SIGN BOARD AND TOKEN

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 77, 31 March 1928, Page 7 (Supplement)

SIGN BOARD AND TOKEN

USED Br THE ROMANS. OLD-TIME CUSTOMS. (By STEVIE.)

Readers of Scott's romantic novel, "The Bride of Lammermoor," will recall the last effort of poor Dick Tinto, to honourably settle his landlord's score by painting him a sign ere departing from his native village of Ganderclough.

The calling of a signboard artist is one of great antiquity, and goes back to the days of the Romans. In the Eternal City some streets derived their names from signs, and this also obtained in English medieval towns. The exploration of the ruins of Herculaneura and Pompeii has revealed that in addition to a few painted signs others were made of stone or terracotta.

The evidence is strong that Britain must have adopted the signboard from the Romans. For instance, the Roman bush of evergreens, to indicate wines for sale, doubtless suggested the sign of the Bush Inn. The well-known "Two Jolly Brewers," carrying a barrel slung on a pole, appears to be copied from the device of the Pompeian public house keeper, with two slaves represented above his door, carrying a large drink ing vessel or amphora. The aim of mine host, in all climes and countries, in erecting liis sign appeared to be the same—to advertise.

Good entertainment for all that passes, Horses, mares, men, and astses. Signs have not by any means been confined to John Barleycorn, for ■we find that almost every trade was wont to adopt a design, usually one depicting some tool or commodity peculiar to its calling. Rival tradesmen in Britain vied with each other in displaying huge signs, and as far back as 1419 they were debarred by statute from exceeding a certain size. Printers were in the habit of putting their sign in the form of a woodcut on the title pages of books issued from their office, and the title page of one Jodocus Badius, of Paris, gives this caution: "We beg the reader to notice the sign, for there are men who have adopted the same title and the name of Badius, and so filch our labour." Small wonder that a sign was considered an heirloom, and it was common to pass it on from father to son, like the coat of arms of the nobility.

In very early times publicans were compelled to have a sign, and in the old records of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, under date of 1393, one North, a Chelsea brewer, was prosecuted for not putting up the usual signboard Hence the taking away of a publican's license was accompanied by the taking away of his sign. •For this gross fault I here do damn thy licence, Forbidding thee ever to tap or draw. For instantly I will in my own person Command the constable to pull down thy sign. Historic and Commemorative. The ancient Greeks honoured theh great men by statues and the Romans by triumphal entries, but the British have been prone to make the portraits of their celebrities serve as signs for public houses. Thus the Alfred's Head, at Wantage, Berks, was chosen, as this town was the birthplace of the great Saxon King. Hever, in Kent, boasted a rude portrait of King Henry VIII. Near this village lived Sir Thos. Bolleyn, or Bullen, and the spot is still shown where this monarch used to meet the knight's daughter, Anne. The sign of the village alehouse was for years after the death of the ill-fated Anne, "Bullen Butchered," but eventually it was altered to the . "King's Head," with the suggestive addition of an axe being placed in the hand of the King.

The "Martyr's Head," in Smithfield, portrayed King Charles 1., so at least one gathers from the following allusion. Note the sly hit at those that favoured the monarch's fate and who were also avowed teetotallers.

May Hyde near. Smithfield at the Martyr's Head,' Who charms the nicest judge with noble red, Thrives on by drawing wines which none can blame But those who in his sign behold their shame.

The memo/y of his successor was kept green for centuries by the favourite signs "The Royal Oak" and "King Charles in the Oak," these adorning twenty-six public houses in London alone.

Pretty Nell," as a sign, recalls the memory of the second Charles' favourite mistress. It was one May Day in 1607 that Mr. Pepys saw her standing at the door of her lodgings in her smock sleeves and bodice, and thought her a. "misrhtv pretty creature."

Emblematic and Heraldic. The Crown seems to be one of the oldest English emblematic signs, and we read that as early as 1467 one Walter Walters, who kept "The Crown" in Cheapside, made an innocent Cockney pun, saying that he would make his son heir to the Crown. This speech, coining to the knowledge of King Edward IV., he ordered the unfortunate man's death for high treason. The Crown Inn at Oxford was a favourite with Shakespeare, who usually put up at this hostelry on his frequent journeys between Stratford and London. The King's Arms, too, was a common device, and at an inn of this nfeme in Bow Street, Grinling Gibbons, the noted wood carver, lived from 1678 until his death some three years later. "The White Hart" is an ancient heraldic sign and dates from the days of Al exan der the Great or earlier. One of the oldest taverns of this name stood in the Borough Southwark. There it was that the notorious Jack Cade made his headquarters in 1450. Reference to this is to be found in Shakespeare's "King Henry V 11.," scene eight. "Hath my sword broken through London's gates that ye should leave me at the White Hart in Southwark." Destroyed by fire in 1676, it was rebuilt, and is immortalised in Dickens' "Pickwick Papers" as the scene of Sam Weller's labours and Mr. Jingle's perfidy. Animals and Monsters. The Whitp E_.-se is a favourite device, and it was at an inn of this name that the dissolute Villiers Duke of Buckingham died. Pope refers to this in his "Moral Essays."

"The George and Garter dangling from that bed Where tawdry yellow strove with dirty red. Great Villiers lies, alas! how changed from him. That life of pleasure and that soul of whim.

I The "Reindeer," then 3pelt "rained deer," made its appearance in the 17th century, while monsters were represented by "Unicorn" and the "Sea Horse." J Referring to i 2 firstnained. a sailor just returned from Lapland was asked if he had seen any rained deer. "No/ answered Jack, "I have seen it rain cats, dogs and pitchforks, but I never saw it rain deer." The "Mermaid," too, was not unknown, a house of this name, in Bread Street City, having the distinctior of being the home of the first literary club established in England. This was in 1603, Sir Walter Raleigh, its founder, fraternising with Shakespesi , Ben Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher and other literati of the day.

However, to even refer to the various symbols and devices displayed, not only by innkeepers, but tradesmen, too, would lill a volume. The subject, however, is certainly interesting, and one that throws a light on old-time manners and customs.