No collection is insignificant Mick..its yours and it makes you happy..Alot of lads on here have been collecting 30,40 years perhaps more? If you were a collector in the 70s there were some rich pickings to choose from at very cheap prices for those with the enamel bug..Alot of signs were still on buildings and not very popular or the thing to collect..Keep at it mate and just enjoy the hunt..

Completely agree with Spence - the real enjoyment is in the hunt!

Thanks for reply boys but I am one of the old boys that did collect way back in the 70’s I have got some nice enamels some of my good ones stolen, but I did pay very little back then. But I just thought that collection is amazing.

I have to disagree a little bit.... I know someone who ONLY started collecting 10 years ago. They by no means have a bottomless pit of money but by sheer hard graft, chasing everything down and the odd canny purchase have built up a very, very nice collection of about ( i'm guessing 80 enamels )

Any collector can only do ............what they can do !! Personally if I had a bottomless pit of money i don't think I would collect anything. I started in bottle collecting in 1976, discovered cricket as a hobby and sport 4 years later and stopped collecting full stop until about 1998. I was walking down to my parents house just off Brockham green and saw an old school friend digging a massive hole in someones drive.........No he was'nt bottle digging he had become a builder and was laying some complicated piping for something.

We got chatting, i had some time on my hands and mentioned I would be interested in a bit of labouring if he ever needed it. 3 weeks later i got a call and found myself helping him re-roof a Bungalow about 8 houses along from his. At lunchtime he invited me to his house to eat our sarnies and have a cup of tea and a quick wash and brush up.

As I walked into his kitchen / breakfast room it was filled with a massive bottle collection. Cream pots, inks, Ginger Beers, poisons etc, etc After 5 minutes chat I was hooked again. Digging and booting at every opportunity. One Sunday in Summer 2002 I think, at the massive A3 Carboot I bought a Singer 2 sided enamel sign, THAT WAS IT Advertising here we come, bottles ok but NOT the same. 18 years later I have a nice collection which i am quite fond of. Some purchases obviously but all garnered from other finds, swaps, deals etc all my collection has come away from the household budget . its amazing what getting up at 5am and chasing every last lead will get you. That and the people you meet are the real buzz .....whats your story ?

lummox

 I spotted my first enamel at a market in the 70's, not a rare one but I liked the orange colour of the Brooke Bond tea, took it home, erected it it in my back porch and from then on I was hooked.

I used to go to the market stalls in Brighton and came away with some very nice signs for just a few pounds each. The colours and the deep glosses with different styles of writing just intrigued me. So I visited antique shops and fairs and accumulated quite a lot of them. Even got one from my allotment a Hudson's cycles with the prices on 8 shillings 6 shillings etc. It was part of this man's shed roof. He muttered 'its surprising what rubbish people collect' as I dragged it away.

One of my neighbours was a bit toffee nosed and considered it lowered the tone of our close when I put them on my front garden fence. I think she would change her mind if she knew how much they are worth.

A hundred years and more of history I will never tire of them. I did fork out a bit a few years ago for a Dixon's Chemist sign because as a schoolboy I rode an old bike with a basket on the front delivering prescriptions for Dixon's. Don't think that would be allowed nowadays ! ! 
                                                  M.B.