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Object Overview
Before us is an Advertising barometer with thermometer, produced in the period circa 1930–1955 and associated with Dortmunder Ritter Brauerei — an industrial brewery founded in 1889 in Dortmund, Germany, and later absorbed into larger brewing conglomerates. The inscription “Dortmunder” refers not to a manufacturer but to a regional style of beer, serving as a marker of quality, literally meaning «beer from Dortmund». Ritter Bier is a brand name; Ritter translates as “knight,” which explains the heraldic shield bearing the letter “R” on the panel. This is a clear example of the marketing language of industrial romanticism. The slogan “Ein Qualitätsbegriff” (“a synonym for quality”) reflects a typical interwar and postwar branding strategy, positioning the name itself as a standard of quality.
An ideal advertising medium
The advertising barometer or thermometer represents a hybrid object — combining instrument, signboard, gift item, and everyday household object. It was precisely this hybridity that made the genre so widespread.
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aneroid capsule tensioned on a C-spring
enamel, glass, steel, wood
Trade advertisements and professional publications at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries openly acknowledged that such objects were not merely instruments, but vehicles for the long-term presence of a brand name in daily life. As early as 1897, Taylor Instrument Companies promoted a catalogue of “advertising thermometer novelties”; in 1899, the journal Printers’ Ink described the wooden advertising thermometer as a “staple article,” and in a 1905 advertisement the same manufacturer explained that advertising thermometers outperformed calendars and other novelties because they were valued by the recipient and “worked” for the advertiser every day for many years. By 1925, Newton Manufacturing was already promoting hybrid formats such as the “thermometer + calendar” as fast-selling advertising items.
The logic is straightforward. A thermometer was useful; it was not discarded after initial contact, but hung in the home, on the veranda, in a shop, workshop, garage, pharmacy, or office. Researcher and museum professional David Barnett has noted that in the pre-digital era, the practical value of a thermometer significantly increased the likelihood that advertising would be retained rather than discarded. This is the essence of an ideal advertising medium: utilitarian, inexpensive to reproduce, decorative, and long-lasting.
The barometer operated according to a similar logic, though its message was somewhat different. A barometer did not simply say “it is cold today,” but rather suggested “this is a place of foresight, attentiveness, respectability, connection to science, and good taste.” As barometers were already familiar objects in middle-class homes and public interiors, a brand placed upon such an instrument effectively occupied a position within the everyday ritual of discussing the weather. A brewery or aperitif producer did not manufacture a barometer out of necessity for measuring atmospheric pressure, but because the barometer was a natural wall-mounted object for a bar, kitchen, hotel, office, or pub — precisely the environments where the brand sought to establish a lasting presence in the viewer’s perception.
Thus, advertising on useful objects became an industry. The niche was adopted by all those who needed sustained everyday contact with customers: brewers, producers of soft drinks, motor oils, tobacco, coffee, insurance services, pharmaceuticals, animal feed, footwear, stationery, and even exhibition organizers.
The National Association Breweriana Advertising (NABA), founded in 1972, is a nationwide organization dedicated to the preservation and study of brewery advertising. It provides a clear answer to the question: why would a brewery produce a barometer? Because the barometer was an ideal object for pubs and bars — wall-mounted, conversational, decorative, and perfectly scaled for such interiors.
Ritter Bier barometer-thermometer
The base of the instrument is made from a solid beech board, cut to the shape of a heraldic shield forming the advertising panel. The front is covered with a thin vitreous enamelled steel plate, affixed with small nails; the side edges of the wood are finished with a clear or slightly amber-toned lacquer, while the reverse remains undecorated.
The advertising panel is fitted with a vitreous enamelled steel surface bearing screen-printed graphic layers, each kiln-fired, resulting in a glossy, glass-like finish with slight tactile relief.
In the upper right section of the panel is a slender capillary spirit thermometer, tinted with a blue dye; its bulb reservoir is protected by a decorative brass mount. The temperature scale is printed directly onto the panel and calibrated in degrees Celsius, ranging from −30 to +50.
In the lower portion of the shield is an aneroid barometer manufactured by Huger. The dial is protected by a convex mineral glass set within a brass bezel. The open-type dial is made of painted aluminium and features two concentric scales: the outer in millimetres of mercury, the inner in hectopascals. The scales are accompanied by German-language weather indications. Through the open dial, the movement is visible: its operation is based on a metallic aneroid capsule tensioned by a C-shaped spring, with motion transmitted to the pointer shaft via a fusée chain. The movement can be seen in this Sputnik Weather Station by Huger.
Conclusion
This object exemplifies the intersection of industrial manufacturing, scientific instrumentation, and early modern advertising strategy. More than a measuring device, it functioned as a durable visual anchor for the brand within everyday environments, combining utility with symbolic messaging — a characteristic that explains both its historical popularity and its continued appeal among collectors today.