The Treadwell and Companies claim to be “The Best Whiskey Ever” might have been pretty over the top considering around 1900 or so when this sign was made the San Francisco, CA bay region had dozens of distilleries in business, while thousands of distilleries were churning out whiskey prior to the start of Prohibition. This particular Reverse on Glass Corner Sign is certainly very rare, and is most likely the only one in existence at this time. Curved at a 90 degree angle with the back wood frame, this sign was designed to hang outdoors when almost every corner saloon or tavern had signage advertising their drinks on the corners of their buildings. The beautiful black and gold color combination still catches the eye today of interested collectors and advertising fanatics.
Not much is known about the Treadwell Company from a quick google search. Located at 111 Sacremento Street, Mr. Treadwell started originally in 1868 as a hardware store, but later morphed into the liquor business. Evidence of early amber interior tooled lip whiskey rye bottles easily date his business to the 1870’s when this style of bottle was being produced. By 1904-1905 Mr. Treadwell had a partner with a Mr. Miner. One of the firms big brands was Old Lacey Whiskey. Unfortunately the great earthquake of 1906 shut his business down once and for all. It is amazing that this glass sign survived that quake and was not destroyed like so many other great artifacts certainly were in 1906.