Here are two beautiful tin over cardboard signs from the once iconic Falstaff brand of beer. Falstaff produced several styles of these TOC style signs, i.e., signs which have tin over cardboard where the tin simply wraps around a cardboard backing to produce a very sturdy and advertising piece. TOC style signs are highly collected across many advertising categories today, and you can probably see why with the beauty of these two. Produced in the late 1930’s, or early 1940’s, these two signs are slightly different with their lettering, one for bottled and one for draught beer. Each sign uses their slogan, “The Choicest Product of The Brewers Art” on them, and each incorporates the well-recognized Falstaff shield symbol, which continued on their product until the last Falstaff beer was produced in 1975.
Started by the Wm. J. Lemp Brewing Company in St. Louis, MO, the Falstaff brand was around as early as 1901 as evident by old advertisements of the brand from that year. Some believe the brand may have originally been brewed as early as 1899, but I have yet to see evidence of that date. Either way, the Falstaff brand was one of the United States largest selling brands, competing with Anheuser Busch and Budweiser in St. Louis, but also with other huge brands such as Pabst and Schlitz out of Milwaukee, Buffalo Brewing in Sacramento, CA, and many large east coast brewers of that era. The brand was owned by the Lemp Brewery at the start of prohibition, however, the Lemp family sold the brand and their brewery in 1920. The Griesedieck family bought the brand, while the International Shoe Company bought the once former glorious brewery itself for pennies on the dollar at an auction.