Brilliant Lewis & Skinner cocoa sign uncovering in Caulfield

Big thanks to Rob Gray for alerting me to this uncovering on Glenhuntly Road in Caulfield. It's for Bensdorp's Cocoa, a brand that is still going. It looks like it's from the 1920s or 1930s, judging by the cobalt blue and type face - but it's hard to tell. There are a few containers around with a similar type, such as the one on this page, described as being "1900-1930": http://historydetectives.nyhistory.org/2014/02/the-history-of-chocolate-at-the-new-york-historical-society/

Still, the most exciting thing for me is that it was painted by the Lewis & Skinner, whose company records I found three years ago (see: www.lewisandskinner.com).

Here are some of the pics I took today, in the late winter light:

From the street

From the back

And here's an example of a tin with a vaguely similar typeface:

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bensdorps_leight_loslicher_Reiner_Cacao_Amsterdam,_oranje_rond_blikje,_foto4.JPG

A little ghost sign controversy

Yours truly weighs in this week on the issue of repainting signs with the mayor of Port Adelaide in the local paper....

Bird spotting in North Fitzroy...as well as other creatures

Yesterday I was booked into an Indigenous walk along Merri Creek, which was cancelled at the last minute.

So instead I reacquainted myself with the uber-gentrified streets of one-was-working-class North Fitzroy...and found a few beauties.

On the way to the walk, I had seen a round mark on a wall - here's what it looked like close up. It looks like it's a sign for the Rosella brand of jams, whose factory can be found in Richmond:

A few streets down were two lovingly restored buildings on the same block, each with its own sign:

 Plus also spied a few other faint traces here and there, as well as rephotographed two old Robur favourites - one that seems to have revealed extra layers as it has aged, and another whose remaining traces have been further covered with posters:

This old laneway factory has a "partial demolition" sign on it.

Down another laneway

Nearly gone...

  

Nearly gone 2...

And here are the Robur signs:

Nicholas Building

On Saturday my daughter took me up to the first floor of the Nicholas Building in central Melbourne, built in 1926 in the Chicago School style by the Nicholas brothers (who had made their money manufacturing and marketing aspirin) and designed by architect Harry Norris.

Upstairs from its ornate Cathedral Arcade, the fashionably rundown building has some interesting and curious shops on the first and second floors - a button shop, a fortune teller, homewares, a talent school, designers, a place that makes voodoo dolls, a bookshop - and offices for creative types upstairs.

It also has some great details in its corners: polished wooden panelling, beautiful coloured tilework, a central lift surrounded by lace ironwork - and signs dotted throughout:

Ciao Coburg milk bars

The other day I went past the old milk bar on the way to my daughter's school in Coburg. It's on Reynard Street, a former sign haven that has already lost a lot of its ghost signs, and found one too.

Here the news is mixed. We've lost the awesome Tarax sign in the windows (see below), but it looks like the grocer and Lipton sign might even survive the redevelopment into apartments:

As it is...

..and as it was.

Here's another around the corner in Melville Road, in the process of being redeveloped too.

And from the same group of shops - a well-hidden Velvet Soap sign, and one more:

Couple of great sign pics from the State Library

Russell Street, 1954, during the Queen's visit. That was the year the Vacuum Oil Company was changing all the signs around Melbourne from Plume to Mobilgas - this one soon to come:

(see full record details here: http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?vid=MAIN&docId=SLV_VOYAGER1830285&fn=permalink)

And another of Russell Street, 1932:

Here's a great one from 1934 - notice the great work by the Sid Syne company: