This is a reverse painted glass clock made for Barbey’s Inc. Sunshine Brewing Company located in Reading, PA. I would put a date on this clock somewhere around the 1940’s to 1950’s. This clocks would have been displayed in bars, taverns, and distributors to promote sales of Sunshine Beer. The body of the clock is made of composite and fiberglass instead of metal because at the time when this clock was produced there was a metal shortage and all metal and scrap was going towards the war.
I picked up this Sunshine Beer clock at auction last week. When I picked it up at the auction house I noticed there wasn’t any dome glass over the face and the trim ring was damaged and wouldn’t secure the reverse painted glass face and dome glass to the clock. I called a friend and was able to buy a parts clock from him and swap out the dome glass. Then I went onto repairing the tab on the trim ring to secure everything together. Through a little trial, error and a little tweeking it I was able to make it work. I cleaned up the rest of the clock, put in some low watt energy efficient LED bulbs, and now it’s as good as new. It is a beautiful addition to my local breweriana collection.