This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/5/2023
This lot features an exceedingly rare check from 1868 signed by both Joseph Schlitz and Jacob Obermann. Joseph Schlitz established Schlitz Brewing Company in 1858. He became more successful after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Many of Chicago's breweries that had burned never reopened. Schlitz established a distribution point there and acquired a large part of the Chicago market. Schlitz died at the age of only 43 making his signature a very difficult one to find. Obermann opened a brewery named Germania Brewery at 5th and Cherry streets in Milwaukee, Wisconsin back in 1854. The brewery was the city's largest for twenty years until 1874. By 1880, the brewer, along with his sons, was producing 30,000 barrels of beer annually. Obermann's brewery became one of the leaders in Milwaukee's brewing industry until his death in 1887. This check is accompanied by a full Beckett Letter of Authenticity.