These decorative panels were part of a large fireplace hood in the Mountain Room at the Rainier Beer Brewery. The copper repoussé (a technique of hammering a copper sheet into a desired design) shows a leafy and flowering hop plant. Hops are used for brewing beer, and hop growing has been a significant agricultural crop in Washington since the 19th century. Rainier Beer traces its history back to 1878 and these panels were made for the large brewery on Airport Way which was in use for decades. The Mountain Room was the tap room and event space, as well as the place where tours of the brewery would conclude. The panels were made by the Dirk Van Erp Studio of Oakland California. Van Erp emigrated from the Netherlands in 1886, working Bay Area shipyards as a coppersmith. He founded his own studio in Oakland in 1908 and exhibited at the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle along with local metalsmith, Albert Berry. In 1929 the studio passed on to his son William. Most of the works designed and manufactured by the studio were copper and brass lighting and ecclesiastical objects for San Francisco churches. Commissioned studio work like these panels are much more rare.