Last year I decided to concentrate on Bock ads. Bock, of course, originated in Germany, in the town of Einbeck. Because many 19th century American breweries were founded by German immigrants, they offered a bock at certain times of the year, be it Spring, Easter, Lent, Christmas, or what have you. In a sense they were some of the first seasonal beers. “The style was later adopted in Bavaria by Munich brewers in the 17th century. Due to their Bavarian accent, citizens of Munich pronounced ‘Einbeck’ as ‘ein Bock’ (a billy goat), and thus the beer became known as ‘Bock.’ A goat often appears on bottle labels.” And presumably because they were special releases, many breweries went all out promoting them with beautiful artwork on posters and other advertising.

Thursday’s ad for “Feigenspan’s Bock Beer,” was created around 1890 (sources vary between 1895 and 1917) for the Feigenspan Brewing Co. of Newark, New Jersey, owned by Christian William Feigenspan. The chromolithographer was Robert A. Welcke, who “was a photolithographer active in New York in the latter part of the 19th century and early 20th century.” Welcke was born in Wronke, Poland, which was then part of Prussia, but emigrated to New York City in 1869. He then went into the lithography business with his brother, Edward Welcke, who’d arrived a decade earlier. “After a split between the brothers during the economic depression of the late 1870s, Robert Welcke continued in business on his own. Welcke’s firm, Robert A. Welcke Offset Company, was based at 176 William Street.” His corpus ranges from real estate maps of New York and Connecticut to illustrations on Flemish Renaissance interiors to government maps and brochures to decorative sheet music covers. Following Welcke’s death, the firm was taken over by his daughter, Olga Welcke, who, alongside William Jugens, managed it until the outbreak of World War II (1939 – 1945).”