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Dating Pre-Pro Labels, c1860 - 1933
Paper labels were applied to beer bottles in the US as early as the 1860’s, however, labels from that period are extremely rare. In fact consider yourself lucky if you run into labels that can be placed before the turn of the century. Very early labels are characterized by very ornate printing, script and/or graphics. Brand names tended to be generic such as Export, Pilsener or just plain Bottle Beer. Dating clues and examples of very early labels follow:
c1908-14 Pure Food and Drug Act Message: Some labels carried the pure food and drug message between approximately 1908 and 1914: Guaranteed under the Food and Drugs Act June 30th 1906, Serial No. xxxx.
c1912 Ounces & percent Alcohol on labels: Around 1912 labels began to show the size of the container (oz) and the alcohol content (%) of the product. These requirements and start dates varied from state to state.
c1908-20 Early Prohibition: It’s hard to put a sharp date on the start of prohibition. It usually depends on which state you are talking about. Prohibition started in Alabama and Georgia in 1908 and by 1916-17 twenty five states were dry. Temperance beverages were sold in the dry states as early as 1908-10. By 1916 prohibition beverages no longer were called beer and cereal beverages, as they were officially referred to, had to say ’contains less than 1/2 of 1% alcohol by volume.’
1918-20 World War I Labels: In the states that were still wet, full strength beer was sold until December 1917 when the alcohol strength of all beer was limited to 2.75%w as a World War I conservation measure.
1920-33: National Prohibition started on January 16, 1920. Most big breweries with national markets had prepared to produce near beers. Anheuser-Busch introduced Bevo, it’s new nonalcoholic beverage, in 1916 and elsewhere a flood of cereal beverages were introduced during the 1917-18 period. These included such brand names as Pablo from Pabst, Famo from Schlitz, Chrismo from Christian Moerlein, LUX-O from Stroh’s, Tivoline from Tivoli-Union, Mannah from Coors and so on. These gradually replaced the real brew as the various states succumbed to prohibition and the national brewers tried to prepare for the inevitable.
1920’s-33: Medicinal Beers, Tonics and Near Beers: Tonics were usually sold in drug stores in a unique tonic-shaped bottle. Alcohol contents were sometimes higher before national prohibition, but usually 2% or less after 1920. Permits for Medicinal Beer by prescription were approved in 1920, but quickly killed by the dry forces. Malt Tonics with H-type permits (2% alcohol and 12% solids) were available by prescription in 1924. Dry’s forced the solids content of 2% tonics to 18% (to syrupy to drink) by 1925. Throughout prohibition a variety of malt tonic and cereal beverage products were tried but these met only limited success.
1928-33: L-Type Permits Around 1928 an L-Type permit was added to prohibition labels. Since national prohibition lasted 13 years, the L-permit serves to identify labels used in the latter half of prohibition.
Examples of Prepro and Prohibition Era Labels: |
