1882 Excelsior Carved Iron Watch Sign Ad

Removed from an antique trade magazine, this is a fantastic old ad for Grout's Excelsior Iron Signs featuring a carved iron watch sign. The manufacturer issues a challenge to his competitors (namely Kearney & Swartchild, and the Storm Sign Company) to demonstrate that he is infringing on any of their patents. And if they do not demonstrate that, he wants them to "shut up and mind their own business, and stop writing letters around the country to my customers, or going from place to place threatening to have my Iron Watch Signs taken down."

Tagline or sample ad copy: We manufacture the best, cheapest, and handsomest Iron Watch Sign in the United States, and guarantee them to stand in any climate, and that is the very reason they are MAD; and I now demand that they show up or shut up.

Publication Year: 1882

Approximate Ad Size (in inches): 10 x 13½

Condition: Good to VG with light age wear.