Walker & Co. Signs, Detroit - Outdoor Advertising & Signage
They are an old advertising company, started in 1883. In the early 1900's, and I found references in a Michigan Supreme Court case from July 1914 they were building porcelain signs for the city of Detroit at least as far back as 1911. They were mentioned in the court case for being the makers of a sign that fell off it's mount and landed on a lady as she walked underneath it.
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZQA8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA337&lpg=PA337&dq=Walker+%26+Co.+Signs,+Detroit&source=bl&ots=w8G9jARjmU&sig=6uYM6phb7HdC3WdIxdmFS7LZbNg&hl=en&ei=DVZATsvXHqiDsgLhlbH8Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Walker%20%26%20Co.%20Signs%2C%20Detroit&f=false
Here is another google book reference showing they were not a tiny company - they had 120 employees in 1916, as listed in the MI State Anual Report:
http://books.google.com/books?id=_CHuAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA341&lpg=PA341&dq=%22Walker+%26+Co%22.+Detroit&source=bl&ots=WqbBkrmG8F&sig=UJHDcxrJMFvGbo08TBMjEGQZtCM&hl=en&ei=jFlATp_tBuqrsAL37dS_Bw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CDMQ6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=%22Walker%20%26%20Co%22.%20Detroit&f=false
I found references that as of 1957 they were still in business (and still in court suing a client for non-payment of a sign). They are also mentioned in a 1957 TIME magazine article:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,867610,00.html
The longtime president of Walker & Co in the later years, Clarence D Blessed was no longer with the company as of 1961, when he ran for office for the state. After the late 50's early 60's, I can't find any mention of them anywhere under that name.
A search on the Michigan corporate registry does not show any Walker & Co as being active and they only list companies active as of 1978, so I guess they ceased to exist, or merged/changed names or moved states sometime after 1957 and before 1978.
That's about all I can find on them - I'm pretty sure they do not exist in any form today, at least from my quick research. If they did, even under a new name in a different state, you would think a company would list it's heritage as being traceable back to 1883.
Not sure if this helps, but I hope this helps in your search of trying to find out if the items your looking at are fake or not.
Last edited by AntiquePerfectio; Mon Aug 08 2011 03:37 PM.