BLAG 01 - Magazine - Page 4
Ye Olde Sign Shoppe
UK
Robert Allen: Tobacconist turned Signwriter
‘Allen’s Tobacconist Shop, Hart Street, Grosvenor Square’ (1841) by Robert Allen.
Oil on canvas © Museum of London 39.45/1.
This detail is from a picture at the Museum of
London, painted by Robert Allen in 1841. It depicts
his transition at that time from selling “segars”
(cigars) and snuff to plying his trade as a (sign)
writer. He was the first of four generations of
signwriters; his great-grandson Roderick Allen
is the last to have been traced, in Chertsey,
Surrey, in 1921.
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The painting suggests that the sign shop
operated from the basement at 20 Hart Street
(now Brown Hart Gardens). Other details include
the upside-down “to the trade” and the artists’
palette below his name above the fascia sign.
Museum of London / @museumoflondon
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