Last year on June 28 this website featured a post celebrating the pre-Prohibition saloon signs issued by distillers and liquor dealers that employed reverse glass, a technique known and used from medieval times. Although these signs were relatively expensive to design and make, they were more durable than lithographs and sent a direct “buy me” whiskey message to the saloonpatron. Subsequently I have collected the images of eleven other such signs and am happy to bring them to the attention of my blog viewers.
A word about the reverse glass technique: These illustrations are painted on the opposite side of the glass (the one not presented to the audience), following an opposite succession of layers of paint, applying the front most layer first and the background layer last. In those signs, the final result must be well thought out before starting the piece and must be taken into account with each layer applied. In reverse glass paintings, details and shadows usually are painted first, while backgrounds are painted last. Different colors can be applied one after the other after each layer has dried. As will be seen below, often black backgrounds of paper or wood were necessary since reverse glass paintings are viewed using reflected light.
The first two signs displayed here were from a liquor house founded in Buffalo, New York, by German immigrant August Baetzhold. Coming to the United States as a carpenter, Baetzhold in 1862 opened a small liquor store on Main Street in Buffalo. Proving to be extraordinarily able in the whiskey trade, he grew his business rapidly and by 1872 he was forced to find a larger venue and purchased the Odd Fellows Hall, remodeling it from the ground up. As the “Old Diamond Wedding Rye,” sign below indicates he was the distributor of a Buffalo-made whiskey.
Baetzhold was devoted to his family. As his sons matured, one by one he introduced them into the business. A Buffalo directory for 1893 showed three of them working in his wholesale wine and liquor house — August Jr., Theodore and George. In 1908, recognizing the family affair his company had become, the father changed its name to “August Baetzold & Sons.” Under the new organization name, the Baetzolds continued providing attractive give away items, such as the reverse glass saloon sign below that advertises three Baetzold proprietary brands.
The Bernheim brothers, Isaac and Bernard, were among the first distillers to see the advertising advantages of winning medals at World’s Fairs and other international expositions. In many such event just showing up with a display was enough to insure a medal. Their first medal for I. W. Harper came in 1885 at the World’s Industrial and Cotton Exposition in New Orleans. They subsequently won a gold medal at the famed Chicago Columbian Exposition in 1893. The Louisville-based distillers gained worldwide recognition for their whiskey and issued the reverse glass sign below to commemorate their awards.
By placing ads for their whiskeys in national publications and using other advertising devices, the Bernheims captured a nationwide clientele for I. W. Harper. To a degree virtually unheard of in the liquor trade, the Bernheims also emphasized the use of giveaway items. They included wall signs, including a number on reverse glass. The I.W. Harper saloon sign below is virtually unique for showing a painterly scene on the glass instead of an outright ad. This one sold at auction not long ago for $4,300.
Max Selliger with a partner, George Moore, built two thriving Louisville distilleries. When Moore unexpectedly died in 1896, Selliger ran both distilleries as the sole proprietor and changed the name to the Max Selliger Company. In a climb of 26 years at last he had reached the pinnacle of success, recognized as a true Kentucky “whiskey baron.” For the next 24 years Selliger continued to manage both distilleries, establishing three of his whiskeys as national brands. After trademark reforms by Congress in 1904, within two years he had registered his Astor, Belmont, and Nutwood brands a second time.
Once in full charge of the whiskey-making Selliger stepped up his merchandising, providing attractive reverse glass sign to saloons and restaurants using his liquor. As a result of this intense marketing he developed a nationwide market for his whiskey. Shut down by the advent of National Prohibition in 1920, Max continued to be listed as a distiller in the federal census of that year.
When Bourbon County Distiller James A. Miller died in 1860 he left several thousand dollars to George G. White, a man who had been a clerk at the distillery. With partners, White bought the facility, operating it as the Chicken Cock Distillery. Soon the facility had a mashing capacity of 400 bushels and was turning out some 9,000 barrels annually. About 1880 the name was changed to G.G. White Distillery and the whiskey became “J.A. Miller Chicken Cock.” By dint of vigorous advertising, Chicken Cock Whiskey was sold nationwide through a wide network of distributors. These would have been provided with reverse glass signs featuring the image of the cocky rooster.
A German immigrant, Simon Hirsch, after a sojourn in Leadville, Colorado, as a saloonkeeper, arrived in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1885. There he established a highly successful wholesale liquor house. Much of his success could be attributed to his gifts to saloonkeepers and other favored customers. They included a label-under-glass saloon sign for his signature brand, “Quaker Made” whiskey. At the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904, Quaker Maid won a gold medal, that Hirsch put to extensive use in his advertising. His whiskey also won medals at expositions in Paris, and Portland, Oregon, both in 1905.
William Harrison McBrayer, called Judge McBrayer for much of his life, is credited with being among the handful of Kentucky distillers who raised the quality and image of the state’s whiskey to international renown. One contemporary account says of his “Cedar Creek” brand: “It was the whiskey that made the crowned heads of Europe turn from Scotch to bourbon.” Whiskey promoter Harry Levy was able to persuade McBrayer to give him exclusive rights to merchandise Cedar Brook nationwide. Levy was responsible for commissioning the reverse glass sign below.
The next sign below was from a Hudson, New York, wholesale grocer, Col. Charles S. Rogers. Rogers was a major merchant in the town, with a large liquor emporium and a mansion home, indicating his affluence. As did many other wholesale grocers Rogers had a proprietary whiskey, “1875 Private Stock.” It was unusual, however for a grocer to advertise through a reverse glass sign.
M. T. Clarke. a Boston liquor dealer, advertised his “Suffolk Club Whiskey” with a reverse glass sign that indicates one of the drawbacks of the medium. In time the paint could flake off in multiple areas, leaving a less attractive image. Clarke made the Boston newspapers by his strong criticism of the city’s Catholic Prohibition advocacy groups. Clarke said: “I don’t think it is the province of the church to meddle in this way with a man’s business. Whenever the church charitable societies want any money the liquor dealers are the very first people they come to see. And it is a fact we give more to charity and toward church work than any other one class of men in business.”
Notes: Longer articles on seven of these “whiskey men” may be found elsewhere on this website. They are: Baetzhold, March 4, 2015; Bernheim, Dec. 10. 2014; Selliger, May 18, 2017; Chicken Cock, April 8, 2015; Hirsch, Dec. 10, 2011; McBrayer, Oct. 2, 2011, and Harry Levy, Sept. 30, 2021.
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