The History of Signboards, from the Earliest times to the Present Day

The volume surveys the history and social role of house and tavern signboards, tracing their use from ancient markers through later centuries. It arranges thousands of examples into categories—historic, heraldic, animal, and compound—proposes conjectural origins and etymologies, and assembles anecdotes, legal and religious tracts, and illustrative material to show how signs aided identification, influenced street names, and expressed popular humour and customs. The text discusses the decline of practical necessity as literacy and house-numbering spread, and includes numerous illustrations documenting surviving and vanished specimens.