Yale Laundry Sign

[CarltonHendricks]

Received this porcelain on steel sign couple weeks ago...When I first saw it I naturally thought it was from Yale...but as I tried to research it...slowly it became apparent it very well may not have. I learned there were Yale Laundries in New York City, Washington D.C., Denver, Portland Oregon...and maybe other cities...and They seem to have been independent of each other...that is, not all owned by one principle...Although it seems strange so many laundries would use the name Yale...I've yet to figure it out.

I have more research to do on it...The one clue I've exhausted without any definite conclusion is the catch phrase "Where Linen Lasts"...Seems that was a well used phrase by many laundries around the country during the first half of the 20th century...and I haven't found a reference to any Yale Laundry to tie the phrase to specifically.

[Leon]

Neat stuff Carlton. Handsome Dan, the bulldog, is obviously being used to refer to the University. Having a cleaners by that name was probably good marketing...Thanks for sharing.

[CarltonHendricks]

Originally Posted by Leon

Neat stuff Carlton. Handsome Dan, the bulldog, is obviously being used to refer to the University. Having a cleaners by that name was probably good marketing...Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Leon...In the late 19th - early 20th century it seems the Yale name was raided at will...I've seen many products branded "Yale"...Now days I doubt anyone could get away with it...Harvard too was subject to the same...Beer, Cigars, etc....Over the years I've been tempted more than a few times to buy Yale and Harvard non sport items that had a lot of eye appeal...

The Yale Crackers box below was the first one I got within the last year.. as it was in such nice shape and cheap...like $100.00 I think it was...Then a couple months ago I got a flyer in the snail mail for Showtime Auctions for an advertising auction...I usually look thru them quickly for sports advertising but never seem to see anything worth following up on...my Yale Laundry sign was very subdued...a small little photo among a lot of non sport pieces...I escalated it to looking it up on line...It looked porcelain in the photo and sure enough it was...Porcelain sports related signs hardly exist...Of course my Yale Laundry isn't sports really...but related...A friend of mine who is very knowledgeable on advertising signs said he'd seen Yale Laundry signs before but nothing close to mine for graphics...

It was one of those internet Live Auctions...I left an absentee bid and hit it pretty hard...Got it for $$750.00 plus $150.00 premium...plus a very reasonable $139.00 shipping...So $1039.00 delivered...could have been worse...I've developed a taste for porcelain sports signs....picked up three in the last year...plus that bowling and billiards one back in 2009

[rjackson44]

😅great stuff ad usual carlton omg love your site man octavio

[ooo-ribay]

Great stuff, Carlton!

I'm wondering.....do you do your research with Google or are you more advanced than that?

The historical stuff you and springpin dig up online never ceases to amaze me.

[vintagehofrookies]

I work at Yale, its funny seeing all this mem.