late nineteenth century privy dug light aqua blue applied blobtop antique american smooth base beer bottle manufactured for the john gund brewing company

late nineteenth or early 20th century antique american privy dug light aqua blue applied blobtop beer bottle manufactured for the john gund brewing company located in lacrosse, wisconsin. the squat body is finished with a tooled blob and has a flat base. cleanly struck in a debossed plate in the center is the embossed manufacturer’s name and location. the bottle is intact and in good condition. john gund was born in 1830 in schwetzingen, germany. he came to new york in 1848, but it wasn’t until 1854 that gund moved to la crosse, wisconsin. in 1872 he began building the “empire brewery” on south avenue, which had a capacity of 2500 bottles per day. all these buildings were built of limestone taken from the bluffs near la crosse. the brewery produced thirty thousand barrels per year, and had a staff of twenty-five people working for $15 a day. although a large part of the beer was exported, three teams of horses were kept constantly at work in delivering beer throughout the city. the john gund brewing company was organized and incorporated on may 1, 1880. the amount of business being handled by the john gund brewing company increased steadily. additions and improvements were made to the brewery so that by 1897, it covered five acres. in that year 60,000 barrels of beer were brewed, and gund’s beer was shipped all over the region. on september 23, 1897, one of the most disastrous fires in the history of la crosse broke out in the john gund brewing company. luckily, enough beer was recovered so the brewery could continue to fill its orders while it was being rebuilt. john gund said that the brewery would be rebuilt as soon as the debris was cleared away. sure enough the next day, a group of fifty men was on the grounds clearing away rubble and cleaning charred kegs. the new brewery was designed by louis lehle of chicago and finished in august 1898. the plant was larger than the older brewery, furnished with new machinery and equipment, and was fire-proof. it was further enlarged in 1900 and a new bottle washing machine was added. its annual output was, at this point, 25 million bottles. john gund died in 1910. the gund brewing company was the largest brewery in the old northwest, outside of milwaukee. “gund’s peerless” beer was internationally famous. it won a medal and diploma at the paris exposition in 1900, and the gold medal at the louisiana purchase exposition in 1904. a sign advertising gund’s beer was seen in puerto rico during prohibition. by 1910, gund’s brewery employed 450 people. in 1919, prohibition was enacted and the john gund brewing company closed down. but on may 27th of that year, the ruling of a new york judge made possible the manufacture of beer with 2.3- 4% alcohol content, called “war beer.” the gund brewery re-opened and began production of this beer. in 1920, the brewery worker’s union in la crosse went on strike to outlaw open shops (businesses in which both union and non-union men could work). being the largest employer, gund’s was the hardest hit. later in 1920, complete prohibition closed the john gund brewing company once again. this, along with the strike, proved to be too much, and the gund family packed up and moved east. the city of la crosse thereby lost one of the most important businesses it ever had. the buildings of the gund brewery stand today just south of lutheran hospital on south avenue. although several changes and alterations have been made, one can still get an idea of the immensity of this operation.