Vintage Worms For Sale Hand Painted Barnwood Garden Sign, c. 1975–2000
Viridian Eclection
The Piece A hand lettered garden sign built from five weathered softwood boards laid up as a panel, each board cut to a point at both ends so the edges of the sign run as a row of pickets. Across t...
The Piece
A hand lettered garden sign built from five weathered softwood boards laid up as a panel, each board cut to a point at both ends so the edges of the sign run as a row of pickets.
Across the face, in a shaded grey serif drawn freehand, is WORMS FOR SALE with PICK YOUR OWN on the line below it. The ground is a pale buttermilk yellow, thin over the wood and worn back in places to bare silvered grain, and small sprigs of green leaf and grass are painted into the four corners and the lower edge as a border.
The boards themselves are old. The grain is tight and vertical, the faces are silvered and raised where the soft summer wood has weathered out from the hard, and one board carries a sound knot that the lettering was simply drawn around.
Two small screw eyes are set into the lower edge, each holding a loop of twisted dark wire, and from those hang the two pieces that make this more than a sign: a small galvanized watering can with a soldered seam, a brace handle and a rose ended spout, and a shallow red painted tin bowl decorated with a garland of green leaves and pink and cream blossom, slung on a wire hanger coiled into open spirals.
History & Provenance
This is a decorative piece built from salvaged material, and the two parts of it have different ages. That is worth saying plainly at the start rather than letting the boards speak for the whole thing.
The wood is genuinely old. Tight vertical grain in a softwood, a silvered surface, and the raised grain that comes only from long outdoor weathering are all real and none of them can be faked convincingly at this scale. Boards of that character came off a fence, a shed or a barn.
The painting is younger than the boards. The lettering is a decorative hand, evenly spaced and shaded, with painted leaf sprigs set into the corners as a border. A working bait seller's sign is not laid out that way. It is the vocabulary of the country and primitive decorating style that ran strongly through the last quarter of the twentieth century, when signs of exactly this kind were made in quantity from reclaimed lumber for the pleasure of the look. The paint has since taken its own weathering, so it is not new either.
The two hanging pieces belong with that reading. Both are small craft ornaments, the watering can a light gauge galvanized miniature with a soldered seam and a wire brace, the red bowl a tin form painted with a tole style floral garland, hung on hand coiled wire. Neither is a period utility object.
No signature, stencil, stamp or date is present anywhere on the piece. That absence gives an outer limit and not a starting point, and the range below is set from the construction and the decorative idiom rather than from any record.
Product Details
| Era | c. 1975–2000 for the sign as made, on boards considerably older than the painting. Dated from construction and idiom: the laid out and shaded freehand lettering with painted corner sprigs is the country and primitive decorating vocabulary of the last quarter of the twentieth century rather than the hand of a working trade sign, and the hanging ornaments are craft production of the same period. The salvaged boards themselves are old weathered softwood and predate the painting by an unknown margin. No signature, stamp or date is present, and that absence gives an outer limit only |
| Maker | Unattributed. No signature found |
| Form | Hanging panel sign of five picket cut boards, with two ornaments suspended from screw eyes on twisted wire at the lower edge |
| Materials | Weathered softwood, paint, iron screw eyes and wire. Galvanized tin watering can. Painted tin bowl |
| Lettering | WORMS FOR SALE over PICK YOUR OWN, drawn freehand in shaded grey on a buttermilk ground, with painted green leaf and grass sprigs at the corners and lower edge |
| Hanging ornaments | Galvanized miniature watering can with soldered seam, brace handle and rose ended spout. Shallow red painted tin bowl with a garland of green leaves and pink and cream blossom, on coiled wire |
| Marks | None |
| Dimensions | Sign approximately 22 in. wide by 11 in. high. Overall drop with the ornaments approximately 18 in. |
| Condition | Very good decorative condition. Boards sound and held true with no loose members, splits through, or rot found. Paint worn back to bare wood at the high grain and along the lower edge, stable with no flaking. Screw eyes tight and the wire hangers sound. Watering can and bowl both present, attached and undamaged, with light surface oxidation to the galvanized can and minor paint loss to the bowl rim. Ready to hang |
Why It Belongs in Your Home
The line is the whole thing. WORMS FOR SALE, PICK YOUR OWN gets a reaction from everyone who reads it, and a decorative object that makes a person smile in a shop is an object that leaves the shop.
It hangs anywhere a wall needs breaking up without needing a frame or a nail pattern: a mudroom, a potting shed, a garden room, a porch, the back of a kitchen door, a bar. The picket cut edges and the silvered wood do the work that a frame would otherwise have to.
The two dangling pieces are what lift it from a sign to a composition. They move a little, they catch light, and they give the eye somewhere to go below the lettering. Small galvanized and painted tin against grey weathered board is a combination that reads as country without tipping into sentiment.
Every piece is packed with professional-grade materials: multiple foam layers, double-boxing, directional and fragile handling labels. For large furniture we use custom timber crating. We photograph packing before dispatch and can provide images on request.
White-glove delivery is complimentary within 100 miles of Reno, NV. National shipping quotes provided at checkout. All shipments are photographed and documented. Damage claims must be filed with the carrier; we provide all documentation needed to support your claim.
Local pickup is available at Viridian HQ (Reno, NV) with 2–4 days notice. Contact us to arrange. Private viewings also available.
All antique and vintage items are sold as described and all sales are final. Each listing includes detailed condition notes and photographs so you can make a fully informed decision. We encourage buyers to ask questions — about condition, dimensions, finish, provenance — before purchasing.
Antiques are irreplaceable and one-of-a-kind. Carrier handling is outside our control once a piece has left our facility, and major carriers including FedEx do not insure antiques. We do everything within our power to ensure safe transit, but cannot accept liability for carrier damage. If damage occurs in transit, we will provide full documentation to support your carrier claim.
Have a question? — we're happy to provide additional photos, condition detail, or discuss the piece directly.
