Somebody on another post was talking about their first enamel.

Seems like the start of a good thread, Heres mine just a humble ' Wills Woodbine ' about mint. Still sits comfortably at the bottom of the stairs. Purchased about 8 years ago at a local auction. £60 all in if my memory serves me right.

Hi Lummox

This was almost my first sign  and certainly the first one I kept
This is  certainly the one that did all the damage .

I paid 100 Australian dollars for this in 1988 while looking for tins at a country Fair

Relics

My first enamel signs came from allotment gardens in Sheffield around 1978, and all in good condition. The very first was a red and black lettering on white ground 'Wills's Star' which blocked a hole in a fence. The second and third were a 'Player's Weights' (same colours as the Star,) and a 'Robin cigarettes' (standard Ogden's colouring,) both over a water tank, and all with the owner's permission too!

The first ones I negotiated off a building were a very long (8 footish?) framed mint Player's Weights, and a good Van Houten's Cocoa 'Best and goes farthest', both spotted on my second driving lesson! (My instructor couldn't understand why my concentration had wandered!) When I went back to the former shop the following weekend, I managed to get a phone number for the landlord. I then contacted him and managed to agree a purchase price for the two of £10 (seemed a lot to me as a student then!) The funniest thing was that, armed with crowbar and screwdriver, after borrowing a ladder to get them down, (which I never found was a problem!) I walked back through the park, next to one of the Sheffield museums, carrying the signs. It was getting dark, as I entered through one set of gates, but by the time I got to the other side of the park, the gates there had already been locked! I returned to the first gates, but they too had been locked in the mean time! So I finished up, climbing over the eight foot tall iron railings, in the dark, with a crowbar, and long signs wrapped in a blanket, next to the museum and art gallery! How suspicious must that have looked! To this day, I can't believe that nobody stopped me!

...."GREAT STUFF",KIN LOVE IT...THATS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT....

Thanks Banjo Boy! I've got plenty more tales of sign collecting adventures! Most of them are set in and around Sheffield! So here's another for you!

When traipsing round the south side of Sheffield, I spotted at first floor level a very nice condition Lyon's Tea sign ('A Packet for Every Pocket'), portrait version. The shop it was above was vacant, but with a bit of detective work, I managed to track down the solicitors responsible for the property. I believe it had belonged to a company that gone into receivership. After minimal negotiation I was given a letter which gave me permission to remove it. Realising I needed help to get it down, I asked my friend Martin, with his old Vauxhall Viva, if he could assist me, and he kindly obliged. Stuffing the letter of permission in by back pocket, we went off on the mission to liberate it and bring it back home.

As I noted before, ladders were always easy to borrow and that day was no exception! (I always thought even if you had a mask, striped shirt and bag marked 'swag' you could still borrow a ladder from someone!) I'd told Martin that the sign was about 3' tall, as that's how big it looked from the ground anyway. How deceptive that can be! Up the ladders, and alongside it, it was a very substantial (and therefore heavy,) 4' 6"' tall job! But once up there, we couldn't just leave it, could we?!! Using the crowbar we carefully levered off the clips holding it in position. Now, do you know how springy big steel signs can be?! Having been released for the first time in 60 years or so, and with a resounding 'boing' that only enamel signs can make, it suddenly bowed off the wall! I can tell you, that's alarming when you're 15' up in the air! It was at that very moment the panda car slowed down on the other side of the road, and two police men stared up at us, with bemused expressions! Great timing eh! So, with one spare hand I fumbled around in my pocket for the letter, which was thankfully still there, and gave it to Martin, who took it down to show the officers that although his friend was evidently completely loopy, he was not in fact stealing anything or otherwise breaking the law! I was left for four of five minutes, precariously balanced on the top of the ladder, with what seemed like half a hundredweight of flexing steel balanced in front of me! He eventually returned and assisted with sliding it down the ladders. Due to the size, it didn't fit into the car boot as I'd hoped, and instead the bottom half projected out by a couple of feet or so, and flexed frighteningly with every bump in the road!

Still I got it back home, and some years later it went up on the kitchen wall, to provide a reminder of that little sortie. I have bought many signs since, but the experiences of getting those early ones in the collection, no matter how common they were, could not be beaten!

I don't think I ever really thanked Martin enough for his help on that occasion, so Martin, if you ever read this; thanks; you were a real pal! I probably still owe you a pint or four for that!

GREAT STUFF SIGN SEEKER,,FANTASTIC STORY...KEEP EM CUMMING MATE...WHEN I GET HALF AN HOUR TO MYSELF AND KICK THE KIDS OFF FACEBOOK ILL POST A COUPLE OF TALES ABOUT HOW I GOT SOME ENAMELS....I REMEMBER CARRYING HOME A 14ft GOLD FLAKE AND STAR SIGN ON A RALEIGH CHOPPER WHEN I WAS ABOUT 12 WHICH I FOUND WHILST BUILDING A DEN..MY OLD MAN WAS WELL CHUFFED...

Thanks banjo boy! I'll look forward to hearing your stories too!

MY FIRST ENAMEL FIND WAS AN HUDSONS SOAP WITH LAMP ON,,WHICH ME AN MY OLD MAN FOUND WHEN I WAS ABOUT 5yrs OLD ON AN OLD DISHUSED RAILWAY STATION IN BIRMINGHAM BACK IN THE EARLY 70s...ITS STILL IN OUR COLLECTION TODAY AND IS SOMETHING I WOULD NEVER PART WITH...

ABOUT 10yrs AGO I WAS ON AN ALLOTMENT IN BRUM MOOCHING FOR ENAMELS WHEN I SPOTTED A THREE CASTLES IN THE HEDGE,JUST PLAIN BUT ABOUT 10ft LONG....I COULDNT SEE ANYBODY ABOUT TO ASK ABOUT IT SO THOUGHT IDE DRAG IT OUT...JUST AS I STARTED PULLING I HEARD A VOICE SHOUT ,,,"YO MAN,WHAT YA DOING TO ME FENCE?".....I LOOKED ROUND AND THERES 3 BLACK BLOKES STANDING THERE NOT LOOKING VERY HAPPY WITH ME AT ALL.....ANYWAY,AFTER ABOUT 20mins TRYING TO EXPLAIN MYSELF AND MY "CRAZY" HOBBY, THE ONE BLOKE SAID "GIVE ME  A DRINK FOR IT AND THE METAL BOARD IS YOURS"....I OFFERD HIM £20,,TO WHICH HE NEARLY FELL OVER WITH SHOCK...."YEAH MAN,YEAH MAN,TEK IT" HE SAID....{RESULT I THOUGHT}...ANYHOW AS HE GLADLEY HELPED ME GET IT OUT HIS MATE TOLD ME TO STAY WHERE I WAS AND NOT MOVE...??   SHIT IM THINKING WHAT NEXT...AS I LOOKED THIS BLOKE WAS RUNNING TOWARDS ME WITH SOMETHING UNDER HIS ARM..."HOW MUCH FOR THIS ONE BWOY" HES ASKING..WHEN HE TURNED IT ROUND IT WAS A MINT PICTORIAL MELOX WHICH HE HAD KEPT IN HIS SHED BECAUSE HE LIKED THE DOG ON THE BALL...I OFFERED HIM £20  ASWELL   AND TO MY SUPRISE HE AGREED TO LET ME HAVE IT...TURNED OUT TO BE A GOOD DAY ALROUND I THOUGHT AND I GOT OFF THE ALOTTMENT IN ON PIECE....

Nice story banjo boy! Thanks!

This was actually my second sign, i bought it from the late great Chris Gordon. I went to his house in Birmingham in 1979, i arrived about 8pm i was trying to see the number of his  house, when i suddenly saw a 1940s delivery van with a giant tea cup & saucer on the roof in a driveway ,i knew i must be there. On opening the door Chris invited me in ,instantly my jaw dropped to the floor, i had never seen such a display in a house before,   i was hooked!!!!!!,  I left after looking through his " for sale " section i bought this lovely Players Navy Cut sign for £8   , ive still got it, ill keep it in memory of Chris, on my next visit to him he took me to the Rag market,,, brilliant!!

MY FIRST ENAMEL FIND,,30 ODD YEARS AGO...

THE START OF THE SLIPPERY SLOPE...THIS WAS OUR SECOND ONE WHICH MY OLD MAN WENT UP ABOUT 40ft ON A WOODEN LADDER TO TAKE OFF IN THE EARLY 70s AND THIS ONE COST A WHOPPING "54pence"  FOR PERMISSION OFF THE COUNCIL TO TAKE  IT DOWN...STILL GOT THE SIGN AND THE CHITTY OF PAPER...