Signwriting by Arne Barker

Arne lives in Wiltshire and spends his time between producing these hand-painted signs and his artwork. Due to some disabilities, Arne can only work on or create smaller-scale signs; nevertheless, his work is to be found worldwide.

Hand-Painted Number Plates or Show-Plates

One of his latest projects is a pair of hand painted number plates for a stunning vintage 1909 Cadillac. If you appreciate classic Land-Rovers, then we have a feast for you; these vehicles date from 1948 through to the early 1960’s. Additionally, some wonderfully restored vintage motorcycles, early Brockhouse trailers, a beautiful 1929 Austin Seven 7, and a lovely 1929 Morris T-Type Commercial Truck. Many of these vehicles have been restored to the highest standard, Arne is proud to have contributed in a small but obvious way to all of these projects. more-info

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Stunning 1909 Cadillac single cylinder with hand-painted number plates — Hand-painted L8 number plate on a wonderful vintage 1909 Cadillac

1934 Austin 7 with hand-painted front number plate WO 7971 — Hand-painted number plate on a lovely 1934 Austin Seven

1929 Sunbeam motorcycle 563 XUG hand painted front number plate — Hand painted front number plate on a 1929 Sunbeam motorcycle

1929 Sunbeam motorcycle 563 XUG hand painted rear number plate — Hand painted rear number plate on a 1929 Sunbeam motorcycle

Hand painted French 1952 number plate — Hand painted front number plate prepared for a 1952 Citroen 2CV van

Early Land Rover with hand-painted rear number plate OYD531 — Hand-painted number plate on Land-Rover Series One

Prepared show plates for vintage 1909 Cadillac — Preparing hand-painted plates for a 1909 Cadillac

Signwriting on John Mckiernan's Skullduggery Dragster motorcycle 1975 — Old photo of Arne’s early artwork from the 1970’s – Signwriting on John McKiernan’s “Skullduggery” a twin engined Norton dragster motorcycle. John here is starting both engines using van driven rollers.

Hand painted pair of number plates for a 1948 Royal Enfield — Hand painted front and rear number plate prepared for a 1948 Royal Enfield motorcycle

1951 Triumph Trophy hand painted rear plate — 1951 Triumph Trophy hand-painted rear number plate

Wonderful restored 1951 Triumph Trophy motorcycle rear view showing hand painted number plate — Wonderful restored 1951 Triumph Trophy motorcycle rear view showing hand-painted number plate

Vintage 1923 Raleigh motorcycle number plates — Raleigh motorcycle number plates

Wonderful restored Vintage Raleigh motorcycle rear view with signwritten plate — Wonderful restored Vintage Raleigh motorcycle rear view showing hand painted number plate

Vintage 1923 Raleigh motorcycle rear number plate — 1923 Raleigh motorcycle hand painted rear show plate. Note the interesting gas powered rear light attached to the rear number plate

Vintage Raleigh 1923 motorcycle front hand-painted number-plate — Wonderfully restored Vintage Raleigh 1923 motorcycle showing front hand-painted number-plate

New-Map 1935 motorcycle with period number-plate — 1935 motorcycle with period show-plate

1929 Morris Commercial Truck — 1929 Morris Commercial T-Type Truck with hand painted original front number plate

Restored and repainted number plates for a lovely 1929 Austin Seven — Fully restored and signwritten original number plates ready for a lovely 1929 Austin Seven

Hand painted number plates fully restored and fitted back onto a lovely 1929 Austin Seven

Restored and signwritten plates on a lovely 1929 Austin 7 (rear view)

Signwriting Auxiliary Fire Service AFS Land-Rover

Signwriting by Arne Barker AFS Land Rover door signwritten — AFS Land Rover door signwritten

Signwriting by Arne Barker AFS Land Rover front wing — Auxiliary Fire Service AFS Land Rover front wing

Signwriting a Civil Defence Brockhouse trailer — Signwriting Civil Defence Brockhouse trailer Field Cable Party

Brockhouse trailer Unladen weights — Hand-painted Civil Defence Brockhouse trailer weights

Lovely restored Land Rover with hand painted front number plate — Hand painted number plate on Land-Rover Series One

Early Land Rover with hand painted rear number plate — Hand painted number plate on Land-Rover Series One

Wonderfully restored 1948 Land-Rover with hand-painted number plates — Hand painted number plate fitted to the rear of HUE 222 a very early, recognisable and wonderfully restored 80″ Land-Rover Series One

Signwriting by Arne Barker Land Rover number plate — Land-Rover with hand-painted front number-plate

Hand painted show plates — Period hand-painted show plates on rear of Land-Rover Series 1

Early Land Rover with hand painted number plate - Rear View — Hand painted number plate on Land-Rover Series One

Front view of early series land Rover with hand painted number plate — Hand painted number plate on Land-Rover Series One

Land Rover with hand painted number plate - Rear View — Hand painted number plate on Land-Rover Series One

Land Rover with hand painted number plate - Front View — Hand painted number plate on Land-Rover Series One

Hand painted show plate on Land-Rover Series One — Hand painted number plate on Land-Rover Series One

Hand painted number plate on Land-Rover Series One

Hand painted number plate on Land-Rover Series II

Hand painted number plate on Land-Rover Series 2

NYL 56 Attentive Black Labrador Gun Dog — NYL 561 Attentive Black Labrador Gun Dog

Signwritten number-plates ready for posting

Wonderfully restored early Land-Rover with hand-painted number plates

469 UXH visiting Levant Tin Mine 2022 — 469 UXH visiting Levant Tin Mine during Land-Rover Series One Club Rally 2022

JCJ show plate completed — Show plate completed

Signwriting by Arne Barker JCJ 618 with new show plates fitted front view — JCJ 618 with new show plates fitted front view

Signwriting by Arne Barker JCJ 618 with new show plates fitted rear view — JCJ 618 with new show plates fitted. Nice to ser her being used for logging duties

SJO signwritten plates — signwritten plates

Signwriting by Arne BarkerSJO Blue Land-Rover Series 1 80" with hand painted plates — SJO Blue Land-Rover Series 1 80″ with hand painted plates

Early Land-Rover with plenty of patina and hand painted plates

Blue Land-Rover Series 1 with hand painted plates

Red Land-Rover Series One with lights on

1949 early land rover in field with hand painted plates

Number-plates fitted to rear of early 80 inch Land-Rover — Show-plate fitted to rear of early 80 inch Land-Rover

Number-plate fitted to front of early 80 inch Land-Rover

From sign writing videos LUI 776 hand painted number plate fitted at the front of an early Land-Rover — LUI 776 hand-painted number-plate fitted at the front of an early “lights through the grill” Land-Rover

https://wwwFrom sign writing videos LUI 776 signwritten number plate fitted to the rear of early lights through the grill Land-Rover — Rear view

ERX and FMO Series one land-rovers — ERX and FMO front view

Signwritten number plate series one land-rover — Hand painted number-plate on lovely restored early Land-Rover

MFF 471 on 86 — MFF 471 on early Land-Rover

Old style number plates on Brockhouse trailer and Land-Rover — Old style number-plates on Brockhouse trailer and Land-Rover

New show plate fitted — New Show Plate Fitted

Hand painted show plates ready for customers — Hand-painted show plates ready for customers

Signwriting by Arne Barker Period hand painted number plates — 40’s & 50’s hand-painted period classic registration-plates

Signwriting by Arne Barker Period hand painted number plates on rear of Land Rover Series One — Period hand-painted number-plates on rear of Land Rover Series One

Hand painted front number plate — Early Land-Rover with hand-painted front number-plate

Signwritten number-plates and Towing sign

Signwriting by Arne Barker an early Land-Rover number show plate — Signwriting an early Land-Rover number-plate

Signwriting by Arne Barker Hand painted Spanish classic number plates — Hand-painted Spanish classic number-plates

Signwriting by Arne Barker Hand painted 80km speed limit sign — Hand painted 80km speed limit sign

Hand-painted Spanish trailer towing weights

Park refreshment kiosk information sign — John Coles Park Chippenham
Kiosk counter information sign

More information

In the UK, modern registration plates use the Charles Wright font, and each character should be 3⅛ inches high. While the older, now classic vehicles were 3½ inches high, considerably larger. Pre ~1960, whenever a Dealership sold a new vehicle, and a pair of hand-painted number plates were supplied; the choice of font or style was the preference of the local signwriter, so long as he followed the basic rules of size and spacing. etc. Unfortunately, no current font matches what was used in the 40 and 50’s. So Arne created his own derivative of the early font or style used by the famed “Ace” number-plate manufacturer from the 1950s. Each character is 3½ inches high by 2½ inches wide, with the correct spacing and borders. Motorcycles often use a scaled-down version, as their plates are normally smaller.

When studying the top serif of the number One (1) and the drop line of the letter G; research on these has shown that these details were either included (serif), or omitted (sans serif); this decision was down to the signwriter. Arne normally paints the serif on the number One (1 rather than l).

All plates are supplied as classic vehicle ‘Show Plates’.

Here is a link to a video of Arne working with his brushes.

Work in progress

Some of these images show the work-in-progress with the different letter/number layouts on the black plates, along with Arne’s painting process. Once completed, all lettering is protected with a coat of exterior grade varnish.