Images(5)

Button, Promotional

Object number2017.94.21

Manufacturer Bastian Brothers Company

Date1930-1957

OriginRochester, NY

MediumCelluloid; Metal; Paper; Ink

Credit LineGift of Robert Thomas

DescriptionCircular promotional pinback button. Front has white background with silver and blue printed beer brand name with silver union label at top center and bottom center. Front has clear celluloid cover. Gray metal collet with spring lock pin. Reverse has printed black maker text and union label at center. Button edge has blue printed maker text.DimensionsDiameter x Depth: 1.5 × 0.313 in. (3.8 × 0.8 cm)
InscriptionsFront has blue and silver text "Fort Pitt / Beer".
MarksSide of button has printed blue text "PATENTS 2120854 - 2120058 / BASTIAN BROS. CO. ROCHESTER, N.Y."; some numbers are difficult to decipher.

Reverse has paper insert with printed black text "BASTIAN BROS. CO. / MFR'S OF/ RIBBON, METAL / AND / [union label] / CELLULOID / NOVELTIES / ROCHESTER, N. Y."; union label reads "LOCAL No 11 / AMALGAMATED / UNION LITHOGRAPHERS LABEL / OF AMERICA / ROCHESTER / [illegible]".

Front of button has illegible silver union label at top center and at bottom center "I.P.E.U. 288".
Historical NotesFort Pitt Beer button. Part of a collection of Fort Pitt Brewing Company artifacts that was collected by donor Robert Thomas to document the time his family ran the company (1930s through the 1950s). The donor’s great uncle, Michael Berardino, became president of Fort Pitt Brewing Company two years after one of the original owners and founder, Samuel Grenet, died suddenly in 1935. Grenet had started the business in 1906 with Herman Hechelman. They built a brewery in the suburb of Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania, survived Prohibition and were set to be the number one brewery in the state when Grenet passed. Berardino began an aggressive sales campaign to turn the company around after lagging sales the year before. The company also bought the Victor Brewing Company of Jeannette, Pennsylvania, but continued to produce their signature Old Shay beer. In the early 1950s due to local strikes and an increase in national brand popularity, Fort Pitt struggled. After Berardino died in 1957, the company stopped brewing at the Sharpsburg plant and expanded into other products and became the newly incorporated Fort Pitt Industries. The rights to the brand were sold to Gunther Brewing of Baltimore. In 2010, the Fort Pitt name was purchased by Mark Dudash who began producing Fort Pitt Ale.

Related institution Fort Pitt Brewing Company (1906 - 1957)

Related person Michael Berardino (died 1957)

Collector Robert M. Thomas

Related institution Amalgamated Lithographers of America

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