Manhattan Consumers Brewery Serving Tray, New York City, N.Y. Circa 1905

I love this beautiful pre-prohibition era tin serving tray from the long defunct Manhattan Consumer Brewing Company which was based in New York City prior to prohibition. This tray features an image of a native american indian along with an english settler, an interesting logo for a brewery nontheless. I can only assume the Indian character may have something to do with the Indians selling Manhattan Island for $24.00 back in the day and was simply a nod to the agreement? Either way, the brewery clearly promotes their products, i.e, lagers, ale, and porter styles of beer.


The Manhattan Consumers brewery was located at 530/540 West 57th Avenue in present day Manhattan Island. The brewery was short lived with this name, originating around 1900 and being out of business by 1904. Prior to the name used on the tray, the brewery was founded by Mr. F. Foehrenbach and later sold to Philip Schaefer and his son, only later to become known as the Mount Vernon Consumers Brewing Company too. Interestingly, there was another Consumers Brewery of Brooklyn, which was actually located in the Queens borough of NYC. Hence, you can see why they called themselves the Consumers Brewery of Manhattan, especially since there were other Consumers Breweries operating in the U.S., including a large one in St. Louis, MO also.