class="left fsize80">FLOWERS, TREES, HERBS, ETC.,

233 CHAPTER VIII. BIBLICAL AND RELIGIOUS SIGNS, 253 CHAPTER IX. SAINTS, MARTYRS, ETC., 279 CHAPTER X. DIGNITIES, TRADES, AND PROFESSIONS, 305 CHAPTER XI. THE HOUSE AND THE TABLE, 375 CHAPTER XII. DRESS; PLAIN AND ORNAMENTAL, 399 CHAPTER XIII. GEOGRAPHY AND TOPOGRAPHY, 414 CHAPTER XIV. HUMOROUS AND COMIC, 437 CHAPTER XV. PUNS AND REBUSES, 469 CHAPTER XVI. MISCELLANEOUS SIGNS, 476 APPENDIX. BONNELL THORNTON’S SIGNBOARD EXHIBITION, 512 INDEX OF ALL THE SIGNS MENTIONED IN THE WORK, 527

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PLATE I.
BAKER. (Pompeii, A.D. 70.)	DAIRY. (Pompeii, A.D. 70.)
SHOEMAKER. (Herculaneum.)
WINE MERCHANT. (Pompeii, A.D. 70.)	TWO JOLLY BREWERS. (Banks’s Bills, 1770.)

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CHAPTER I.
GENERAL SURVEY OF SIGNBOARD HISTORY.

In the cities of the East all trades are confined to certain streets, or to certain rows in the various bazars and wekalehs. Jewellers, silk-embroiderers, pipe-dealers, traders in drugs,—each of these classes has its own quarter, where, in little open shops, the merchants sit enthroned upon a kind of low counter, enjoying their pipes and their coffee with the otium cum dignitate characteristic of the Mussulman. The purchaser knows the row to go to; sees at a glance what each shop contains; and, if he be an habitué, will know the face of each particular shopkeeper, so that under these circumstances, signboards would be of no use.

With the ancient Egyptians it was much the same. As a rule, no picture or description affixed to the shop announced the trade of the owner; the goods exposed for sale were thought sufficient to attract attention. Occasionally, however, there were inscriptions denoting the trade, with the emblem which indicated it;[1] whence we may assume that this ancient nation was the first to appreciate the benefit that might be derived from signboards.

What we know of the Greek signs is very meagre and indefinite. Aristophanes, Lucian, and other writers, make frequent allusions, which seem to prove that signboards were in use with the Greeks. Thus Aristotle says: ὡσπερ επι των καπηλιων γραφομενοι, μικροι μεν εισι, φαινονται δε εχοντες πλατη και βαθη.[2] And Athenæus: εν προτεροις θηκη διδασκαλιην.[3] But what their signs were, and whether carved, painted, or the natural object, is entirely unknown.

With the Romans only we begin to have distinct data. In the Eternal City, some streets, as in our mediæval towns, derived their names from signs. Such, for instance, was the vicus Ursi Pileati, (the street of “The Bear with the Hat on,”) in the Esquiliæ. The nature of their signs, also, is well known. The