When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Thinning out my 30+ year collection of great Baltimore Maryland and Carroll County soda, beer and whiskey bottles. Any references to a # are from the 2019 edition of Baltimore’s Pre-Prohibition Breweries & Bottles (also available on ).
Please look at the pictures carefully. I can provide additional pictures upon request.
Offered for sale is #1875, Henry Beck\'s Weiss Beer stoneware bottle. Beck operated his Weiss Beer brewery and bottling house on the corner of Fayette and Castle, just north of Fell\'s Point. He was in operation there from 1871 until his death in 1884.After his death his wife Ernestine continued to run the brewery (not a common practice). Generally a brewer\'s widow married the head brewer or another person with brewing experience. In 1887 her son Henry C. Beck Jr. was placed in charge of the brewery and maintained operations until 1912 when they officially shut down. Originally using clay bottles incised with the brewery information, this bone white glazed vessel has the information stenciled. This was most likely in use from @ 1895-1900 era. Wit the small lip treatment it most likely used a cork with a wire tying to hold it in place. Beck\'s Weiss beer was popular among the large German population in Baltimore. However while a very popular Weiss beer, sales were minuscule in compared to Lager Beers of the same period.
This stoneware version displays well with good stenciling and nice mottled color from aging under the ground. The downside is a large chip in the rear center and smaller one on the heal with cracking however the bottle is solid. There is a mystery item inside the bottle which appears to be a seashell or other pottery shard. Whatever it is bouncing around, it is not interested in coming out so I will leave any extraction to the next owner. If I recall correctly this one rose from Bear Creek from my Dave Matthews and Ron Smith digging days.
Stenciled as:
HENRY BECK\'S
WEISS BEER.
FAYETTE & CASTLE STS.
