As a lover of antique advertising, how can you not love a piece like this? Made around 1900 during the pre-prohibition era, this self-framed tin sign from the Old Taylor whiskey brand certainly left an impression of the might this company had at the time by producing a large image of their distillery in the background of this sign. Clearly the company which produced the brand (The Buffalo Trace Distillery) made sure potential customers knew how big they were, and tried to leave an impression that the bigger the distillery, the higher quality the product. This was clearly the thinking of the early 1900’s as many distilleries and breweries produced large factory scene lithograph’s with the factories featured clearly on them. Many in fact were truly embellishments of their businesses also when they are compared to photographs of the era of the same complexes. But to consumer of that era, bigger was probably better in many peoples eyes. This particular sign was most likely used in the Western parts of the U.S. as the bottom denotes a local distributor based in Los Angeles, CA named Kiefer & Company.
Today the Buffalo Trace Distillery is still one of the most well known distilleries in the Frankfort, Kentucky bourbon trail area. Not only is Buffalo Trace well known, but their Pappy Van Winkle brand is considered one of the most high end whiskies on the market today. I would imagine that in the era of this beautifully designed sign production, the Old Taylor brand was also one of the finest of the era too.