Exciting news on the Guinness collectables front is the discovery of around 35 original oil on canvas Guinness adverts, measuring 36 inches by 22 inches and dating from the 1930s to the late 1950s, all signed by Gilroy. They have come originally from the S H Benson Advertising Agency archive and are even unknown to the Guinness archivists.
Although many are well known to us in their finished form as posters, about 10 are images never seen before. For example there is a set of three dated 1950, with flying toucans over London incorporating scenes of St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge and Nelsons Column. Another set of three US designs depicting toucans flying past the Chrysler Building NY, Golden Gate Bridge SF and the Empire State Building NY. A further set of three shows scenes of the loading of a bomber and a submarine. All these original paintings were submitted to Guinness for approval to become posters and although many didn't make final selection they all have Bensons stickers attached.
This type of Guinness artwork is very rare. Even some of the well known poster images are slightly different to these canvases. David Hughes has put together a 39 page A5 spiral bound booklet as a follow-up to our comprehensive release 'The Guide To Guinness Collectables' in which some 35 of these canvases are illustrated. It also contains over 250 new Guinness collectables illustrated and described. To obtain a copy of this limited edition booklet for £14.00 plus £2.00 p&p, please contact David Hughes at phim.finch@btinternet.com.
View 3 of the posters here.
Good news. As you may know the event was to cease after 2011. However, the Pub History Society has now taken over the running of the event and it will take place in August in conjunction with the Peterborough beer Festival. For further details, visit
www.tipplefair.org.uk.
Once again a new set of beermats featuring drawings of pub frontages has been released for the Irish Market. Some new pubs have also been added from Dublin, Cork and Galway and the current total known so far is a whopping 79. What a pub crawl! NF.
The Royal Naval vessel H.M.S. Pelican
served with distinction throughout the Second World War, proudly claiming involvement in the sinking of a number of U-Boats. It was not all plain sailing however, the ship itself suffering major damage during an air attack in 1940.
Despite all this, it seems the crew still found time to produce their very own form of propaganda! I recently came across this
wonderful Xmas Card, produced on behalf of H.M.S. Pelican. Inside of card reads 'Best Wishes for Christmas and the New Year from H.M.S. Pelican. With acknowledgments to a famous Guinness poster.' NF.
I came across this little item that I had not seen before. A plastic torch, manufacturer unknown, but the label dates it to the early 1960s. Measuring 13cm in height, the bottle top unscrews for access to light the bulb and the bottle base unscrews for the battery compartment.
View item. NF.
I recently made another addition to my collection of US magazine adverts. I found this one worthy of the Newsdesk because it makes reference to the end of the Second World War.
Click to view. NF.
A new
Guinness Poker Set containing 2 newly-released packs of Guinness Playing Cards is available through Argos. The item can be found on page 1533 of the Argos catalogue, item number 024/8831. Their RRP is £9.99.
Following the release of the incredible 250th Anniversary Clock last year, it looks as if our old friends at Millennium Collectables are set to lose the license for Guinness figurines this year. But at least they are going out on a high with two great Royal Doulton figurines to add to their high quality range of Guinness Collectables.
The Guinness Harpist and The Topiary Sealion figurines will be produced between April & September 2010 and anyone who is interested and not already on their mailing list can telephone them on 01636 703075 or send an email to
mail@millenniumcollectables.co.uk.
I recently came across an item that I had not seen before. A wonderful back-bar/shop window advertising display called
the rota-perpetuum.
The item was still in its original packaging, complete with the
instruction leaflet and was produced in 1970.
The '6 million Guinness' advertising band is interchangeable with an alternative 'Give Him A Guinness' band. NF.
As a result of a house clearance, a member of the Club was lucky enough to come across these two great items:
The first is a
menu from Park Royal, produced for the leaving lunch of a member of the Advertising department, Denise Sakula. Dated 28th October 1947, the front displays a spoof on the Gilroy zoo animals showing them crying. Inside is a rhyme and signatures from approximately 60 people including Edward Guinness, Peter Cunningham (who became MD) and Des O'Brien (who famously captained Ireland to win the Grand Slam in Rugby Union) to mention a few.
The second item is an example of the brown hard back
Guinness Guide Book to Dublin Brewery. dated 1939. Not so uncommon you say? Well, this example was found to have a pencilled drawing by John Gilroy, on the inside back cover, of 'Dan the waiter at Jammets' (a restaurant in Dublin). This adds cachet and value to an otherwise common item.
Site visitor Henry Law, from Malaysia, kindly sent in a copy of a letter, sent by A.W.Fawcett to Guinness Exports Ltd, Liverpool, regarding the inauguration of the World's First Hovercraft Service, dated the 27th July 1962.
View First Day Cover and letter (in new window).
The GCC received an unusual enquiry...
My father in law gave my late husband a piece of cake and a small bottle of sherry and was told us to keep it until May 2006.
The two items came with documentation, headed Guinness Exports Ltd., and which states the slice of cake is part of 6cwt cake cut into 3000 pieces. Could you provide further information please?
The Guinness Archives in Dublin were kind enough to provide the answer...
This is a nice piece of Brewery history. A.W. Fawcett (who was quite a character) was the Head of Guinness Exports in Liverpool throughout the 40s and 50s. Among the unusual publicity ideas he came up with (he was also responsible for the Atlantic Bottle Drop in 1959), was the ordering of a 5 tier cake as part of the centenary celebrations of Guinness Exports in 1956. The decorative work on the cake 'expressed the overseas interests of the company and traces the history of travel from galleons to space ships'!
The bottom two tiers of the cake was cut into 3,000 pieces and sent to overseas GUINNESS customers along with a photograph of the entire cake. The top 3 tiers were hermetically sealed in metal containers and opened after periods of ten, twenty five and fifty years ie 1966, 1981 and 2006.
Therefore, most likely, this lady has a piece of the bottom two tiers.