The coffin shaped hand-painted mortician premises sign of good size, reading “P. W. Maller Mortician, Coffins Made to Order, Finest Canadian Pine, Special Rates” in gold paint to a black ground and surviving from the third quarter of the twentieth century.
Unknown.
For as long as human beings have cared for their dead, there have been funeral directors. The ancient Egyptians were possibly the first society to support full-time funeral directors with specialist priests spending up to 70 days preparing deceased royalty and nobility for the afterlife.
The name change from undertakers to morticians was first proposed in 1895 in The Embalmers’ Monthly, a funeral business trade magazine. It sounded more user-friendly and it distanced itself from the business at hand, which was death.
Darkly humorous, beautifully decorative, fabulously unique.
There is chipping and wear to the paintwork, which gives the sign a decorative appeal with no cracks or losses.
