IN ITS glory days as the “crossroads of the world”, Times Square was a mind-boggling blaze of neon signs. But now many of those advertising icons are to be auctioned off by a once-celebrated ad- maker that finds itself overtaken by digital displays.

Artkraft Strauss built most of the giant sparkling signs — known as “spectaculars” — that illuminated the famous intersection of Broadway and 42nd Street for much of the 20th century.

The family-owned company made the six-storey Coca-Cola bottle, set amid a mile of neon, that tipped its cap as it emptied and filled 1,000 times a day. It was also responsible for the Camel cigarette sign that puffed real smoke rings every four seconds from 1941 to 1966 — once considered the most famous advert in the world.

But the company has shrunk from more than a hundred workers to only six as high-tech video screens have come to dominate Times Square, covering new buildings such as the Nasdaq stock exchange and the Lehman Brothers headquarters like skin.

On Thursday, Artkraft Strauss will sell off 73 lots at Freeman’s auction house in Philadelphia, ranging from a small neon profile of Bob Hope, the comedian, valued at $1,500-$2,500 (£800-£1,300), to a giant flashing pink “S” that once marked the entrance to the subway at Times Square, estimated at $1,000- $2,000.

Many of the signs themselves were so large that they had to be dismantled when they were finally removed. But a 1940 drawing for the Camel sign is up for sale, valued at $1,000-$2,000, as is a 55in (140cm) model of the Coke bottle, estimated at $10,000-$20,000.

Collectors with enough room at home can also snap up the marquee sign from the original Broadway run of The Sound of Music, written in 14in letters, for an estimated $5,000-$10,000, or the 8ft-high “T” from a 1980s Suntory whisky advert atop No 2 Times Square, valued at $8,000-$12,000.

James Traub, the author of The Devil’s Playground: A Century of Pleasure and Profit in Times Square, said that the technology for the giant electric signs emerged at about the time that Times Square got its name from the nearby New York Times building in 1904.

“Times Square became the place where this new art form is brought to a glorious, giddying perfection,” he said. “From that time, around 1900, through the 1950s, Times Square is the focus of this dazzling electric form.”

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