Old wooden signs

[mart]

Haven`t checked on the balloon sign or the first one,,,but its odd that there is no record of Dickens ash ale or the other one !! And no signs anywhere for Ransome Simms,,or none that I could find !! No record of either ale sign !!  You know they would have made more than one !!

[cogar]

Great pieces, I think they are worth big pounds if they can be dated.

Advertising, folk art, primitives, etc., ...... gets the attention of different groups of collectors.

[wendy177]

I am with cogar big money here! I would contact Sotheby's with photos of the lot and ask for an auction estimate!! (even if you do not wish to sell) They will respond at no charge and I would get as much info as you could from them.  Beautiful pieces!!  Train collectors would love your train signs!  They are all amazing!

[sugarcube5419]

Good God=-dare I say it big wull I agree--

[mart]

I looked for similar signs,, couldn`t find any !!

[mariok54]

As mentioned earlier, the Railway sign is probably from Kent and East Sussex.
I've just found this that makes reference to Cobb's Ale which is a brew  local to Kent. If you could find out where the Brewery is, you might even be able to establish when the pub was around, even the local historical society might be able to point you in a few directions.

the more you know about these I am convinced the more £££ you will achieve.

Good Luck!

[mariok54]

Forgot the LINK!!!!

http://www.camra-canterbury.org.uk/wp/2012/03/26/1966-a-canterbury-world-cup-memory/

You might even try contacting CAMRA (campaigners for real ale, for those who haven't haerd of them), they will know a lot about the local pubs, even those that have disappeared.

[mariok54]

I imagine that you've already found this, but it does locate three of these pieces to the South East region.

An interesting read

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ransomes,_Sims_%26_Jefferies

Just realised, my spelling is different to yours, but I can't quite make out the lettering on the actual sign because of the glare??

[Petesy]

Guys, im so glad i came here with my questions, thank you all for putting me in the right direction (and confirming i should not have let them be thrown out)! as a complete newbie the help is very much appreciated and its definitely started me on a new hobby so i cant thank you all enough!, I always thought Sotheby's only dealt in "big ticket" auction items so i never thought in a million years they would be interested in looking at these, I have emailed a gent named Terry for the Train one from the link mariok54 gave me, im hopeful i will hear back for more info (i will let you all know what the script is) the lead on the ale house is a good shout i will follow that up next, its definitely been some interesting reading. the Ransomes & Sims company started for 200gbp in 1789! i can only imagine how much that would equate to these days!

 

[mariok54]

I'm not trying to raise your hopes but these sort of items can fetch very good money, especially if original.

I found this...  NOTE it is most probably (even DEFINITELY)  NOT the same brewery ... but it does give you an idea of the sort of interest that there could be (looking at the estimate)

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/3533794

[Petesy]

Wow, Ok as much as im liking this new found interest in antique/collecting, if i get $2k for one of these the money no longer goes towards furthering my antique collection but instead to my new motorbike...a players gotta play, 

That Cobb one though is great mario, I like it a hell of lot more than the freaky wee Dickens iv got! 

[talesofthesevenseas]

Can you show pics of the reverse sides? They were making reproduction signs in the 1970s/1980s at the time when your grandfather found these. They look to be in awfully good shape, maybe too good? I would check the back sides and look very closely at how they are made. Look really closely at the hardware used to assemble them. Nails, screws etc. can be very helpful with something like this.

[Petesy]

sure can, will get them posted up after work tomorrow. will also get some of the nails/screws etc is there anything in particular i am looking for?

[mariok54]

Just decent close-ups should help tell whether they're original or not.
Well done Tales for asking for what we should all have already asked !!

[talesofthesevenseas]

What you want to see back there are things like off-kilter slots in the screw heads which would indicate that it was from a time prior to mass-produced hardware. Straight slots not Phillips head screws, square cut nails, oxidation (dark coloring) in the wood around the nails, maybe iron fittings. Here's a couple of photos from the back of my federal mirror. It shows hand-forged iron forged iron hardware, but there have been later modern additions. You can really see the difference between new and old. This mirror is circa 1810, so the differences you might see might not be as extreme:

One modern screw, the rest of the fittings are old:



Iron hardware:



Old and new hardware, old iron fittings with new manufactured steel brackets and screws added later: