Lions & Eagles & Bulls: Early American Tavern & Inn Signs

From The Connecticut Historical Society, edited by Susan P. Schoelwer, 279 pages, hard- and softcover, 2000. Price: $49.50, hardcover; $29.50, softcover. Published by The Connecticut Historical Society in association with Princeton University Press, Hartford, CT. Available from The Connecticut Historical Society at (860) 236-5621, ext. 246 or by visiting www.amazon.com

Handsomely illustrated with over eighty color plates, this catalogue--published in collaboration with a major traveling exhibition --features works from the Connecticut Historical Society, which houses the nation's preeminent collection of early American painted signs. Eight essays, written by prominent scholars of American art and cultural history, explore the medium and discuss why these signs are much more than picturesque relics of bygone times. The volume also features a detailed catalogue of the sign paintings in the exhibition and brief biographies of those signpainters that have been documented in Connecticut.