A very-well-maintained vintage metal/neon hand-lettered sign. It looks almost brand new. This sign has been in continuous use since the 1940s. Seen in Beloit, Wisconsin on August 8, 2004.

Detail from the cover of a book of American history and Bible stories published in 1890 in Chicago for Norwegian immigrants. My grandmother owned this when she was a child, and probably got it second-hand. If you look closely, you can see that some of the letters have been filled in with a pencil.

UK reader Aled Williams sent me this photo of a beautiful hand-painted sign on a hardware store in Bristol. Just lovely.

Update (7/12/08): More photos from the same neighborhood by Jon Tan on Flickr.

Packaging label seen in an antique store in Hixton, Wisconsin on July 29, 2004.

Appropriately enough for the end of the year, the Movie Title Stills Collection now has a set of “The End” titles from Warner Bros. movies, from 1925 (the earliest available on DVD) to 1967 (when the practice ended). As usual, these are nearly all hand lettered. There is some consistency to the designs, almost as if it were treated as logos. This may have been done on purpose, as a way of branding the pictures, but it seems more likely that is was simple expediency, reusing the same artwork to save time and money, with variations reflecting the shifting tastes over time of the artists involved.

A big collection of “End” titles from old movies. Most of these were hand-lettered. Wow!

(via Daring Fireball and DaughterNumberThree.)