sold to people purely as a cheap kitchen decoration. I have absolutely no issue with this my major issue is seeing people selling reproduction and not telling people which to me is fraud. Also seeing the, go through big auction houses with no mention that they are reproduction, and seeing people spend a fortune on something that isn't a month old. 

Repair to enamel signs 

The next area I am going to go through is the world of restored enamel signs. I've seen signs restored in all sorts of manner from the usual body filler and paint, to varnishing to being back gloss, metal work from welding, frames to hide edges. These are all considered repair work in my eyes. Again I don't see repair work as a problem as it's personal preference I like to think repairing it is giving the enamel a new lease of life but I can see the other side of that scale that the most orignal form is the best. It all depends on your personal opinion, I would only use the option of repair if it's a very rare sign what's had a rather hard life. As long as the repair has been mentioned to the buyer their is absolutely no issues with repair apart from the obvious difference in the price to a mint one. 
 

I have added an Image of a rare Thompsons brewery enamel sign. This is a good example of the use of welding and body filler with paint on a restoration of this enamel. When I first bought the sign it was in a rather rough state see (image 5) as you can see rather a few holes in the enamel. The first procedure that was done to this specific enamel would have been the welding to patch the holes as you can see from the reverse of the sign in (image  6). A very fine and tidy Job was done on the welding on the Thompson enamel with the welding fitting flush to the rear so will not effect the mounting to the wall. Welding enamel signs is a exceptionally hard process as it has to be done at lower temperatures to avoid further enamel loss usually using heavily water soaked cloth around the area to keep it cool. I would not encourage trying to weld one yourself. Next a freelance sign writer that I usually use filled the enamel damage and new welded metal areas with car body filler and sanded it down flush with the surface of the enamel. After this is done he then proceeds to paint over the filler with specialist paints mixed. Speaking with him the hardest part is mixing the paints to match the orignal colours on the sign. This can be a very hard task especially on the thompsons sign as shown. The emeral green is rather hard to mix. With that being said I think he made a rather brilliant job of colour matching. Shown on (image 7) is the final result in which I was very pleased with. I was lucky enough last year to of found a example with no repair at all I have added an image of this (image 8). This allows you to see the difference in the repaired example and the orignal. To me the first part that sticks out being the labels on the bottles on the repaired example. The lining up on the labels and the colours are slightly off as can be seen compared to the orignal. But apart from this I felt that the restoration was very precise and well executed. This gives you all a good idea how hard repair can be to spot. 
 

tips on spotting repair 

when it comes to spotting repair it can be a rather gruelling challenge especially with how well this can be executed by a skilled hand nowadays. To the untrained eye it's nearly impossible on some enamel signs. I will now go over some of the tips and tricks that I have learnt from mentors and taught myself after making mistakes. This is just my personal advice I am no expert, but I feel that when I first started in the advertising world a report like what I have written here would of helped me massively. Mostly people are usually honest when it comes to buying a repaired sign with a good knowledge of where the repair has been orchestrated and they should let you know this. These tips that I will be giving would only really need to be used if buying a sign where the person selling it didn't see the sign in the orignal state. Also it's always good to know what to look for.  
 

The first thing when looking for repair on a sign is to rub your hands over the face of the enamel sometimes if the restoration is older the filler can become unsettled and this will allow your to feel abrasions and slightly bumping in the paint. This is a great indicator that there has been an area worked on. Sometimes you can even see bubbling in the paint work and if the mix hasn't matched very well you can easily see the difference in the colouring. Wording looking slightly wonky or different thickness in lines. Sometimes the restoration is just not good enough and you can easily spot. So physical touching the face on the sign and using your sight probably 2 of the most important things. 
 

A more recent way of spotting restoration In the modern way would be to invest in a UV torch. The torch picks up filler and paint very well and it's rather obvious when the light picks up on the filler with a darker colour. This is a brilliant way and really is a game changer. obviously this isn't always practical as sometimes you could be buying a sign in daylight but using the sun to your full advantage. Sometimes as simple as tilting the sign to the right angle in sunlight has the same affect as the torch. This shows up restoration a treat as the slight difference in colour really can be seen. As I've learnt myself in the past never buy an enamel sign in a dark room it never ends well! 

spotting metal work and welding being replaced is usually a rather easy procedure as you'd think a brand new shiny piece of metal to the back would stick out like a sour thumb. Craftily when I first started I bought a couple of signs which really did catch me out on the welding side. One of them was in  frame, which at the time I thought reallly made it a nice displayable enamel and easier for hanging, until one day sunlight caught the sign and I saw a slight difference in the paint work to the front, having bought the sign as good condition I was rather shocked. Taking the back off the frame really did open a horror story at least 3 areas on the sign had been welded heavily. So always question a frame, unless the sign is known for being in a frame eg palethorpes enamel (image 9) and others. You will soon know if the frame is an orignal feature to the sign because of how the frame is fitted. Flat headed screws, early tack nails, or look at other examples to see if they feature a frame. The second time I had a sign that was welded without knowing was when I purchased a sign from an antique fair, at first no signs of any new metal to the rear so was quite happy to purchase. On upon cleaning the back of the sign I noticed a black dye in certain areas on the rear, after using a key to scratch at the dye I soon realised that there was a few areas where new peices of steel had been added and black over with dye to hide this. Very underhanded technique indeed so be very cautious. 
 

I hope this helps new people into the hobby. Repair shouldn't be frowned upon. The only time I frown upon it is when it hasn't been stated to a buyer of the sign. 
 

Advertising tins 

when it comes to buying tins I feel it's a very appropriate way of getting into collecting advertising. Unlike signs you do not need a large amount of cash to start. You can find some beautiful tins for under £100 with some really great history behind it. Although a lot of tins where produced you have to keep in mind that after use they where supposed to of been disposed of unlike signs that where repurposed and used for years. The quality to the printing on some of the tins (especially Victorian and Edwardian) is absolutely astonishing (as shown in image 10)  The use of vibrant colours and beautiful detail in every part of the image, all of this for it to be used to hold some products and then to be disposed of. We are only able to buy and access these works of art today thankfully to the ancestors not being wasteful and reusing the tins. Another reason tins have become so popular to collectors and such a great thing to collect is the ability to match them to something you are interested in, if you have an interest in tennis there are tins with images of golfers, or any other sport. Also being able to collect a set of tins is rather rewarding as many makes come in different sizes or different images etc which makes collecting a set quite a nice hobby. 

advice on tins 

My personal opinion/advice when buying tins, firstly would be like signs, buy the best you can possibly afford, I've always found in anything advertising quality is better than quantity. Focus mainly on condition as this will benefit you throughout collecting not only would it look better on display in your collection, if you ever decided to sell your collection there wouldn't be a problem selling in a short space of time as other collectors prioritise condition which they will pay a premium for. Another important factor to focus one when collecting tins is rarity, this could mean rare sizes (sample sizes) or early/rare manufactures. Just because a tin is rare doesn't necessarily mean it is appealing to the eye, sample tea tins for example are classed as rare due to their survival, and the large collecting nature around them. 

Vehicle tins are also a lovely area for collecting as they served a dual purpose as a toy after the contents were consumed. This gives them a massive appeal to both toy and advertising collectors. Manufacturers designed vehicle tins to give the household 2 things in one, one being a storage container filled with goodies. 
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