As many of you are aware (and as per my previous post) I do have a soft spot for Irish beer labels, and while browsing through a newspaper - specifically an edition of the Newry Telegraph from February 1885 - I came across this advert for the Newry Mineral Water Company and 'their' Extra Stout. The writing around the advertisement mentions Guinness and James’ Gate, but if this an actual facsimile of the label, then it is a rare example of a bottler not using the Guinness name on their product, which according to David Hughes’ “A Bottle of Guinness Please” did happen on occasion up to this period.
Of course, this is just an advertisement and although it does say ‘See that our Brown Label is on the Bottle’ it does not state that this is the actual label. It is also possible that the whole top part of the advert is a copy of the label but this seems very unlikely, as most labels seem to have been oval or round at that time. I must admit that it seems strange that they would wax so lyrically about the beer without putting it on the label, especially give that Guinness had such a good reputation.
Regardless of whether it was a real label or not it is yet another a nice find to put out into the beer history world, especially with the bottler’s trademark of an arm holding a heart, which is the same one as used by Allan & Co from Liverpool who also bottled Guinness. Indeed, David Hughes mentions them both together in his book, so they must have been connected ...
Liam
