Rare Guinness Coaster Beer Mat Toucan c1950

Circular heavy coaster or mat of the 1950s. 

GENUINE & AUTHENTIC of this period - NOT a copy.

"123 A Quarmby Mat Made in England".

The Guinness Toucan

The Toucan first appeared as a Guinness character in 1935.

If he can say as you can
Guinness is good for you,
How grand to be a Toucan,
Just think what Toucan do.
And so the Toucan became a bird that was to be closely identified with Guinness for almost fifty years! In 1982, Guinness moved their advertising from JWT to Allen Brady & Marsh, and the Toucan, one of the best-loved characters in British advertising, was finally retired.

Guinness Brewery

The Guinness family became the most successful brewing dynasty and one of Ireland's greatest commercial success stories of the 19th century. Founded by Arthur Guinness (1729 - 1803), son of a Kildare land agent, he commenced brewing in Leixlip in 1756 and three years later took over a disused brewery at James Street in Dublin. His son, also Arthur, inherited the brewery along with his father's extensive flour milling interests. He became a director of the Bank of Ireland in 1808 and a governor from 1820. Like his father, he was a committed member of the Church of Ireland, and active in a range of philanthropic ventures, Arthur 11 supported Catholic emancipation and parliamentary reform, but declined to back Daniel O'Connell's repeal agitation.

Guinness's Dublin brewery initially produced ale and beer, to which by the 1790s it had added the darker drink, porter. From the 1820s its better porters had begun to be described as 'stout', 'double stout' and later 'triple stout'. Initially it produced mainly for the Dublin market, but English outlets expanded rapidly from the 1820s and by 1840 accounted for more than half of total sales. The period of most dramatic growth was from the 1850s. By the 1930s it had become the seventh largest company in the world.

BEER MATS or Coasters

From the Latin Teges, meaning ‘small rug’, collectors of beer mats or drip mats, have taken the term Tegestology to describe the subject – a collector being known as a Tegestologist.  (You learn something new every day!!)

The first wood pulp drip mat was patented in 1892 by Robert Sputh in Dresden, Germany,  but, although used in the rest of Europe from that time, it was not until 1920 that they came into commons use in the England. 

In Ireland they were slower to appear – the first we remember was the Guinness toucan in the mid 1950s

It was from these somewhat primitive examples that the beautifully coloured and highly attractive beer mats of today developed. 

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