York & Freeman Ave, Cincinnati, OH / Main Lane, New York City, NY
The Brunhoff Manufacturing Company was founded in 1890 in Cincinnati, OH. The company was a full-service sign manufacturing company; they also held many unique patents for all of their signage designs.
Point-Of-Purchase advertising items were what the company was most famous for; among these POP items were a variety of cigarette and cigar signs for the Tobacco industry like cigar cutters, change trays, ashtrays, and paperweights. They specialized in creating eye-catching “Modern Displays” advertising countertop and showcase signage like electric backlit signs with reverse-painted thick embossed glass faces. Some of these signs were mounted in small metal bodies while others were mounted in large barrel-shaped wooden bodies that resembled the top of a wooden beer keg. They also produced smaller reverse-painted glass lighted signs mounted in metal bodies that resembled a metal drum with curled feet.
Other companies and industries hired the Brunhoff Manufacturing Company to create advertising signs for them too; among these companies were Coca-Cola Soda Company and Yocum Brothers Cigar Markers just to name a few. They also made a wide variety of bar back signs for breweries as well.
The Brunhoff Mfg. Co. made various lighted beer signs for breweries like Old Reading, Barbey’s Inc. “Sunshine Beer”, Kaier’s, Neuweiler, Daeufer, Stegmaier, Du Bois, Carnegie, Old Anchor, Duquesne “Silver Top”, Dubois, National Bohemian, National, Miller, Oshkosh, Pilsner POC, Wausau, Oertel’s, Bruck’s, and Jacob Ruppert just to name a few.
Brunhoff Mfg Co slowed production of advertising signs in the 1950s in part due to the growing competition of large department store advertising and television advertising that was prominent after WWII. They eventually ceased operations and closed their doors for good on Jun 30, 1954. The original Brunhoff building is still standing to this day and has been converted into an apartment building; click here to view the building.
Below are a few examples of Brunhoff Mfg Co signs and ads:
