Collecting: A Rationale The First Transistor Radios—1950s Collecting Pop Culture Matchcovers and Matchbooks Pushy Furniture More Pushy Furniture Kitchen Collectibles More Kitchen Collectibles Still More Kitchen Collectibles Vintage Televisions Nameplates and Lettering More Nameplates and Lettering Collecting the Wacky Nothing New Under the Sun Disposable Panties and Other Gems Our Disposable Culture Bathroom Collectibles More Bathroom Collectibles Luggage Labels, Airlines Records, Album Covers More Records Personal Music Players The Sony Walkman Trashy Novels Communists and Bomb Shelters Flashlights Wall Decor Music Guides / Lists / Top 40 Radio Crystal Radios Knockoffs and Ripoffs On the Table On the Table, More! Microphones Pocket Calculators Pocket and Portable Tape Recorders Drinks, Anyone? More Drink-related Foolishness The Box It Came In Lost In Translation Early Video Games Cigarette Packs More Cigarettes and Smoking Advertising Illustration More Advertising Illustration Small Computers Walkie Talkies Greeting Cards More Greeting Cards, Valentines A Collection of Clocks The Way Things Were More of the Way Things Were Board Games and such Collecting Variants Toy Guns, Space Guns More Toys Collecting Design Tubes and Transistors Collecting Batteries More Batteries Hearing Aids Garage / Utility Collectibles Collecting the Awful Architectural Illustration Religious Tracts Vintage Clothes “Fine” Art, Big Eyes, and Portraits “Fine” Art in the abstract


Nameplates and Lettering

Collectible vintage lettering nameplates: Many of the best were created for cars. Chevy's Corvette, Buick's LeSabre, and Chrysler's Imperial were once adorned with these fine examples. 'Palace' comes from a mobile home/travel trailer. From 'Nameplates and Lettering' at the web's largest private collection of antiques & collectibles: https://www.ericwrobbel.com/collections/nameplates-lettering-1.htm

In the early industrial era, products were marked modestly, near the bottom, like so: “Mfg. Thos. A. Edison."

Soon the importance of brand identity and styling grew and coverged, giving the graphic arts the logotype. Known today simply as the “logo,” it is the signature of a product.

I especially like to collect nameplates that are primarily lettering, that is, are in the shape of the letters themselves. The designers’ challenge of holding such a nameplate together in a continuous piece (rather like neon) has produced many marvelous ‘signatures.’

Collectible vintage lettering nameplates: 'Theatre Sound' is from some sound equipment by RCA and is of a typeface similar to that used by RCA on their color television cameras. A particularly beautiful piece of lettering! From 'Nameplates and Lettering' at the web's largest private collection of antiques & collectibles: https://www.ericwrobbel.com/collections/nameplates-lettering-1.htm

Many of the best were created for cars. Chrysler produced more than their share of great ones, including the New Yorker, Imperial, and Desoto examples you see here.

Also of note are Karmann Ghia from Volkswagen, Chevy’s Corvette, Buick’s LeSabre, and Diesel from Peugeot.

Among the nameplates here not in letter form, Youngstown Kitchens by Mullins is a nice  example in cloisonné.

Vintage lettering nameplates: Many of the best were created for cars. Chrysler produced more than their share of great ones, including 'New Yorker' seen here. Karmann Ghia from Volkswagen is exceptional, as is 'Diesel' from Peugeot. Youngstown Kitchens by Mullins is a nice nameplate example in cloisonné. Origin of the Hostess lettering is unknown. From 'Nameplates and Lettering' at the web's largest private collection of antiques & collectibles: https://www.ericwrobbel.com/collections

One technique highly-prized for its candy-like quality is “underpainted plastic,” sometimes called “reverse-paint plastic.” Examples here are the fabulous Coldspot nameplate (from a refrigerator) and the steering wheel buttons from Dodge and Chevrolet (Power Steering). In my collection of transistor radios, many of the best ones feature this delicious technique.

Palace comes from a mobile home/travel trailer, the triangular MW from some unknown product available at Montgomery Ward. Extremely expensive hi-fi equipment yielded this McIntosh example in a blackletter typeface and the world of sound equipment gave us Bell Sound Systems and RCA's Theatre Sound.

Vintage lettering nameplates: One technique highly-prized for its candy-like quality is 'underpainted plastic,' sometimes called 'reverse-paint plastic.' Examples here are Coldspot (from a refrigerator) and the steering wheel buttons from Dodge and Chevrolet. Also here: 'MW' (Montgomery Ward), McIntosh, Bell Sound Systems, Oasis (water cooler), Nutone (fans, dorbells), Körting radios. From the web's largest private collection of antiques & collectibles: https://www.ericwrobbel.com/collections

Oasis is from a water cooler. Nutone from a maker of doorbells and fans. Körting, a radio. The origins of Jet, Hostess, and Armstrong are a mystery.

Warning–Personal Story–safe to ignore: My father was one of the great TV-pounders of the 1950s. In those days a TV set came in a big wooden cabinet that needed a good slapping every now and then when the picture would start rolling, or jittering, or going dim. One day my father attached a large nameplate that read “Nomad,” to the front speaker grille of one particularly troublesome RCA Victor set we had. This lettering had come from an old Chevrolet, though I did not know that at the time. I asked him what “Nomad” meant and why he put that nameplate there on the TV. He said it was to remind him not to get mad at the TV set when the picture went out. No-mad. He was putting me on of course, but I believed him. I’m sure he just liked how it looked. And somehow he got away with it, my mother not knowing or caring what went on with the ‘technology’ aspects of the household. My lifelong interest in lettering probably got its start with that “Nomad” nameplate.

Collectible vintage lettering nameplates: Many of the best were created for cars. Chrysler produced more than their share of great ones, including these nice individual letters for Desoto. From 'Nameplates and Lettering' at the web's largest private collection of antiques & collectibles: https://www.ericwrobbel.com/collections

See the next page for more great nameplates and lettering. And there are lots of terrific ones at Richard Protzman's site. And still more at the groza.design site. How’s your Russian?




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