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I have an orignal pre-1923 early times distillery plaque. I have all papers to prove that it is an orignal from the company. I have been trying to sell this for a while can anybody give me suggestions? The company has ask me to give them a asking price and I dont know what to ask. If you know something about this plaque or what its worth please let me know?

Yes I do have pics of this. And I need to see where I am at with it really fair deal but make a little to. The plaque does have the nelson co. kentucky stamped on it. Like I said early times has seen it to verify that it is an orignal.

Trade it for bourbon.

Well I have two letters from the company saying that the plaque is an orignal and how to verify that. I do have an appraisal on it so I kind of know what it is worth. I am just trying to find out more about it and to see what others think its worth. And this can not be reproduced it is hand craved and painted. The replicas were made after 1939. This one is from the prohibition when it was still brown foreman and they sold it to early times around 1923. I have alot of the history just we have yet to find anyone else with a copy like this one. It was left to me when my grandma died two years ago.

It has a wood frame like 3ft by 4ft plaster carving and painting inside frame of an old distillery in the hills of ky. The company has a couple of the replicas but have none of the one I got. They had only seen pictures of them from the company. I was the first person to have shown them the pre-1923 orignal. I am intrested in selling this picture to them or to the right person due to my wifes health. My grandma always said that it was something special and to hold it until I needed help. My wife has been battling cancer for 2 years and has not gotting any better. I have several medical bills to pay to try and ease some trouble for her. I have tried every thing I can to find someone intrested in this plaque so if you know or are intrested please let us know I can get you pictures just not letting very many out.

mozilla wrote:BF ownes Early Times currently. Did they sell Early Times to Early Times back in the 20's?

BF bought Early TImes in 1923. I'm trying to remember if ET's distillery was in Bardstown then or not; the brand was started by JTS Brown as I recall, and that was George Garvin Brown's brother. So really it was just brought into another wing of the family fold.

At any rate, Early Times has been distilled in Shively since the 1940s or so; Old Forester joined it there in the 1970s, despite the current label still proclaiming "at Louisville in Kentucky".

Actually Early Times was created by Jack Beam. When Brown-Forman purchased the brand Jack Beam and his son had both been dead for almost 10 years and they purchased the remaining stocks and brand name for the new owners and the widow.

The distillery was near Bardstown.

Argh...why do I have JTS Brown stuck in my head? Mike Veach, PhD in Whiskey is correct of course.

So does anybody have any ideas of who i might contact to try and sell?

JTS Brown's Son Company bought the old Early Times Distillery after prohibition. This was Creel Brown Sr. He died before it really got up and running (died in 1935) and his son Creel Brown, Jr. took over the company. I don't know think they ever used the name "Early Times", but probably used the address "Early Times, Kentucky" on the label. Early Times, Kentucky was the name of the railroad stop that serviced the distillery. Just because the distillery changed owners, I doubt that the L&N railroad changed the name of the stop.

Your intense greed angers me greatly. Hell is too good for you.

mozilla wrote:

bunghole wrote:Your intense greed angers me greatly. Hell is too good for you.

Unless you have some proof that this person is trying to take advantage of someone....I believe your assumption is a bit premature. It appears that this person is trying to establish a value and market.

You are quite correct, but I don't care! One must be larger than "the market". We must want to do what is right. It is more important that hisorical elements be delivered into the right hands. Free and clear. It is far better to give than to recieve.

I don't think that you are wrong, but I know that you are not right!

Saint Linn!

Hi Everyone,

I have a replica chalk sign from the late 30's that sounds like it is was designed from the sign in this discussion. The previous owner said that he checked with the distillery and they did not purchase old advertising pieces. Whoever he talked to also said the original was actually in the Smithsonian. Anyway, it's an awesome 3D piece. I collect old Brewery pieces and will probably not keep this so like the original poster I was wondering if anyone had an idea of it's value.

Cheers!
Steve
.

It is pretty cool. Unfortunatly all my money goes to actual bourbon. I do have some old toenail clippings I would part with. All I can say is EBAY it!

There were a couple of different iterations of that Early Times advertising sign. The picture posted in this thread is a later version. I'm quite sure I know the one to which the original poster is referring. It is an advertising sign and basically depicts the brand's label at that time, in high relief. The Getz museum has one. It is quite large, about 4-feet tall as I recall. I tried just now to find a picture of it and couldn't locate one. It's not reproduced very often because it shows whiskey being made in a long cabin by what appear to be black laborers, who may be slaves. Some people who have these signs have made the race of the laborers white. I think the distillery may even have put one out that did that. Then in later versions, like the one posted, they de-emphasized the figures, but they're clearly white. In the original, if I remember correctly, one figure is driving an ox cart while the other is doing something in front of the cabin, I forget what.

I'm not sure when the first version of that sign was made and, obviously, any potential buyer would want to know that. Most of that sort of thing, if it's pre-pro, would be from right around the turn of the century. Just 'pre-1923' isn't enough information. I assume that's just Brown-Forman's way of saying, "we didn't do it," as they bought the brand in 1923. I don't know if those signs were produced over some period of time or what the poster even means by "original," though there were different versions done over time so I would consider the first iteration to be the "original." It wouldn't be a one-of-a-kind but it would have been produced in a limited edition, just for very good accounts.

This is certainly the sort of thing people buy and sell on eBay and it's entirely legal to do so, unlike the traffic in full bottles. Inquiring about it here was not too fruitful because the people who collect or otherwise covet old advertising signs -- even of whiskey -- aren't necessarily whiskey enthusiasts. As one poster noted, most of us spend our money on whiskey, not memorabilia.