Images(3)

Piece, Display

Object number2017.94.23

Date1930-1957

MediumPlaster; Paint; Fiberboard; Metal; Twine

Credit LineGift of Robert Thomas

DescriptionPlaster advertising display piece. Painted white rectangular base with extended foot on front, left, and right sides. Atop base is three-dimensional horse-drawn carriage occupied by a man and a woman and being pulled by a white horse. Figures and horse are painted. Carriage has two black fiberboard wheels with metal axle and a single white string rein. Front of base has red and black painted advertisement text. Underside is unpainted white plaster.DimensionsHeight x Width x Depth: 11.875 × 13.5 × 3 in. (30.2 × 34.3 × 7.6 cm)
InscriptionsFront of base has raised red painted text "Old Shay / BEER / & / ALE" and front of foot has raised black painted text "FORT PITT BREWING CO. PGH. PA".
Historical NotesOld Shay Beer advertisement. 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

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