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An antique enamel sign from around 1900 for pig meal made by John Donovan and Sons, Tralee.
AN antique advertising sign for a Tralee-based business which owned the Jeanie Johnston famine ship will go on sale later this month.
The green and gold sign has the tagline Pigs in ‘Clover’. It dates from around 1900 and features XXX Meal made by John Donovan and Sons, Tralee, established in 1795.
John Donovan, started with a hardware shop in 1795. A boom in the grain trade in the 1820s and 30s brought the opportunity to build and expand.
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Donovan was the first to import a cargo of timber direct from North America to Tralee. By 1838 the hardware business in the Square was one of the largest in Kerry.
They had a number of ships, engaged in trade with Britain and the U.S., the most famous of these being the Jeanie Johnston, which between 1848 and 1856 plied between the Port of Tralee (Blennerville) and Quebec taking emigrants to Canada and the U.S., and returning with timber.
The sign has an estimate of between €400 and €600. It forms part of Sheppard’s of Durrow’s 600 Vintage Advertising and Printed Ephemera, to be held in Durrow on June 10 and 11, comprising a wide variety of historical Irish advertising material assiduously assembled over 40 years by a private collector in the south-east of Ireland.
The advertisements, with an approximate date from 1880 and capture the spirit of their age and are a rich repository of information about our past.
As might be expected alcohol and tobacco have a strong presence including: Players (58), Wills (43), Guinness (30), Jameson (25). Many other Irish household names like Jacobs (17) have a notable presence. Further information see the website by clicking here.
