Times Sq. Neon signs up for auction

Pieces of New York history are to be auctioned off by Artkraft Strauss, the company which built iconic advertising boards for Times Square for several decades.

The objects in this collection evoke a brief moment, barely a century long, when Times Square, the “Crossroads of the World,” was defined by neon, that glorious and now almost extinct medium that for many years was the supersign’s soul.

Neon spectaculars, examples of which you will find in this auction, represent a golden age of handmade industrial artistry, lost now to digitalization and prefab vinyl displays, but of ever-growing interest, due not only to their rarity, but to their intrinsic character and beauty.

Neon’s mysterious power lies in its vibrating molecules of rare gases: non-physical, neon possesses hologram-like quality; each fragment of a neon sign seems to contain the image or spirit of the whole.

For many years, spectaculars delineated New York’s visual life, exhorting people to buy things and also telling them about themselves as Americans in a triumphal age. The signs work as both art and communication because they make an immediate real-time connection that is profound, intimate and exciting.

The company that made them, Artkraft Strauss, created nearly all of Times Square’s spectacular signs throughout the twentieth century.

Starting in 1897 as Strauss Signs, a small, gaslight-era sign-painting and gold-leafing shop, the company was developed by my grandfather Jacob Starr, a metalworker, electrician and inventor who among other things constructed the first New Year’s Eve ball in 1907. The company’s success over the years is due to its ability to capture the public eye in a unique and unforgettable way.

The sale will be held at Freeman's auctioneers on May 18th