Supertest sign comes out of the woods
Hammer price exceeds consignor’s expectations
Natalie Pinder, Customer Relations Specialist at Miller & Miller, is pictured above with the monumental 5-Foot Supertest Service Station Dealer Sign which sold for $23,600 (with buyer’s premium) in the December 7th auction of Petroliana, Soda & General Store Advertising.
An enormous five-foot-diameter Supertest sign that’s been hidden deep in the woods of Quebec’s Eastern Townships for 63 years blew past its high estimate of CA$12,000 and sold for the hammer price of CA$20,000 at Miller & Miller’s live online auction on Sunday Dec. 7th, 2025.
The ‘all-Canadian’ double-sided porcelain sign in great condition belonged to the Axtell family, who own a cabin and a small camp nestled in the woods alongside a lake two-and-a-half hours outside Montreal.
“You just don’t see them very often,” said Justin Miller, co-owner of Miller & Miller Auctions. “And this is one of the nicer ones we’ve handled. The porcelain is still glossy and has not gone chalky.”
Lot 649 - Supertest Service Station 5-Foot Dealer Sign
The sign was sold as lot 649 at Miller & Miller’s sale, Petroliana, Soda & General Store Advertising - Featuring the Bill & Carol Johnson Collection - Part II.
Tom Axtell, the owner/consignor, said the sign had been in his family for as long as he can remember, originally bought by his late mother, an artist from Manhattan who spent every summer during her youth at the rustic cabin, which had an icebox until 1942 and an outhouse until 1963. She was also a close friend of Mad Magazine’s art director and designer John Putnam. “She loved nature and must have recognized the graphic power of that maple leaf,” he said.
The sign leaned up against a tree in the woods for about 20 years, Tom estimated, before it was hung up on an outside wall of the cabin, facing north away from any direct sunlight, which helps to account for the excellent condition of the porcelain enamel.
The Axtell family hung the sign on an exterior wall of their cabin, positioning it on the north side which kept it out of direct sunlight and helped to preserve it.
The sign was made to advertise Supertest Petroleum, founded in 1923 by J. Gordon Thompson and James D. Good, with its first gas station opening in London, Ontario. The signs would hang outside Supertest stations, marketing its offerings as superior, high-quality products sold by “Canada’s All Canadian Company”. It first began using the maple leaf symbol around 1927, inspired by the growing national symbolism of the maple leaf in Canada. The company eventually operated more than 1,300 stations. In 1971, it was sold to BP (British Petroleum) Canada. The brand was later sold to the Government of Canada, which integrated it into Petro-Canada.
The photo above, showing another example of the same sign, was taken on June 14, 1938, in Ottawa, Ontario. It is a great example of how the sign would originally have been displayed.
Supertest's 'All-Canadian' identity wasn't just a slogan; it was a business strategy born from the trade wars of the 1920s, allowing the company to monetize the era's defensive nationalism against American competitors.
The metal, porcelain-coated sign itself was made for Supertest by a company called P&M (Porcelain & Metal), which up until 1946 was known as Vilas Enamel Products Ltd., a subsidiary of the original W.F. Vilas Co. Ltd., of Cowansville, Quebec (one of the oldest sign companies in Canada). P&M continued to manufacture porcelain enamel advertising signs, ashtrays, reflective traffic signs and door push bars and was once the largest supplier of custom outdoor advertising signs for many well-known national companies.
Tom likes to refer to the Supertest sign as “the porcelain flag”. “After researching it I now understand the importance of it culturally,” he said.
This fall while tidying up for the winter, he decided to research the sign on the internet and was shocked by its value. He came across several past Miller & Miller auctions where the same sign was sold and that was it. The time had come to sell. “It’s a windfall for us,” he said hopefully during the week leading up to the sale. And he was not disappointed.
Consignor Tom Axtell is shown above removing the sign from his family cabin in preparation for its transport to Miller & Miller Auctions.
Tom, with the sign safely secured to the car roof, en route to Miller & Miller.
While the Supertest name and sign may well be super Canadian, it still holds tremendous appeal for collectors south of the border.
“American collectors love our signs since the quality of the porcelain here is better than the [signs made by] American manufacturers, believe it or not,” explained Justin Miller. “It’s the dealer sign to have as far as a Canadian dealer sign goes.”
By Diane Sewell
Diane Sewell has been a writer for more than 25 years, producing feature stories for some of the country’s top newspapers and consumer magazines, as well as client newsletters and commissioned books.
SALE INFORMATION:
Petroliana, Soda & General Store Advertising
Featuring the Bill & Carol Johnson Collection - Part II
December 7, 2025. 9am EST
A Miller & Miller Online Webcast Auction
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