Sutler Signs and Shop Signs - Live in the Nutmeg Tavern

0:12 [music]

0:22 We're getting started.

0:23 We're a little late because we messed up the audio, but we're here.

0:27 We're in the Nutmeg Tavern and I've got the Nutmeg and you've got the tap.

0:32 No, that's isn't it.

0:33 We're here in the Nutmeg Tavern and we're going

0:35 to have a great time talking about fun 18th century stuff.

0:38 And actually, this is an amazingly interesting

0:40 and very deep topic for something that seems

0:45 [music]

0:44 strange and esoteric to us today, but really, really [music]

0:49 interesting topic and one that is connected

0:51 with stuff that we've done for a long time.

0:54 We're talking about shop signs, signboards, et cetera.

0:59 And it is it's one of those things that we deal with every day today.

1:03 We drive places.

1:05 We you know, whatever we're doing,

1:07 we're we're interacting with signs constantly.

1:10 And I don't think most people give two seconds thought to it.

1:14 Especially how it relates to signage and concepts of, say,

1:20 the 18th century or much, much earlier.

1:24 So, I don't know why I even came up with this topic.

1:30 We can't even It was because of the book that we couldn't find.

1:32 You're like, wait, what about that Well,

1:33 but I I think I was actually working I wanted to find that book for this topic.

1:37 I come up with I don't know why I came up with this topic.

1:40 That's why most topics that we talk about today or on the live

1:44 stream are just one of those, hey, let's do this.

1:47 Um and I think we've specifically done a live stream on tavern signs, right?

1:52 But this is shop signs in general on the shop

1:55 and the sign concept in the first place.

1:58 And signs of the 18th century,

2:00 shop signs of the 18th century, tended to be very,

2:04 very graphic, as in graphical, not graphic as in violent or anything like that.

2:12 Um but they were they were pictures.

2:16 So, a lot of the signs we have today are all word-based.

2:21 And like logos or it's like we put a word in a font and that's the logo, right?

2:27 But in the 18th century,

2:29 logos and signs were were more like art and pictures because

2:35 especially in places like Great Britain and other parts of the world,

2:40 of course, literacy rate wasn't where it is today.

2:44 And so, pictures really helped that out.

2:47 And pictures would become I mean, in some cases,

2:51 you would use a picture of the something

2:53 that obviously connected with your trade.

2:56 And especially for trades where you're doing something,

2:59 it isn't the finished product so much as sometimes

3:03 the tools you would use or some something similar.

3:07 Sometimes things that we don't think are necessarily connected,

3:11 but in the 18th century were connected with the trade.

3:15 And I think the obvious one that I think would like make most people today go,

3:22 and how is that connected?

3:24 And they would call it the bush or a leaf or a branch

3:30 in the 18th century and it was used for drinking establishments.

3:34 And it's like, why a bush?

3:38 Why How does that connect to it?

3:39 Sometimes it's an ivy branch or something like that.

3:43 And it's because it's connected with Bacchus.

3:46 And that's the that's the connection.

3:49 And it's like today, we don't think about Bacchus very much, right?

3:53 But he's the the god of drink and wine and of drunkenness, et cetera.

3:58 And that's the connection.

4:01 And so, many of the tavern signs that we'll show or talk

4:05 about have some kind of bush connection or they have they double up.

4:10 They'll have a sign that'll have, say, like a boar's head.

4:15 Um and it'll have a bush connected to it, right?

4:19 It's like like two signs or one that's a signboard with a picture

4:23 and another which is actually a supposed to be a a bush itself.

4:28 So, a bunch of interesting connections

4:30 like that that we don't necessarily understand.

4:33 Some of our connections, and I don't think I got the picture out of the book.

4:39 It was this wonderful example where they showed a picture

4:45 of a um a drinking I think it was a wine establishment,

4:50 a seller of wines from from Rome.

4:55 So, you know, like 500 AD and one from Great Britain in 1700.

5:02 And it was the same thing.

5:04 It's like two guys with a stick between them

5:07 and they're carrying a big wine vat between them.

5:09 And it's the same one.

5:11 Like, you know, a thousand years between them

5:14 and the whole sign concept was the was exactly the same.

5:18 It's like, well, what's old is new again, right?

5:21 So, [snorts] lots of fun things there.

5:23 So, um the signage in especially the middle part or the early part

5:32 of the 18th century into the middle part of the 18th century in Great Britain.

5:36 So, 1700 to say 1750, 1760.

5:40 Is the golden era of the signboard

5:45 happening in Great Britain at the time period.

5:48 It got so amazingly extravagant that the signs

5:53 were huge and they would be golden.

5:56 They would have a giant metal work that holds it up.

6:00 That um that there there had they had to rein it in.

6:05 They had to create laws to stop it because

6:08 it was just it was getting just too much.

6:11 Um the book cited a particular reference where a sign fell down.

6:17 It was so big that it killed people.

6:19 And that was part of the it's like, okay, we can't have signs killing people.

6:24 We're going to have to we're have to rein this in.

6:26 We're going to change the rules.

6:28 Now, that may be apocryphal from the book itself.

6:32 I didn't have a chance to really dig back and see if I could find the actual,

6:37 you know, news story about about people getting killed by the sign,

6:41 but again, I mean, it's like like any topic we cover here on the live stream,

6:47 I didn't have a chance to spend four weeks on this.

6:50 So, you know, you we get what we get.

6:53 But Great Britain, especially in places the in the cities,

6:58 London starting out and then kind of spreading.

7:02 They they made rules about signs.

7:04 Signs they they said it will actually I think it started in Paris.

7:09 They started making rules.

7:10 They said the sign couldn't stick out from the front of the building.

7:13 So, the streets were narrow in places like London and the signs

7:17 were sticking out so far they'd almost hit the other side.

7:20 So, the signs were competing with each other on different sides of the street.

7:24 So, they said, okay, the signs can't stick out anymore.

7:27 They have to be flat to the front

7:29 of the building so that they they don't stick out.

7:33 Part of that was also because it was blocking the sun.

7:37 Nobody could see anything because all these signs

7:40 were blocking blocking the the sight lines everywhere.

7:44 Um So, the signs had to be flat against the front.

7:48 They couldn't stick out more than 4 inches from the front of the building.

7:52 And that really kind of killed off the whole golden age of signery there.

7:59 It really kind of restricted it and a lot of people

8:02 sort of gave up on their extravagant signs after that.

8:05 Part of what were people were thinking about, too,

8:08 was the idea that as more and more people could read,

8:13 the signs with these extravagant pictures weren't needed anymore.

8:18 And one of the reasons why they were needed,

8:20 not just because people couldn't read,

8:22 was because in the streets the the the houses or the, you know,

8:27 the individual addresses, they didn't have numbers.

8:31 There were were no numbers.

8:32 So, when you'll see an address,

8:34 it'll say something like at the corner of this street

8:36 and that street because there is

8:38 no number associated with any particular location.

8:42 And so, a lot of the directions would be like,

8:44 I'm three doors down from the green man.

8:47 So, it's like, oh, I'm on, you know, whatever street, High Street,

8:50 and you go to the green man and I'm three three doors down from that.

8:53 That's how they would, you know, give directions to a place.

8:56 So, if you look at newspaper advertisements or or things like that, you you'll

9:00 find those kinds of directions because there is no such thing as number 12,

9:05 you know, we just don't have that.

9:07 Um so, they they they started to change the rules.

9:11 When that happened, they started giving numbers

9:14 to places so you could actually find it.

9:17 And a lot of people were very confused because the signs

9:21 would be very strange and could be sort of misinterpreted or whatever.

9:26 So, you know, it's the it's the it's it's the three beers.

9:30 Or is it the three bears?

9:32 We're not sure.

9:33 I don't know.

9:33 I was looking for the sign.

9:34 I was looking I I saw, you know,

9:37 three things, but it wasn't the right three things.

9:39 And so, we have lots of that going on.

9:43 Let's I'll let you jump in for a second.

9:47 Okay.

9:46 All right.

9:50 Okay.

9:50 So, I've got a super chat here.

9:52 This is from Mandatory Carry.

9:54 Thank you and thank you, Angela.

9:57 Um, and then here's a super chat from Speed Style Tony.

10:01 My grandfather had a gun and knife shop.

10:04 His nickname was Mac the Knife.

10:06 And so his sign was Bowie knife shape.

10:08 There we go.

10:10 And then this one's kind of two parts.

10:13 So this is Mr.

10:14 E.

10:15 Wavy.

10:15 And first he had sent in a note that said,

10:18 "Can we refer to this as Settler signs?"

10:21 And then he sent in a super chat that says,

10:23 "Happy to donate to Settler signs." That makes sense.

10:27 Very good.

10:28 Very good.

10:29 Um, yeah, so let's jump in.

10:31 And now there are some very, very traditional ones we're going to see.

10:33 And um, we got a mix here.

10:35 I don't know what order these are in.

10:37 Uh, this is it's like a That's right.

10:39 That's what happened.

10:41 Uh, we'll see what happens uh,

10:42 because we didn't we didn't have a chance

10:44 to do a whole bunch of ordering of our images.

10:47 So uh, hold on to your hats.

10:49 Here we go.

10:50 Uh, here we go.

10:51 Um, newspaper advertisement.

10:53 And this is Now, um,

10:56 what we'll find out is that this carries over into North America um,

11:02 to a massive extent.

11:04 We see all the same kinds of signs

11:06 and the ideas of signs happening in in North America uh,

11:11 as we do as we do in Great Britain.

11:12 So when we see one, we can really when

11:15 we if we see something an example in Great Britain,

11:17 we're obviously probably going to find almost exactly the same thing in America.

11:21 Except we might change it a little bit.

11:23 Like it's not King George's head, it's George Washington's head.

11:27 Something like that on a sign.

11:29 In fact, sometimes they didn't even change the picture.

11:32 It's just like, "Well, we'll just uh, paint over the crown and put a tricorn

11:35 hat on him and now he's George Washington."

11:37 Shut up.

11:40 [laughter] So oops.

11:39 Uh, um, here we go.

11:40 We have um, at the sign of the chocolate cakes.

11:44 Now I'm not sure how you can tell on the sign

11:48 that it's a chocolate cake and not another kind.

11:50 Maybe it was brown.

11:51 See, if if if a cake was chocolate if it was brown,

11:54 don't hopefully you'd be like, "Okay, they're not fooling me.

11:58 They had better be chocolate." [laughter]

12:01 Well, and when it says chocolate cakes, it probably means little little cakes.

12:05 So it's like we would call them

12:06 cookies or muffins or something like that, right?

12:09 And so it's probably a little triangular pile of those.

12:11 They might look like something totally different.

12:14 I have no idea.

12:14 [laughter] I would love to see the picture of this.

12:17 Alas.

12:17 Um, but he's the successor uh, to the late John Brewster.

12:23 I think.

12:24 Uh, yes.

12:25 At the sign of the chocolate cakes on 5th Street.

12:27 Notice near the bottom of Cross Street.

12:30 Again, there are no numbers.

12:32 It's it's not Like you you just go until you get the right feel for it.

12:35 There you are.

12:36 See the giant sign's got chocolate cakes." Um,

12:40 this is a a massively interesting image because this is supposed

12:45 to be an image of a inn in the United States.

12:51 I don't know that this this uh, artist was actually in the United States.

12:55 Or working maybe perhaps from letters and stuff.

12:58 You're right.

12:58 So he may have just sort of like,

13:00 "This is what I think the United States looks like." But what

13:04 is the what is the sign in front of the inn?

13:07 It's an eagle.

13:10 Perfect.

13:10 Right?

13:11 So you know, we're going to put a national symbol there.

13:13 We're going to be very nationalistic about it.

13:16 Um, so the eagle.

13:18 Whereas in Great Britain, you might see a sign of the swan or the unicorn

13:22 or a lion because that's the kind of animal uh,

13:26 symbolism that they would use instead.

13:30 Uh, here's this one's so funny.

13:32 So uh, this is uh, this is Dutch, isn't it?

13:37 Yes.

13:37 Yes, Dutch.

13:38 Um, but what's the sign up there?

13:40 And I wish we had a super close-up.

13:42 Um, it's a mouse.

13:44 I I I don't see any references to my mice in the English ones.

13:50 Yeah, could be more of a because we will see

13:52 another reference to mice in another picture by the same artist.

13:56 Uh, it's not the same image.

13:58 Now maybe it's his thing, right?

14:01 It could Sometimes it's artist specific.

14:02 Right.

14:02 Sometimes an artist is like, "Well,

14:04 I'm I'm going to like Nancy would put a cat in, you know,

14:06 the catalog covers." Well, this guy might just put mice in.

14:09 Right.

14:10 Who knows?

14:11 Uh, one of those backstories that we didn't have

14:13 a chance to do a whole bunch of research on.

14:16 Uh, this one gorgeous.

14:20 Uh, the sign is goat's head and they actually

14:23 have a goat's head physically sticking out from the front.

14:27 Some of the signs are uh, just signboards painted and then other ones are uh,

14:34 like an image of the you know,

14:36 a a sculpture basically sticking out from the front there.

14:39 So this one we have the goat's head sticking out.

14:43 I just I don't know if I want to eat at the goat's head.

14:46 Doesn't It neither the the eating the head of the goat

14:53 nor eating what may be the goat would eat.

14:56 Neither of those things are really appealing.

14:58 I don't know about this.

14:59 Um, you know, here we have this outdoor eating establishment,

15:02 maybe indoor and outdoor.

15:03 It depends on the weather.

15:05 But wait, I mean look right across the road,

15:07 there's a there's a a pig sticking his head out of a sty.

15:11 [laughter] Ah, it probably smells great there right beside the It's like,

15:18 "I wish she would move his pig away from my Right from the front door.

15:24 [laughter]

15:23 You're like, "Let's hope the wind's going the other Or they didn't even notice.

15:28 I'll bet you no one It's like, "Look, a pig across the street.

15:30 Whatever." Don't [clears throat] even care.

15:34 Um, this is probably just a moon.

15:38 Yeah, half moon.

15:39 Here we go.

15:39 Um, Rowlandson.

15:41 If you've watched very many of our live streams and we do pick,

15:44 you know, images, you've seen many a Rowlandson.

15:47 Um, and he's just very, very obvious.

15:50 And that dog, like that dog is in every other uh, Rowlandson image.

15:56 He likes I don't know.

15:59 Anyway, half moon.

16:00 Uh, notice the sign the way it's sticking out.

16:03 It's got its own very, very I mean that's a high-end sign.

16:07 Um, just even the how it's held up.

16:11 It's not very big.

16:12 Now here we go.

16:14 Um, this is Dutch, at least by the name of the artist here.

16:19 And we have um, I'm trying to see

16:23 if there's anything else a church in the background.

16:25 But uh, this we know this is a tavern because that thing

16:29 that's sticking out There's the sign that looks like a fish.

16:32 But see the upper sign?

16:35 That's a bush.

16:36 Ah, the bush.

16:38 That is one of the bush.

16:38 The classic bush.

16:40 Right.

16:40 Even though I mean it's a weird It's like a It's like a wreath,

16:44 but it's like a pretzel-shaped wreath.

16:47 I don't know.

16:47 But that is one of the classic bush images.

16:51 Uh, and I didn't even know that it would

16:52 be carried over here in into a Dutch setting.

16:55 But it is.

16:56 Mhm.

16:57 Are you holding up your hand?

16:58 Do you have a question?

16:58 You [laughter]

16:59 you ready to be interrupted?

17:00 Oh, yeah.

17:01 Sure.

17:01 Okay.

17:01 You want to drop out now?

17:03 Oh, yeah, I am.

17:04 Mhm.

17:04 This This is me.

17:05 I'm back.

17:06 Here you go.

17:06 Okay, so this is this is from Mr.

17:09 Uh, Wavy Gravy.

17:10 Okay.

17:11 says, "I'm sold and have been a Townsend customer.

17:13 I originally purchased a two-candle lantern kits that were shipped

17:17 as a DIY unfinished project and did did it with my kids.

17:21 Great project." Yes.

17:23 Yes.

17:23 And it reminded me of the fact that in our sign,

17:26 you'll see like our sign for Townsend's is a lantern.

17:29 Yes.

17:30 Right.

17:30 So and then that's kind of one of the points when I was uh,

17:34 speaking about sign signboards.

17:36 So the the first sign that I can think of.

17:44 So the first name for the business was Casa de la Luz.

17:46 But that didn't last very long.

17:48 That just means House of Light, right?

17:49 So even then we were pointing

17:51 to the concept of lanterns because Dad sold lanterns.

17:54 So if you sell lanterns, what do you do?

17:56 You make a sign with a lantern on it, right?

17:58 So which he changed the name after a year or two.

18:01 So it started in 1973.

18:03 So probably by 1976, he's probably like,

18:06 "Why do I have a Spanish name for a Anyway,

18:08 [laughter] I think that confused too many people.

18:12 And he changed the name to something uh,

18:14 a little more on the button nose, Frontier Lanterns.

18:18 And [snorts] the Frontier Lanterns original logo was a wooden

18:22 board and it just had a lantern on it.

18:25 It was just a rectangular board with a lantern on it.

18:28 It said Frontier Lanterns below it.

18:30 Um, and and then uh,

18:34 the name changed again when we started to to be

18:37 more a little more specific to the Revolutionary War.

18:41 And so uh, they they said uh, "This sign doesn't kind of read quite right.

18:46 Let's make a sign that's the classic signboard shape and then put a lantern

18:51 in on that." And then it says James Townsend and Son at the bottom of it.

18:55 And so the sign has over the years kind of or you know,

18:58 signboard is kind of updated and changed

19:00 and modernized and but it's still the same.

19:02 It's a sign with a lantern on it.

19:05 Uh, even though it's not what the major product anymore, uh, doesn't matter.

19:10 That's that's the the same.

19:12 Townsend's started.

19:13 We nailed on that.

19:14 Um, so we've been having a sign that says something like that for 40,

19:21 50 years, almost 50 years.

19:23 Uh, depending on how you how you count it.

19:28 [laughter] Very, very close.

19:28 Um, and the wooden lanterns That was a rabbit trail.

19:33 Um, wooden lanterns.

19:34 So we sold wooden lanterns and this is probably

19:37 about 1980 two that we would have sold the kits.

19:43 That probably didn't happen for more than four or five years.

19:47 I know.

19:47 I don't remember the kits before Uh, before you were born.

19:51 So yeah, we we sold the kits like that un- un- um unstained and all the parts uh

19:58 sold them had a little cardboard box and directions

20:01 and they would just fit together like a puzzle.

20:03 That's the way they were meant to work.

20:06 Um if you I mean, you needed like four

20:08 nails and then everything was pinned and pegged together.

20:11 And if it was cut right, it would just go right together.

20:14 Um and my father was a person who would make that happen, right?

20:18 It's like I'm each one gets cut to just the right So, uh yes.

20:24 DIY wine lanterns.

20:25 Yes, I remember that.

20:29 Are we done?

20:29 Yes.

20:29 We've been going We're going to go back in?

20:31 We're going to go back in.

20:31 We're backing in.

20:32 Okay.

20:33 Uh there's our bush.

20:34 There's our sign.

20:35 I think it's a fish and it's got a crown over him.

20:40 And he's probably got the name of it.

20:41 So, sometimes they they would have the name at the bottom as well.

20:44 And this idea of having two different things in the sign.

20:48 So, we got the bush and we have the fish and we have the crown.

20:52 Sometimes that's because uh a business will change

20:56 name or change owners and the owner will bring

20:58 their sign to it and it's like a It's

21:01 like you're getting married and you put the names together.

21:03 So, you would put the signs together.

21:05 So, sometimes we get some very confusing combinations that don't make any sense.

21:09 Like the leg and seven stars.

21:11 And it's like uh what?

21:13 No, we will see another one that will make

21:15 more a combo that'll make more sense later on.

21:18 And then also I imagine that sometimes if you're like in London Yeah.

21:21 and you're like oh it's the green lion and you're like

21:24 there are seven green lions.

21:25 Yeah,

21:26 [laughter]

21:26 right.

21:26 So, sometimes some of those combos might be a different Exactly.

21:29 Exactly.

21:30 Uh in by a bridge here and we have some

21:33 kind of stag and I'll bet that's a bush symbol.

21:37 Oh, cool.

21:38 thing is hanging there, wreath-like thing?

21:40 That's like the bush.

21:42 There you go.

21:43 Um this one's super.

21:46 So, they talked about this idea that the that the that the metal work was

21:51 another they were spending extravagant amount of money

21:54 on the thing that held the sign.

21:57 Yeah, that's true.

21:57 So, you can see this one's actually very it doesn't seem very rococo.

22:01 It's very square.

22:02 Yeah, it is.

22:03 Like art deco almost.

22:04 Right, like art deco.

22:05 It's very interesting.

22:07 Um and but there's this extra lamp that's above the door.

22:11 Now, this was another problem.

22:12 Sometimes if you if your business was frequented

22:16 at night uh they didn't have street lights necessarily,

22:20 especially in certain locations.

22:21 So, sometimes you would say something like um uh I'm at the doorway

22:26 with the two lamps because you would use that as your sign.

22:30 We can see a the ghostly image of a sign in the background.

22:33 We can see how big it is in the street.

22:35 Here we've got uh this is Dutch, I believe, isn't it?

22:39 so, yeah.

22:39 Um because the the spelling of Bible here.

22:42 So, it's it's a book or a Bible out here on the sign.

22:47 Um and then we have a lamp so we can see what's going on uh

22:50 right below it and who knows what kind of tragedy is going on below that.

22:55 But anyway, We are focused on We're looking at the sign.

22:57 So, here we go.

23:00 I did Daniel Scott at the sign of the leopard.

23:05 And what is this?

23:08 Um Are teeth in the business of fixing making and fixing artificial teeth.

23:13 Now, there's some fun.

23:14 Mhm.

23:15 Um and powders powder for the cure of scurvy whitening teeth.

23:21 It does both?

23:24 [laughter] Great.

23:26 And it whitens your teeth.

23:29 [laughter] Um here we go.

23:30 Uh here's William Williams and he has a shop has to sell

23:36 at his shop in King Street two doors east of the sign of Admiral Vernon.

23:42 So, look, he doesn't even need a sign.

23:44 Right, right.

23:44 He's using someone else's sign.

23:46 I'm across the street from Admiral Vernon.

23:48 Um [clears throat] Um Admiral Vernon was really famous and there

23:52 were a lot of Admiral Vernon signs.

23:54 Uh he's not famous today.

23:56 Oh, actually he's famous in the video that's going to be coming out

24:00 Perfect.

24:00 on Sunday.

24:02 So, if you want to hear more about Admiral

24:04 Vernon Uh that's why you're dressed this way today.

24:08 Yeah, yeah.

24:08 I'm dressed this way because uh I had to do a thumbnail for the video

24:11 for Sunday and you are getting a preview of what I look like in the thumbnail.

24:17 So, anyway, Um Admiral Vernon, woo.

24:20 Look at that.

24:20 Things changed.

24:21 Somebody jumped ahead.

24:22 Um at the sign our tailor at the sign of the barrel and sugar loaves.

24:28 Those little cone things are sugar loaves.

24:31 Um so, confectioners sometimes would just have

24:34 a sign with nothing but sugar loaves.

24:36 But here he has the barrel.

24:38 It might be called a ton or a different name than that.

24:42 But uh he is selling Uh what is he selling?

24:45 He's selling rum and sherry and butter and old cheese and raisins.

24:50 So, confectionery and and liquor he's selling uh both

24:56 that as well as I mean, he's got mustard.

25:02 [laughter] And soap.

25:01 He's got it all.

25:03 Um and then let's see um 1766 and he's a leather dresser.

25:10 So, uh this guy's sign has a glove.

25:14 It's supposed to be a glove, not just a severed hand.

25:17 I hope.

25:18 Um we have the stag, which is where your buckskin comes from.

25:23 And then we have breeches down below.

25:24 So, we wouldn't be able to tell those were

25:26 buckskin breeches unless we had the buck above them.

25:30 the best kind of breeches.

25:31 Right.

25:32 made from the Right, you want buckskin breeches.

25:35 Um so, he's and he's he's got moose skins.

25:39 Oh.

25:41 I mean, can you imagine?

25:43 Where are they getting I mean, that's really really really interesting.

25:46 like those I mean, they'd be hard to move around.

25:48 That'd be a big skin.

25:49 Yeah, exactly.

25:51 Um adjoining the canoe bridge in at Portsmouth.

25:55 There's so much in this particular advertisement.

25:57 I would like to spend an hour picking it apart, but we can't do that.

26:00 We're going to move on.

26:02 Um here we got uh near Putney 1770 and we have this sign.

26:07 So, then the book they were talking about

26:09 this concept that sometimes as you came into the town,

26:13 they would have this extravagant arch of signs Oh.

26:18 you about the businesses that were in that.

26:19 So, when you're on the highway and you go by the one

26:22 they're like the fast food you will find at Exactly.

26:24 Or if you go into an old town they would have

26:27 these things like these little medallions for the different you know,

26:31 the different businesses in town.

26:33 Or or when you're going past one of the bigger, you know, you know,

26:37 it this has Walmart in here or the other ones that you'll find in this one, too.

26:41 So, in this town, notice um there there's a sign here,

26:45 but it doesn't seem to be directly located to the business.

26:49 But yes, it is for a business is right there in town,

26:51 probably, you know, very close to this location.

26:55 Um then here is uh Hob.

26:58 This is famous kind of a bunch of images of Hob here who's dancing.

27:03 He's a dancing waiter sort of person.

27:05 I don't know all the story about Hob,

27:06 but uh we see a bunch of different Hob pictures.

27:09 Um He always reminds me of Josh.

27:11 I don't know why.

27:12 I think What could it be?

27:14 Anyway, [laughter] uh so, here's a sign and there's a plate.

27:18 That's that's a plate up there.

27:20 Hopefully that means they have the lease.

27:24 Yes.

27:24 And notice that table there.

27:26 Really interesting.

27:27 Probably folding leg table.

27:28 Anyway, there's Hob.

27:30 Oh, this guy.

27:32 What has he got in his little bucket basket?

27:35 Maybe we don't want to know.

27:37 [laughter] It's a sheep's head.

27:41 Anyway, uh we've got um like a bullock's head there uh in the sign above him.

27:48 And then he's got in his little bucket basket a sheep's head.

27:52 Like, would you like to buy my sheep's head?

27:55 No, no, sir.

27:57 I'm not really interested in sheep's head [laughter] today.

27:59 No, thank you.

28:01 It's fresh.

28:03 And the sheep's head doesn't actually look that right.

28:07 [laughter] Uh yeah.

28:08 Anyway, at the sign of the cow's head.

28:11 Probably a butcher's.

28:13 Um Now, this one I picked out specifically

28:17 because uh it shows a couple of different things.

28:20 This is a Hogarth image.

28:22 Um of course, Hogarth images are full of all kinds of symbolism.

28:28 Um so, he's making There's probably like a hundred jokes in here for him.

28:31 We see it and it's like oh, that's weird.

28:33 But for the people in the time period,

28:35 they would read this and they would they would see all these things going on.

28:38 It would be like a Where's Waldo uh 1,000 jokes, right?

28:43 So, in the background, you can see there's a sign.

28:46 Uh that is a customs house.

28:48 And there's a riot going on.

28:52 Um there there's a crown on that.

28:53 So, it's it's the official customs house of that location.

28:57 And there's a there's there's a people are shooting

29:00 guns and bad things are happening outside the customs house.

29:04 But there's an election going on here in the foreground

29:07 and we see that there's a a tavern sign,

29:11 huge wooden tavern sign, gold gilt picture frame.

29:15 And what is it?

29:16 It's a tree, probably a bush.

29:19 Right?

29:20 But over the top of that sign is the temporary sign

29:24 of Punch the candidate from Guzzletown who is running for office.

29:29 And what does he say?

29:30 He Look, he's got a little wheelbarrow and he's tossing money out.

29:33 You know, your standard politician.

29:36 So, anyway, obviously They had

29:40 the same kind of political problems in the 18th century

29:43 that they do later on, I'll just say it like that.

29:48 So, [snorts] uh we see here multiple signs.

29:51 Notice they're huge.

29:52 They're outsized.

29:54 There's even a sign on the other side, but it's up against the wall.

29:57 Um and the the the symbolism of, you know, this the the bush.

30:03 Even Even look over this over the door.

30:06 There's another sign.

30:07 And it's, I think, grapes.

30:09 Uh it read as fruit to me, even Yeah.

30:12 Right.

30:12 So, again, it's saying food and um and whatnot.

30:16 Um Hogarth, notice how beautiful this image is,

30:20 and he's a amazing artist, and he he apprenticed as a sign maker.

30:26 The sign makers were some of the um It

30:30 was probably looked down upon as an art form,

30:33 and yet was one of the highly paid art forms also.

30:37 It's like classic classic commercial art.

30:40 It's like, "Oh, yeah, I'm a fine artist." "Oh, you're starving." "Yes.

30:43 Oh, I'm a commercial artist." "Oh, you're rich." Anyway,

30:47 let's jump out for a little bit.

30:49 And because we're at the uh we're at the point where I usually try

30:52 to get to the brand new new

30:54 and renewing YouTube members as well as Patreon supporters.

30:59 And we have from YouTube Mossy Rock 6, Quicksilver Tears 921.

31:06 I mean, is there a Quicksilver Tears 9200, you know?

31:12 [laughter] Is Is Are there 920 other Quicksilver Tears?

31:16 I mean, I don't know.

31:17 Uh Jacob Frazier, Strawberry Fields, Christopher A.

31:22 Ayers, uh just somebody called CB, uh Andrea, Nitro TX, Nitro Tix.

31:33 Um Ryan L., Dustin Cook, Andrew Brown, Van Yin,

31:39 I don't know how to pronounce that cuz there's too many consonants in a row.

31:43 Um and then there's um Glenn Jones, and then brand new.

31:48 Thank you very much, Patreon folks.

31:50 Ryan Harris, and Daniel Sampson.

31:54 I also want to thank all the folks there that are in super chat.

31:58 Playing again, directly supporting what we do here on the channel.

32:04 Okay, I do have a couple super chats.

32:06 Yeah, yeah.

32:06 Are you ready?

32:07 Okay, so this is from Diane Elizabeth.

32:10 Got Michael Dragos' new cookbook for my birthday.

32:13 Making Cheshire pork pie to share with some fellow Nutmeggers.

32:16 Woohoo!

32:17 It's perfect.

32:18 Going to be great.

32:18 Okay, and then this one is from Messiah with all of the tornadoes,

32:25 what did the colonists do?

32:28 Um you know, we I think we have uh tornadoes because of uh mobile home parks,

32:34 and they didn't have them, and so then they never had tornadoes.

32:37 Okay.

32:38 They wouldn't I mean, they probably Okay,

32:40 because tornadoes are very specific to where we are.

32:42 They weren't Exactly.

32:45 our time period, they weren't really here yet.

32:47 Well, number one, uh tornadoes do not happen on the East

32:50 Coast like they happen in Indiana or Kansas or Iowa, right?

32:55 Um they just they just don't happen very often.

32:58 And so, um tornadoes and and that kind of thing were uh a strange.

33:03 So, the colonists as colonists, say prior to the American Revolution,

33:08 they weren't in the area where tornadoes happen.

33:11 Um Now, we do have a reference to the Battle of Fallen Timbers.

33:16 This is, I think, 1793.

33:18 This is happening over in Ohio, where they do have tornadoes,

33:21 and the fallen timbers were because a tornado had gone

33:24 through there and and just knocked down a giant forest.

33:28 So, um there were tornadoes.

33:31 They just weren't around where they were at.

33:33 And you can imagine that it really wasn't an issue for a long time because

33:39 um the areas where they were going to be were so sparsely populated that I mean,

33:45 it's like, "Yeah, there was a tornado over there in nowhere-ville,

33:48 right?" But now, of course, we have so many more people living in in areas

33:52 where tornadoes would come through that that we recognize them,

33:55 but it probably wasn't really a thing to worry

33:58 about until the middle of the 19th century or later.

34:01 It was also making me wonder if sod

34:03 house construction might actually be pretty resistant to them.

34:07 Hopefully.

34:09 I don't think much is resistant to a tornado.

34:11 getting hit by a [laughter] tornado is just Well,

34:15 you don't have anything to blow away, so whatever.

34:17 [laughter] Okay, so here's a comment from Jay Corbett.

34:22 The pub sign, the last one that we were thinking might have been a bush,

34:26 uh he's is probably the royal oak.

34:29 Yeah, right.

34:30 Since there's a king painted in the tree.

34:32 Yep.

34:32 So, and that that does make a lot of sense.

34:35 It did look very statuesque, that particular

34:37 But the other little thing may have been representative of bush,

34:40 that little whatever.

34:42 Uh one of each, right?

34:44 Yeah, who knows?

34:45 It's like And then this, I'm sorry, it keeps it's jumping around.

34:48 Okay, this is a member chat from Stonecutter.

34:51 Happy Friday to Townsends and all in the tavern.

34:54 And then a uh member chat from James Cheese with a cheerful John emoji.

35:01 [laughter] Okay, let's jump back in cuz we'll never get through it.

35:05 And look, I have 25 pages of notes, okay?

35:10 I We don't have time for 5-hour live stream.

35:14 We could.

35:14 I mean, I've got enough content here for 5 hours,

35:17 but we're not going to do that.

35:19 Um here we go.

35:20 So, here are some of the piece pieces out of a Most

35:23 of this is out of a book about signs from the early 19th century.

35:27 Actually, I think it was written in the 19th century,

35:30 so um but um there It's like here's from a tapestry of the 11th century,

35:37 there is a bush-type image.

35:39 Uh 14th century, there's a a cross sign.

35:44 Um this the blackjack and pewter platters.

35:48 So, we saw Hob, and he had a platter, right?

35:50 Here's one that they hung up a blackjack,

35:52 which is a leather mug, and three pewter plates.

35:57 All this is showing this is an eating establishment.

35:59 It looks like they even have one on the wall there.

36:01 Uh there's a bush symbol there from the 15th century.

36:05 Just sort of a wreath-looking thing.

36:08 And then an ale pole.

36:10 I thought that was very interesting,

36:12 this idea of um a pole with this It all kind of looks

36:17 like a maypole or something like that, but is it ale pole,

36:20 meaning, well, you're going to find ale here.

36:22 And then another um manuscript that had a sort of an image

36:26 of a broom sticking out that was supposed to represent a bush.

36:32 We got some of the classic signs that you would see,

36:35 especially in Great Britain, but probably echoed in North America.

36:39 The anchor and horseshoe.

36:41 Don't ask me where those two go together.

36:43 The angel, um the Bell Tavern, you've heard of that.

36:47 The Black Bull, the Boar's Head Tavern.

36:49 Huh, that's strange.

36:50 Never Uh I don't know where I would they I don't have any idea of what that is.

36:55 Anyway, the Bull's Head, the Castle, Charles' Wain.

37:03 I'm sure this has I don't Stars, I think it has to do with um like a a wain

37:08 is I think is it isn't it like a wagon?

37:11 Um coach and horses, uh the or the rooster there,

37:15 we've got the uh crown, the crown and rolls.

37:19 Now, are they rolls of paper or are they eating rolls?

37:22 Like look like jelly rolls, don't they?

37:24 But I think they're probably rolls of paper.

37:26 Shucks.

37:27 Those are yummy.

37:29 The Crooked Billet, which is a stick, right?

37:34 Fish Tavern, Five Bells, Fountain, Globe Tavern, the Goose and Gridiron.

37:41 Okay, perfect.

37:43 Probably probably most of these are food-related.

37:45 Green Dragon, we've heard of the Green Dragon before.

37:48 See, and having the dragon the Nutmeg Tavern had a dragon on it.

37:52 Uh Very classic sign.

37:54 I was like, "You're just doing a dragon cuz I popular." No,

37:57 well, popular in the time period, too.

37:59 Um crossed guns, the dial.

38:02 So, if we look in I've got some got this newspaper um book here that has and I

38:09 just went through I I only had a chance to go through just a little bit of it.

38:13 These are newspaper advertisements from New

38:15 York in the 18th century, 1770s, 1780.

38:19 Uh somebody was painting miniatures had sign of the unicorn.

38:23 A jeweler had a sign for the a teapot.

38:27 I don't know why.

38:28 Another a jeweler, the sign was a bunch of grapes.

38:33 Don't know if there's any particular connection.

38:35 Someone who's complaining in a newspaper advertisement,

38:39 uh someone had stolen his shop sign,

38:41 and he was advertising asking if anybody knew for a reward

38:45 whether they where the sign was so he could get it back.

38:48 Uh it was a sign of the teapot and tankard.

38:51 I like that one.

38:52 Interesting combo.

38:53 Now, these these were two specific ones.

38:56 Um they were selling spectacles,

38:58 and they have and you would see these big spectacles.

39:03 It's like, "I wonder what they sell." Could be anything.

39:06 Right?

39:06 I mean, we're you know, what if the sign had a pair of glasses sitting out,

39:09 you know, sticking out from the front, and it was this wide.

39:12 Um so, there was spectacles, and one of them had green spectacles.

39:16 So, they had green lenses on the inside.

39:19 Um a a lot of the furniture manufacturers,

39:21 they had a sign, it was a sign of the chair.

39:24 They just had a chair.

39:27 Seems pretty obvious um what they're selling.

39:30 Uh this one, what does this say?

39:34 Just I don't I don't know what I wrote there.

39:36 My scribble sorry.

39:38 Anyway, this was at the sign of the frying pan.

39:41 Oh, it was just directions.

39:43 It was I So, we don't know what the sign of the frying pan was

39:45 selling because they were like across the street

39:48 from the sign of the frying pan.

39:51 Um and multiple and this is why I got connected with this one.

39:54 Multiple clock manufacturers had the sign of the dial.

39:59 So, if you saw that dial it didn't look

40:02 like a Let's go back to that for a second.

40:04 See, that the dial there, that square one up at the top.

40:07 Right.

40:07 We think of dials like round with the triangular

40:10 thing and the and the Roman numerals.

40:12 Well, that's a different kind of dial.

40:15 I think sometimes it would just be a clock face or something.

40:18 So, people selling clocks would have the dial here.

40:22 And then another one had that was making clocks an eagle and a watch.

40:28 So, sometimes you just see a big watch.

40:31 You know, like a pocket watch hanging out there.

40:34 Um there's a sign of the dog.

40:36 Notice the extravagant like pillars that hold it up.

40:40 Again, not uncommon.

40:42 Uh Duke of Marlborough, a lot of a lot of politicians and uh you know,

40:50 famous people other time period that would

40:53 show up as signs generally for taverns.

40:55 So, the George Washington, the Shakespeare.

40:59 That feels a little unusual to me.

41:03 Yeah.

41:03 I guess okay, we have mascots still, right?

41:07 And they will show up in signage.

41:09 So, it that does still persist.

41:12 Right.

41:13 Uh the feathers, very famous.

41:17 The Elephant and Castle.

41:19 Um let's see, we've got horseshoe, we've got justice, we've got Jack of Newbury.

41:24 There's the King's Head.

41:25 So, there are a lot of King's Heads taverns.

41:28 Um and if you see the one in the bottom

41:31 there called the last, that's a shoe last.

41:34 So, it's like a wooden I mean, I don't know how you tell the difference

41:37 between is a wooden shoe or it's a last.

41:40 But if you were a cobbler or a shoe maker, it

41:43 Right.

41:43 be useful either way, you know, like that.

41:44 Yeah, you look at that like, "Huh,

41:46 I wonder what they sell there." Uh the lock and key.

41:49 So, there are people that just did that kind of work.

41:52 The lion, of course, famous.

41:55 Gun, the hand and coffee pot.

41:57 I wonder if I can get a drink there.

42:00 The harrow.

42:00 Now, I don't know who would be advertising with the harrow.

42:03 So, that's like a farm implement.

42:06 But notice there's the harrow and the lamb down there.

42:10 Don't Don't know why you'd connect those two necessarily.

42:12 The helmet.

42:13 Now, this one I want to know more about.

42:16 I didn't have a chance to do digging on this.

42:17 The hole in the wall.

42:19 I'm so curious, right?

42:20 Isn't that cuz we've heard it's like that's a hole in the wall.

42:22 And and I always And look, they have a sign that is a hole in the wall.

42:29 one some more.

42:30 Yeah.

42:30 So, we just got to know what the hole in the wall is about.

42:35 I mean, I don't think it's the Shakespeare and Fiz Bee hole in the wall, right?

42:41 The Yeah, cuz that's not food related.

42:44 No, it isn't.

42:45 It isn't anything related.

42:46 Interesting.

42:47 But this I want to know about.

42:50 Yes.

42:50 I mean, was there one place that was

42:52 famous and it was really run down and rotten,

42:53 so it that's how we think of a hole in the wall.

42:57 maybe it had one entrance and then they made another one by just but it

43:01 like what how did it Is there a story that goes along with it?

43:05 want to know the story behind the hole in the wall.

43:07 If you know the story, then please jump in there.

43:11 Uh we have the horn.

43:13 We have a salutation.

43:16 The serpent, the ship, the shears.

43:18 Uh shears um probably a tailor.

43:22 Maybe.

43:22 Um Sir Cloudsley Shovel.

43:25 I don't know the story behind Sir Cloudsley.

43:29 Uh the Star and the Garter, the Sun, the Swan.

43:31 Again, all classic ones.

43:33 Um peacock, raven, rose, roses and the crown thing, all super super common.

43:40 Um I like the the trusty servant and the other one hog in armor.

43:47 Like what?

43:48 Now, there are some that are like that in here.

43:51 Yes.

43:51 Well, and of course this brings up that like this does happen quite

43:55 frequently where we'll be going along and we'll see some sign and you're like,

43:59 "Why didn't we use that as our sign?" Like it makes

44:02 you want to do like a dozen signs cuz I love them.

44:04 So, there are the classic signs that we still know today.

44:07 Uh the barber pole Mhm.

44:09 which is ancient.

44:11 There are the three golden balls

44:13 of the pawnbroker and you still see that sometimes.

44:16 You'll see those all over in 18th century things.

44:20 Uh there's the bush.

44:21 Of course, that doesn't uh necessarily connect in with um what we know.

44:26 Um but weird combinations like the magpie and the crown.

44:31 How about the whale and the crow?

44:35 Uh the razor and hen.

44:39 The leg and seven stars.

44:41 Again, some of these are combos that get

44:43 put together because of two businesses or whatever.

44:47 Uh the axe in the bottle, the ton which is a barrel and the loot.

44:53 Uh the eagle and child.

44:57 And uh the shovel and boot.

45:02 So, I don't know what some of these, you know, um connect up with.

45:06 The frying pan and the drum, the Bible and the swan.

45:09 We got I mean, sometimes you like, "Okay,

45:11 what what are these?" Um Here's the mermaid and that's a bush.

45:18 That's the So, it's a it's a drinking establishment and we have the ale garland.

45:21 Again, it's like wreath and then the the Now,

45:25 I mean, obviously when you have a sign that's that simplistic.

45:28 Well, we have a stick that sticks out and we just put those on there.

45:32 Like And maybe if you did And on some of these you

45:36 wonder if they put them out when they were open.

45:40 Yeah, right.

45:40 it was seasonal, right?

45:42 an open sign and it was your sign, right?

45:44 Here's the [clears throat] eagle and child.

45:47 Um which I just mentioned.

45:48 There's Robin Hood and Little John.

45:50 Um and the griffin in the chair.

45:54 And then we have uh a sheaf's head with a crown.

45:59 I'm not even sure what's going on with the arrow

46:01 thing and then of course a boar's head, which you know, it's just too cool.

46:05 Now, um the man in the moon here.

46:09 So, this is the moon.

46:11 So, see the circle and it's kind of half moony moon shaped.

46:15 There's the man.

46:16 You see a lot of men that kind of just stick on to the moon there.

46:19 He's smoking, he's drinking.

46:21 Um and but the what I really wanted was the bottom images here.

46:27 Now, I've always like seen these kind of weird

46:31 face images and they always feel 19th century to me.

46:37 Especially cuz the one guy has a mustache which

46:39 Yeah, I was seeing the mustache very much like that way.

46:42 he's he's 19th century, but this other face is it's actually called the mouth.

46:47 It's it's about this giant mouth and it has to do with eating.

46:50 Usually it's a food thing.

46:51 So, we've got a bowl, grapes.

46:55 we got a bowl on this side in this mouth.

46:57 But when I saw this mouth, it made me think of something.

47:01 Made me think of a restaurant that we go to sometimes.

47:07 So, we'll go up to Lake Michigan.

47:09 We'll go to the Warren Dunes and then just

47:11 down from the Warren Dunes is uh New Buffalo,

47:15 uh Michigan and there's this restaurant called Redamak's.

47:19 And there is the sign.

47:21 And it And whenever I see that, it makes me

47:24 think of that [snorts] big face and the big mouth.

47:28 Mhm.

47:28 And how that's a I mean,

47:29 it's like it's it's like a direct connection to an 18th century

47:35 uh concept that we still that you see things like that today.

47:39 I think that is the end of it.

47:41 Oh, wait, look.

47:41 There is there's Hogarth uh engraving uh I at the at the sign of the angel.

47:48 He's working on the sign.

47:49 So, he there he is being an apprentice.

47:52 And that's set up with the diffuser.

47:54 So cool.

47:54 Yeah.

47:55 Yeah, with the light diffuser.

47:56 So, that it's got real flat lighting to work with.

48:00 Yes, very neat.

48:02 Um here is a print and it shows a just a street.

48:06 Crazy things going on like is in all ones

48:09 and we can see these street signs sticking out.

48:11 The crossed keys is really common.

48:13 Here's one There's one though that's just got name, right?

48:16 It's like the the Thames Inn coffee house.

48:21 There's a bowl across the thing.

48:24 The neat thing about the images rather than the words

48:27 is you can see them a long way away.

48:29 You can you know, you can you can do a visual read on it.

48:33 Um sometimes they were colorful or or whatever.

48:36 So, you know, they were easy for people

48:38 to give directions to, which is the whole point.

48:41 Um here's an inn with a swan.

48:44 There even even in this very very almost impressionistic image,

48:49 we can still read what the the sign is.

48:53 Very interesting.

48:55 Uh there's the bell tavern.

48:58 Um that you can stop at here in the in the late Now,

49:02 this is in rural areas in other cities,

49:06 they didn't necessarily have the same kind of laws about signage.

49:09 Um this this thing about taking away the signs,

49:12 it's specifically for some of those big cities where they're having issues.

49:15 Other places, especially rural areas, it didn't apply at all.

49:22 Um there is this this guy kind of shows up in most multiple places.

49:27 He's That's probably the green man or something like that.

49:30 Now, this is Dutch, so it may have a little bit different tradition,

49:33 but um he'd probably be a little uh that little sign up there.

49:37 Probably a colorful little guy Uh so that you could say he was

49:41 the he's at the red man or the green man or something like that.

49:45 Uh here's the same author same artist and you can see

49:49 the one had the mouse and this is the mouse trap.

49:53 So good.

49:54 So good.

49:58 Uh at the sign of the golden teapot at the sign of the dish

50:03 of lemons and he's selling hemp seed as well as preserved ginger,

50:09 lemons, oranges, and limes.

50:11 And what uh the business at the sign of the wigs.

50:16 So apparently he's selling wigs.

50:18 Sometimes the sign was obvious, sometimes not so much.

50:23 And here is the wool pack.

50:26 Now the word here is the it's it's worded as the wool pack but a many

50:31 of the wool pack signs are just a sign that shows a wool pack.

50:35 Kind of looks like a pillow with the corners tied off.

50:39 So four kind of tufts sticking out of the four

50:42 corners of a pillow was supposed to be the wool pack.

50:45 Um and but this one actually wrote it on the wrote it on the sign instead.

50:51 Which seems odd, right?

50:53 Did you would go to the point of having a name of an establishment that you

50:57 would call it that but then your sign would be the words instead of the physical

51:02 Maybe it used to have the symbol.

51:04 Like maybe in the 100 years earlier they had the symbol

51:06 and then right they're transitioning to actually using the name at this point.

51:10 Yeah, here's one the frying pan and the drum, the cat and the fiddle.

51:15 Yes.

51:15 Now that's cool.

51:16 Well, I was thinking a lot of the name combos even

51:19 if I didn't know like a fairy tale that went with it.

51:22 It sounded like it was attached to a story like that.

51:26 Exactly.

51:26 Um now and sometimes there are like um kind

51:31 of word games that are played off of them.

51:35 So the sign would be one thing and they would call it something else.

51:39 So there's one that was the peak and and caroo

51:45 which they called it the pig and carrot.

51:50 [snorts] Um and and another place mangled the same thing into pig and checkers.

51:58 Uh there's um the bull so um Yeah.

52:07 Uh the elephant and castle rendered the pig and tinder

52:11 box or um the bear and ragged staff becomes the angel

52:19 and the flute the eagle and child was nicknamed the bird

52:23 and bantling the hog and armor became the pig in misery.

52:30 Um so you got all these weird like little permutations of them.

52:37 Um they they they could change and become political especially if they had

52:43 a head of a of a person and they would morph that like

52:47 they become unpopular or nobody knew who they were anymore and they

52:51 would just like same face or write a new name underneath it, right?

52:56 Um There was at one point um the signs were getting

53:02 so extravagant that somebody I have not sure where I have this.

53:06 Um but they they they were kind of making

53:11 fun of how artistic the signs were getting and so

53:14 they they thought they would make fun of it

53:17 and they would create this uh like a mock art show.

53:23 So they they were mocking it with this art

53:25 show but in fact it became very very popular.

53:28 Well, that backfired.

53:29 But that was kind of the peak and then they started doing

53:32 the laws right after that and the and the whole thing fell fell down.

53:37 Um sometimes when a particular um uh event happens.

53:44 So Admiral Bell Vernon who I mentioned earlier,

53:49 he captures the Spanish port of Portobello in 1739 and so all

53:56 of a sudden this particular person and particular name starts to show up.

54:02 So places would probably like we're going to rebrand our our whole

54:06 operation and we'll change we're going to change it to the Admiral Vernon.

54:09 It's going to be great.

54:10 Of course, you know, 50 years later and nobody knows who Admiral Vernon

54:14 is and so you just you know, swap it over.

54:17 Now it's the the the Admiral Nelson, you know,

54:20 and some and change the name of it.

54:24 Um What else do we have here?

54:27 There is so much rich stuff here and a a lot of Admirals Admiral Benbow,

54:36 the couple head or Admiral Keppel, Admiral Rodney.

54:41 All these guys get kind of famous and turned into usually like taverns.

54:45 I think you know, if you have a if

54:47 you have a you're making scissors or whatever,

54:50 you're going to have a sign of the scissors or if you're a a tailor.

54:54 Whereas something like a tavern you can kind

54:56 of change your name a little bit and if you

54:59 just have a person's head out there you can

55:01 you can change the name of that all day long.

55:04 Um There were famous artists I talked about

55:07 um this particularly Hogarth but other famous artists

55:10 I think they were almost kind of moonlight in a it's like oh I you know,

55:14 I sell stuff over here and then Like a like

55:17 a ghost writer where you're like with someone with multiple pen names.

55:20 They're like okay, this is this genre but when I need

55:23 to want to do something else I I do not do that now.

55:26 Coach painters were doing something similar too.

55:29 So imagine if on our cars today we decided we were going

55:33 to paint fancy coats of arms on them and have you know,

55:37 and if we see cars that are that are like that today people put you know,

55:41 graphics on them or whatever.

55:43 Um the coaches of the time period were massively extravagant.

55:47 Of course, these would be super high-end.

55:49 Um you know, for the richest rich people they are going to have a coach and four

55:55 that are pulling this and it's going to be

55:56 painted in gold and it's going to have all this.

55:58 Well, a lot of times the coach painters would be

56:01 the people who are also doing signs cuz similar kind of work.

56:05 And they had this whole kind of apprentice system where they would

56:08 have apprentices working on the the cheesy ones or the hard you know,

56:12 the the the the lower stuff and then like the base layers and then you know,

56:18 the artist would come in and it's like and it's done,

56:21 you know, whatever you [laughter] need.

56:21 Got to get some practice in there.

56:23 Exactly.

56:25 So um again just one of those one of those topics

56:29 and it and it directly relates to the world we live in today.

56:32 We don't you know, we pass by sign after sign without thinking about

56:37 the the the background and the rich history that a simple sign is.

56:43 And some of the ones we have today, you know,

56:46 are almost exact just like the the Roman sign or the ancient Egyptian sign.

56:52 They have a bunch of signs for like Pompeii.

56:55 Um you know, it's like oh we still have

56:57 the example of and those echo into the 18th

57:00 century and we still see little echoes of them

57:03 today in businesses and and logos and whatnot.

57:08 Okay.

57:08 So I've got some super chats.

57:09 You ready?

57:10 Yes, go.

57:10 Okay.

57:11 This one's from mandatory carry.

57:12 The ale pole is the best but I'm partial and then a little ale,

57:17 you know, it's a symbol.

57:18 Mhm.

57:18 Of all the signs.

57:20 And then this one's from speed and style Tony.

57:22 Were colors important to the signs?

57:24 Yeah.

57:25 Yeah, they're they're going to be a lot of them are going

57:27 to be very very colorful um and that's part of the name.

57:30 So um you're you're going to see those colors from a long way off.

57:35 You're going to connect those up.

57:36 Um you know, the attic sign of the green swan or or you know,

57:41 people dressed in different colors.

57:43 Um so you will have those those colors that give you the the connect.

57:47 Just like and I think you know, colors are emotional too.

57:51 You just today we have all these logos that are you know,

57:53 they play with the colors to make sure that they say the right thing.

57:57 Um and they're doing the same thing in the 18th century.

58:02 And then Max our cool sends in some member gifts.

58:05 So thank you.

58:06 very much.

58:06 Okay.

58:07 I think we're all caught up.

58:08 This episode has been brought to you by leather.

58:12 So don't ask me.

58:14 It's a long and just crazy story but we ended up

58:18 with a whole bunch of this wonderful scrap leather smaller pieces of leather.

58:24 Um and it's all about two and three ounces so it's really nice weight.

58:29 It's not it's like nice and not too stiff.

58:32 Um if you've got projects that you want

58:34 this this a little fun pieces of leather making bags or whatnot.

58:39 Um we have a lot of it.

58:42 We have a lot.

58:42 We have black, we have white, we have browns.

58:45 Sometimes even some crazy colors.

58:47 Um they're on the website in the I don't know section.

58:50 Is it in the I don't know.

58:51 So far they're on the special deals.

58:53 They're on the special deals because this is a special deal.

58:58 [laughter]

58:57 Uh some of the some of them are bigger pieces they're in smaller pieces um

59:01 but if you're interested in some some fun leather to work with check it out.

59:07 It's been fun to be in this live stream.

59:09 Love this topic and we could probably do 10 more of them and come

59:13 up with some just hilarious shop signs of the 18th century and maybe we will.

59:18 Uh want to thank Lauren for helping me and Ivy

59:20 of course for helping with with this live stream.

59:24 And of course uh super chatters and folks that are supporting

59:29 us through membership and merch and and um uh Patreon folks.

59:34 Thank you so much for being part of what we do here on the channel.

59:37 We do something that's weird.

59:39 I don't know how many people do uh channel that's quite like what we do,

59:43 but we can only do it because you get to help us out with that.

59:47 So, thank you so much for that, your amazing support for all that we do,

59:50 your wonderful comments, and suggesting our channels.

59:53 Um I hope you have a I mean, I think the weather's going to be good.

59:57 Oh, and yesterday I found some mushrooms.

59:59 So, if you're in this area, don't make sure that look for mushrooms.

1:00:03 Um but the only the kind you can eat.

1:00:08 [laughter] Morels, all right.

1:00:09 Anyway, [snorts] have a great weekend, and thanks for watching.