Ghost signs

[BobHufford]

High Gate, Missouri.

 

[tonyb]

 

[tonyb]

 

[tonyb]

As a casual collector of vintage commercial signage, I am drawn to sights such as these. Some “serious” collectors would pay big money for these, especially the large Coca-Cola sign. Some would have it removed from the side of the building ASAP, so as to prevent further deterioration. I’m agnostic as to that. There’s something to be said for its preservation, and there’s something to be said for leaving it in its natural habitat.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The odd-shaped Coke sign hanging between the two windows was originally a "hanger" -- it would have been suspended in a frame over the sidewalk, usually with a topper bearing the name of the store or one reading "Fountain Service." You can see the holes around the rim where it bolted into the frame.

 

[BobHufford]

I’ve driven past this one a thousand times and just now noticed it since the light was right. Cabool, Missouri.

^^^^^ MFA (Missouri Farmers Association) Farmers Grocery. That looks like a Foremost Milk sign under it.

 

[Blackthorn]

Good catch, Bob!

 

[tonyb]

The odd-shaped Coke sign hanging between the two windows was originally a "hanger" -- it would have been suspended in a frame over the sidewalk, usually with a topper bearing the name of the store or one reading "Fountain Service." You can see the holes around the rim where it bolted into the frame.

Perhaps it’s two-sided, then?

I occasionally drop in to a Coca-Cola collectors’ online group, although I have more Pepsi than Coke stuff, and not a great deal of either.

Large collections are fine and good and all, but there comes a point when it turns into a museum. Just recently a quite rusty ‘40s(?)-vintage Coca-Cola sign, a large one, like 3 feet by 8, was posted. Fellow wanted to know what a reasonable price for it might be, which of course opened up a can of worms. One respondent offered that due to its condition it might be of interest to a decorator but not to serious collectors. (Exception was taken, as you might imagine.)

But that exchange highlighted to me the difference between “serious” collectors and those more concerned with aesthetic merit and how a piece might play in a context other than a Coca-Cola memorabilia collection, for whom the rust and dents might make it all the more desirable.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Definitely two sided.

The sheer amount of Coca-Cola signage produced over the last hundred and forty years beggars the imagination. By the 1890s, the company had literally blanketed the entire country with its logo to the point where it was pretty much impossible to turn your head in any town of any size without seeing a Coca-Cola sign of some kind. Every possible variation of size and shape was manufactured to fit every possible need or situation, and they were provided free to any store that would display them, usually with the name of the shop added as a "privilege" to the merchant.

That being so, it's not all that surprising there's such an ample supply of them available now for collectors -- the wonder is that there aren't more of them. There were plenty of cheap painted tin signs of the "country store" type, most of which have long since rusted away, but there were also plenty of porcelain-enamel ones that were pretty much indestructible, and these are still easy to find. Only the demand from collectors keeps the price high.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^^^
As with pretty much all collectible stuff, the time-worn adage “it’s worth what someone will pay” definitely applies. What intrinsic value does it have, after all?

Coca-Cola stuff has a relatively large audience because the product itself is popular (and has been for well over a century) and because the logo is attractive and hasn’t changed much over most of that history (although it has changed in subtle ways, as the more avid collectors are happy to point out). Pepsi, on the other hand, has changed its logo numerous times over its history (the “updated” versions were rarely improvements over their predecessors), which might go some way toward explaining why the market for its vintage artifacts is smaller and generally less devoted.

This sign features the logo Pepsi used from 1950 through 1961. It’s only the upper half of a sign, by the way. If I had the lower section, I’d have no place here to display it anyway. It’s in the outside stairwell leading into our basement. It’s not visible from the street. It gets very little direct sunlight or precipitation, seeing how the stairs are under a canopy, so it hasn’t deteriorated any that I can tell since I installed it there and painted a border around it, a few years ago.

 

[tonyb]

High Gate, Missouri.

View attachment 553294

View attachment 553295

I’d gladly pay a C for that sign.

 

[tonyb]

Definitely two sided.

The sheer amount of Coca-Cola signage produced over the last hundred and forty years beggars the imagination. By the 1890s, the company had literally blanketed the entire country with its logo to the point where it was pretty much impossible to turn your head in any town of any size without seeing a Coca-Cola sign of some kind. Every possible variation of size and shape was manufactured to fit every possible need or situation, and they were provided free to any store that would display them, usually with the name of the shop added as a "privilege" to the merchant.

That being so, it's not all that surprising there's such an ample supply of them available now for collectors -- the wonder is that there aren't more of them. There were plenty of cheap painted tin signs of the "country store" type, most of which have long since rusted away, but there were also plenty of porcelain-enamel ones that were pretty much indestructible, and these are still easy to find. Only the demand from collectors keeps the price high.

I’d bet on the “better” Coca-Cola memorabilia holding its value through the foreseeable. It isn’t just us oldsters who want the stuff. Indeed, it’s likelier a younger person would decorate her abode with a 70-plus-year-old Coca-Cola sign.

Coca-Cola is still more than happy to slap its logo on all order of stuff, though, most of which will find its way to the garage sale, the charity thrift store or the landfill before it would ever gain “vintage” status, and even then it wouldn’t likely fetch much. Cheap drinking glasses with the Coca-Cola logo printed on ‘em? They made ‘em by the millions. And that Coca-Cola teddy bear? Give it to your grand baby to chew on, along with those Beanie Babies that were going to fund your retirement.

 

[BobHufford]

This 1935 Nehi sign was discovered when this building (most recently a plumbing company) was being demolished and the stonework removed. Located in Springfield, Missouri.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^

If I were in the neighborhood I’d offer ’em a hundred bucks for permission to cut out that sign and take the pieces with me.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Note that the walldog had the courtesy to sign and date his work.

 

[BobHufford]

^^^^^

If I were in the neighborhood I’d offer ’em a hundred bucks for permission to cut out that sign and take the pieces with me.

These pics were posted to a local history Facebook page. By the time I arrived there was only a pile of splinters left. Hopefully someone saved it.

 

[BobHufford]

Not much, but it is a ghost sign. They have been working on repurposing and old building in Cabool, Missouri and uncovered this small sign.

 

[dh66]

Spotted this restored gem today

 

[tonyb]

Salida, Colorado

 

[tonyb]