Let’s Have a Cold One

QUESTION: Ever since college, I’ve been a great lover of an ice cold beer. And today, with all the microbrews out there, I’ve become quite the beer afficionado. Along with enjoying a variety of beers—I even have a special refrigerator in my garage to keep my collection of microbrews cold—I’d also like to start collecting brewery memorabilia in earnest. I have a few items—coasters, bottle openers, and a variety of cans from various breweries. Can you help me get some direction to my collecting? There are so many items that I’m not sure where to start.

ANSWER: It’s appropriate that you’ve contacted me this week since the Fourth of July is probably the leading holiday at which people celebrate with cookouts and coolers of icy cold beer.

Beer has been a part of American culture since the first Virginia colonists began brewing ale from corn in 1587. Adrian Block & Hans Christiansen's brewhouse at the southern tip of New Amsterdam, now Manhattan, was the first brewery established in the New World. Ever since then breweries have opened all over America.



Michael Combrune published The Theory and Practice of Brewing in 1762. This was the first attempt to establish rules and principles for the art of brewing. In 1808, members of the Congregational Church in Moreau, New York, formed a temperance society. From that point forward, a major struggle between beer drinkers and those who disapproved began, culminating in Prohibition. Until the rise of these societies all over the country, the only competition breweries had was from whiskey manufacturers.

During Prohibition, breweries produced "near beer," a nonalcoholic beer, which people  greeted with a lukewarm reception at best. The breweries also made "health tonics," ice cream and many other products to keep themselves afloat during this time.

In 1935, the G. Kreuger Brewing Company of Newark, New Jersey, became the first brewery to sell beer in steel cans. That year, only about 25 percent of all beer sold was packaged in bottles and cans. Breweries sold the rest in kegs.

The breweries have always had competition, from other alcoholic producers as well as other breweries.  To beat the competition, they used strong print and media advertising campaigns, elaborate visuals, and colorful giveaways. They used everything from foam scrapers, brightly colored cans, distinctive bottle labels, neon signs, tip trays, cups, hats, shirts, serving trays and countless other items in an attempt to make the consumer remember one brand over another.



Today, the market for vintage brewery collectibles is hot. But there are so many different items that beginning collectors have a very good chance of finding ones to fit their tighter budgets.

First, a beginning collector should buy what he or she likes and can afford. Prices for these collectibles are all over the map, so focusing a collection is important from the start. To begin, a novice collector might build on what he or she already has or perhaps start in a new direction of interest. That can include beer bottles or cans, unique advertising signs, and even beer coasters from around the world. Often, these can be had for the cost of a cold beer.

Beginners should select a collecting theme early or risk accumulating too much material to handle. It's easy to start small, with something inexpensive like coasters, as long as the beginner always buys items in the best condition. Beginning collectors of brewery collectibles usually start with signs, trays and cans produced after Prohibition. Advance collectors collect the pre-Prohibition era material and usually zero in on the geographic area in which they live or grew up.




So what determines pricing for brewery collectibles? As with other antiques and collectibles, it’s condition, condition, condition," since most brewery collectibles have been used. Pristine examples can command high prices, and they can be difficult to find. While rarity is important, for collectibles where multiple examples exist, condition rules.



One of the priciest examples is the Clipper beer can, which sold on eBay for more than $19,000. Lithographic factory signs have sold for $7,500 to $15,000, die cuts for $1,000 to $2,500, tin lithographic serving trays for $250 to $1.000 and tip trays for $250. While these are the priciest items, there are lots of others selling for much less.. Signs with reverse painting on glass and calendars are especially prized by collectors.

The variety of brewery collectibles is astounding, so much so that they offer lots of possibilities for collectors at all levels. The bottles and cans produced today may someday be worth more than the contents they hold as will signs, lights, mirrors, tap handles, and labels.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 18,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about western antiques in the special 2019 Spring Edition, "Down to the Sea in Ships," online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques & More Collection on Facebook.   

Less Work for Mother

QUESTION: I recently purchased a box lot of old kitchen gadgets at an estate sale. Some I recognize and others I don’t. What types of gadgets did women use in the kitchen? Are some of these worth anything?

ANSWER: Kitchen gadgets are a popular collectible. And what’s interesting about them is that most are still usable in today’s kitchen. Even with all the electric and electronic devices available to today’s cooks, there are just some things that need to be done by hand, preferably with some sort of gadget. The proliferation of gadgets advertised on T.V. attests to this, even now.

Once upon a time the kitchen was a place where every member of the family gathered informally to take in the daily chores: cooking, weaving, butter making, canning, potato peeling, herb drying, baking, and dish washing. It was always a place of wonderful smells, textures, and colors. For many decades kitchen gadgets could be found to make work easier, to fill a drawer, sit on a shelf or counter top.

The Victorian Age ushered in many useful kitchen gadgets. But during the 1920's through the 1940's, large and small companies manufactured literally hundreds of these gadgets, trying to help make kitchen work easier.

Remember Grandma's cookies? Does your box contain any? Collectors seek them out today. There are all sorts of shapes, sizes, and styles. Some had plain wooden handles, others were painted red or green. Plus, every housewife had a biscuit or doughnut cutter. There were even revolving cookie cutters with green wooden handles.

What could be better than homemade pie with homemade crust? Pie crimpers are collectibles now. Most pie crimpers had wooden handles and resembled small versions of today's pizza cutters. Of course, there are many other baking gadgets like dough blenders, pie lifters, rolling pins, and spatulas.

Before food processors and electric beaters, there were efficient hand and mechanical beaters. Among these were a variety of wooden handled spiral whisks, flat wire whips, and, of course, those very efficient rotary beaters. The forerunner to the food processor had to be glass pitcher beaters which came in all shapes and sizes.
 
With the invention of bottles, jars, and cans came openers. Let’s face it, you couldn't have a can you couldn’t open. Some bottle, can, and jar openers were an all-in-one gadget. The double-handled opener is still a great standby and standard item in many kitchens. Remember the one mounted to the wall with a handle you cranked to open a can? Jars had their own openers called jar lifters or wrenches. They sort of looked like surgeon's devices. And while you can find modern, technically improved versions of these gadgets, the old ones work just as well.

Old choppers and mincers are also popular collectibles. Some of the more popular have wooden handles and stainless steel curved blades. Many of the old ones were made of glass, wood, or steel, not plastic, making them more durable. Some glass jar choppers and mincers had handles to turn, making the work easier and faster. Of course, don’t forget the grinders mounted to the corner of the table. Simply by putting almost anything into the wide opening at the top and turning the handle, you could grind meat, nuts, berries, etc.

Graters, ice cream scoops, ice picks, slicers, juicers, peelers, knives, sharpeners, mashers, ricers, strainers, sifters, scoops, scales, and ladles re also popular collectibles. The list is almost endless.

To make sure some of your kitchen gadgets are really collectible, first note their condition. It’s got to be good—no rust, peeling paint, or missing parts. Second, look for trademarks. Some are wonderfully descriptive, such as The Handy Andy juicer, Hi Speed egg beater, Juice-0-Mat, Chi Chop, Drip-O-Lator, Presto, and Surry Suzy.

Kitchen gadgets are part of our past, a past when the kitchen really was the center of the home.