On these pages you'll find several articles with the theme: “Prewar cars are still everywhere around us!” But I never expected to find this one. I was born in The Hague, The Netherlands and spent my whole childhood there. So you can imagine my surprise when on a visit I suddenly spotted this early hand-painted sign on a blank wall. As a young boy I must have walked by this sign many times without seeing it. It’s an advertisement for a garage that rented in-door parking space. The first advertising murals appeared around 1900 and were in use until the early forties. Too bad many of these murals have been destroyed, but fortunately there are people who take pity on them and try to restore them in their former glory.

photos Rutger Booy

January 2, 2006