100 years ago today a Russo-German airline Deruluft began operations between Moscow and Königsberg, it later added a Berlin-Leningrad route. It was dissolved in 1937 due to the deteriorating political situation. 
Anyway, its logo is one of the most stylish I've seen, very 1920s, quite beautiful.

First Company I had a job with:

A Japanese porcelain dish from the 1660s featuring the VOC logo of the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie). The Amsterdam-based company made its investors fabulously wealthy during the 17th and 18th centuries trading from Holland via the Cape of Good Hope to the Malabar coast of India, Malacca in Malaya, the Moluccas in the East Indies and Nagasaki in Japan as well as many other points in between. After 197 years of trading the company's charter lapsed and it was effectively dissolved by the Netherlands' Bonaparte-sponsored Batavian republic on New Year's Eve 1799.

Is there a distinction between a business logo and a trademark? Or indeed between these and a manufacturer's mark or just the maker's signature on a paper label? I'm not sure however simple identifying marks have been used for centuries by knife makers, blacksmiths, armourers, clockmakers, musical instrument makers, potters, coopers, printers etc. Indeed I think London's 13th century Assize of Bread - as well as fixing the weight, quality and price of loaves - ordered that every baker had to impress his own unique identifying mark into the dough before baking, not just as a mark of pride in his produce but also so that any baker selling short-weight loaves could be traced and prosecuted.

Another heavily regulated business was the brewing of ale and beer and some of the oldest still recognisable trademarks are for brewers, for example the horn symbol of Stella Artois and the rampant lion of Löwenbräu.



Stella Artois was first produced in 1926 by the Brouwerij Artois company in Leuven, Belgium, but as the Hoorn (Horn) brewery it had started operation in 1366 when it was a tavern brewing its own beer under the sign of a hunting horn.



The Löwenbräu brewery is supposed to have been founded in 1383 although it's first mention by that name is in Munich tax records of 1746. The lion emblem originates from a 17th-century fresco on the wall of the brewing house which depicted Daniel in the lions' den.


Following the UK's Trade Mark Registration Act of 1875 the very first mark to be registered was also for a brewery, the Bass Brewery of Burton-upon-Trent, with its registered label incorporating a distinctive red triangle alongside the signature of William Bass the company's founder.



The red triangle logo clearly identifies the beer's presence in Manet's 1882 painting of 'Un bar aux Folies Bergère'.



Until its closure in 2006, Britain's oldest brewing site in continuous operation was the Young and Co.'s Ram Brewery in Wandsworth, which has a recorded history dating back to the 1550s when a Humphrey Langridge leased the Ram pub and brewed beer there, hence the Young's ram symbol.



Meanwhile in 1816 John Fuller started his company brewing beer at the Griffin Brewery in Old Chiswick, which had been in operation as a brewery since the 17th century. Hence the current Fuller, Smith and Turner company's gryphon emblem.

Another old brewery trademark is the red cross of Joule's Brewery, Stone, Staffordshire. It was formally adopted in 1867 in recognition of the monks of the Mediaeval priory of St Mary in the town who were known for their brewing skills. 
Sadly the brewery closed in the 1970s, but the red cross can still be seen on the now repurposed buildings and in faded paint on some of the many pubs in the area Joules' supplied.

They use this version for one of my favourite tipples. The pub concerned is now called "The Crown Joules" - used to be just "The Crown".

My dad was a delivery driver for Joules, sometimes I would go with him and his partner Cyril. I would remain in the lorry with a bag of crisps and some pop while dad and Cyril would have a pint or two in the pub. You could do that 50 years ago.

Before the lockdown I used to sometimes go to a folk night at the Rose & Crown in Stafford - it is (well it was before lockdown because I haven't been there since the quarantine ended) a Joules pub but the brewery is in Market Drayton now.

It may be in Market Drayton but it'll never be the REAL Joule's, rather like when Wimbledon FC moved to Milton Keynes.