“The Egyptians seemed to have made occasional use of inscriptons to draw attention to the whereabouts of a trade. Whether the Greek Signs were carved or painted or merely displayed the natural object, is uncertain from the references made by Aristotle. The more general practice of the Romans, as we may still see at Pompeii, was a panel in relief beside the shop front. The earliest forms were some simple object typical of the trade—a hand for the glover, a bunch of grapes for the vintner. In the Middle Ages coats-of-arms, crests and badges began to be used, for as particular trades were confined to particiular streets the trader felt the need for some more individual and distinctive Sign. Sometimes the shopkeeper’s own name would suggest a rebus, as Robert Legg Upholsterer ‘at the Sign of ye Leg’ in Holborn. . . .

Of Signs still to be seen in our streets a few examples persist—the Barber’s Pole and the Three Golden Balls (originally Three Blue Balls) of the pawnbrokers are those most frequently met with. Other devices occasionally seen are the Arm and Hammer of the gold-beater, the Kettle and the Hat which hang in front of ironmongers’ and hatters’ shops, the Fishing Rod and Dangling Trout over the fishing tackle shops, the Roll of Tobacco and the Highlander outside the tobacconists’.”

—Ambrose Heal, from London Tradesmen’s Cards of the XVIII Century; An Account of their Origin and Use, originally published in 1910.