Image Gallery
Trade Figures, Signs & Weathervanes
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The trade sign took many forms in early America. When education was a privilege and literacy rare, the ideal trade sign immediately caught the attention of a passerby and, because of its design, was totally self-explanatory. Folk artists, sometimes including itinerant portrait painters, created signs that bore pictures that visually explained the name of the establishment or the services to be found within. As early as 1645, the town of Salem, Massachusetts, required that taverns display signs for the convenience of travelers. These signs usually carried pictures or lettering on both sides and were hung from a tall post at right angles to the road, so as to be visible to travelers approaching from either direction.
Three-dimensional carved trade signs were often produced in the same workshops as figureheads and other ship decorations and usually displayed the same broad-planed carving style that typified American figureheads. The best known of all American trade sign forms is the cigar-store Indian. From the middle of the nineteenth century to the turn of the twentieth century, no self-respecting tobacconist would have considered opening up shop without a figure of some kind to stand by the front door. Most often, these figures depicted American Indians, although other figures—Turks, Egyptians, soldiers, sailors, fashionable ladies, popular heroes, characters out of literature, and even patriotic symbols such as Uncles Sam—were also used to advertise cigar stores and other businesses. The introduction of electric signs, which could advertise a business in the dark, led to the decline of the carved trade figure.
Weathervanes are a form of folk art that, although originating in Europe, reached its greatest development in America. Few of the handcrafted weathervanes—silhouette or three-dimensional wooden or metal forms—made as early as the last quarter of the eighteenth century are still extant. Factory-made weathervanes began to be produced in the middle of the nineteenth century. They were made by carving a wooden pattern and then fashioning a metal mold from it. A craftsman would hammer thin sheets of copper into the metal mold and create various parts of the body of a vane, which were then soldered together to form a finished piece. In time, technology developed to the point that it became possible to stamp out parts, and handcraftsmanship disappeared in the process.
Like much folk sculpture, weathervanes had functional as well as decorative purposes. A weathervane could be used as a trade sign, indicating the type of business housed within the building it topped. Or a farmer might top his barn with a weathervane in the shape of a type of animal raised on the farm. And church steeples—easily identified from a distance—were usually topped by Christian symbols, such as the rooster, the fish, and the angel Gabriel. But the most important function of a weathervane was the indication of wind direction, which was important to farmers, sailors, travelers, and anyone whose work could be impacted by weather conditions.
The trade sign took many forms in early America. When education was a privilege and literacy rare, the ideal trade sign immediately caught the attention of a passerby and, because of its design, was totally self-explanatory. Folk artists, sometimes including itinerant portrait painters, created signs that bore pictures that visually explained the name of the establishment or the services to be found within. As early as 1645, the town of Salem, Massachusetts, required that taverns display signs for the convenience of travelers. These signs usually carried pictures or lettering on both sides and were hung from a tall post at right angles to the road, so as to be visible to travelers approaching from either direction.
Three-dimensional carved trade signs were often produced in the same workshops as figureheads and other ship decorations and usually displayed the same broad-planed carving style that typified American figureheads. The best known of all American trade sign forms is the cigar-store Indian. From the middle of the nineteenth century to the turn of the twentieth century, no self-respecting tobacconist would have considered opening up shop without a figure of some kind to stand by the front door. Most often, these figures depicted American Indians, although other figures—Turks, Egyptians, soldiers, sailors, fashionable ladies, popular heroes, characters out of literature, and even patriotic symbols such as Uncles Sam—were also used to advertise cigar stores and other businesses. The introduction of electric signs, which could advertise a business in the dark, led to the decline of the carved trade figure.
Weathervanes are a form of folk art that, although originating in Europe, reached its greatest development in America. Few of the handcrafted weathervanes—silhouette or three-dimensional wooden or metal forms—made as early as the last quarter of the eighteenth century are still extant. Factory-made weathervanes began to be produced in the middle of the nineteenth century. They were made by carving a wooden pattern and then fashioning a metal mold from it. A craftsman would hammer thin sheets of copper into the metal mold and create various parts of the body of a vane, which were then soldered together to form a finished piece. In time, technology developed to the point that it became possible to stamp out parts, and handcraftsmanship disappeared in the process.
Like much folk sculpture, weathervanes had functional as well as decorative purposes. A weathervane could be used as a trade sign, indicating the type of business housed within the building it topped. Or a farmer might top his barn with a weathervane in the shape of a type of animal raised on the farm. And church steeples—easily identified from a distance—were usually topped by Christian symbols, such as the rooster, the fish, and the angel Gabriel. But the most important function of a weathervane was the indication of wind direction, which was important to farmers, sailors, travelers, and anyone whose work could be impacted by weather conditions.