Today, the billboards of yesteryear are worth up to 40,000 euros. At Ghent's MIAT, the exhibition Amai email! tells the history of the Belgian enamel industry. CittA went there specifically in search of signs from Antwerp companies. Jan De Plus (56) from Leuven can easily be called one of the absolute specialists in the field of enamel. Not only has he published three books on the subject, but he also knows exactly which sign belongs to which collector.
No wonder he is the centerpiece of the exhibition Amai email! which starts next week at Ghent's MIAT, or the Museum of Industry, Labor and Textiles. Jan De Plus: "Now people who hear the word 'email' immediately think of the many emails they send every day with their computers. (laughs) But for me, email has an entirely different meaning. It is the name for a kind of melting glass used to finish many iron utensils in the nineteenth century. The plastic avant la lettre, so to speak, because it turned out to be the way to keep iron objects such as stoves, stoves, wash bowls, pots and pans stainless and hygienic."
"I have recovered beautiful postcards from that era with scenes showing the most beautiful billboards," he said.
Just after 1830 in Belgium, in the region around Charleroi, the first enamellers emerged. These also began to specialize more and more in enamel billboards towards the end of the nineteenth century. Once the advertising boys of the time began to see the power of these stylish objects, it grew into a huge success. "If you look at pictures of Antwerp villages from the first half of the twentieth century now, you can't ignore enamel signs," says Jan De Plus. "I have found wonderful postcards from that era with scenes showing the most beautiful billboards." "On a postcard from Essen, billboards of St. Michel, Solo and Pacha hang on the side wall of a store.
An enamel sign of De Beukelaar chicory hangs on the side of a house in Lippelo. A postcard from Massenhoven shows how diverse the big brands were who invested in enamel signs: there were advertisements from De Beukelaar and Belga as well as Coca-Cola, Liebig and Persil. And on an old postcard from Terhagen, a borough of Rumst, we come across several margarine brands that were interested in enamel: Margarine Drapeau, Blue Band and Era." Unique creations for world players Belgium was certainly not the frontrunner when it came to enamel signs. Some early industrialized countries like Great Britain had them hanging around much earlier. What does make Belgian signs unique is that major global brands such as Coca Cola, Martini & Rossi and Sandeman had unique enamel creations made here with us for the Belgian market.
But our own companies also eagerly participated. Jan De Plus: "In and around Antwerp, there were quite a few margarine producers in the first half of the twentieth century. The most important and best known of these was probably Solo. The so-called Union Margarinière had masses of enamel signs produced in all sizes and weights. The first signs, which date from 1930, are very sober in Solo's typical blue color. On the packet of butter depicted on them, the Belgian tricolor was subtly applied.
Starting in the 1950s, the signs changed. The subtle packets of butter were replaced by a cheerful little girl. Rumor has it that the design for this girl was based on then child starlet Shirley Temple. Another Antwerp margarine brand that made full use of enamel billboards at the time was Margarine Drapeau. Another famous Antwerp enamel sign from the last century is that of Dr. Mann. It was pharmacist Maurice Gemoets who ordered the sign from Emaillerie Belge and Emaillerie Forémail. "He wanted to use it to advertise his pain-relieving powders," says Jan De Plus. "
The brand name Dr. Mann was a derivative of his brother Manille, who had died a few years earlier. It is not the flamboyant Antwerp man himself, who ran a pharmacy on Jan Van Rijswijcklaan, but a "wise" doctor depicted on the enamel sign. Remarkably, it exists only in Dutch. This suggests that Dr. Mann's powders were only available in Flanders." The Beyers Koffies billboard is another showpiece of Antwerp's enamel history. Because it was ordered only once by the coffee roasting company and because it is an unknown number of copies to this day, this sign is hugely popular with collectors. Doorpost signs Less well known perhaps, but very beautiful are the signs made by the Molle cigar brand Caraïbe. "There are very few copies of this sign and most of them are no longer in good condition," says Jan De Plus. "This enamel creation still possesses its original splendor. It was made in 1934 by Les Emailleries de Koekelberg." Coffee company Miko of Turnhout also picked up enamel signs. "Miko made what is called a door sign or door post sign," says Jan De Plus. "These were attached above or below the door handle to protect the door from dirty hands. Initially, they were made of copper or pottery. Only from the 1920s did people come up with the idea of putting an advertising message on them, so that when they opened the store door, every customer unconsciously rested their eyes on this sign."
Pastry manufacturer Anco, a Turnhout great of the time, had enamel signs made by legendary manufacturer Emaillerie Belge in 1958. "These plates, despite their size of 65 by 99 centimeters, are enormously popular with collectors," says Jan De Plus. "Perhaps that has to do with Anco's name recognition. Lithography was used to create the shadow of the pasta man. This is remarkable because this technique was virtually unheard of at the time." An example of foreign companies that had unique enamel signs made especially for the Belgian market is the billboard of the English petroleum company British Petroleum. "BP's main onshore depot was located in Antwerp at the beginning of the last century," says Jan De Plus. "The order for the signs happened in 1931. It was Emaillerie Belge who skillfully produced seven hundred of them. What is unique about this sign is that it actually depicts a whole story. It shows the various means of transportation that used the BP fuel at that time, such as cars and airplanes."
Towards the end of the email age
As quickly as enamel signs made their appearance on the streets at the beginning of the 20th century, they disappeared again just under 60 years later. "The Belgian enamel industry was hit hard during World War II," says Jan De Plus. "Many factories were razed to the ground."
"The Belgian enamel industry was hit hard during World War II, many factories were razed to the ground."
Starting in the 1960s, plastics also slowly but surely supplanted enameled objects. And then, of course, there was the changing advertising market. The traditional enamel signs were made to stay on the wall for at least twenty to thirty years, but in the increasing consumer society there was no longer a place for this kind of durable advertising. As a result, no enamel factory managed to survive, except for the Emaillerie Belge." According to counts by Jan De Plus, hundreds of thousands of billboards have been manufactured from enamel in our country. But only ten percent of them are still intact. And these are increasingly in demand by collectors who sometimes offer 40,000 euros for a single sign.
"In recent years, I've been hearing more and more stories of people buying enamel signs as investments. Because savings books are yielding less because of the crisis, they want something tangible, something that can still give them a real return in their old age." The cost of the signs depends very much on the theme depicted on them. And not surprisingly, a sign with a beautiful image of a woman, will command more than a sign with only advertising letters. "The condition of the sign also helps determine the price. It is extremely difficult to restore an enamel sign to its original state. The restored parts of an enamel sign are highly susceptible to sunlight, temperature fluctuations, rain and age, so they can crack, discolor or even come loose after a relatively short period of time. Hence, true enamel collectors have learned to live with a little damage here and there."
Peppy collectibles
With the exhibition at Ghent's MIAT, a boyhood dream is coming true for Jan De Plus. "What we are bringing together there in terms of enamel art can safely be called a feat. There will be a wall measuring 17 by 4 meters with nothing but billboards that once adorned the street scene. Some of those signs renowned collectors have never even seen. They are insured for tens of thousands of euros and were brought to Ghent in specially made transport crates."
