Wells, Somerset
Blake Sanders spotted this vestigial advertisement on a former bakery
in August 2021.
This Hovis advertisement tells a story. Presumably the house
owners were scraping away at the masonry paint and discovered it; one
assumes that Hovis originally hired a sign-writer to paint the advert.
Two pictures of loaves and, undoubtedly some other lost lettering.
There are certainly two (earlier?) ‘HOVIS’ signs in vertical capitals.
There was probably a suitable slogan such as ‘... for FOOD VALUE – it’s
richer in VITAMINS … Best Bakers Bake it’. Hovis used many straplines.
It's a very curious use of an umlaut-like shape above the ‘O’ seen
throughout the vintage signs and adverts. It’s striking that this is an
early, ubiquitous use of brand advertising; see also ‘Bovril’ (wouldn’t happen today), or ‘Hoover’ –
even today we do the vacuuming with a Dyson and call it ‘hoovering’.
See also the traditional green-and-gold ‘HOVIS’ sign in Bramford Road, Ipswich; no longer a
baker’s, of course.
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