Posted 14 years ago
parrotgeek
(3 items)
This is a hand painted sign from Ghirardelli from an ad campaign that they started early in the company's history so people could learn to pronounce their name phonetically. This is one of the signs from that campaign. It is hand painted on plywood.
Additional Info:
It's 48" Wide, and 70" Tall
Does anyone have any idea what something like this is worth?
I don't think it was hand painted. It looks too clean and doesn't have any brush strokes. Plus it has a sign manufacturer on it. It's probably paint enamel from silkscreening.
Correct it does have a "Manufacturer", it is the sign painter shop and local union number. cant comment on the silkscreening I don't want to start trying to clean it, It's pretty dusty.
cocacolakid97 is right, that doesn't look hand painted. If you look closely, the letters are too perfect. The O's are identical, that's a sign it's either silkscreened or it's painted by a superhuman. But it is a pretty rare ghiradelli cocoa plywood sign.
Regardless of the identical O's, it still could be hand-illustrated. Even if it was silk-screened, someone probably did the art by hand unless someone else knows how things were illustrated and typecast in the 30's or earlier. The fact that there's a sheen of sorts on the black paint/ink vs. the other colors also tells me that it's clearly not a mass-produced item.
I'd contact Ghirardelli and ask if they have an archival or historical department...lots of old U.S. companies do. You may also want to Google the printer or sign-painters union (or whatever that mark is at the bottom right) so see if they have an idea how it was done. My guess is this was created by an artist and then "shot" on some type of film to be used later in print advertising pieces.
Ghirardelli Chocolate Company
1111 139th Avenue
San Leandro, CA 94578-2631
800.877.9338 (Main Office)