© Frank H. Jump
Also on the Internet:
- Auto Dealerships of Far Rockaway – Rockaway Memories dot com
November, 2012:
Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie by Sam Roberts
© Sam Roberts
Flying pigs, retro hairstyles and hand grenades are among some of the images found in this new book celebrating the art and craft of Cambodia’s hand-painted advertising.
Sam Roberts, a long-time member of the visual anthropological and urban archaeological community, has published his first book Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie, a brilliant and colorful monograph that “introduces the signs, the people who paint them and uses them to explore Cambodia’s art, culture and history.” Mr. Roberts has authored the website and archival project called Ghostsigns UK and has been instrumental in the historic preservation and documentation of vintage painted adverts in his island nation. Roberts was drawn to this “quirky” form of hand-painted advertising while he and his wife Gilly were doing humanitarian work with Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) in Cambodia.
While the signs have experienced something of a resurgence in the last three decades, they now face another demise, this time at the hands of technological and economic development. In this respect, author Sam Roberts draws parallels with his interest in ‘Ghostsigns’, the fading remains of advertising painted on buildings in his native UK: “The loss of hand-painted signs marks a distinct period in countries’ economic development. It is the point at which access to technology and rising labour costs tip the balance in favour of mechanical or digital formats. In the UK this happened in the middle of the last century, in Cambodia it is happening today.”
I’m looking forward to getting my first peek at this remarkable book by this accomplished author who also featured an essay on fading ads in my book last year.
A One-Year Anniversary of Fading Ads of New York City (History Press, 2011) by Frank Jump – The First 10,000 Book Review
You could blame Robert Moses, which seems to be the fashion, or you could say it’s just the American way, that unique form of active amnesia we seem to have that means forgetting vast swaths of our history, and either painting over or demolishing the rest; either way, huge amounts of our urban landscape have been “made new” and made over, with much history — architectural and cultural — being lost along the way. We can see those faded fingerprints around us still, sometimes in lingering architectural details on the buildings that have survived one renewal or gentrification too many, and other times in the faded, hand-painted signs that cling stubbornly to those same buildings.
That brings us to Fading Ads of New York City, written by Frank Jump, the curator of the long-running Fading Ad website. I’ve lost track of how many websites have spawned books in the last few years, and how many of those books I’ve passed up because I couldn’t see myself reading them more than once, regardless of how many times the website in question made me laugh, made me think, or gave me goosebumps. With that said, I was very happy to come across this book, which takes some of Jump’s best shots and writing, and puts the lot of it between covers. – Read more @ The First 10000 Reviews Fading Ads of New York City by Frank Jump.
Edifice De La Sauvegarde Cie D’Assurance Vie – Dupuy-Ferguson – Place Jacques Cartier – Montréal, CA
© Frank H. Jump
In the nineteenth century, French Canadian businesses that offer life insurance were mutual. These companies do not have shareholders, they belong to the policyholders. Founded in 1902, The Backup is the first company life insurance share capital under the control of French Canadians. Under the impetus of economic nationalism, William Narcisse Ducharme gathered around this project a team of politicians and businessmen, including Henri Bourassa, federal politician and future founder of Duty, Hormidas Laporte, Mayor of Montreal from 1904 to 1906 and President of the Provincial Bank, Senator Raoul Dandurand and Narcissus Pérodeau, later Lieutenant Governor of Quebec. Safeguard in 1914 moved into a new building at 150 Notre-Dame, she holds up in 1976.
In 1915, it is the fifth financial institution private French-Canadian behind the three chartered banks and Mount Royal Insurance Company against fire. But it is far behind the major companies in Quebec mutual aid: the Society of French-Canadian artisans, St. Joseph Unions and the National Alliance. Safeguard growth will be slow but steady. In 1962, the family sold its controlling interest Ducharme movement Caisses populaires Desjardins. From 1965 to 1978, the Maison des arts Safeguard house built in 1811, adjacent to the headquarters, will be dedicated to the dissemination of the arts. – Old Montréal
© Frank H. Jump
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Seed companies played an increasingly important in Quebec in the mid 19th century. Before 1850, farmers produced their own seed. The importation of new plant species included the United States and Europe (France, England, Netherlands …) which made you gradually put aside traditional varieties. Many of these companies became successful and brought exotic new flavors and diversity to farmers but also for families who often had a [household] garden. As they were an important link in the introduction and evolution of tastes [and variety], we thought it was relevant to paint a picture of them: Dupuy & Ferguson. – Gardens of Yesteryear
At 38 Place Jacques-Cartier, the grain trade commanded a notable presence with Dupuy & Ferguson, importers of grains, who occupied the premises from 1888 until 1964. – Old Montréal
- Gardens of Yesteryear – Dupuy-Ferguson
- Flickr – A wonderful black & white shot
Word of the Week – Sea-change
CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE
Sea-change or seachange is a poetic or informal term meaning a gradual transformation in which the form is retained but the substance is replaced, in this case with a marvellous petrification. It was originally a song of comfort to the bereaved Ferdinand over his father’s death by drowning. The expression is Shakespeare’s, taken from the song in The Tempest, when Ariel sings,
“Full fathom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are coral made,
Those are pearls that were his eyes,
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change,
into something rich and strange,
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell,
Ding-dong.
Hark! now I hear them, ding-dong, bell.” – Wikipedia
