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hand writing signage: slumberland
The red Slumberland Albion claymore truck vintage 1961
sign written by my good self over 40 years ago. Materials use for this job
were John T. Keeps Ltd synthetic writing enamels & Keeps coach paint.
3m scothlite was used on the front & rear Slumberland logo, it was cut by laying cut Perspex letters on the face then cut round with a scalpel knife, long before cutting machinesThe white delivery van Bedford TK again written in the late 60’s when
the image was change to the new company logo still used today
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21 Replies
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Bravo!
I love seeing this type of work.
Thanks for sharing.
Love….Jill -
chris …that looks great . Question did you pounce the slumberland onto the other side or draw it out ?
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quote :brian little wrote:
chris …that looks great . Question the white bedford did you pounce the slumberland onto the other side or draw it out ?We did approx 30 of these Bedford TK’s at that time, every van was a different colour (it was 60’s flower power time)
We used an episcope to train the image full size onto 3’ wide brown packaging paper then
traced the image with an artists sketch pencil to produce the whole side drawing, then of course turned
it into a pounce, cutting the whole drawing the into sections for handling. The one template did every van . The sections were reassembled on van sides, pounced with charcoal pounce dust, on removing the paper pounce there was the image ready to write, using a large flopper writer & 2” Hamilton paint brush and with a little etch solvent added to the paint you were applying, it was well & truly bonded to the van body sides It had to stand up to the very vigorous automatic wash brusheson average to hand paint one of these trucks took about 14 hours & there was not any brush marks on the letters All this work for £75 a truck plus materials
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I could name one or two hauliers that still want you to do 14 hrs with a brush for £75, including second coating all the lettering, pin striping and coming back to them every 4 months or so to touch up any damage they may have caused for whole life of the truck !
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Chris, welcome to the boards I’m sure you will enjoy it.
£75 for 14 hours work in the sixties was top dollar, average wage then was probably about £25-40 per week, in 66 as an apprentice I was earning just short of a fiver,,
Peter
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Started late as an aprentice didn’t you Peter – did you do 25yrs. in the forces for national service or something ?
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Cheek 😉
I go by the old saying though, "if you can remember the sixties, you werent there"Peter
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You seem to remember that £4/11/6 well enough, did you have alot of week left at the end of your money then peter,
Incidently, i assume you were still living with your parents then, what proportion did you have to hand over as "housekeeping" just curious as theres a bit of a heated debate at home, four teenage kids and you can guess the rest.
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Phill,
I gave me old mum £4 a week, she’s sat with us at the moment so can veryify it.
At sixteen I also had a part time evening job to subsidize my lifestyle, worked in a cafe, and when I was older as a waiter in a cocktail.. no just a pub. As soon as my driving ban was lifted at 18 I got a taxi badge as well. In short if I wanted to have "the extras" I had to work for it. I lived at home till I was 23 but also had a nice little flat on the side 😉Peter
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quote Peter Normington:she’s sat with us at the moment so can veryify it.hi lil :wave3:
nik
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As I’ve been telling my lot, basically if they want the niceties in life they have to be prepared to work for it – nothing comes handed on a plate.
Say hello to your mum from me.
Cheers
Phil
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Peter Yes you are right!
Employed pay was about £40 per week when a fully trained writer in London area in 1962. But I was self employed & worked exceptionally hard & was also very fast, that job would have taken others possibly double that time The reason I went self employed was to earn higher money on price work.I started work in 195!!! As an apprentice for 5 year term. 1st year one shilling per hour 44 hours = £2/4/0 a week brush fund =
1/0shilling Tea fund = 1/6 Nat/ins = 1/0 my mother £1 a weekI was left with £1/0/6 a week for the Ist year 8 hours per day Mon to Fri 4 hours Sat morning. Cycle from Ascot – Slough 10 miles each way 20 miles a day 6 days a week 120 miles a week on a bike what ever the weather if you were late by 1min you were sent home no pay. Times were hard, but I enjoyed the job, and still doing it today& never been out of work
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this topic reminds me of eds storys when he first started in the 60’s he sacraficed a top paying job…. £10 a week to learn hand lettering with valentines which only paid £1.50…..the job which took him two years to learn..the small fine art lettering direct one shot for greeting cards….it paid off in the end…with the help of his mum also, who realised his determination to do so 😉
nik
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Heck! I remember my wage being one shilling under a fiver a week
Great stuff those photos Chris
I remember driving those bedfords for years as I held an HGV 111Keeps Paints have dwindled over the years
I use to collect my sundries direct from the Bloomsbury branch in Central London
They used to stock all signwriting sundries but alas it has all gone
Thankfully Handovers still fly the flag for the essentialsWhat firms did you work for in Central London
I know a few old bods such as Ambridge, Jaysigns -
Whilst i have done very little hand painted work, my Dad spent many years graining marbling and signwriting here is a photo of a couple of his jobs
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he used to do all the Truman pubs in Kent, don’t know if they are still around?
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brilliant work…i love it, the style reminds me of the dunhill cig packets 😀
nik
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Thanks, he gave it up to turn professional as an artist which was his true passion, but since retiring he has started to do a bit of graining and marbling for recreation again, here is a small marble panel he did a year or so back
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welcome to the boards chris – john!
brilliant work/pictures! 😛
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quote :Chris, welcome to the boards I’m sure you will enjoy it.
£75 for 14 hours work in the sixties was top dollar, average wage then was probably about £25-40 per week, in 66 as an apprentice I was earning just short of a fiver.
Peter
[Logged on again to have a look again at the boards after all this time I started as a apprentice in 1956 as I pointed out was on £2- 4- 0 a week The white Slumberland was done probably 1968 If you remember at that time theWilson government was in power and we had massive inflation
The average wage in 1968 was £1500 per year= £30 per as you pointed out
If you worked for your self the idea was to double that amountI really did not place pictures of my work on for a detailed discussion on wages and wish I had not mentioned that fact
I placed it on for people to appreciate, as I have appreciated other excellent work I have seen -
Hi Chris
Its what happens sometimes, we digress
But we do enjoy folk putting there work up
The young people in North London can’t get enough of this memorabilia
A perspex sign was taken down on one shop and it revealed an old painted sign
It continues to attract the attention of the young people who are constantly taking pictures of itThe shop owner wants me to recreate a traditional hand painted one following the style and colour of the original
Yucatan Bar
This pub has been painted about 5 or 6 times since I did the signwriting. They left the signwriting alone. My signwriting is still there after nearly 24 yr
Everything freehand – no paper templates – just get up there with a piece of chalk to mark out and then paint in
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