Tavern Signs

Before streets had names and houses had numbers, and when few people could read, painted and carved sign-boards and figures were used to identify a place of business.

Not only innkeepers, but men of all trades sought signs that either for quaintness, appropriateness, or costliness would attract the eyes of customers. Signs were painted and carved in wood, modeled in plaster, painted on tiles, wrought of various metals, and even were made of stuffed animal heads.

As education progressed, signs were less needed, and when thoroughfares were named with sing-posts set up and houses numbered, the use of business signs vanished. They lingered sometimes on account of their humor, sometimes because they were a guarantee of an established business, but chiefly because people were used to them.

Many people collect signs and sayings as a way to add character to their home. We love the idea of a beautiful vintage carved sign in a casual or eclectic space and were thrilled when we came across these:

What a great way to add interest and a new dimension to your kitchen or family room! The carved signs are interchangeable so you can decorate with the seasons or holiday. Best of all the arrow bracket hangs with only one nail or screw.

The wheat can be left up all year.




The turkey is perfect for autumn.




The candy canes have working bells on them.





Love the reindeer!




A happy Santa.




The bee hive is one of the most popular in spring.


For more information on tavern signs read on!

Many of the apparently meaningless names on tavern signs come through the familiar corruptions of generations of use, through alterations both by the dialect of speakers and by the successive mistakes of ignorant sign-painters. Thus "The Bag o' Nails," a favorite sign, was originally "The Bacchanalians." The familiar "Cat and Wheel" was the "Catherine Wheel," and still earlier "St. Catherine's Wheel," in allusion to the saint and her martyrdom. The "Goat and Compass" was the motto "God encompasseth us." "The Pig and Carrot" was the "Pique et Carreau" (the spade and diamond in playing cards).

"The Bull and Mouth" celebrates in corrupt wording the victory of Henry VIII. in "Boulougne Mouth" or Harbor. In London the Bull and Mouth Inn was a famous coach office, and the signboard bore these lines:--

"Milo the Cretonian
An ox slew with his fist,
And ate it up at one meal,
Ye Gods! what a glorious twist."

Twist was the old cant term for appetite.

Benjamin West painted many tavern signs in the vicinity of Philadelphia, among them in 1771 that of the Three Crowns, a noted hostelry that stood on the King's High-way in Salisbury Township, Lancaster County. This neighborhood was partly settled by English emigrants, and the old tavern was kept by a Tory of the deepest dye. The sign-board still bears the marks of the hostile bullets of the Continental Army, and the proprietor came near sharing the bullets with the sign. This Three Crowns was removed in 1816 to the Waterloo Tavern, kept by a relative of the old landlord. The Waterloo Tavern was originally the Bull's Head, and was kept by a Revolutionary officer.

The Bull's Head Inn of Philadelphia had a sign suited to its title; it was sold in the middle of this century to an Englishman as the work of Benjamin West. The inn stood in Strawberry Alley, and West once lived in the alley; and so also did Bernard Wilton, a painter and glazier, in the days when the inn was young and had no sign-board. And as the glazier sat one day in the taproom, a bull ran foaming into the yard and thrust his head with a roar in the tavern window. The glazier had a ready wit, and quoth he: "This means something. This bull thrust his head in as a sign, so it shall be the sign of the inn, and bring luck and custom forever." I think those were his words; at any rate, those were the deeds.

The Revolutionary War developed originality in American tavern signs. The "King's Arms," "King's Head," "St. George and the Dragon," and other British symbols gave place to rampant American eagles and portraits of George Washington. Every town had a Washington Tavern, with varied Washington sign-boards.

The landlord of the Washington Inn at Holmesburg, Pennsylvania, one James Carson, issued this address in 1816:--

"Ye good and virtuous Americans--come! whether business or pleasure be your object--call and be refreshed at the sign of Washington. Here money and merit will secure you respect and honor, and a hearty welcome to choice liquors and to sumptuous fare. Is it cold? You shall find a comfortable fire. Is it warm? Sweet repose under a cool and grassy shade. In short, every exertion shall be made to grace the sign of the hero and statesman who was first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

About 1840 one Washington Tavern in Philadelphia, on Second and Lombard streets, displayed a sign which was a novelty at that time. It was what was known as a "slat-sign"; perpendicular strips or slats were so set on the sign that one view or picture was shown upon taking a full front view, a second by looking at it from one side, a third from the other. The portrait of Washington and other appropriate pictures were thus shown.