The trade signs of Essex : a popular account of the origin and meanings of the public house & other signs now or formerly found in the county of Essex / by Miller Christy.

  • Miller Christy
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The trade signs of Essex : a popular account of the origin and meanings of the public house & other signs now or formerly found in the county of Essex / by Miller Christy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    PREFACE. :o: “ Prefaces to books [says a learned author] are like signs to public-houses. They are intended to give one an idea of the kind of entertainment to be found within.” STUDENT of the ancient and peculiarly interesting Art of Heraldry can hardly fail, at an early period in his researches, to be struck with the idea that some connection obviously exists between the various “charges,” “crests,” “badges,” and “sup- porters ” with which he is familiar, and the curious designs now to be seen upon the sign-boards of many of our roadside inns, and which were formerly displayed by most other houses of business. On first noticing this relationship when commencing the study of Heraldry, somewhere about the year 1879, it occurred to me that the subject was well worth following up. It seemed to me that much interesting information would probably be brought to light by a careful examination of the numerous signs of my native county of Essex. Still more desirable did this appear when, after careful inquiry, I found that (so far as I was able to discover) no more than three systematic treatises upon the subject had ever been published. First and foremost among these stands Messrs. Larwood and Hotten’s History of Sign-boards,1 a standard work which is ' The History of Sign-boards, From the Earliest Times to the Present Day. By Jacob Larwood and John Camden Hotten. London, 1867. In this otherwise excellent work there is, unfortunately, no connection between the illustrations and the letterpress.