Chicago, IL
The Harry Davies Company was established by Harry Davies in 1933 located in downtown Chicago, IL. Harry Davies Company started out as a quality plastics molder producing parts including handles, cases, daka-ware ashtrays, dakaware knobs, and custom molded products. The products that they produced were all made of a bakelite material that they trademarked as “daka-ware” and was very popular at the time.
As breweries began to start back up from the national prohibition in 1933 there were various new regulations on breweries across the country. The government mandated that all beer that is served in taverns, cafes, hotels, and distributors had to be properly marked; ball tap knobs were the solution for this new government regulation.
Harry Davies Company was contracted by breweries across the country to produce bakelite “dakaware” ball tap knobs to mark their products of beer, ale, and porter. The Dakaware beer ball tap knobs were some of the earliest versions of tap handles produced at the time. These knobs consisted of a bakelite body with a convex circular badge nailed to the face.
Various breweries across the country took a liking to what Harry Davies was producing at the time and decided to contract them to produce tap markers for them. Breweries like Mount Carbon, Henry F. Ortliebs, Philadelphia, Erie, Pilsen, Goetz, Atlas, Two Rivers, Hochgreve, Keeley, Wagner, Monarch, Mitchel, Marathon City, South Side, Mound City, Fehr’s, Dick Bros, Thornton, Roosevelt, Peoria, White Eagle, Kiley, Superior, Star Union, Central, Bismarck, Kings, Oshkosh, Karlsbrau, Atlantic, Olympia, Rock Island, Wausau, Farmers, Roscobel, Blumer, Dahlke, Miller, Rheingold, Schonbrunn, George Kunz, Acme, Trenton, Hamms, Old Manhattan, and Heileman just to name a few.
In 1954, Harry Davies retired and sold his interest in the company to a handful of people including his nephew, Ted Davies. Eventually, they rebranded and changed their name to Davies Molding which is still in operation to this day producing injection-molding products for various companies and industries across the world.
Below are a few examples of Harry Davies Co. Dakaware beer ball tap knobs:
