26 Jul 2024

The Mirrored Owl Cigars of San Francisco

Previously on the blog, I’ve shared three examples of ‘reversed’, or ‘mirrored’, ghost signs. This effect occurs when the demolition of a host building leaves traces of its ghost sign on the wall of a newer neighbour.

But here we have a case where the sign was originally painted in reverse, as shared via Kasey Smith’s post on Mastodon. It was in San Francisco and painted for Owl Cigars by the J. Chas Green sign company in the early twentieth century.

The photo is part of a series, which also includes this one that shows a sliver of the left side of the wall.

When sharing the photo, Kasey raised the obvious question: why would you paint a sign like this?

Painting in Reverse

Working in reverse isn’t alien to professional sign writers/painters. In fact, it’s an essential skill for lettering on glass, especially after gilding, when work on the inside of the window is to be viewed from the outside. Another common, but more contemporary, use of mirrored text is on the front of emergency vehicles, where the viewer is most likely to be seeing the word(s) in their rearview mirror.

Neither of these practical uses apply in the case of this Owl Cigars sign.

A Cunning Stunt?

One possibility is that this was some kind of publicity stunt, which would tally with the use of such a large and prominent wall. (A comment from Thomas Sturm highlights the ‘Why?’ campaign from MJB Coffee, which didn’t make a lot of sense, but got people talking and, importantly, buying their coffee.) Records of an Owl Cigars stunt might be found in press articles at the time, or perhaps there are other examples for the same brand, suggesting a wider campaign along these lines.

Another theory, which could also have been a publicity stunt, was proposed by Frisco LaLa. This is that the sign was produced to be reflected, and seen, in the windows of a building opposite. The photos were taken from the Ferry Building, and so perhaps this was where the properly oriented advertisement was once visible?

Point and Shoot

I posted the picture and the question to the BLAG Forum, and included this photo from 1926 that shows the sign beginning to fade.

Jeffrey Larrimore replied, positing the the assumption that the sign may have been produced principally for its subsequent photography.

“First thought: If this is the Embarcadero in San Francisco, it is a popular tourist destination to take photos of the Bay Bridge. So if that is close enough to the water, it would be reflected properly for all the tourists to have a nice advertisement in their photos.

“Second thought (Better idea): After seeing the second photo and thinking more of the timeframe these are taken… Photographs then were most likely daguerreotypes and tintypes. Which means their prints were in reverse, and they do not use negatives, like modern film photography, so flipping the photo right-side up was not a straight forward process.”

Answers on a Postcard

Each of these theories has some plausibility, and are not mutually exclusive. However, without records from Owl Cigars, the J. Chas Green sign company, or contemporary press clippings, this reversed sign is likely to remain a mystery.

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Check out more San Francisco ghost signs, and follow Kasey Smith’s wider research into the city’s fading ads.

• California
• Ghostsigns
• Mirror
• Mystery
• Owl Cigars
• Reverse
• San Francisco
• USA