BRIMFIELD, Mass. — Dan Morean returns on Sunday, February 25 with a nearly 600-lot breweriana sale dominated by vintage cans of all types and advertising, much of it highly rare to occasionally unique. The complete catalog is now available for bidding at LiveAuctioneers.
Leading the sale is a Perone Beer quart cone-top can described in the lot notes as a “grail” item for both quart and Pennsylvania brewery collectors. Made in the 1940s by the Otto Erlanger Brewing Co. of Philadelphia, it is the only known example in this size and can type, and is expected to perform well. All lots in the sale carry a $250-$250,000 estimate, so the value will be revealed in a few days’ time.
A tin-lithographed sign for York Brewing Co. in York, Pennsylvania is only the second example ever encountered by Morean Auctions. Measuring 20 by 29in in height, the sign has only minor imperfections despite its advanced age.
Another early bidding favorite is Play Mate Malt Liquor, a 1960s zip-top 12-ounce can from Sunshine Brewing Co. of Reading, Pennsylvania. Terrific graphics and very good overall condition mark it as a lot to watch in the sale.
Grace Bros. Brewing Co. of Santa Rosa, California is long forgotten now, but its Clipper Pale Beer lives on through this terrific graphic can depicting a PanAm Clipper seaplane over a vast ocean. Always popular with bidders, the can is another anticipated top performer.
It seems as if ‘clipper’ was a fairly popular term for beer brands during the prewar period, as this Clipper Ale illuminated sign demonstrates. Marked Harvard Brewing Co., Lowell, Mass., the sign is one of only two that experts at Morean have seen.
