Traditional signwriting by Arne Barker

Here are some examples of traditional signwriting by Arne Barker. No artistic flair being used here, just a technical representation of each hand-painted signwritten character. The old style classic number plates shown here are supplied as “Show Plates”. Click on any image for a slide show. There is additional information at the foot of the page.

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

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

New-Map 1935 motorcycle with period number-plate — New-Map 1935 motorcycle with hand painted period number-plate

Early Land Rover with hand-painted number-plate — Early tray back Land Rover with hand-painted number-plate

Early tray-back Land Rover with sign-written number-plate

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

LUI 776 signwritten number plate fitted to the rear of early lights through the grill Land-Rover — LUI 776 signwritten number-plate fitted to the rear of early “lights through the grill” Land-Rover

Signwritten number plates ready for posting — Signwritten number-plates ready for posting

Red early Land Rover with hand painted number plates — Red early Land-Rover with hand-painted number-plates

CCF 288 Classic vehicle number plates — CCF 288 Classic vehicle number-plates

Hand-painted number-plate on lovely restored early Land-Rover

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

1940's 50's hand painted number plates — 40’s & 50’s hand-painted period number-plates

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

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

New show plate fitted — New Show Plate Fitted

Signwritten number-plates and Towing sign

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

Hand-painted Spanish trailer towing weights

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

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

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

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

Signwriting Civil Defence Brockhouse trailer Field Cable Party

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

Signwriting Auxiliary Fire Service AFS Land-Rover

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

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

Land-Rover number plat — Land-Rover number-plate

Land-Rover hand painted number plate — Land-Rover hand-painted number-plates

Land-Rover early number plate — Land-Rover early number-plate

Brockhouse trailer hand painted number plate — Brockhouse trailer hand-painted number-plate

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

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

Number plate on lovely patina Land-Rover — Number-plate on lovely patina Land-Rover

Modern registration plates use the Charles Wright font, this is compulsory on modern yellow and white reflective plates, and use 3⅛ inch letters. This size is not right for older vehicles which should be made with letters and numbers each 3½ inches high.

For hand-painted number-plates there were probably as many fonts or styles used for letters as there were manufacturers of plates, it was all down to the preference of the local signwriter that the motor dealer used when they first sold and prepared the vehicle for the first customer.

Here we have used a derivative of the early font or style used by the famed “Ace” number-plate manufacturer in the 1950’s. Each character is 3½ inches high by 2½ inches wide with the correct spacing and borders.

Note the serif on the 1 and the drop line on the G, research on this shows these details are sometimes included or excluded (sans serif).

Small note, the nice cast letter reproduction ACE plates available today are sans serif on the 1 and no drop line on the G.

Some of these photographs show the work-in-progress, letter and number layout on the black background and the painting process. Three coats of enamel are applied. Once complete, each character is varnished with signwriting exterior grade varnish to protect the work.