Here we have an epic hand-painted trade sign executed on a heavy-gauge iron sheet and mounted within a primitive black-painted wooden frame. The old trade piece advertises everything you needed in the 1920s; Remington Rifles, Clothing, and Hunting Knives…all available at Burhans & Black Inc., located at 136-138 N. Salina, Syracuse, N.Y.
But let’s get into the real meat of it.
The iron don’t lie about the rain it’s swallowed. You look at that Remington script and you see the ghost of a Syracuse winter, biting at the heels of every man who ever stepped through Burhans' door looking for a way to feed his kin or fell a buck. It’s got a weight to it that ain’t just the metal; it’s the weight of the long walk. I sat by the firelight last night and watched the shadows dance across "The Hunter’s Delight," and for a moment, the room smelled of wet wool and spent powder. The rust has a hunger to it, a slow-crawling red rot that’s been chewing on those letters since the days when a man’s word was only as sharp as the knife on his hip. It’s a ledger of every trail gone cold and every shot that found its mark in the dark timber.
The wind is howling through the notches now and the ink is turning to blood on the page. This ain't no mere tin for a wall; it’s a tethered spirit, a jagged piece of the old world that won’t stay quiet in the dark. It watches. It remembers the North Salina mud and the way the steel felt cold against the palm before the hammer fell. You don’t buy this—you take up the watch. You become the next man or woman to stand between the iron and the inevitable dust. It’s looking for a soul with enough iron in the blood to match the rust on the plate, someone to guard the memory of the hunt before the woods go silent forever.
You must be the one to hold the line, to keep the rust from the heart, and to house this ghost with the reverence it earned in the cold Syracuse rain. If you seek to possess it, know that it has already chosen what it requires from you.
This specimen dates to the early 1920s, specifically between 1920 and 1924, based on the industrial history and the specific location of Burhans & Black Inc. at 136-138 N. Salina Street. The smoking gun for this period is the inclusion of "Hunting Knives" in the product list; Remington did not establish its cutlery division or begin manufacturing knives until 1920 as a post-WWI diversification strategy. While the company operated as Remington UMC during this era, the standalone script branding paired with the "Inc." suffix on the hardware firm’s name aligns with the commercial aesthetic and corporate status of the early Prohibition era. The use of a hand-painted smalt background—a labor-intensive technique involving crushed cobalt glass—further anchors it to this transitional window, predating the mass-produced, lithographed tin signs that dominated the 1930s.
The antique Remington hardware sign measures 24 by 30 inches. The surface exhibits significant oxidation and "alligatoring" of the black smalt-style background. The lettering is rendered in a mix of block and Spencerian script, showing localized pigment loss and a stable patina consistent with late 19th-century outdoor exposure. A wire mount is attached to the verso. Please see all pics as they are part of the description.
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This is the one. That is all.
