I’ve been sharing bock beer ads and posters in my daily Beer in Art series and while researching and collecting ads to post came across this interesting tidbit at the Library of Congress website detailing a trademark application for the True W. Jones Brewing Co. of Manchester, New Hampshire. The brewery was founded in 1879 as the New Hampshire Brewing Co., but in 1891 changed its name to the True W. Jones Brewing Co., which it remained until it closed in 1917.
But this trademark application was approved today, March 26, 1895, for their “Jones Bock Ale.” You can see that the submitted artwork was hand drawn when examined close-up, which is pretty cool.
But perhaps even more interesting is to see the whole page application submitted by the brewery. According to the paperwork, they started using the mark November 1, 1893. It’s fun to see all the notes and signatures around the margins. Unfortunately, presumably since this was 130 years ago and the brewery’s been closed for 108 years, there’s no additional information about the beer, or for that matter about the brewery. His arguably more famous brother, Frank Jones, owned a very successful brewery (by the 1870s was the largest ale brewery in the country) in nearby Portsmouth, and in addition was a politician who the mayor of Portsmouth and later was elected to the U.S. Congress. But both appear to have been ale breweries, so I suspect they brewed an ale version of a bock to satisfy customer demand.
