Feb 04, 2016 - Sale 2404

Sale 2404 - Lot 223

Price Realized: $ 312
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
(PENNSYLVANIA.) Pair of ledgers from the launch of the Ashland Brewery. 100 manuscript pages, irregularly paginated. 2 volumes. Folio, original cloth, moderate wear; a few leaves torn out. Ashland, PA, 1908-11

Additional Details

Founded in 1909 as the Schuylkill Home Brewing Company, it became the Ashland Brewing Company in 1915, closed due to Prohibition from 1920 to 1933, and then closed for good in 1935. These ledgers (possibly kept by founder Charles Amann) offer a loose record of investors, construction expenses, creditors, and then beer sold to distributors on credit. Among those paid by the day for construction labor were "Ferary Italian" (page 3) and "John the Nigger" (page 37). One entry proudly boasts that "Charles Amann roled a carload of kegs in one day" (page 84).