Signs, using either words or visuals, are emblems for traditional Chinese shops and trades. Signs were made of inscribed boards, couplets, plates or posts written with the names of the shops. Over the 1.000 years between the 10^th and the early 20^th centuries, numerous signs of remarkable display, from all trades, dotted the streets of towns across China, just like pieces of folk handcraft. Year in and year out, the old signs made way for the new, and the new for the still newer, in endless succession, forming a constantly changing picturesque scroll of folklore.