Monday, June 24, 2013

A rambling post featuring an old receipt, a new wall painting, a newly revealed sign, and a bunch of other old signs

This post will ramble a bit, because I'm playing catchup on a few things to mention from the last few days.

Firstly, the old receipt. The other morning I picked up my car from a panel repair shop in East Doncaster, out in the north-east of Melbourne. The repairer, which had been picked out by my insurance company, had old photos on the wall of their area when it was still bucolic and semi-rural. I wanted to ask more about their interest in local history but I was running late, and so had to pick up the keys and leave.

That same day I was going through invoices and receipts from the Lewis & Skinner signwriting company for my forthcoming exhibition (more on that later). I came upon this - a receipt from 1952:




The receipt is from Syme Body Works - the same place I had picked up my car from...61 years later.

The reason I was in a hurry that morning was that I was due to meet my project crew (Lisa and signwriter Tony, as well as Lisa's partner Carey) at a cafe in Yarraville, Lady Moustache, where we'll be hosting the exhibition of Lewis and Skinner material in late September, alongside Tony's live signwriting of the L&S logo on the cafe wall. We measured out the wall in anticipation of completing a council planning application, since the wall is part of a heritage-listed building:


When done, the wall will look something like this:



More on this project soon.

Now for some existing signs. Last night I was driving down High Street, Thornbury, and spied this brilliant uncovering:





Here's one from Dean of 50 Lonsdale Street in the city:


And one by Lisa's student Nick, taken in Mordialloc:


And lastly, a bunch from the industrial areas of my suburb of Reservoir (some are not technically ghost signs, being for still-existing business, but what the heck):
















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