Enamel sign

Stollwerck enamel sign from 1895

"Recognized area of ​​exemplary order, security, cleanliness and discipline", enamel sign from GDR times , seen in the cinema in the Sprengel in Hanover

An enamel sign , also known as an enamel sign , is a tin sign with a protective enamel coating .

history

Ludwig Stollwerck is considered to be the inventor of enamel signs for advertising purposes , as they flourished between 1890 and 1960 . Fascinated by the possibility of creating a “weather-resistant permanent poster” for outdoor advertising, in 1893 he had the first “advertising posters using the icing process” produced by Schulze & Wehrmann in Elberfeld, the first industrial enamelling plant for advertising signs in Germany. His enamel signs soon became one of Stollwerck's outstanding trademarks and the “Stollwerck Chocolade & Cacao” sign made in 1895 is now a sought-after collector's item.

Other large consumer goods producers quickly recognized the effectiveness of the new advertising medium , and so Julius Maggi , one of the other enamel sign pioneers, soon used such steel signs in thousands of copies to establish his products on the entire European market.

But this form of advertising was also suitable as a company or practice sign. At the entrances to the commercial buildings, some with several backyards, one often found a collection of numerous enamel signs, popularly known as the silent porter , with the names of the companies located there and the respective floor and courtyard numbers.

• 

  Enamelled street sign in the Mannheim squares

• 

  Station sign of Emaillierwerke Hannover KG , once at the station Harlingerode used

• 

  Consultation hour sign Prof. Dr. med Heinrich Martius - specialist in obstetrics - gynecologist and university professor

• 

  Enamel sign of the Discount-Spar-Verein Niedersedlitz and surroundings Dresden

Another use of enamel signs was and is as a weather-resistant sign, street or house number, as you can still find them in many places today.

Because of all this, the enamel and tin sign industry played a not unimportant role in the European economy in the first half of the 20th century. In many countries there were large factories in which advertising signs were produced using various techniques (stencils, lithographs ) , often based on templates from well-known graphic artists and painters .

In the first years of the 20th century, the mass advertising was often referred to as " Blechpest ", today well-preserved enamel signs / enamel signs are often sought-after rarities.

• 

  Typical enamel sign (1952), with the characteristic camber

• 

  Version with hand-drawn sans serif

literature

• William Evenden: German insurance labels . Karlsruhe, 1989
• Roman Franke: Enamel Signs (Heyne Collectors Library, 6) Munich, 1980
• Axel Riepenhausen: Tin posters - The history of enamelled advertising signs . Münster, 1979
• Sylke Wunderlich: The great book of enamel posters - an international, historical overview . Munich, 1997. ISBN 3-572-00838-7

Web links

Commons : Enamel Signs  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Insurance label collection (Upper Level Center for Banking and Insurance in Berlin)
• Photographic documentation on the subject of "restoration of enamel signs"
• Collection of enamel advertising signs in the inventory of the Technoseum Mannheim

Individual evidence

1. ^ Joest, Hans-Josef - 150 years of Stollwerck. The adventure of a global brand , Stollwerck, Cologne, 1989.