Michelin and their Bibendum character are iconic in the automotive world and during the mid-20th century they adopted this shield shape into their enamel advertising and used this blue background to advertise their car tyres, a yellow for tractor tyres and a red for bicycle tyres. 

 

This particular example is dated to the 1950s and is particularly well preserved and rather unusually is double-sided, giving the option of hanging it from the rafters of a garage or similar with both sides on show or just mounting it on the wall in the standard way. One side is excellent; nigh-on perfect except for a couple of minor patches of yellowing to the white enamel border, the other side has one patch of enamel loss to the middle of the Bibendum (Michelin man) character and some minor flecking to the lower right which is quite possibly a manufacturing defect. Both sides have some very, very minor surface scratches (which I cannot manage to get the camera to pick up) and after 50+ years in the world, I’d say it’s survived rather well…

 

The sign measures 80cm high x 68cm wide