A Fabulous Pair of Opal Glass Painted Undertaker Premises Signs c.1935-45
SOLD
Origin: English
Period: Early/Mid 20thC
Provenance: An undertakers premises; Nottingham, England
Date: c.1935-45
Width: 19.75”
Height: 31” (each in frames)
The pair of opal glass painted undertaker premises signs, one reading “Undertakers Day or Night” the other “Weddings and Funerals Lowest Prices” surviving from the second quarter of the twentieth century and presented in later black painted frames enabling them to be hung and admired.
There is some expected wear to the paintwork, which gives the signs their decorative appeal. Crucially there are no cracks, chips or repairs. They have been framed in simple black painted frames at a later date so they can be displayed, as the glass itself has no fixings to it, suggesting they probably were inset into a door or window at the undertaker’s premises.
The brevity and choice of words used on the signs is rather amusing in the juxtaposition of the words ‘weddings’ and ‘funerals’ in the same breath and the emphasis on prices also being rather comical as is the fact that the Undertaker service can be used ‘day or night’ as if, somehow, folk would be knocking at 2am to instruct an undertaker to remove their dead wife. Brilliant.
Darkly humorous, wonderfully laconic, beautifully decorative, fabulously unique.
Period: Early/Mid 20thC
Provenance: An undertakers premises; Nottingham, England
Date: c.1935-45
Width: 19.75”
Height: 31” (each in frames)
The pair of opal glass painted undertaker premises signs, one reading “Undertakers Day or Night” the other “Weddings and Funerals Lowest Prices” surviving from the second quarter of the twentieth century and presented in later black painted frames enabling them to be hung and admired.
There is some expected wear to the paintwork, which gives the signs their decorative appeal. Crucially there are no cracks, chips or repairs. They have been framed in simple black painted frames at a later date so they can be displayed, as the glass itself has no fixings to it, suggesting they probably were inset into a door or window at the undertaker’s premises.
The brevity and choice of words used on the signs is rather amusing in the juxtaposition of the words ‘weddings’ and ‘funerals’ in the same breath and the emphasis on prices also being rather comical as is the fact that the Undertaker service can be used ‘day or night’ as if, somehow, folk would be knocking at 2am to instruct an undertaker to remove their dead wife. Brilliant.
Darkly humorous, wonderfully laconic, beautifully decorative, fabulously unique.