SIGN-BOARD, strictly a board placed or hung before any building to indicate its character. The French enseigne in dicates its essential connection with what is known in English as a flag (q.v.), and in France banners not infrequently took the place of sign-boards in the middle ages. Sign-boards, however, are best known in the shape of painted or carved advertisements for shops, inns, etc. ; they are in fact one of various emblematic methods used from time immemorial for publicly calling atten tion to the place to which they refer. The ancient Egyptians and Greeks are known to have used signs, and many Roman examples are preserved, among them the widely-recognized bush to indicate a tavern, from which is derived the proverb "Good wine needs no bush." In some cases, such as the bush, or the three balls of pawnbrokers, certain signs became identified with certain trades, but apart from these the emblems employed by traders—evolving often into trade-marks—may in great part be grouped according to their various origins. Thus, at an early period the cross or other sign of a religious character was used to attract Christians, whereas the sign of the sun or the moon would serve the same purpose for pagans. Later, the adaptation of the coats-of-arms or badges of noble families became common; these would be described by the people without consideration of the language of heraldry, and thus such signs as the Red Lion, the Green Dragon, etc., have become familiar. Another class of sign was that which exhibited merely persons employed in the various trades, or objects typical of them, but in large towns where many practised the same trade, and especially, as was often the case, where these congregated mainly in the same street, such signs did not provide sufficient distinction. Thus a variety of devices
came into existence—sometimes the trader used a rebus on his own name (e.g., two cocks for the name of Cox) ; sometimes he adopted any figure of an animal or other object, or portrait of a well known person, which he considered likely to attract attention. As early as the 14th century there was a law in England com pelling publicans to exhibit signs, for in 1393 the prosecution of a publican for not doing so is recorded. In France edicts were directed to the same end in 1567 and 1577. Since the object of sign-boards was to attract the public, they were often of an elabo rate character. Not only were the signs themselves large and sometimes of great artistic merit (especially in the i6th and i 7th centuries, when they reached their greatest vogue) but the posts or metal supports protruding from the houses over the street, from which the signs were swung, were often elaborately worked, and many beautiful examples of wrought-iron supports survive both in England and on the Continent. The signs were a prominent feature of the streets of London at this period. But here and in other large towns they became a danger and a nuisance in the narrow ways. Already in 1669 a royal order had been directed in France against the excessive size of sign-boards and their pro jection too far over the streets. In Paris in 1761 and in London about 1762-73 laws were introduced which gradually compelled sign-boards to be removed or fixed flat against the wall. For the most part they only survived in connection with inns, for which some of the greatest artists of the time painted sign-boards.
See J. Larwood and J. C. Hotten, History of Sign-boards (London, i866).