Knifemaker's Shop Sign
- Description
- Traditional American shop signs often incorporated objects made or sold by the shopkeepers, both to promote the wares and to help language-challenged customers understand what the shops offer. This 1920s free-standing, wood–framed oilcloth window sign from the knife shop of Russian–immigrants Joseph and David Miller in the Lower East Side of New York City uses four implements and a legend in Yiddish to advertise their commercial offerings.
- The sign reads "Here is Miller's / Miller's knives are the best and finest in the entire world. / They are guaranteed never to rust." The Miller shop at 25 Canal Street made ritual Jewish cutlery for the shochet (butcher) and for the mohel (circumcisionist), using extreme care in the hand fabrication of each instrument. The large rectangular knife (gasos halef) on the sign was used to slaughter cattle, the small rectangular knife (ofos halef) was for poultry; the curved implement is a circumcision clamp (mohel mashinke); and the double sided knife is a circumcision knife (mohel messer). In compliance with Jewish tradition, great emphasis is placed upon cleanliness, speed, efficiency, and the minimization of pain in the use of these instruments.
- This sign, together with knife catalogs and customer correspondence to the Millers from shochets, mohels, and rabbis from around the world, are 1992 gifts of Irene Galdston, daughter of Joseph Miller. The actual knifemaking tools used in the Miller shop are also in the Museum's collections.
- Object Name
- sign
- shop owner
- Miller, David
- Miller, Joseph
- Physical Description
- wood (overall material)
- metal (overall material)
- cloth (overall material)
- paint (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 49 cm x 64 cm x 9 cm; 19 5/16 in x 25 3/16 in x 3 9/16 in
- ID Number
- 1992.0391.01
- accession number
- 1992.0391
- catalog number
- 1992.0391.01
- subject
- Advertising
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Occupations
- Exhibition
- Artifact Walls
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- Additional Media
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