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#266964 Mon Aug 08 2011 01:15 PM
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floyd Offline OP
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I did a search on the site and saw a couple references to "Walker & Co." of Detroit. It looks like they produced auto-related signs back in the 40s-50s at least. Does anyone have any info on that company? Are they still in business? If not, when did they go out? This is tied to a discussion on another forum regarding possibly faked Dodge enamel signs.

http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/show...077#Post6769545

Thanks much

Last edited by floyd; Mon Aug 08 2011 01:16 PM.
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Walker & Co. Signs, Detroit - Outdoor Advertising & Signage

They are an old advertising company, started in 1883. In the early 1900's, and I found references in a Michigan Supreme Court case from July 1914 they were building porcelain signs for the city of Detroit at least as far back as 1911. They were mentioned in the court case for being the makers of a sign that fell off it's mount and landed on a lady as she walked underneath it.
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZQA8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA337&lpg=PA337&dq=Walker+%26+Co.+Signs,+Detroit&source=bl&ots=w8G9jARjmU&sig=6uYM6phb7HdC3WdIxdmFS7LZbNg&hl=en&ei=DVZATsvXHqiDsgLhlbH8Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Walker%20%26%20Co.%20Signs%2C%20Detroit&f=false

Here is another google book reference showing they were not a tiny company - they had 120 employees in 1916, as listed in the MI State Anual Report:
http://books.google.com/books?id=_CHuAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA341&lpg=PA341&dq=%22Walker+%26+Co%22.+Detroit&source=bl&ots=WqbBkrmG8F&sig=UJHDcxrJMFvGbo08TBMjEGQZtCM&hl=en&ei=jFlATp_tBuqrsAL37dS_Bw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CDMQ6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=%22Walker%20%26%20Co%22.%20Detroit&f=false

I found references that as of 1957 they were still in business (and still in court suing a client for non-payment of a sign). They are also mentioned in a 1957 TIME magazine article:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,867610,00.html

The longtime president of Walker & Co in the later years, Clarence D Blessed was no longer with the company as of 1961, when he ran for office for the state. After the late 50's early 60's, I can't find any mention of them anywhere under that name.

A search on the Michigan corporate registry does not show any Walker & Co as being active and they only list companies active as of 1978, so I guess they ceased to exist, or merged/changed names or moved states sometime after 1957 and before 1978.

That's about all I can find on them - I'm pretty sure they do not exist in any form today, at least from my quick research. If they did, even under a new name in a different state, you would think a company would list it's heritage as being traceable back to 1883.

Not sure if this helps, but I hope this helps in your search of trying to find out if the items your looking at are fake or not.

Walker&coAd.JPG
Last edited by AntiquePerfectio; Mon Aug 08 2011 03:37 PM.


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That's fantastic - thanks for the quick turnaround! Was that a Lexisnexis search? Just curious...

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wow - I did not see that. I guess I should have spelled out "company" when I searched. It's pretyy questionable for sure. There have been a couple auctions on eBay recently with this same Scat Pack Bee sign.

Here's a post on the "Moparts" mopar-focused forum on the same topic:

http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/show...part=1&vc=1

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Being a 1950's MOPAR car lover and owner myself, I have followed the questioning of these Scat Pack signs on the MOPARTS forum for what seems like a year now. I can't believe the guys are still talking about these.

From memory of the many postings, I believe no one has a photo of one of these questioned signs in an actual 1960's MOPAR dealership setting. Also, none of the guys old enough to recall remember seeing them in a MOPAR dealership. Finally, no one could find this Scat Pack promotional item shown in any of the MOPAR dealer factory merchandising catalogs from the period. Finally, a NUMBER of these (not just one or two) have now been discovered, and subsequently sold on eBay in the past year.

Like I mentioned, I don't know why the MOPAR guys are still discussing whether this "newly-discovered" Scat Pack sign is the real thing or a reroduction. I believe the Old Gas gang had this one figured out long ago! John


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