Rawson and Evans advertised in some of the trade magazines, created sales photo portfolios, and also generated at least one sales catalog during their time. With close to a full century passing since then, much of the literature has vanished or has been tossed. Original Rawson and Evans glass pieces are also very collectible and as you can see in the photo below, some were quite large.

Certainly, it has taken the assistance of quite a few friends and associates to compile enough source art to begin this project. Thanks to all of them! We could not have produced this CD without the assistance of Rick Glawson at Esoteric Sign Supply and Todd Swormstedt at The National Signs of the Times Museum. Based on some of the articles from old “Signs of the Times” magazines, George Bayless is credited for creating many of the original designs for the glass work. He was a master of ornamentation and filling open spaces.

Despite the fact we did manage to uncover quite a bit of source art, the quality of that source material was far from perfect. Several issues come into play. First, most of the pieces were produced in reverse glass and then silvered—usually with glue-chipped backgrounds. At best, the edges appeared very rough in the photos. Judge for yourself in the left side of the photo above. Second, because of the silvering, many photographs were taken slightly off center to keep the reflection of the camera out of the picture. Third, the photos were small and the resulting ornamentation was very small. Lastly, most of the actual photos and photocopies of the original artwork were in very poor shape.

As you can guess, there is a lot of “interpretation” on our part with these images and panels. In many cases, we had to just make what we thought was supposed to be there. You will also see various panels and shapes created with elements from other panels and shapes of our own design. We also chose not to digitize some of the original Rawson & Evans peices. We did pick the ones we liked and ones that maintained a fairly consistent look and feel. So, much of what you see in this CD will now become part of the current day historical archives. Rawson and Evans, George Bayless, and Golden Era Studios should be in good hands for years to come!

Sincerely,

Mike Jackson

Golden Era Studios, Jackson Hole, WY