A Facinating Collection of Hungarian Sign Painting Photos, 1906–1976

By Better Letters • 7 Nov 2024

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Over-the-shoulder view of a woman holding a mahl stick and painting lettering on a sign board.

Outlining with a mahl stick as a straight edge in Hungary, 1976. Photo: Fortepan / FŐFOTÓ.

Before we get into this week's historical deep dive, don't forget to grab your free ticket for Saturday's BLAG Meet: Inside Issue 05. I cannot wait to kick off this marathon day of talks, interviews, and studio visits, and hope that you can join us for some/all of it.

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Tom Koch is currently working on a museum project for the Austrian city of Eisenstadt, which will include a permanent sign painting exhibit. To give context to some of the objects, he asked if I had any archival photos of sign painters at work. In addition to various 'Ye Olde Sign Shoppe' posts, I shared some other pictures from my collection, including this one from Hungary in 1965.

Black and white photo showing the view from behind a man sat at an easel painting black lettering on a white sign board with mahl stick and brush. The lettering appears to be a place name.

Photo: Fortepan / UVATERV (97080).

I can't recall where I got the photo, but Tom quickly tracked down its original source in the brilliant Fortepan photographic archive. Searching within this, he then unearthed even more archival sign and sign painting photos from Hungary. The pictures span a period of 70 years—from 1906 to 1976—and show work in progress on a variety of different sign types.

One thing that immediately struck me was how prominently women sign painters feature among the photos, and I wondered why. It turns out that the majority of them were taken during Hungary's Communist era, which Wikipedia describes as a time when women had "greater access to secondary and university education, especially in technical fields" and were "included in the workforce in a more equal way". These images bear that out, and buck the trend of most archival sign painting photos that I've seen to date.

The following are presented in reverse chronological order for your enjoyment, and thank you Tom for sharing this wonderful collection.

1970s

This series of six photos were all taken in the same sign shop in 1976, but there are no details of its name or location.

Photos: Fortepan / FŐFOTÓ.

Here are some closer crops.

Black and white photo with a view from behind a woman adding dark shadows to lettering painted in white on glass.

Photos: Fortepan / FŐFOTÓ (207023).

Black and white photo of a man stood over a workbench cleaning a lettered glass sign with a sponge. He is in a workshop setting and behind him are other signs and shop equipment.

Photos: Fortepan / FŐFOTÓ (207022).

Photos: Fortepan / FŐFOTÓ (207020).

Livery work in progress at the IKARUS bus factory in Budapest, 1976.

Grainy colour photo of a man painting a leaping lion on the side of a bus. Above and below these is lettering in yellow with a white shade.

Photo: Fortepan / UVATERV (99391).

Bareback brushwork, 1976.

Black and white photo of a man wearing just boots and shorts while painting lettering onto the side of a van.

Photo: Fortepan / FŐFOTÓ (207025).

Publicity for a jazz festival in Cegléd, 1970.

Black and white photo of a man adding the finishing touches to a lettered sign board advertising acts at a jazz festival.

Photo: Fortepan / Péterffy István (142627).

A closer look at some of those letters.

Closer crop into the above image that makes some of the distinctive lettering easier to see.

Photo: Fortepan / Péterffy István (142627).

1960s

Adding a shade to some transom lettering in Győr, 1966.

Black and white photo of a man straddling a ladder while painting the shadows onto lettering on a wide transom window.

Photo: Fortepan / Kriss Géza (191969).

Closer crop of the previous photo that makes the lettering more prominent.

Photo: Fortepan / Kriss Géza (191969).

Heraldry practise at an art college in Pécs, 1963.

Black and white photo of two women in painters coats working with mahl sticks and brushes on heraldic panels.

Photo: Fortepan / Hunyady József (107131).

Mural signs in Budapest, 1961.

Colour photo of a street scene with shops at street level and then a block of flats behind that are adorned with painted signs on the wall, at least one of which is advertising televisions.

Photo: Fortepan / Móra András (114992).

Father and son? 1960.

Black and white portait of two men, one older than the other, standing in the doorway of a shop. There is a sign hanging on the door which isn't fully visible, but with has the word 'dekoracion' on it, suggesting that they are decorators/sign painters.

Photo: Fortepan / Rácz Vekerdi Gyuláné (250188).

1950s

Tank insignia from Budapest in 1956, the year of the Hungarian Revolution.

Black and white photo of a man in military uniform painting a crest on a tank that already has numbers painted on it.

Photo: Fortepan / Kurutz Márton (12337).

Kács village in 1953. Kacsa (no accent on the first a) means 'duck', and the village joker at work is the Hungarian painter and graphic designer Szalai Zoltán.

Black and white photo of a man wearing just black shorts reaching up to paint an extra letter on a sign with the village name, Kács, to make it read Kácsa.

Photo: Fortepan / Szalai Zoltán (204500).

1943

That's a huge mahl stick!

Grainy black and white photo of a women resting her hand on a large, vertically positioned mahl stick while she paints letters that are outline on the wall.

Fortepan / Wein Sarolta (19703).

1938

An airbrush is also being used to paint this film poster for Black Diamonds.

Black and white photo of a man paletting a brush on a paint cup. Beside him is a table with painting materials and a gas canaster with airbrush. Behind him are two painted film posters.

Photo: Fortepan / Fortepan (26394).

Teamwork makes the dream work: adding a long text to the agricultural scenes on this mural.

Black and white photo of two sign painters on a tressle working on small lettering that makes up a large paragraph of text on a wall. Above that portion of the wall are three painted agricultural workers, and further to the left is a woman standing under a tree.

Photo: Fortepan / Ormos Imre Alapítvány (173220).

1906

This is the oldest image in the collection, with a mixture of pictorial and lettering work in progress.

Black and white photo with various bits of handwritten text on and to the side of the picture. The photo is a portrait of a painter siting in front of an easel that he's working on, holding brushes and a pallete. The board he's working on shows a knight on horseback and then there is lettering above this and a list of numbers and names running vertically down the right side.

Photo: Fortepan / Zichy kúria, Zala (263436).

Crop into the above image to show the painter, the pictorial, and some of the numbers and names in more detail.

Photo: Fortepan / Zichy kúria, Zala (263436).

Bonus Photos

There are also some nice photos from outside of Hungary in the collection.

Ludwigsfelde, Germany, 1966

This sign painter is adding monthly performance data to this board outside the IFA truck factory: unser ziel (our goal) and planerfüllung (plan fulfillment).

Black and white photo of a man on a stool painting a large standing sign board outside of an industrial building. There is a bicycle beside him, propped up on another freestanding sign with large letters that read IFA.

Photo: Fortepan / Bojár Sándor (179542).

Close-up of the above photo showing that the man is currently painting bars on a chart to show performance in July, with earlier months already painted in to the left of that.

Photo: Fortepan / Bojár Sándor (179542).

Prague, Czech Republic, 1960

Aging neon and a painted billboard; what's not to like!

Man on a ladder painting a pictorial of a television for a large billboard advertising televisions. Juat above this are neon letters which seem to be the name of the shop where these televisions are available to buy.

Photo: Fortepan / UWM Libraries (259136).

A slightly different angle of the same man at work on the painted billboard advertising televisions.

Photo: Fortepan / UWM Libraries (259133).

Fortepan is a copyright-free and community-based photo archive with over 100,000 photographs available for anyone to browse and download in high-resolution, free of charge. It currently contains 36 photos tagged with 'sign painter'.

PS. Another reminder that BLAG Meet: Inside Issue 05 is just 48 hours away. Get your free ticket and join us on Saturday for a host of inspirational and informative sessions.

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A Facinating Collection of Hungarian Sign Painting Photos, 1906–1976

1970s

1960s

1950s

1943

1938

1906

Bonus Photos

Ludwigsfelde, Germany, 1966

Prague, Czech Republic, 1960

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