Here is a great sign I just finished repairing:
This is a rotating, wall-mounted Schlitz globe from 1961. It looks almost new. I rebuilt this from the parts of 2 damaged globes I purchased inexpensively.
One had the internal metal support broken (along with some other damage). Delicate and made of pot-metal, I don't know anyway to repair it. The other light had extensive damage likely from falling off a wall.
You can see in picture above one of the damaged signs. The inner globes are badly cracked, and the upper-outer blue globe is missing. The rotating Schlitz ring is dented. The motor did not work in this either. The best thing about this light was the internal metal support was (surprisingly) undamaged. Between the 2 damaged globes, I had enough parts to make one working sign.
It is relatively easy working on these old Schlitz signs. They are designed to be service. They are simple to disassemble.
I put new lamps in the finished beer sign. Most tungsten lamps are no longer being manufactured. Fortunately, it is generally not hard to find new-old-stock (NOS) lamps on-line. They are usually inexpensive, too. They may be harder to find, but the demand for them is small.
 |
| A great thing about NOS lamps; they have an indefinite shelf-life. If you are not an electrician, you may be puzzled by the 130 volt rating when the lamp is going to be used in a 120 volt service. By making the bulb for 130 volt service, it will last longer. This is a "long-life" light bulb. A trade-off is slightly less output and a slightly more amber color. |
I have many Schlitz signs. In their heydays of the 1950s and 1960s, Schlitz made high-quality, great-looking,
mechanical beer signs. These were well-made signs designed to last a long
time.
My favorite beer signs to collect are the mechanical ones like this Schlitz globe. I like ones that do something; change color, rotate, spin, etc. I also like to collect signs from the local breweries from around Cincinnati, Ohio, where I grew up.
PS: Another example from my beer sign collection:
I'm guessing I have a little over 50 beer signs in my collection. Most of them are easy to find signs, but I do have around a dozen rare signs.
This is one of my rarest: a Bavarian's Beer sign from the late 1950s, maybe early 1960s. In 40 years of collection, this is the only one I have ever seen.
(I hate when I hear "rare" when people are talking about beer signs. Most are not had to find and show up regularly on eBay.)
Bavarian's was a small
brewery in Covington, Kentucky near where I grew up. My dad told me a
story of working there one summer in college. He said everyone drank
beer all day!
This sign has one of the simplest, basic forms for a beer sign. It is a light box; a box with a light inside. Unusual for this one, is the see-through feature with the 3-D letters and bottle inside. The light is a florescent tube at the bottom.
I bought this sign while I was still in college. It is one of the earliest signs in my collections. The overall condition is excellent. The only issue is the beer bottle label is poor. I'm hoping to some day find a NOS label for it.
There is a story about this sign. Years ago, most of my beer sign collection was stored in my mom's basement. There was no room in my family's small home.
There was a leak in her basement. I didn't find out until long after it happened. Most of my signs were okay, but some boxes showed signs of being heavily soaked with water. I went through a few boxes and found various amounts of damage. One sign was destroyed.
I never had a chance to go through everything until I moved into our new home. Most things were good, but I kept finding damaged signs.
Going through my collection, my heart sank when I found a crumpled, water-stained box labeled "Bavarian's light box Man's Beer."
Opening the box, I was expecting the worst. I found the light was sealed in a plastic bag. I pulled the light out of the bag and it was in perfect condition. The bag had saved the light. I was relieved! It was a close call for this old sign.
Update February 2021: After going on about how rare this sign is and having never seen another one, I just saw another one. It was on a site that sells mostly rare and high-end breweriana. I can still say my sign is the best one I have ever seen. The condition of the one I saw online was not as good.