This particular tin herring advertising can is from the Louis Maull Cheese and Fish Company out of St. Louis, MO about 1900. The can is for their herring product which would have been packed in oil and was a huge delicacy in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. How did herring survive to be sold in the Midwest in the days of non-refrigerated railroad cars has always fascinated me, but both herring and oysters were sold regularly outside the coastlines in that era. This particular tin shows the Louis Maull company under their previous name, the Louis Maull Cheese & Fish Co. Maull’s later became famous when the family created their own barbecue sauce, of which is still sold today with the catchy tagline, “Maull it”, meaning, baste your barbecue with a lot of Maull’s own sauce!
Louis Maull opened his business in downtown St. Louis in the late 1800’s and originally sold cheese and fish including herring as denoted on this product tin. The company sold groceries to business’s along the Mississippi river for years before inventing their famous BBQ sauce in 1926. It is not known when they discontinued their cheese and fish segment of their business.