Some really rare signs, especially the carboard hunting picture and the 1937 ROOT BEER flange.

More signs and a machine, I currently own 4 Barq's machines.

My name is Robert Sherrill and I have been collecting Barq's Root Beer memorabilia for about 10 years now and didn't get really serious about it until about 5 years ago.  Growing up in Mississippi in the 90s I was unable to enjoy the experience of the old soda pop days of metal signs, thermometers, and glass returnable bottles.  I can barely remember drinking Barq's out of the old returnable bottles when I was 4 in 1988. I would always pick out the Louisiana red labeled bottles because I thought the label looked better in red than blue. I remember going in the gas station located near the house one morning with my father and looking in the cooler for a Barq's returnable bottle only to find the new throwaways.  I asked Mr. Hickman, the owner, what the deal was and he said that the Coke company was going to throwaways and plastic bottles because it should lower the cost and risk of breaking bottles, I remember I had broke two screw- top Nu-Grapes the week before. Well from .55 to now a $1.29 later I'm not really sure what difference it made but resulted in affecting the quality. In my opinion Barq's, Coke, Pepsi, etc, taste better in a glass bottle.  They still make Barq's and Coke in glass bottles but it cost the same as a 12 pack.

            Anyway back from memory lane and back to my collection I started out picking up bottles here and there and then really got into it when at the age of 16 I came across a warehouse here in Hattiesburg witha bout 20 cases of Coke and Barq's bottles. The owner wanted them gone and let me have all of them.  When we got them home not knowing what to do with them I started going online on my first computer and would look up Barq's in the search engine.  For some reason I looked up Barq's in AOL's member section and Barqsnut came up.  Barqsnut is a friend of mine from Pearl, MS.  He told me about eBay and from then on I got hooked. In 1999 I started playing on ebay and I believe I sold my first piece in Feb. of 2000, which was one of the cases of Barq's. Ever since then buying and selling is a daily routine for me. I finally got my power seller icon a few months ago.  In the past few years of collecting I have learned a lot about the Barq's company and collecting soda pop memorablia and have made new friends

What Do I Collect?

Basically I collect ANYTHING with the word BARQ'S on it.  And people, that's a Q not a G. I've talked to people who have been calling it BARG'S for almost 30 years not and just realized it was a Q.  Currently I have around 150 different Barq's bottles. Most of the differences are minor but the styles are what's most important.  Basically from what I've learned in research is that after a bottling company bought a franchise from Barq's, they were not babied and pampered like Coca Cola did to theirs, which was good for survival, they were just let loose on their own which explains why there are so many different Barq's bottles.  Basically my theory is that different bottling companies used whatever type of a bottle that they liked or was cheaper to make. I can't realy go into too much historical stuff that I've learned about Barq's or I'd have to write a book.  Just so you know Barq's started in Biloxi, Mississippi in 1898, not New Orleans.  He was in New Orleans in the early 1890s but he wasn't making Root Beer, he was making Cordials, or Liquors, called Barq's Brothers Bottling Works.

    Barq's signs... I love Barq's signs.  I will include some of my Barq's signs still hanging on the wall of the collectors house that I bought them at. A lot of the signs in the collection I had but a lot I didn't have. I dont' have that much room at my place and this guy had a root beer museum in Pottsville, PA that was 2 stories tall, nice little setup.  

     When it comes to other Barq's stuff, stuff I call knick knacks, I love that stuff too. It's pretty cool finding Barq's promotional stuff like ash trays, pencils, mugs, etc.  I also like paper items such as letter heads, match books, receipts, basically like I said before ANYTHING WITH THE WORD BARQ'S ON IT. A lot of stuff I have, a lot I don't.

If you ever have any Barq's stuff, please contact me. Even if you do not want to sell I would love to see pictures of what you have.  I know couple of people with Barq's collections that do not want to sell and it was just an great experience seeing stuff I had never seen before. It gives me an insight of what's out there and what to look for. If I had never seen an ashtray, I never would have looked for one. 

If you come across any Barq's stuff, and it doesn't have to be Root Beer, Barq's made quite a few other flavors as well, please contact me at sherrill15@aol.com or you can call me at home 601-582-8477, or my cell 601-270-1279. 

I am also looking for any Moon Glo memorablia, Moon Glo was a late 30s, early 40s barq's product simliar to Coca Cola's Hi-C, it was a non carbonated Orange drink.  The majority of Moon Glo memorablia doesn't even mention Barq's on it, just the bottles. So if you come across ANY Moon Glo, or ANY Barq's items, please let me know.

Charles Robert Sherrill II