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Was1974
Samba Member
Joined: July 03, 2022
Posts: 1
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 Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2022 10:54 am Post subject: Porcelain service sign real or repro? |
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Recently purchased this 34” porcelain service arrow sign trying to determine if it’s real or fantasy. Any info appreciated!
The back story is I bought it from a German lady up here in the great white north, who she claimed her brother sent it to her from Germany in the early 80’s. Believed to be from 1960-70???
Thanks for taking the time!
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Letterman7
Samba Member
Joined: March 14, 2004
Posts: 3198
Location: Downingtown, PA
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| Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2022 1:30 pm Post subject: Re: Porcelain service sign real or repro? |
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| How thick is it? Repros tend to be thinner steel, like .040. Originals will be 1/8 or thicker. |
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Tram
Samba Socialist
Joined: May 02, 2003
Posts: 22728
Location: Still Feelin' the Bern- Once you've felt it you can't un- feel it.
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| Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2022 7:31 pm Post subject: Re: Porcelain service sign real or repro? |
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If it is from Germany, you'd expect it to say "Dienst" instead of in English. Very cool, though, in any case!
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raygreenwood
Samba Member
Joined: November 24, 2008
Posts: 21520
Location: Oklahoma City
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| Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2022 8:02 am Post subject: Re: Porcelain service sign real or repro? |
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| Letterman7 wrote: |
| How thick is it? Repros tend to be thinner steel, like .040. Originals will be 1/8 or thicker. |
In general.....yes this is true. However, most plants that print these signs can make them almost any thickness you are willing to pay for.
Industrial, electronics and medical device printing is my business. Over the years I have been into about a dozen ceramic sign printing plants. I would say all but two just printed the occasional ceramic/metal signs as an occasional job. They had limited size baking ability.
Two of them though were large facilities that are dedicated to nothing but ceramic and are amazing shops and processes. One of the largest in the country up in Ohio I went into in 2019 for a week.
Looking at the rust....it's clear this sign has "some" age on it. The print quality is attributable for neither old or new. Even the new stuff has questionable screen print quality. A lot of that is the ceramic paste.
But as Tram notes.....even if it's not actually a German produced sign....it could still be decades old....and commissioned by VW and printed here in the US. The dedicated ceramic sign companies I went into have been in business for the better part of 70 years or so.
If you really want to get a grasp of how old it might be.....or if its even really a VW product/commission....you should really look carefully at the shape of the VW logo and then look at some of the sites that show the entire range of the official VW logo shapes.
VW is REALLY bitchy about reproduction of their logo. Not many people get away with that without permission and a license fee at a minimum.....so I would doubt that it's a cheap commercial reprint line like the crap you see for sale at hobby lobby and cracker barrel restaurants.
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Abscate
Samba Member
Joined: October 05, 2014
Posts: 22670
Location: NYC/Upstate/ROW
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| Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2022 5:23 am Post subject: Re: Porcelain service sign real or repro? |
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Check the mounting points on the back. If it was mounted pointed down, its real.
Okay - that was harsh.
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