Eric McGuire was kind enough to send me a copy of the trademark for Swan Brewery and the following comments.The Swan Brewing Co. trademarked a series of labels for their products on 4 February 1879. The attached is an example of one. The question remains whether the company bottled beer in its embossed bottles prior to this date. The company's bottles don't have the words "trade mark", so it is possible the mold was cut prior to 1879.
Eric, when I was surfing the web some years ago, I hit upon a micro brewers site that took me to a restuarant set up in an old train car located in Old Town Sacramento, and in the bar area was two labeled Swan Beers on two black glass bottles, so I suspect they used any bottle they could up to the point they cut their own molds. Went to look for them last time I went to old town, but the restaurant was closed, so I have not a clue what happened to them. Being that it is in a State Park, perhaps they sit in a vault gathering copius amounts of dust.
I have gone by the site of the brewery which is on a corner just across the street from Mission Delores, where an apartment building now sits. Anyone out their ever dug it or nearby? Must have one hellacious bottle dump full of Swans and Wilmots......the stuff dreams are made of. They put up a condo project in the 1980's just down the block on Guerrero and Warren Wood and I tried digging there but the clay soils and summer weather proved impossible and we never even saw a shard......Ned and Andrew what are you waiting for? Opportunity knocks........
I am guessing that the bottles were blown before the label was trademarked. While Swan Brewery may have used recycled bottles I would be suspicious of the Swan labels on aything other than their own. Many years ago the State trademark files often held loose additional copies of labels. I know of at least one unscrupulus person who lifted everything he could, including a number of one-of-a-kind examples. If the Swan labels you saw were perfect I suspect they were some of the very few extant originals from the State Archives.
ReplyDeleteIt's a sad fact that a few "collectors" saw fit to remove invaluable items in relation the claims of trademarks. Some of these include the entire Hotaling 1874 file for OPS Whiskey, some of the larger barrel end labels for several whiskey and bitters brands, numerous smaller bottle labels and corespondence between individuals and the patent offices. Such nefarious activity has forced the CA Archives to require strict regimen when viewing important documents.
ReplyDeleteIt is still possible to have any of the trade marks documents copied for your personal use. Dozens of original historic labels, with wonderful vignettes, are there to observe and reproduce, if that is your desire.