Asahi Super Dry, North Kensington

Back in 2011 London street artist Don realized several pieces at the newly reopened Earl of Portobello in North Kensington, including a superb painted sign for Japanese beer Asahi Super Dry.

Founded in 1889, Asahi Breweries Ltd is one of Japan's leading brewers. In 1987 it introduced Asahi Super Dry, which rapidly became its best selling beer.

There are a few differences between the actual label on the bottles and the sign painted here.

Below are some of the other works by Don that decorate the walls of the public house, including portraits of Charles Dickens and Amy Winehouse.

Location: Golborne Grove / Pictures taken in December 2011

Bois du nord et du pays, Etauliers

To conclude, temporarily, this series of ghost signs found along the former Nationale 137 in southwestern France, here is one I had missed last year but was able to photograph last week. It can be found on what was certainly the workshop of wood merchant Marcel Dupuy.

Dupuy sold wood (bois) produced both locally (du pays) and further north (du nord). It can be assumed that 'north' referred not so much to northern France but to Scandinavia, a region with a strong wood industry. Sweden in particular began developing its timber and wood industry in the 19th century. Since then the sector has been a major source of export earnings.

Bois du nord
et du pays
Marcel Dupuy

Location: D 137, Etauliers, Gironde / Pictures taken in April 2013

Boulangerie, Etauliers

The bakery may not longer be there but its ghost sign, which includes on each side drawings of large round loaves, still adorns this building.

Boulangerie [Bakery]

There are two versions of this boulangerie ghost sign, the more recent one covering the earlier one. Traces of some more words can be seen next to the loaves but not enough to be able to decipher what was written there.

Location: D 137, Etauliers, Gironde / Pictures taken in May 2012

Foire Internationale de Bordeaux, Saint-Aubin-de-Blaye

Like yesterday, we are looking at a palimpsest. The most recent, and obvious, sign promoted the Foire Internationale de Bordeaux (Bordeaux International Fair).

Even though this fair held every year around Ascension Day became 'international' only in 1921, its origins go back to 1214, the year John, King of England and Duke of Aquitaine, granted the city the power to organize a wine fair. This privilege was confirmed and extended by successive rulers, be they English or French. The fair, which had been taking place traditionally in the medieval part of the city, was held between 1853 and 1968 on Place des Quinconces, at 12 hectares one of the largest city squares in Europe. However in the 1960s, as part of the modernisation plans of the city designed by the team of mayor Jacques Chaban-Delmas, the decision was taken to transfer the fair to Bordeaux-Lac, an area seven kilometres to the north of the city centre. The move was quite controversial at the time but it made it possible to increase the size of the fair and to accomodate the growing number of visitors coming by car. In 1969 the Foire Internationale de Bordeaux opened in the brand new hall of the Parc des Expositions. When it opened, this impressive building, 847 m long and with a surface area of 50,400 square metres, was the largest exhibition hall in Europe. Nowadays the international fair is only one of many events that take place throughout the year in the Parc des Expositions.

Was this sign painted before or after the move to Bordeaux-Lac? This is hard to say but should it have been painted in 1969 or later, one might have expected a bolder design, matching the modern image projected by the design of the new exhibition hall.

Of the earlier ghost sign written with very high letters, only a few of these can been seen in the lower part of the wall. The upper part of the word was covered by "Bordeaux" and, to make things more difficult, part of it disappeared when a small window was opened through the wall.

Foire
Internationale de
Bordeaux / L..on [Lafon?]

This wall was rented by Avenir Publicité, one of France's leading advertising agencies.

Location: D 137, lieu-dit Roubisque, Saint-Aubin-de-Blaye, Gironde / Pictures taken in May 2012

Cognac Martell, Saint-Aubin-de-Blaye

Here is a real palimpsest and identifying the different ghost signs was made even trickier when part of this building was demolished. Indeed it extended originally further towards the right (the lower part of the wall can still be seen).

The easiest sign to read, with white letters on a blue background, is for Martell, a brand of Cognac. This Cognac house was founded in 1715 by Jean Martell, a native from Jersey. This makes it one of the oldest ones. It is also one of the largest and, historically, the main competitor of Hennessy.

Cuisines, salles d'eau modernes Cognac Martell St Raphaël

Also visible against the blue background are the words "cuisines, salles d'eau modernes" ("Modern kitchens and bathrooms"). Whether this was for a specific brand or a store remains unknown. Someone may be able to identify what was certainly the logo, a slightly tilting square, to the left of "cuisines."

The part painted in black on the left is equally a mystery.

Less of a problem to identify is a ghost sign for another French alcohol, St Raphaël. Only "S^t" can still be seen but the style of the letters is characteristic enough to recognise this cinchona-based aperitif.

Finally there was another sign, now to the extreme right, but most of it disappeared when part of the wall was demolished.

Location: D 137, Saint-Aubin-de-Blaye, Gironde / Pictures taken in May 2012

Kina Lilet, Saint-Aubin-de-Blaye

Elaborated c. 1887, and launched in 1895 (the delay being due to the phylloxera "plague" that decimated the vineyards of the Bordeaux region in the 1870s-1880s) Kina-Lillet rapidly became the leading product of Maison Lillet, a wine and spirit trading business founded by Raymond and Paul Lillet in 1872 in Podensac, a small town on the River Garonne 30 km south of Bordeaux. The demand for fortified wine was growing rapidly at the time and the Lillet brothers came up with a recipe that combined 15% liqueur, itself a mix of bark from the Peruvian cinchona (the tree the bark came from was believed to be called kina-kina in Quechua, hence the name of the new beverage), peels of sweet and bitter oranges from Spain and of green oranges from Haiti, and brandy, with 85% white wine from the Sauternes area.

The fame, and sales, of Kina-Lillet rose rapidly thanks to its pleasant refreshing taste and to the successful advertising and marketing campaigns that emphasized the high quality of wines used in its preparation. After a few years the two brothers decided to concentrate solely on their aperitif and stopped acting as agents for other chateaux and distillers. After the Second World War, contrary to many of its competitors, Lillet avoided decline by crossing the Atlantic and conquering the US market, in particularly with Lillet Rouge, a version of the drink prepared with red instead of white wine and developed especially for US customers in 1962.

Between 1986 and 1990 the recipe was slightly altered to cater for changing tastes. As a result Lillet is now less sweet and less bitter than it used to be.

'Kina-Lilet', 'Kina-Lillet', 'Lilet' or 'Lillet'? These are all the same. 'Kina' featured on the bottles sold in France and continental Europe. It was dropped at some point in the 1960s or 1970s. Because of customs regulations the word was never printed on the labels of bottles heading towards the UK or the US. With regards to the spelling of the name, it should always have been 'Lillet', as this was the surname of the two brothers. However these wanted people to pronounce it properly ([li'le] and not [li.jɛ]). Consequently they allowed advertising agencies and sign painters to spell it with only one 'l' if they thought it would be more appropriate. This explains why ghost signs with both spellings can be found around France.

Kina-Lilet was not the first ghost sign painted on this wall. Even if only two letters of the earlier sign can still be seen to the left of 'Kina-Lilet', it is easy to recognise this was a ghost sign for Dubonnet, one of Lillet's main competitors.

Dubonnet /

Kina Lilet

Location: D 137, Saint-Aubin-de-Blaye, Gironde / Pictures taken in May 2012

Vichy Célestins, Saint-Aubin-de-Blaye

Even if only two letters of this ghost sign are visible to the left of the modern hoarding, their design and positions are characteristic enough to be able to identify the product advertised there: the naturally sparkling mineral water Vichy Célestins.

Les Célestins is one of nine natural springs found in Vichy, a spa town in central France. It owes its name to the former convent of the Celestines, a branch of the Benedictine monastic order, whose remains stand nearby. Before 1939 the water emerging from the spring was used almost exclusively for medical and pharmaceutical purposes but by the late 1940s-early 1950s bottles of Vichy Célestins started to appear on the tables of cafés and restaurants. Nowadays around 200 m bottles are sold each year.

Vichy
Célestins

The logo of the company that managed this advertising space appears underneath the modern hoarding (below the price): "SFAR." To find out more about the Société Française d'Affichage Routier (French Society of Road Displays), please check this earlier post.

Location: D 137, Saint-Aubin-de-Blaye, Gironde / Pictures taken in May 2012