Old Sign Sees Light of Day

Location: St. Louis Avenue and Garrison, North St. Louis.

As so often happens, this wall sign for Dau Furniture was suddenly exposed a couple years ago, circa 2009, after an adjoining building was razed.  The west-facing sign on the side of what is now a hair salon is quite lengthy in copy and likely dates to the 1950s.  The first four lines reads:  “What Dau Promises / Dau Always Does / With A Promise of Satisfaction / Which Will Always Be Kept.” This is followed by a proclamation sure to please any thrift-conscious housewife of the period, namely that “We Give And Redeem / Eagle Stamps.” Note the tiny chair highlighted in the middle of the ad, a rather curious image to showcase their product line—almost as if they are saying “Doll Furniture.” Nevertheless, Dau Furniture still operates today, with stores in Grover, Ballwin and Wildwood, Missouri.  This is not the case for Eagle Stamps, which got their start in May Company department stores at the end of the 19th century. The trading stamps were given out with purchases and pasted into booklets which could be redeemed for merchandise. The Famous-Barr chain in St. Louis issued them for decades until the early 1980s, when they were canceled.