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Lipton Repaint or Recreation – Denver, CO

Sep 21st, 2012
by fadingad.

© Frank H. Jump

Posted in: Coffee Tea Cacao, Denver CO, Repainted Fading Ads, Tea Wholesaler.

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4 Comments

  1. Sam Roberts says:
    September 28, 2012 at 10:50 am

    Looks like it’s been painted quite recently, is it definitely genuine? Some of the features (e.g. the border) look quite unusual. The sign painting company appears to be for real, quite a few mentions of Curran and his company from chapter 7 in this report: http://www.fcgov.com/historicpreservation/pdf/ghost-signs-doc.pdf

  2. Sam Roberts says:
    October 29, 2012 at 9:33 am

    Some comments on my re-blogging of this here: http://www.ghostsigns.co.uk/2012/10/is-this-liptons-tea-sign-genuine-repainted-or-something-else.html

  3. Mark Oatis says:
    October 31, 2012 at 10:06 pm

    I can clear up all questions. My name is Mark Oatis, and I (together with five sign-painting collegues, “RE- Painted / RE/ Created” this sign, in October, 1997. The sign is indeed genuine. Another building, with vertical chimney, had stood next to this wall for perhaps a half-century, then it had been demolished to make way for a parking lot (this probably happened in the 1970’s) which exposed the badly-damaged and partially obliterated original sign. It was possible to make out PART of the Lipton copy, together with the signature ellipse and the “Furnished Rooms” panel. Yes, the “builds muscular men” copy was placed precisely where shown–very odd & cryptic–but the “Strongfortism” (based on the 1920’s fitness guru) was my addition, since the original copy was gone, destroyed where the adjoining roofline had been. Yes, there was enough faint color left to dictate our paint scheme, and it WAS an original Curran wall, though we tightened up the imprint. I confess: the convex border (a common trompe l’oiel device on many period wall ads) was my addition. Mystery solved! Yours, Mark Oatis—Walldog.

    1. fadingad says:
      November 1, 2012 at 12:01 am

      Fascinating Mark! Thank you so much for the back story to this sign. Sounds like a labor of love. Bravo.