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The History of Signboards, from the Earliest times to the Present Day — John Camden Hotten

The History of Signboards, from the Earliest times to the Present Day

John Camden Hotten

  • History
  • Book language: English
  • 678 pages

The History of Signboards is a cultural history by John Camden Hotten and Jacob Larwood. It surveys the origins, forms, and meanings of old English inn, tavern, and shop signs, with the customs around them. It is worth listening to for its anecdotes and glimpses of social history.

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Cover of the original edition (Project Gutenberg, public domain).

Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.

Opening of the book

Please see the Transcriber’s Notes at
the end of this text.
Drawn by Experience
Engraved by Sorrow
ĵ Mĵƿ LLjĵŠŧŠ with MƗǪŕƒƗŧż, or MĵǵǡƗƽLjƿΏ.
A Monkey, a Magpie, and Wife; Is the true Emblem of Strife.
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THE
HISTORY OF SIGNBOARDS
From the Earliest Times to the Present
Day
BY JACOB LARWOOD AND
JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN
“He would name you all the signs as he went along”
BEN JONSON’S BARTHOLOMEW FAIR
“Oppida dum peragras peragranda poemata spectes”

DRUNKEN BARNABY’S TRAVELS

Cock and Bottle

TWELFTH IMPRESSION

WITH ONE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. LARWOOD

LONDON

CHATTO & WINDUS

1908

To

Thomas Wright, Esq., M.A., F.S.A.,

the Accomplished Interpreter of English Popular Antiquities, this

Little Volume is Dedicated

by

THE AUTHORS.

PREFACE.

The field of history is a wide one, and when the beaten tracks have been well traversed, there will yet remain some of the lesser paths to explore. The following attempt at a “History of Signboards” may be deemed the result of an exploration in one of these by-ways.

Although from the days of Addison’s Spectator down to the present

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Contents

  1. THE HISTORY OF SIGNBOARDS From the Earliest Times to the Present Day
  2. PREFACE.
  3. CONTENTS.
  4. CHAPTER I. GENERAL SURVEY OF SIGNBOARD HISTORY.
  5. CHAPTER II. HISTORIC AND COMMEMORATIVE SIGNS.
  6. CHAPTER III. HERALDIC AND EMBLEMATIC SIGNS.
  7. CHAPTER IV. SIGNS OF ANIMALS AND MONSTERS.
  8. CHAPTER V. BIRDS AND FOWLS
  9. CHAPTER VI. FISHES AND INSECTS.
  10. CHAPTER VII. FLOWERS, TREES, HERBS, ETC.
  11. CHAPTER VIII. BIBLICAL AND RELIGIOUS SIGNS.
  12. CHAPTER IX. SAINTS, MARTYRS, ETC.
  13. CHAPTER X. DIGNITIES, TRADES, AND PROFESSIONS.
  14. CHAPTER XI. THE HOUSE AND THE TABLE.
  15. CHAPTER XII. DRESS; PLAIN AND ORNAMENTAL.
  16. CHAPTER XIII. GEOGRAPHY AND TOPOGRAPHY.
  17. CHAPTER XIV. HUMOROUS AND COMIC.
  18. CHAPTER XV. PUNS AND REBUSES.
  19. CHAPTER XVI. MISCELLANEOUS SIGNS.
  20. APPENDIX. BONNELL THORNTON’S SIGNBOARD EXHIBITION.
  21. INDEX.
  22. Transcriber’s Notes
  23. THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG™ LICENSE

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