London Signs & English Inn Signs

In London’s crowded and narrow streets in the 18th century, when much of the working population was still illiterate, business premises were recognised by shop signs hanging at right angles to the building facades. The latest additions to the Historystore website are a collection of invoices from this period which feature woodcuts and engravings of these signs.  The best reference books on the subject are ‘London Signs’ by Bryant Lillywhite’ published in 1972 and ‘English Inn Signs’ by Jacob Larwood and John Camden Hotten published in1951.

The Fiery Cross

This first history story is not for sale as it forms part of my Arts Society lecture on ‘The Evolution of the Postcard’.  Hopefully though it will convey some of my passion for ephemera and reinforce the message that behind every piece of historic paper lies a story.

Postcards were introduced in the United Kingdom on 1st October 1870.  They were intended only for business use – after all why would anyone want the whole world to see what they had written.  The Post Office made them available from 26th September so that businesses had the opportunity to have them printed with their message before 1st October.

One such business was W. Criper, a grocer in Tavistock, Devon, advertising the ‘New Season’s Teas’.  The words ‘Fiery Cross!!’ are repeated three times across the top of the card but what do they mean?

The “Fiery Cross” was a tea clipper, one of the fastest sailing ships of its era, which raced back from China with 1million pounds weight of tea and was the first to arrive in the great tea races in 1861, 1862, 1863 and 1865.

Since such postcards could only be bought from the Post Office in pre-printed sheets of 42 and in half reams of 240 sheets, it follows that Criper is likely to have printed 10,080 such postcards with his sales pitch.  This is the only example known to have survived, although others may exist.  Such is the nature of ephemera.

History Store Intro

Historystore has one of the UK’s largest archives of commercial ephemera for sale with some 20,000 documents available for purchase individually.  But exactly what is ephemera and why does it matter?

Ephemera can be described as the transient documents of everyday life. So your parking ticket and your junk mail are all ephemeral and most are binned immediately.

At Historystore we specialize in the documentation of the Industrial Revolution – the invoices, trade cards and price lists.  Many of these bear engravings of factories, machinery, workmen and products which, in the days before photography, are the only surviving images demonstrating the transition to an industrial society.  Then, as now, most of these documents were destroyed once their purpose had been served.

At the age of six I was given a stamp album.  Collecting stamps can be quite an introspective hobby and, if taken seriously, an extremely expensive pastime.  But the purpose of a postage stamp is to send a message or a consignment to someone else and the reason for writing is the aspect which fascinated me as an historian.

Any original document which combines printing and handwriting is likely to be unique, so you have in your hands an eye-witness account dating back several centuries. As commercial documents, very few landed up in institutional hands and the vast majority of our stock cannot be repeated and may be the only example still surviving.

Over the coming months we will be adding new items to our website regularly and telling you about the stories that surround so many. Enjoy!