Tally-ho Ale Cone Top Can

Tally-Ho Ale Cone Top Can

The Tally-ho Ale cone top is a 12-ounce low-profile container manufactured for the City Brewing Corporation of New York City during the late 1930s. Regulated under the era's federal packaging guidelines, the can incorporates the standard Internal Revenue Tax Paid (IRTP) tax statement. A distinctive feature of this label design is the prominent attribution of the brewery's leadership team—Koenig, Rauch, and Paulsen—credited directly beneath the primary brand lettering on the front face, reflecting early packaging runs from this metropolitan brewer.

City Brewing Corporation introduced the Tally-Ho product line following the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, offering ale, lager beer, and porter. The brand embraced a classic equestrian coaching theme inspired by the historic British coaching call. This identity is anchored by graphic label artwork illustrating a passenger-filled stagecoach pulled by a four-horse team, complete with a coachman blowing a traditional horn. Positioned as a quality regional offering, Tally-Ho enjoyed widespread popularity throughout the New York metropolitan area, particularly across Brooklyn and Queens, while also securing distribution through select international export routes. After corporate consolidations in the early 1940s, the Tally-Ho brand was gradually discontinued in favor of other house offerings.

City Brewing Corporation operated from an established brewing facility on Cypress Avenue in Ridgewood, situated right along the Queens and Brooklyn border. Originally established in the late nineteenth century as the William H. Frank Brewing Company, the facility transitioned through several names before emerging post-Prohibition under the executive management of John Koenig, Henry Rauch, and Frederick Paulsen. The brewery actively adopted canning technology to modernize distribution across the eastern seaboard. In 1941, City Brewing merged into The Greater New York Brewery, which continued regional production until halting operations around 1950 after severe labor disputes and mounting pressure from national mega-breweries.

Within the breweriana community, this can stands out as a quintessential pre-World War II metropolitan New York cone top. While its lager counterpart is well documented among collectors, the ale version is especially sought after due to its striking coaching pictorial, vintage typography, and historical connection to post-Repeal New York brewing.