Wainwright Brewery, Buck Beer, St. Louis, MO, created in 1895 by the Heinicke-Fiegel Litho. Co., builds an entire advertisement around the arresting face of a horned goat. Its glossy eyes, broad muzzle and sharply modelled beard dominate the centre, while rich red, blue and golden yellow give the surrounding typography and ornament an emphatic theatricality. The result is both imposing and playful: a brewery trademark transformed into a character that seems to meet the customer’s gaze.

The poster belongs to a period when St Louis was firmly established as a major American brewing centre, shaped in part by the city’s substantial German-American population and its brewing traditions. In an increasingly competitive urban market, such chromolithographic advertisements did more than announce a product. Vivid colour, memorable emblems and ornate lettering helped breweries establish a recognisable public identity in saloons, shops and other commercial settings. The goat was an especially apt figure for a beer of this name, turning “Buck Beer” into an instantly legible visual pun and a bold piece of branding.

A closer look

The composition is organised with the directness of a heraldic device. At the top, “WAINWRIGHT BREWERY.” establishes the producer in strong serif capitals; beneath it, the goat’s head occupies the visual centre like a crest. The animal is rendered with considerably more tonal detail than the flatter surrounding graphics. Fine hatching gives texture to its fur, highlights animate the eyes, and shadows beneath the jaw lend the head a surprisingly substantial presence. Its horns extend outwards, widening the composition and reinforcing the poster’s near-symmetry.

Behind the goat, a warm yellow-orange field acts almost like a halo, separating the brown and cream fur from the more saturated colour around it. At the upper left, the American flag appears in folds, its stars and stripes contributing deep blue and red while adding a note of patriotic spectacle. These intense colours are held against paler cream and pastel passages, ensuring that the central emblem remains readable even amid the decorative detail.

The lower part of the design shifts decisively from illustration to announcement. “BUCK BEER” appears in thick, embellished lettering, with “ST LOUIS, MO.” set below in a smaller serif face. This carefully graded hierarchy allows the eye to move from brewery, to emblem, to product, to place. Sprays of wheat and hops frame the lettering, linking the decorative scheme to brewing ingredients, while a smaller goat at the lower left repeats the central motif on a more whimsical scale. Around the edges, fine ornamental borders contain the various elements without diminishing their energy.

Context and significance

Chromolithography gave late nineteenth-century advertisers access to strong, layered colour and finely articulated illustration, encouraging posters in which commercial information and pictorial display became inseparable. Heinicke-Fiegel Litho. Co.’s design demonstrates that dual purpose particularly clearly. The goat is descriptive, humorous and memorable; the flag broadens the design’s symbolic register; the grain and hop motifs identify the trade; and the lettering delivers the message with unmistakable force.

Yet the poster’s appeal lies equally in its small refinements: the folds within the flag, the individual grains on the wheat, the flourishes worked into the product name and the contrast between the animal’s finely shaded face and the broad surrounding fields of colour. It is a vivid example of how a practical advertisement could become an ambitious work of graphic design, combining illustration, ornament and typography into a single persuasive image.

Choosing the right size and finish

Artwork can feel intimate at smaller sizes and dramatically more architectural at larger ones. Use the room preview, model image and size guide to see how the proportions and scale will work in your space.

If you need an exact size, specialist framing or help planning a larger display, ask our workshop for advice.

The model in the listing images is holding the 24x36in (60x90cm) version of this art print.

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Selected artworks can be produced at statement sizes up to 3 metres (10ft). Custom sizing and specialist framing are also available. If the exact option you need is not listed, contact our workshop.

This artwork is also available as a float framed canvas, sometimes known as a shadow gap framed canvas or canvas floater. The work is printed on artist's cotton canvas and then stretched over a handmade box frame. We then "float" the canvas inside a wooden frame, which is available in a range of colours (black, dark brown, oak, antique gold and white). This is a wonderful way to present an art print without glazing in front. See some examples of float framed canvas art and explore the differences between my different finishes.