Reynard the Fox, the mascot of Bevo beer holding a stein and eating a mutton shank, an architectural or advertising piece after the stone carvings on the Anheuser-Busch Brewery building, Louis, Missouri, circa 1900-1925, painted zinc, 28-1/4 x 12 x 22 in.

Provenance: Private Collection, Georgetown, South Carolina

Note: The Budweiser Clydesdales may be the best known mascots of any Anheuser-Busch brands. And of course, their own logo depicts an eagle. But on the corners of their brewery, there are neither horses nor eagles, but foxes, much like the fox of this lot. The story of foxes such as this began during Prohibition. Anheuser-Busch created Bevo, a nonalcoholic near-beer beverage, in 1916 after alcohol was banned in the military. This decision proved to be a wise one, as Prohibition began three years later in 1919. Anheuser-Busch ramped up production and by the early 20s, they were selling 5 million cases of Bevo every year. “It was a near-beer, so it was a product that tasted close to beer, but didn’t contain alcohol. So that was something we as a company would help us make it through the prohibition time period,” says Anheuser-Busch archivist Tracy Lauer. The mascot for Bevo was a playful character named Reynard the Fox, so-named after a popular fox character from allegorical Dutch, French, German and English fables and fairy tales and chosen because the character in the fables "was always funny whenever he was around, and he knew great places to find eats and drinks. That’s why the fox is shown on the corners with food and drink in its hand.”