| First presented by the Macdonald
Tobacco Company in 1927, the Macdonald Brier Trophy was awarded annually
to the winner of the Macdonald Brier until 1979. |
| Macdonald Tobacco withdrew its sponsorship
that year after 50 years and the Macdonald Brier Tankard was retired. |
| When Labatt Breweries became the
Brier sponsor in 1980, it introduced a gold Labatt Tankard, which became
the icon of the Brier and was awarded 21 times. When Labatt decided
to end its title sponsorship, the Labatt Tankard was retired. |
| When Nokia Products Ltd. became
the Brier’s new sponsor, it decided in consultation with the Canadian Curling
Association to reactivate the original trophy beginning with the 2001 Nokia
Brier. |
| The trophy was restored and the
base expanded by Clarkes Recognition Products of Vancouver. |
| For its first 27 years, the Tankard
was presented with a sterling silver heart plaque attached to it on which
the names of each team member had been hand-engraved. After 27 years
no space was left, so a single plaque was attached to the back, where the
names of all the winners from 1955 to 1979 were engraved. |
| Clarkes increased the size of the
base so that a silver heart crest could be attached for every Brier-winning
team. |
| The Nokia Tankard now proudly displays
a hand-engraved silver heart for each of the 72 Brier winners. |
| The original cup on the trophy was
hand-tooled in Great Britain and is a work of art that could be re-created
only in Europe. The replacement value of the original trophy has
been estimated at $17,000. The CCA invested $10,000 to complete the
restoration. |
| Text from CCA's website:
http://www.curling.ca |
