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#223409 Tue Jan 04 2011 01:06 PM
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Nicole Offline OP
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I know from previous posts with you guys that a pump this vintage with an American Gas globe on it should be a dirty yellow, but this pump (second from the left) is not. If it had been a darker (dirty) yellow or orange, it would have been a mid tone similar to the gray in the Amoco Sign (upper right corner)between the white border and the dark surounding the letters.

I don't know pumps but I know color. I have to squint all the time when I paint to get the right values (lights and darks). After white, yellow and then orange are the lightest values on the color wheel. Red, blue and green are dark. If you squint at the image included here from your album with the three visible pumps (orange, yellow and red) you can see that the red is quite dark compared to the yellow and orange ones. If you don't see it, look at the image through a piece of colored plastic.

I know the old photo is really bad, but because of the pattern on white on the globe (and decals) American gas is the only one with that pattern.

Would a store owner in a rural county have added the newer pumps on the right, then recycled/updated the older pump (I am guessing red) by putting the globe on it and adding several decals on the body to make sure the customers knew what gas was in it? Or is is possible that some early American Gas pumps were red-or another dark color?

What do you think?

Nicole

Cnv0104.jpg
Amoco Gas station

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Nicole #223419 Tue Jan 04 2011 02:25 PM
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Not sure exactly what you're saying but the pumps SHOULD be...
Amoco-Gas: dark green pump, yellow globe body.
American Gas: yellow pump, yellow globe body (these are clearly NOT yellow in the photo).
Texaco: SHOULD both be red pumps, white glass globes.
If one of the Texaco pumps was for Ethyl grade gasoline the pump should have been silver (and it should have a different globe).
Having said that, the station owner probably painted them whatever color he wanted (or had on hand), or got used pumps and didn't change the color.
My guess is the pumps are L-R: dark green, red (to match the red dot on the globe), white, red.


Wanted: Gas pump globes:Sinclair & affiliates, IL companies. Ripple bodies. Anything Sinclair, Stoll, Pierce, 4 Bros.


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Nicole #223423 Tue Jan 04 2011 02:47 PM
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Nicole , the only two colors I have a record of , ( Officially ) are the Butterscotch Yellow- American regular and Hunter Green - Amoco premium. Now , at one time, about 1933, Amoco was trying to promote a Leaded Premium called Amoco Premium . In the Book American Filling Stations there is a General store showing this "Experimental " Premium Amoco gasoline . I'm ging to try and scan the picture in a seperate post so you can "Squint "at that and see if thats what you 're looking for . Ed Shaver


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I hate computers an scanners first off. heres a picture thats been sold extensivively altho sepia toned . This print comes from the book American Gas Station edited by M. Kern pub;ished by Iconographix.



Ed Shaver


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Forget about the correct colors and tints.

After a couple of years of use there was no such thing. If a pump needed to be painted, it was done by hand (with a brush) and with whatever paint was available. Most tried to match the color of the paint, but it wasn't EVER the same tint as the original paint.

If you want the photo to be correct to the period, make the tints off a little. Make the pumps weathered and the paint a little checked.

As many have found, multiple layers of the same color paint was laid on a pump. The pump was the "work horse" of a station/general store, people came in to get fuel. The pumps were abused by the nozzle missing the receiver and hitting the paint surrounding it. The wind blew and rubbed the heavy hose against the paint. Car doors were opened into the pumps. Hell at times people hit the pumps with their cars and trucks. In a station/store the pump was the only constant piece of equipment that was used continuously.

Since they were constantly in use, pumps were "painted on the fly". If someone drove up, the painting was discontinued and the pump was used. The wind and traffic would kick up dust and dirt that would become a part of the fresh paint. Very, very few stations had the ability to shut down a pump, chip the old paint, sand down the surface and tape off the areas not to be painted.

These same techniques (painting on the fly) were used upwards into the 1980's in some parts of the county, possibly even longer. Depending on the station and/or store setting. This happened more often in rural and small communities both on and off the beaten path.


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Here is my copy of the photo Ed was scanning, plus a couple more to see what stations did look like in the late teens through the 30's.

Gibson Motor Co. in Reedsville W. VA.



An extremely old copy of a "Country Store", not sure where the store was located;



A Penn Oil Co. station in Washington D.C. late teens- early 20's;



Uploaded with ImageShack.us


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Nicole Offline OP
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Last Gas and Ed - thanks again for you help with colors and the official colors. Ed - I squinted and squinted (used Bob's version of the wonderful photo you shared) and I can definitly see that the pumps from left to right are off white, white and black. : ) : o : )

Bob - thanks again for the insight. The photo album has such beautifully restored pumps it's easy to forget what work horses these mechanized sculptures really were.

That second photo really got me excited--there's the soda bottle sign I had been looking for that's on the side of the building! Plus check out those crazy porch posts!

Nicole

Nicole #223517 Tue Jan 04 2011 07:50 PM
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So Nicole , what color will you do the "mystery" pump in exactly? I'm curious as to what the finished portrat might look like . Do you plan on showcasing it here at Primarily Petrolina ? Ed Shaver


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Yes, I will post the finished painting...

I worked on the pumps yesterday and will tomorrow. Right now I did an undercoating of red as with the pump on the far left. I haven't decided on a final color for either. I like the green for the far left but the background is green which might not make it stand out.

Ultimately I want it to be a good painting first. With Bob's story I have wiggle room to use artistic licence. I just want to make sure the items are close to correct. I am having such fun researching this painting thanks to you all.

The last researched painting I did was a life sized Ben Franklin who was a member of a club in Annapolis MD in the 40's and 50's (1700's). It's to be sold for the Maryland Historical Society. I have a friend who is a Franklin reinactor, who sat for me 4 times and lent me artifacts for the painting. My research corrected the artifacts to the right time, but alas near the end of the painting I found out that my reinactors costume is 20 years after the club folded-dating to about the American Revolution. Still titled 'Member of the Tuesday Club,' I will have to tell the society that it is Franklin reminising (sp?) about the club in the later years of his life. I haven't been painting costumes long enough to fix it/make it up as I go.

Oh well...

Nicole

Nicole #223640 Wed Jan 05 2011 12:17 PM
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...it's not about the value of the color, but how it appears when photographed...

...for example, let's use this 42" Gulf sign: I grabbed a photo from eBay and one from Diesel's BOTY post...please note how dark the pump and sign are...now, we know they are orange, which, when viewed in color, looks lighter than the dark blue, even when you squint...but the orange photographs as black...any old-time graphic artists here, who remember Amberlith and Rubylith?...they are films on a clear carrier sheet that were used to create mechanicals for print jobs...all of the old oil cans in your collections were created using artwork of this type...they were used as they would photograph as black, but you could see through them to work...

...notice how the light blue doesn't even show up in the photo?

...old-time graphic artists (and even some comic book artists) would rough sketch their artwork in a light blue pencil...the artwork would them be inked in using india ink...when photographed for use, the light blue pencil work would disappear...that's why they were used...

gulf postcard.jpg gulf 42.jpg
Last edited by gulfiend!; Wed Jan 05 2011 12:25 PM.

Looking for better Gulf items: signs, globes, cans and paper - especially porcelain Gulf flanges, and Gulf A-38 & A-62 ad glass...
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Gulfiend!............... Remember Ulano films ......... ha hah heh heh heh . Ed Shaver


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Nicole Offline OP
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I take your point that early photograpy/developing really messed up values. : )

I also see that your orange is close to red in value and see that your sign in the photo on the north/shade side so would be even darker... : o

Ed showed me some photos of a superb diorama he did of a later Amoco station with the butterscotch pump and if I am remembering correctly a dark green pump, and squinting at those, you can definately see a difference. I might, but I think most people would not see the difference in value between your hot orange and a fire engine red, and early photograpy definitely would not. I stand properly corrected, Gulf orange in early photograpy may not look that different. And on a color wheel, and orange closer to red would not show a big difference.

My feeling still is that that pump is not the American Gas butterscotch color (though I am going to use that color elsewhere in the work)as the light is hitting the sides of the pumps we can see. It also will be fun to share the Bob Richards story with the painting recipient about how rural owners might have spruced up their own pumps with paint on hand.

I concede your point about the photograpy and the orange, but will stick to my guns about butterscotch... : ) : o : )

Shall we agree to disagree?

Nicole

Nicole #223779 Wed Jan 05 2011 10:11 PM
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IF Mom & Pop bought used pumps [as most did not buy new pumps] & it was red [as most were], they left it red instead of repainting to mustard/yellow as was used in an AMERICAN Station in town.

The whiteish looking TEXACO could be a Silver painted ETHYL w/ a standard TEXACO globe, because that is what was furnished by distributor of fuel.

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Nicole;
If you are looking for more detail on the second photo Bob posted with the Soda Bottle sign you mentioned, there is a High Resolution out on the web of it. Not sure if I remember where it is located. Maybe someone on here does.


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