Standard Oil Memorabilia Collector Guide

Standard Oil, briefly

Standard Oil began in Cleveland. BP, which later acquired the original Ohio company, quotes an Ohio newspaper from 1870: “January 10 marked the incorporation of the Standard Oil Company in Cleveland.” The federal government’s later antitrust suit alleged that the combination began in or about 1870 with John D. Rockefeller, William Rockefeller and Henry M. Flagler.

A trust agreement made in January 1882 placed the stock of forty corporations with trustees, and from 1899 the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey held the combined stocks. On May 15, 1911, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the combination was an unreasonable restraint of trade in petroleum and upheld the lower court’s decree dissolving it. The New Jersey company had to return the stock of 37 subsidiary companies to their shareholders, and the Court allowed at least six months for the dissolution.

After 1911 the former subsidiaries operated separately, and several kept the Standard name. Exxon’s history notes that Jersey Standard sold as Esso in many states but used the Enco and Humble names where the other Standard Oil companies objected. Check the full company name and product brand to work out which Standard issued a piece.

The brands that descend from Standard Oil

Pieces issued after 1911 carry a successor’s name. The main lines, with dates that help place an item:

• Standard Oil of New Jersey (Jersey Standard): marketed as Esso, the phonetic form of the initials S and O, in many states and became Exxon Corporation in 1972
• Standard Oil of New York: became Mobil. Mobil Oil Corporation, formerly Socony-Vacuum Oil, joined Exxon in 1999 to form ExxonMobil
• Standard Oil Company (California), or Socal: began in San Francisco as Pacific Coast Oil Co., which Standard Oil acquired in 1900. Socal sold Red Crown gasoline, introduced its chevron-shaped hallmark in 1931 and winged-V Chevron signs in 1945, and became Chevron Corporation in 1984
• Standard Oil of Indiana: formed in 1889 around a refinery outside Whiting, Indiana, it became Amoco and merged with BP in 1998. BP says U.S. Amoco stations were rebranded BP at the start of the new millennium and that the Amoco brand returned in 2017
• Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio): the original 1870 company, left after 1911 as a regional business with one Cleveland refinery. By the 1930s it had adopted the Sohio trade name and red, white and blue livery, and BP acquired it outright in 1987

Why petroliana draws so many collectors

Petroliana covers gas stations and oil companies: signs, pumps, globes, oil cans, maps and station giveaways. In a 2008 Collectors Weekly interview, collector Jim Potts traced the first collectors to people who kept items from a family station. He dated a growth spurt to roughly 20 years before the interview, when stations replaced old porcelain signs with internally lit plastic ones.

He also described many buyers on the edge of the hobby, such as car enthusiasts who want one sign for the garage. Some collectors follow a single brand; others collect one type of object.

What Standard Oil collectors find

The main categories collectors look for:

• Porcelain signs: Potts named signs, especially old porcelain station signs, as one of the most popular things in the hobby, including smaller signs for oil, tires and spark plugs. Match the logo to its period
• Gas pump globes: a lit globe let motorists spot the brand at poorly lit stations after dark. A handful of manufacturers made them in different body and frame styles, smaller post-war pumps dropped them, and by the 1960s a globe was unusual. Check that the lens, body and frame belong together
• Oil cans: round all-metal cans and the older square or rectangular ones are sought after. Around 1960 makers moved to composite cans with paperboard sides, and Potts said the all-metal cans, which carry a lot of the best graphics, are the most collectible
• Road maps: oil companies issued new maps yearly with changing cover graphics and company information, so a run of maps from one company documents its history
• Promotional giveaways: ice scrapers printed with the brand and often the local dealer’s name, and plastic “lollipop” thermometers shaped like the station signpost. Potts said the thermometers were giveaways in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, and both are now sought after

Reproduction porcelain signs

Potts warned that it is easy to overpay, especially for a reproduction, and that a small minority of sellers will sell something new as old. Blaine Martin’s EarlyCoke guide reports that new porcelain signs made in India, and in some cases China or Australia, are often made to deceive, and that most are “fantasy” signs whose design never existed as an original. A design you cannot match to a documented original needs extra scrutiny.

Martin wrote his checklist for Coca-Cola signs, but it describes how porcelain enamel signs were made and how they age, so it applies to oil-company signs too:

• Shelving: each color overlapped the last slightly, leaving a raised buildup you can see at an angle or feel with a fingertip. Newer signs do not always have it
• Rust: older signs that hung outside develop dark brown or black rust, while orange, powdery rust in chipped areas is common on new signs
• Chips: genuine chips expose the enamel layers and sit around mounting holes or in small, random spots along the edges. A continuous pattern of edge chipping is a warning sign
• Mounting holes and grommets: compare hole positions with a known original, distrust a sign with no holes, and expect grommets to look old unless the sign was never used
• Lettering and marks: watch for computer-style fonts, crude lettering or a trademark designation wrong for the period. Some fakes add a maker’s name, and an old date does not prove an old sign
• The back: rail or tracking marks from modern production often point to a reproduction, though some signs made after 1950 have them too

Provenance and condition

A photograph of the sign in place or a sale record is useful provenance; an unsupported story is not. Ask for clear photographs of the front, back, edges and mounting holes, and favor sellers who guarantee authenticity and accept returns.

For condition, note chips in the field as well as at the edges, fading, rust-through and missing parts. Potts noted that many pumps served more than one brand over their working lives, so another company’s paint under the finish can be part of the history.

Where to find Standard Oil items now

Standard Oil items are bought on the secondary market. The Standard Oil company page on I ♥ Capitalism collects live resale listings for Standard Oil and related names such as Esso, Sohio and Socony, and links each item to the marketplace selling it. Check each seller’s photographs and return policy before buying.