When espresso machines first hissed their way into Australian milk bars in the 1950s, every second cafe wanted the street to know, and a signwriter would be sent for. This is one of those boards, near two metres of hand-lettered timber, a yellow banner over cream, DELICIOUS ESPRESSO COFFEE in red with the older courtesies, choice and fragrant, served here, in blue. No brand made it; a shop commissioned it to announce that it, too, now had the machine.

It wears its age honestly, the whole face crazed the way old enamel does, the blue lettering on the left flaked back in patches, and some old loss along the bottom edge that we have reglued, consolidated and waxed. It now carries hanging hardware on the back, ready to go straight up on a wall. We could not tie it to a particular cafe, which is the way of a good anonymous trade sign, but it is exactly the hand-painted graphic of the espresso boom that a modern print can only imitate.