rare late nineteenth century amber beer bottle manufactured for chicago brewers edward birk & brothers. the st. louis weiss-shaped body is comprised of a narrow, tapering glass with nonexistent shoulders and an applied, tooled blob top. the front body is embossed with an unusual cursive font "ed. j. birk / & bro / chicago" surrounded by small ornamental cross designs. jacob birk, together with frederick wacker and son, built a new brewery adjacent to the wackers' existing malthouse at the corner of desplaines and indiana streets in 1881. the following year the wacker and birk brewing and malting company was incorporated. the brewery quickly rose to be one of the larger and more important breweries in chicago. the brewery produced lager beer and had in-house bottling. in 1891 wacker & birk and mcavoy breweries were sold to an english syndicate, chicago breweries ltd. both breweries continued using their premerger names, and jacob birk left the company at this time. after selling the wacker & birk brewery, jacob birk and his sons william a. and edward j. purchased the five year old corper & nockin brewery on webster avenue and renamed it birk brothers brewing & malting co. a third brother, frank j. birk, later joined the family brewery. jacob birk, the father retired from active management in 1895 although he remained as director. the brewery was extensively remodeled and upgraded, becoming a lager brewery and malt shop with in-house bottling. in the vast chicago market, birk brothers was considered a medium size brewery. the brewery remained open in the difficult years approaching national prohibition then closed when prohibition became a reality.