Add Charm With Vintage Original Signs
by Darryl Tilden
Some of the best investment grade collectibles are Americana, Antique Advertising, Sporting collectibles like Baseball cards, balls, glove jersey’s etc. Also Antique advertising with different brands of equipment, teams, all star player & Hall of Famers are very hot.. And brands like Coca Cola, Pepsi, and many others also use Sports Stars in their advertising campaigns.
These signs were made with different materials like Porcelain, Tin, paper, Cardboard, Glass, Masonite. Some of these early signs used the lithography process, Some were stenciled while others may have been hand painted. Furthermore Embossing or stamping of signs were also a technique used to add a nice effect, however these types of signs cost more to manufacture..
Transportation Signs—Gas & Oil
Some of the most well known collectible are transportation signs like Automobiles, Motorcycles, Bus Companies. Planes, Trains, Ships ,Boats. And Other very collectible companies are soda pop. hence, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Hires Root Beer, Orange Crush and these are just a few of the many soda brands. Gas & Oil signs are near the top and most valuable on the list for Old Advertising & there are many brands available, Some of the more popular brands would be, Mobil, Shell, Standard, Texaco, Gulf, Quaker State, Amoco, Clark, Exxon, Flying A, Fleetwing, Sinclair, Union 76. Hence these are just a few of the over 700 hundred brands listed on this website..(List of old Gas & Oil Companies)….
Some of the smaller more rare company signs are the most valuable. Also graphics on the sign add value. However if the sign is porcelain that also adds big value…..Some of the smaller company signs with graphics are Buffalo Gas, Mohawk Gasoline, Husky Gas, Billups, Gibble Gas, Marathon, Mustang. In addition Rainbow, Richfield, Red Head, Red Indian, Red Crown & Musco. A 48″ round Musco porcelain double sided sign in excellent condition just sold at auction for $250k….Also in the Gas & Oil collectible market we have Gas Pumps, Oil cans, Gas Globes, Maps etc…
Beer & Brewania Advertising
Then we have Brewania or Beer makers which are also very collectible..The same holds true for these, porcelain with graphics are very collectible. Just a few of these brands are…………Budweiser, Coors, Grain Belt, Miller, Schlitz, Hamms, Kato, Old Style, Old Milwaukee , Blatz and this list like Gas & Oil Companies would be extensive…
Also People collect all sorts of items today however Old Advertising Signs make very nice wall art for restaurant decor to high end man cave art..There are a lot of factors why and what brands people collect. Usually they have a strong connection with the brand, like growing up with it, or they may like certain graphics, they may work in that industry, functionality with clocks, etc. …….Vintage signs are not only seen as being beautiful also an exciting view of history,
Whatever the reasons for collecting vintage porcelain signs and tin signs could be, they create wonderful items of decor, conversation pieces and therefore are a fascinating item to collect. Finally If you’re a history enthusiast, antique advertising collecting is a great hobby since every antique advertising piece carries a story behind it.
