Here are a pair of Sunshine Beer Ball Tap Knobs from the Barbey’s Sunshine Brewing Company located in Reading, PA. This Sunshine Beer Ball Tap Knobs is from the 1940’s era and are in excellent condition for their age. They would have been used in bars and taverns to mark and advertise what beers were on tap to patrons.
The Sunshine Ball Tap knob to the left is from the early 1940’s era and is the older of the 2 variations; this can be seen by the early Sunshine jagged “S” at the 12 o’clock position of the face. the design of the “S” was frowned upon after WWII when the veterans made the notion that it looked like the Nazi Gestapo SS “S”. Only after 1945 did the Barbey’s Sunshine Brewery redesign the “S” to a slightly smoother design. There are actually 2 variation of this ball tap knob, one with blue text like the one pictured here and the other with black text.
The Sunshine Ball Tap Knob to the right is from the late 1940’s era. It’s made with a metal body and has a smaller graphic face on the back of the body. The smaller face would have been used for the bartenders to identify quickly what beers were on tap and made tapping the beers more efficient rather then memorizing all the beer selection placements.
I have been looking for both of these Sunshine Beer Ball Tap Knobs for a long time. I see them out an about from time to time but never in this as good of condition. I’m very happy I waited and I’m glad to have them in my collection. Now onto finding the other variations of these Barbey’s Brewery Sunshine Beer Ball Tap Knobs.