(July / 2011)
Tennent's Scottish and English scene cans: The Brewery is best known among collectors for its many different series of "beer can girls" that were started around 1964. However earlier, during 1959-1964, the brewery started the idea of using photographs on cans by having a series of Scottish and English "scene" cans. Eighty or more scenes were done on cans for several types of beer, lager, stout, etc., and in two sizes, 12 and 16 oz. For the first group of scenes, marketing persons at the brewery went to the Scottish Tourist Board and picked up 20 different photographs - "20" was the number picked since the Medal Box Company printed beer cans in sheets of 20. Many of these cans were exported and have been found discarded on and around British Army bases such as in Cyprus where reportedly around 400, mostly 16oz size ones were found in the 1990's. These 12oz. "scene" cans have been relatively scarce, but have turned up in Argentina and were sold (per Rawley Douglas) in San Francisco at Ghirardelli Square. A number of these cans have a distributor's address on Balboa St. A 1984 book, Lager Lovelies by Scholfield and Kamm, detailed the many different Tennent's cans. |
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