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I really enjoy the style of old signs from the early 1900's and on up through the 50's and was wondering if any of you have any good ideas on books and styles of lettering you have seen that would be worth reading.
I collect old signs and they just seem to have so much more charm and quality to them then many of the signs you see today.
The style seemed very simple and straight forward and even the colors were just plain but yet they have this rare quality about them.
If you know of any good books on lettering from this era please let me know.
I find my interest is really in just doing old style hand painted signs at this point in time along with pinstriping panels.
Thanks for your help. Jimmy Hill
-------------------- Jim Hill Nostalgic Racing Decals Inc. 637 Sedgewick Way Palm Harbor, Florida. 34683 jimbo1734683@yahoo.com Posts: 22 | From: Palm Harbor, Florida | Registered: Jan 2004
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Good morning Jim, hey, could you be my long lost twin!!?? My interests lay in the sme area, brush, old and new!
Look for H.C. Martin's 1000 practical showcard layouts - 1930 edition, or a newer one, 1960's, all lettering. all the time. also E C Matthews book on Sign Painting Course, i picked up a 1960 edition, lots of window lettering from 40-50's at the back. I go to used book stores whereever and whenever i can, the Matthews book was 10.00 cdn (about 50 cents us!haha)...how far from Spearfish, SD to Palm Harbour??lol
John Lennig / SignRider I'd love to see your old sign collection...how far from Spearfish, SD to
-------------------- John Lennig / Big Top Sign Arts 5668 Ewart Street, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada bigtopya@hotmail.com 604.451.0006 Posts: 2184 | From: Burnaby, British Columbia,Canada | Registered: Nov 2001
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You will find much of the information you seek on those pages. Hope it helps!
Mike Jackson
-------------------- Mike Jackson Golden Era Studios Jackson Hole, Wy www.goldenstudios.com/ Posts: 390 | From: PO Box 7850 | Registered: Nov 1998
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Mike Jackson's list is sufficiently comprehensive,with Lotti's addition of Mike's own work. And then a decade ago or so, Gary Anderson had a bunch of us render Atkinson's book in color. That one is published by Signs of the Times.
-------------------- Bruce Williams Lexington KY Posts: 945 | From: Lexington, KY, USA | Registered: Mar 1999
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Gary Anderson organized the effort by assigning the plates in the old Atkinson book. Signs of the Times printed one plate each month until they were all shown in the magazine, then used the separations to print the book at a liveable price. David Butler did the cover art.
Later, Gary organized the secondary plates found in the Billboard section of some of the editions of the Atkinson book. Those pieces were brought to the Bloomington meeting and displayed there for all to see. A Magazine About Letterheads (AMAL)featured many of them in their magazines, but I don't think they ever made it to a book.
The Colorized Atkinson Plates Book is a very nice book to own, but the old original is top of my list.
The image above was my entry to the colorized book. That piece was done about 16 years ago.
-------------------- Mike Jackson Golden Era Studios Jackson Hole, Wy www.goldenstudios.com/ Posts: 390 | From: PO Box 7850 | Registered: Nov 1998
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What Mike said. Also Gary started to do the Henderson's manual, some of which were displayed at LetterRip in Bloomington, IL in 1991. My entries for the Atkinson project are on my site. It is still interesting to compare the originals with the colorized versions we did. The colorized book ISBN 0-944094-04-X. Using the titles from Mike, you can do a rare book search for many of the titles.
-------------------- Kent Smith Smith Sign Studio P.O.Box 2385, Estes Park, CO 80517-2385 kent@smithsignstudio.com Posts: 1025 | From: Estes Park, CO | Registered: Nov 1998
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Robert, Fortunately, the Atkinson book was sold for quite a few years and is relatively common. The original printing was in 1909. I see them on eBay quite often, though you might have to pay upwards of $100 to get an original. Signs of the Time reprinted that book in the mid-80s and you can find those around on occasions. Keep searching!
Also, the plate I was assigned was originally described as a muslin banner. When I asked Gary Anderson about it, he said they really didn't care what materials we used, so I made my project in reverse glass, using the colors Atkinson specified. I added the border elements to frame the design.
Overall, the craftsmanship of all the finished pieces was great! If you get a chance to pick one of the Colorized books, don't pass it up.
-------------------- Mike Jackson Golden Era Studios Jackson Hole, Wy www.goldenstudios.com/ Posts: 390 | From: PO Box 7850 | Registered: Nov 1998
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I have the 1982 version of the Strong book (#2 on Mike's list) up on the Letterville Auction right now. It has about 18 hours left to go on it.
-------------------- Kimberly Zanetti Purcell www.amethystProductivity.com Folsom, CA email: Kimberly@AmethystProductivity.com
“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” AA Milne Posts: 3722 | From: Folsom, CA | Registered: Dec 2001
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