29.5x22”. See photos for condition. Some touch up, some peeling. The letters are not painted. There is a piece of material behind them giving them color. See photos. Amazing piece of pre pro reverse glass advertising. As pictured. Ask any qs before purchasing.

It is a multi-color reverse-painted glass sign (paint applied to the back of the glass so it shows through from the front), made by the Eureka Sign Co. of Tarentum, Pennsylvania. The small text in the lower right corner reads something like “Painted Nov. 1906 / Eureka Sign Co., Tarentum, Pa.” — dating the piece firmly to late 1906.

Typical features of Eureka’s brewery signs appear here: the eagle perched on a green shield with the interlocking “LBC” monogram, hops and wheat/barley sheaves, and bold period lettering. The wooden frame is period (or at least early). These were high-end bar/tavern pieces meant to hang as eye-catching centerpieces.

Condition shows the expected age-related paint lifting and losses common to these signs after more than a century.

The Brewery

• The operation began earlier as the Hiram Bueck Brewery (around 1860–1865) on South Street in Lykens (Dauphin County, in the Lykens/Williams Valley coal region).

• It passed through the Bueck family until 1895, when Louis (Lewis) Wentzler and a partner bought it and operated it as Lykens Brewing Co.

• By 1908 the Wentzler brothers had invested heavily (reportedly $60,000+ in upgrades, including modern steel, glass, and enameled vessels). Capacity was about 10,000 barrels per year.

• Their flagship product was Cream Top Beer (along with porter and ale). Contemporary accounts praised its purity and flavor; the pure-food commission reportedly called it among the purest in the state. It was on draft in local bars throughout the Lykens and Williams Valleys.

• Louis Wentzler became sole owner around 1908 (his brother Fred left for a similar venture in Canada). The brewery continued until it closed in 1917, just before national Prohibition.

• After Repeal the family briefly restarted as Katherine Wentzler Brewery (1933–1936) and then Wentzler Brewery (1936–1940), again offering Cream Top and other products, before closing for good.

Lykens was a small coal-town brewery serving a regional market rather than a national one, so surviving advertising pieces like this are relatively scarce and desirable to Pennsylvania breweriana collectors.

Cream Top / Cream Ale Context

“Cream Top” or cream ale was a popular American style of the era — a light, clean, highly carbonated ale (sometimes with corn adjuncts) designed to compete with the rising popularity of German-style lagers. It was especially common in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. The name does not imply dairy; it refers to the creamy mouthfeel and appearance