Antique Hand Painted Canvas Advertising Sign for a Butcher, "Porculatio"
Large, antique repaired canvas sign showing a vignette of a pig with the graphic overlay of the word "Porculatio" -- which is a Latin word meaning swine breeding (i.e. the raising of piglets, the rearing of pigs). The sign could have come from an Italian-American butcher shop somewhere in the Midwest (possibly Chicago) where pork production has been a strong industry for over one century. In old world Italy pigs were traditionally born in the spring, fattened up throughout the summer and fall and slaughtered by the time it got cold outside and reached a temperature that could naturally help preserve the meat (by December).
34 x 54 inches