Cook's Goldblume Beer Cone Top Can

Cook's Goldblume Cherokee Cone Top

The Cook's Goldblume Beer cone top can represents one of the most celebrated mid-century pictorial containers in American breweriana. Produced by the F. W. Cook Company during the post-Prohibition cone top era, this twelve-ounce container features an evocative riverside vignette centering on the paddle steamer Cherokee, framed by draped foliage along the riverbank. Flanked by pairs of white stars over a rich metallic gold body, the illustration sits above the iconic flowing red "Cook's" script and "Goldblume" banner. This specific issue is distinguished by its mandatory alcohol statement declaring contents not in excess of 4% alcohol (NIEO 4%), printed to satisfy targeted state distribution regulations of the period.

Cook's Goldblume stood as the flagship product of the brewery, originally introduced in the late nineteenth century as a classic lager named in tribute to the golden flower of choice hops. Billed over the decades under slogans like "The Best Beer on Earth" and celebrated for its craftsmanship, Goldblume leaned heavily into river lore, using historic packet boats to evoke the romance of trade along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The brand was distributed across a vast swath of the Midwest and American South. After the Evansville plant ceased operations, the Goldblume name survived for decades through contract production by other regional breweries.

The brewery trace its origins to 1853, when Frederick Washington Cook and Jacob Rice founded the City Brewery in Evansville, Indiana. In 1858, the company produced the first lager beer in southern Indiana, formally adopting the F. W. Cook Brewing Company name in 1885. The facility rebounded from devastating fires in 1891 and 1905, and successfully navigated Prohibition through non-alcoholic malt beverages. Following Repeal, the firm expanded dramatically, even establishing its own private electric switching railroad. In 1950, Anton "Tony" Hulman Jr., owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, acquired controlling interest in the brewery. Operations came to a halt following an unresolved 1955 labor strike, leading to the brewery's permanent closure in 1957.

Today, steamboat-themed Cook's cans are widely admired within the collecting community. Surviving examples depicting named vessels like the Cherokee remain highly sought after by collectors who prize the aesthetic artistry of pictorial lithography and the industrial heritage of the Ohio River valley.