Friday’s ad is old one, undoubtedly from the 19th century. It’s for a St. Louis brewery, the oddly named Christian Staerlin’s Phienix Brewery. I love these old industrial illustrated love letters, showing large, gleaming colorful industrial complexes. They seem to have been quite common at one time. I wonder if anyone’s ever done a survey of all of them. Now that would be a cool coffee-table book.
RE: “oddly named” – “100 Years of Brewing” spells the brewer’s last name with an “H” – “Staehlin” and spells it “Phoenix”.
I think the confusion comes from the ornate lettering, in the latter case that’s the antiquated “Œ”.
The brewery itself was later owned by the famous mid-Western Griesedieck brewing family.