“Early Times” Plaster Cast Sign

This ornate plaster cast sign shows a cabin still and ox-drawn wagon loaded with barrels crossing a narrow bridge. It advertises the Early Times bourbon distillery which is still produced today by Brown-Forman Distillers Corp. in Louisville, KY. It is a plaster bas relief enclosed with a wooden frame.

It once hung in a bar in New Albany, Indiana owned by Bill Robertson’s father. Robertson has shared that the story goes his father, “had to buy three or four barrels of whiskey to get the sign.” A spokesperson, according to a 1984 Louisville Courier-Journal article shared that it was produced “probably before 1930 and certainly before WWII.”