Tuesday’s ad begins the holiday season for beer ads, and our first this year is for Schlitz, most likely from the 1950s. With the slogan “light refreshment for your holidays,” the ad shows a couple having a few beers by the tree. The woman lounges on a sofa, as the man presumably just gave her a present to open. She certainly looks happy; is it the warm glow of Schlitz or the anticipation of opening a decidedly jewelry box sized gift?
Monday’s ad is a somewhat creepy one from 1943 for Pabst Blue Ribbon. I’m sorry, but those blue ribbon people I find just way too freaky. And how about that copy? “This is the Banker of Blue Ribbon Town who formerly wore a Peppermint Frown.” WTF?!
This week’s work of art is by the Golden Age Dutch artist Pieter van Anraadt. He’s mostly known for painting historical subjects and portraits, but he has done some still lifes, such as this one: Still Life with Earthenware Jug, painted around 1658.
One description of the painting is the following:
Beer drinking has often been associated with smoking, as many still lifes and genre scenes of the seventeenth century reveal. This still life by Pieter van Anraadt, who was better known as a portrait painter in Deventer, is a good example of a painting which unites these two pleasures. It shows a jug and a glass of beer on a table; nearby are several clay pipes and some tobacco on a tray, and a brazier. The simplicity of the scene and the perfectly balanced triangular-shaped composition is offset by the jumble of pipes forming a mesh of crossed lines.
You can read van Anraadt’s biography at Wikipedia or at the Mauritshuis, the museum where the painting hangs. There are also a few links to other works, such as ArtCyclopedia, and ArtNet.
Our 96th Guinness ad shows the iconic Guinness toucan with a man sporting a toucan-like nose of his own. They say pet owners resemble their pets, and this would seem to support that theory. They both seem to have a nose for Guinness. I guess it really is a “Lovely day for a Guinness.”
Friday’s ad is for Budweiser, from their “Where there’s life …” series, probably from the 1950s or early 60s. The scene shows a smiling and way-too-shiny-faced couple on the beach, having a weenie roast, while the woman pours a can of Bud into an already full mug.
Thursday’s ad is another ad for healthy beer, somewhat similar to yesterday’s Budweiser ad. This one is just a few years later, from 1907, and was sent to me by fellow blogger Lisa Grimm from WeirdBeerGirl (thanks Lisa). The ad is for Rainier Pale Beer, from Seattle Brewing & Malting Co., and shows a group of children using a giant beer bottle as a Maypole. Mother can be seen in the background, arriving on the scene with a tray full of beer bottles and glasses. Again, can you just imagine that ad today? The copy is equally interesting.
Pure Air, Pure Food, Pure Drink are essential to healthy growth … for Pure Drink get Rainier Pale Beer
Another beautiful sentiment.
Wednesday’s ad is a Ladies Home Journal (LHJ) ad from 1904 for Budweiser. It’s an interesting ad. First of all, check out the cage and cork on a Bud bottle. That’s not something you see every day. And the endorsement by LHJ is priceless. Can you imagine this today?
Mr. Edward Bok, editor of the Ladies’ Home Journal, in a page article in the May issue gives a list of 36 medicines, with official analysis, asserting them to contain 12 to 47 per cent. of Alcohol!
The ad goes to suggest the reader think of beer, with a mere 2 to 5 percent, is nothing compared to many of the medicines that mothers might give their child, some of which are “stronger than whisky.” At this point, Budweiser suggests that their beer is much healthier even than water with its low alcohol content.
Budweiser contains only 3-89/100 per cent. of alcohol. It is better than pure water because of the nourishing qualities of malt and the tonic properties of hops.
Budweiser is pre-eminently a family beverage; its use promotes the cause of true temperance—it guards the safety of health and home.
Now that’s a beautiful sentiment.
Tuesday’s ad is for an old Bronx brewery, the J&M Haffen Brewing Co. The brewery was only in existence from 1856 until 1917. As far as I can tell, this was used for a 1906 calendar for the brewery. Is it just me, or is one of the mermaids showing a bit more cheek than is usual?
Monday’s ad is a 19th century ad for a New York brewery, the Geo. Winter Brewing Co. According to the ad itself, the brewery was located on 55th Street, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues. It’s from around 1900, plus or minus. The ad shows “Columbia raising a glass of beer, posed with a keg and a billy goat, the symbol of bock beer.”
This week’s work of art is by the same artist as last week, Dutch illustrator and engraver Jan Luyken. His watercolor painting, The Brewer, was originally done as a study for an engraving he was working on for a larger project, a book entitled “Het Menselyk Bedryf,” or “Book Of Trades.”
Both the watercolor and the subsequent engraving, which is below, was completed in 1694.
The final engraving was included in The Book of Trades, and looked like this in one edition.
The Curious Observer, writing about Luyken’s Brewer, has the following:
At the time, low-alcohol beers, safer to drink than water, were the common everyday beverage of everyone, including children, who ate bierenbrood, bread boiled in beer.
Luyken’s image shows the brewer’s two biggest problems: barrels, and clean, fresh water. Both were scarce in Holland, the water because of textile-industy pollution and sea salt that leaked into the system of canals. Fresh water had to be imported in special ships and carefully poured into barrels.
And I also found a version of the Brewer that has been colored.
You can read Luyken’s biography at Wikipedia or at Scroll Publishing. You can also see the rest of the engravings from The Book of Trades and you can see other works at WikiGallery. Also, his biblical set, Martyrs Mirror, from 1685, can be seen at Bethel College’s website.