Chapter XVII: The Horse-Shoe as a Symbol on Tavern Sign-Boards

The horse-shoe, associated usually with some other symbol, is not infrequently seen displayed on the signs of British taverns. There is a well-known hostelry bearing this sign and name on Tottenham Court Road in London. To quote from “The History of Signboards,” by Jacob Larwood and John Camden Hotten:—

_The Three Horse-shoes_ are not uncommon, and the single shoe
may be met with in many combinations, arising from the old
belief in its lucky influences. Thus the _Horse and Horse-Shoe_
was the sign of William Warden at Dover, as appears from his
token. The _Sun and Horse-Shoe_ is still a public-house sign
in Great Tichfield Street, and the _Magpie and Horse-Shoe_ may
be seen carved in Fetter Lane; the magpie is perched within
the horse-shoe, a bunch of grapes being suspended from it. The
_Horns and Horse-shoe_ is represented on the token of William
Grainge, in Gutter Lane, 1666, a horse-shoe within a pair of
antlers. The _Hoop and Horse-shoe_ on Tower Hill was formerly
called the _Horse-shoe_.

Miller Christy, in his book “The Trade Signs of Essex,” says that horse-shoe signs probably owe their origin partly to the fact that this symbol appears on the arms of the Farriers’ Company, and partly to the old practice of fastening a horse-shoe upon the stable-door or elsewhere as a witch-scarer. In the county of Essex the horse-shoe may be seen upon the signs of beer-houses at Great Parndon, Braintree, Waltham Abbey, and High Ongar.

There was formerly more than one noted inn in London known as the Half-Moon, and a street of that name, leading from Piccadilly, is well known. The name and symbol of the _full_ moon, however, seldom appear on sign-boards. Butler asks in “Hudibras:”—

Tell me, but what’s the nat’ral cause,
Why on a sign no painter draws
The full moon, but the half?

The reason is doubtless because of the favorable auspices associated from time immemorial with the crescent moon.

One need hardly accept as plausible the explanation sometimes offered, namely, that the half-moon tavern symbol is a silent invitation to eat and drink to one’s full capacity; a hint, as it were, to follow the crescent moon’s example and “get full.”