Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Texaco sign

This sign sold last week at a local auction for $2000. Listed as Texaco roadside mechanical sign. To me it looks like a home made piece of junk. What do you think?

Letters appear to be original porcelain off of a truck....not so sure about the figure....

I agree about the letters, the figure looks like he's wearing a hard hat, maybe oil field?

What's mechanical about it? It looks cool.

His arm moves

Here is the final price at the auction. Scroll down

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/18396168_texaco-road-sign-mechanical

Oh yeah I see it now. I've seen these roadside signs before, but it wasn't gas oil related.

I think he's a taxi stand sign, there was one in collectors auction services many years ago. I don't think 2k was a bad price at all.

The sign is correct.The letters have been added to make it appear it was used at a Texaco station IMO.I have never seen one with letters.They were all hand painted signs originally.They were made by National Animated sign co.in Hot Springs,Arkansas.They made many different ones.For the history of the company and a great story read online- In search of a Dairy Queen.By Clare Richardson.It's very interesting reading.Mark

Neat sign and good info. Mark.

I agree the letters are original Texaco..even if the "O" is put on wrong. Have never seen that sign for a Texaco station.

...I don't think that 'O' is put on wrong, as it has the same proportions as the 'C'...I think that's from the back of the tanker truck - maybe had a small 'Tour With' above 'TEXACO'?

Sorry, I think $2,000 was way too much. It looks like some of the Mexico tin you see at almost every flea market these days. Next it will be on eBay described as almost NOS barn find from my uncles farm.

Look at my post here on Oldgas #182873 dated Apr 10 2010.This may be one of the signs.I still have several of these signs.The selling price was not bad considering the value of the letters if they were original.

Mark Smith's #182873

I kinda figured the knowledge GURU would have the answer!

Sorry to disagree, but the "O" in that configuration of letters is to be hung so that it is oval shaped running east to west and not north and south. That confirms it for me that this piece is not an original, even though the letters are original.

I really need help here, I clicked on both attachments above and nothing came up, is it this site, or is it my computer?

Jack

Still working for me, must be something on your end Jack.

Good buy. The figure is worth more than that in condition. Sign is a freebie

The letter "O" looks right to me. The inner configuration is the same as the letter "C" mounted that way.

Yep, they look the same that way, but if you look in any Texaco collectibles book, you will see it is supposed to go the other way. Not look like the other letters.

Alex is correct about the mounting of the letter "O". Besides the "O", I don't like how the "E" looks. The lower part of "E" is longer than the top part. I haven't seen a set of Texaco letters like that before.

Here's a picture of my 8" letters. I believe 8" was the smallest size Texaco used in this style. 5" letters look like the set I have posted below the 8".

Cool animated sign. Perhaps an enterprising station owner picked one of these up and added the letters? Regardless, the eclectic nature of the figure itself would draw many non-petro collectors.

Now there is something I don't hear very often. I even showed it to my wife...LOL

I'm glad I could help..LOL

Yeah, but now your credibility and judgment are in question...LOL

...OK...I'm not a Texaco expert...but I must disagree...these letters are much more condensed than the more familiar, wide letters in J. E.'s post...

...THESE letters (in THIS case) are oriented correctly - even if they are arranged vertically, instead of horizontally...please review the attached photo:



...I have taken the letters and reoriented them to read horizontally...they get a little smaller left to right - because the original photo was taken looking slightly down on the sign, they will appear smaller because of perspective...

...now - you'll notice that the holes are all on the top and bottom of each letter...

...below, enlarged, are the C and O as they originally appear, and also, with the O turned 'east-west'...

...note, that if you turn that O in that manner, the holes no longer line up, and the letter is much shorter than its counterparts...

...if that O was meant to be hung 'east-west', logic demands that the mounting holes would line up with the rest of the letters...as they do not, the most likely explanation is that the O was designed to be used 'north-south'...

You are incorrect. If I understand what you have done, you have digitally turned that "o" then it is now distorted. I have, over the years, purchased and removed from Texaco buildings and trucks 5 sets of these Texaco letters. The position of the "O" in Jamie's pics is correct. If the letters in your pics have not become distorted, then i would start to question the legitimacy of the letters on the original sign in question. And, based on Jamie's concerns of the letter "E", it may raise that suspicion even more.

...Alex...if you print out the photograph I posted, cut out the letters and line them up horizontally, and then pick up the 'O' and rotate it 90 degrees, you will have done exactly what I did - the ONLY difference being that I did it digitally, in Photoshop...NOTHING has been distorted...


...right...I never said they weren't - if you compare his letters and the ones on the figure, you might notice that they're entirely different letters!...also, you might notice that all of the mounting holes line up on them as well...


...you'll note that I only hypothesized that they were from the back of the tanker truck, as I didn't have pics of known examples in front of me, and that's what they reminded me of...

...as I stated, I'm not a Texaco expert, and don't claim to be...and while I believe I know a lot about Gulf memorabilia, I'll freely admit that I haven't seen everything...

...could be that these letters are just a rare variation that you haven't seen before...

...could be that these letters were used by Texaco, but not on a truck...

...could be that they are old letters, but have nothing to do with Texaco...

...could be that they're fake...

...I don't know, and it sounds as though no one who has posted to this point does either...

...but I do know one thing: there is simply no logical reason for the mounting holes on THESE letters to line up in any other way - and thus, no reason why they would be mounted in any other configuration...

...hey Alex - do you think the letters in the attached link are the same as these? look at the C and the O - the mounting holes are in the same places:

http://oldgas.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=429698#Post429698

Again, the size of the letter "O" at the top of this thread was designed to be placed in an oval shape and not up and down. Go look at Jamie's pictures and you will see the correct placement. Look in the Texaco Collectibles and Tour with Texaco books and you will see examples of them as well. Now, having said that, I have also recently found some pictures of tankers (The Doodle Bug and a 26 Mack Truck) with much larger letters that did place the "O" in the up and down or vertical position. I primarily based on my information on what I had seen in books, when I bought and personally removed from tanker trucks and information from the gentleman who, when I spoke with him several years ago, was the historian for Texaco and his word was good enough for me. I am still of the opinion that the Texaco letters shown in this thread and the one in the recent for sale section you show, are designed to be placed in an oval pattern.

...AGAIN - wIll you please look at the mounting holes on the letters? The only Os that are turned the wrong way in Noah's photos are the ones at the bottom right corner of the photo that shows all of them...the O and C at middle left in Noah's photos are exactly like the ones in the photo that started all of this, and they, like the ones in the original photo, are oriented correctly...I've contacted Noah, to see if he has everything packed yet - if not, I'm going to see about getting some new photos and measurements to hopefully settle this once and for all...

Lets vote. Im with Mark. LOL

AGAIN...the mounting holes have nothing...repeat nothing to do with it. Go look at page 10 of the COTM on this website and you will see two different ways they were mounted. The ones that were larger were often put on the trucks up and down and the ones the next size smaller were put put on in an oval shape. Go look at the diecast toy tankers Texaco did and look at the way the O is shown. By the way, the historian of Texaco is the guy who picks and does the details for the trucks based from company standards and photos. AGAIN...he was the first person that told me of the oval shaped O and how it is to be properly mounted on the trucks. You have stated you are not an expert in Texaco, yet you continue to argue. So if the Texaco standards books and the historian for Texaco and some of the Texaco collectors aren't enough to convince you...go hang your O any frickin way you want to.

...I'll post my reply when I get the photos...

Keep it Friendly, this is General Petroliana Discussion Fourm.

I am not mad at Gulfiend....