Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion SHELL AIR -- Please read, please help!!

I thought the photo was in the old thread about these signs ?

"Still when I was walking away, I felt like it might be a mistake to leave it behind..."

No mistake JimT, sign in question is fake.

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I realize this sign isn't the original 11 x 12 or even made by the same company. I know what the "real McCoy" looks like from the 30's this is obviously not it. what bothers my is no one has an actual answer. its not like there are tons of these floating around, they are coming from the same place, with the same story and the same guys and there are pictures. I still think there is something more to this -- may never know I guess. just because they are different doesn't mean they are fakes. maybe from a different time, an older repro, rejects, who knows...

IF it was written history that the Sign or SHELL company REJECTED these signs, it would be easy to answer your question.
I find it unusual for someone to shingle a whole roof w/ UN-damaged signs even if they worked for a major SHELL OIL Distributor. More plausible they worked for the sign company & these signs were Rejects.

Would they have produced dozens or even hundreds of these signs before getting the go ahead(approval)? When I worked in a foundry, we usually made 3-4 pieces for the customer to inspect before going into production. Who wants to waste all those resources and man hours and end up hauling them off.
You guys may never solve this one...
Dave

I thought AM sign company never made porcelain signs

Air signs are porcelain , motor oil sign enamel, if I remember the story the roof with air signs was around coschocton Ohio,large sign factory in that area in the day

All my SHELL Motor Oil is Porcelain

Talking about the two different shell signs the Ohio guys sell in this post.

I'm from Coshocton Ohio and there were several sign manufactures of both tin and porcelain signs. I've seen the photos of the Shell air signs but never heard of them being from Coshocton. I do however know of a house outside of town and have been there that is lined in porcelain firestone signs that came from the H.D Beach enamel factory. Also know of another house that was lined in tin signs found a couple years ago in town. I could take you to several places in Coshocton where porcelain signs are used to patch holes including Oakland Pontiac signs patching holes in a farmers roof. Don't know much about these Shell signs but it is possible, not saying that they are "right"

The red on the Shell Motor Oil looks like it was drawn in with a Sharpie. And poorly drawn at that! IMHO

x2

Starting a new thread on these signs. Hate to beat this topic to death but I am going to continue to dig up information if I can, would like to get to the bottom of how old they are, where they came from, and if they are real or not. I recently came in contact with a guy who's uncle took a couple of polaroids (albeit not great shots) of a building that was using these signs as shingles to cover holes before he tore the building down. The building was pretty old but haven't had a chance to talk to the "uncle" yet to find out any dates or any more info. They were on a building on a farm near the Tuscarawas River in Coshocton County, Ohio. I will continue to post if I find more info...

here is one more pic I just got...he said most of them he scrapped for metal not know what they were.