Heavy Red Crown Gasoline 42" Porcelain sign!

I dredged up some history while on vacation this past week. I know porcelain gasoline signs are valuable to collectors. So when I saw this beat up old sign, I had to make an offer. Time will tell if I can find the right buyer, but until then it looks mighty nice in my basement!

Turns out Red Crown Gasoline was a major part of oil history. If I understand correctly, Red Crown is the parent company to Exxon, Connoco, Mobil and Standard. Below is an excerpt from Petroleum Collectibles Monthly. (By Wayne Henderson - PCM June 2001 Issue)

"Prior to the breakup of Standard Oil in 1911, all of the various Standard divisions then in existence sold gasoline under the brandname Red Crown. At that time was only one of numerous picturesque trademarks then in use by the company. In fact, most consumer trademarks from that era were graphically intricate. Some that come to mind are the various tobacco trademarks with oriental or Indian themes, the Morton Salt girl, the Bon Ami chick, and many others. In reality what does a crown, defined as headgear that is used by and symbolizes royalty, have to do with gasoline? With no relationship whatsoever to the product, it was simply one of the many image-trademarks of the era. That usage would be simple enough had Standard remained intact. That was not to be, for in 1911 the Supreme Court declared that Standard would be broken into 33 component companies. A number of them, alone or in combination, leading eventually to nine major brands, would eventually market gasoline. The breakup of Standard would thus coincide with the development of the retail gasoline station and the related marketing efforts that would introduce gasoline brands to worldwide motorists. At first, virtually all of the marketing divisions continued use of the brandname Red Crown gasoline. Since the marketing did not overlap, this proved to be no problem in identification to motorists of the era. Within a year or two, however, Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, Atlantic Refining Company, Continental Oil, and Standard Oil Company of New York would move on to adopt their own trademarks and images, Jersey (Exxon) with their Standard Motor Gasoline, Atlantic with their Atlantic Polarine Gasoline, Continental with their Conoco Gasoline and New York (Mobil) with Socony Gasoline. Atlantics Polarine was quickly changed to simply Atlantic Gasoline since Polarine was another of the shared Standard trademarks, used by the other divisions for their motor oils.
Other Standard siblings, Standard Oil Company of Ohio, of California, of Indiana, and of Kentucky, and their subsidiary companies, opted to retain the historic image displaying a red crown to identify their gasoline. From the 1911 breakup, the red crown image would continue to be used for gasoline identification for over 50 more years."