Signwriting and hand painted number plates by Arne Barker

If you appreciate classic Land-Rovers, then we have a feast for you. These Series One Landies date from 1949 through to 1958, plus some wonderfully restored very early motorcycles, Brockhouse trailers and a pair of recently restored original number plates for a 1929 Austin Seven 7 (see pictures).
More info here

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

Hand painted number plate on Land-Rover Series 2 — Hand painted number plate on Land-Rover Series II
Wonderfully restored by
Windsor Classics Ltd

Land-Rover Series 1 80″ with hand painted number plates

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

Signwritten number-plates ready for posting

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) — Restored and signwritten plates on a wonderful 1929 Austin 7 seen here in Northern Spain 2022

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

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.

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

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 1923 Raleigh motorcycle number plates — Raleigh motorcycle number plates

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

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

JCJ show plate completed — Show plate completed

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

SJO signwritten plates — signwritten plates

Signwriting by Arne Barker BRC 773 show plates on early Land-Rover — BRC show plates on early Land Rover

BRC 773 show plates — completed show plates

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

Red Land-Rover Series One with lights on

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

Blue Land-Rover Series 1 with hand painted plates

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

1949 early land rover in field with hand painted plates

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

Wonderful restoration with hand painted number plates — Wonderful Land-Rover Series One restoration with hand-painted number plates

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

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

Tray-back series one land rover — Early tray-back Land Rover with sign-written number-plate

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

Signwritten number plate series one land-rover — 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New show plate fitted — New Show Plate Fitted

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

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

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

More information

In the UK, modern registration plates use the Charles Wright font, and each character should be 3⅛ inch 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 there is no current font that matches what was used in the 40 and 50’s. So Arne created his own derivative of the early font or style that was used by the famed “Ace” number-plate manufacturer from the 1950’s. Each character is 3½ inches high by 2½ inches wide, with the correct spacing and borders.

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

Motorcycles use a scaled-down version as their plates are normally smaller.

Please note that all number-plates are supplied as classic vehicle ‘Show Plates’.

Here is a link to a video of Arne 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.