Posted 10 years ago
dublinpaddy
(3 items)
This is one of my favourite enamel signs. I bought it on ebay from a trader in India. I remember Royal Enfield motorbiikes on the streets of Dublin in the late 1960's, and always admired their design. I remember taking pictures of vintage bikes with my box camera.
I love this sign for many reasons- it is rare, in good shape, is die-cut, and it has a spelling error. The town "Redditch" was cast as "Redditgh", possibly due to spelling errors in the colonial factories that made signs for British goods. I'm guessing there was a run of these signs made before the error was caught. It makes me like it even more- how many survived? Who even noticed in the empire that there was a mis-spelling of the town where the motorcycles were made? How many would care when the main language wasn't English?
I remember the Enfield bikes very well as I had friends that rode them in the late 50s when I was riding a 500cc Matchless. Good Bikes! That was before real dirt bikes were invented and we just converted our Brit Bikes to dirt bikes. Fun days!