author
Jacob Larwood
1827–1918
A Dutch writer with a gift for curious corners of everyday history, he turned subjects like signboards, London parks, and legal anecdotes into lively nonfiction. Writing under the name Jacob Larwood, he mixed careful research with a taste for the unusual.
1 Audiobook
The History of Signboards, from the Earliest times to the Present Day
by Jacob Larwood, John Camden Hotten
About the author
Born Herman Diederik Johan van Schevichaven in the Netherlands in 1826, he wrote under the pen name Jacob Larwood and is generally remembered as a Dutch non-fiction author. He also appears in historical records as an archivist and as an artist, which helps explain the range of his interests and the documentary feel of his books.
His best-known works include The History of Signboards, The Story of the London Parks, and Humour of the Law. These books show a fondness for overlooked details, urban life, and odd bits of social history, making them appealing to readers who enjoy Victorian-era curiosity and factual storytelling.
Although the dates sometimes vary slightly between catalogs, sources consistently place his life in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with his death in 1918. Today, his writing survives mainly through public-domain editions and library collections, where it still offers a vivid glimpse of the quirky subjects that fascinated readers of his time.