High-wheel bicycles, with their distinctive profile, are instantly recognizable today, even though they passed out of fashion more than a century ago. It was precisely this quality that made a Columbia high-wheeler with a rider the perfect symbol for Amédée Théophile Thibault’s bicycle, livery, carriage, and paint shop, in St. Alban’s, Vermont. Trade signs of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries relied on their visual impact to easily explain the nature of the business and to attract the eye, and Thibault’s bicycle sign, mounted with iron struts on the roof of his shop, could not be missed by travelers on Route 7 or the Central Vermont passenger trains. The figure was fashioned from five boards that were laminated then carved. The slender silhouette was calculated to withstand the high winds coming off Lake Champlain, and it remained in situ until 1920, when the building was renovated.

Thibault was originally from Quebec, but he settled in St. Albans with his wife, Emma. Devout Roman Catholics, they had seven daughters, all of whom became nuns in the Holy Name Society. Thibault was a jack-of-all-trades who had worked as a brick maker in Quebec and also demonstrated a talent for woodwork, carving crosses and pews for the Temperance Society of the Parish of Notre Dame de Stanbridge. In St. Albans, he did ironwork, repaired bicycles and carriages, executed gold leaf stenciling, and painted and lettered signs and carriages.

Stacy C. Hollander, "Bicycle, Livery, Carriage, and Paint Shop Trade Sign," in American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 358.
 

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