The New
Vol. 14 No. 1 Winter 2003
Happy New Year from “The Genuine” the FOHBC Board and your Editor!
The Magazine of the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors
The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors is proud to present a Live, Unreserved Public Auction of fine Early Bottles, Flasks, Jars and Stoneware to be held in conjunction with the 2003 National Bottle Show Kentucky International Convention Center Louisville, Kentucky Saturday, June 28, 2002
We are currently seeking quality consignments for this auction To discuss the possibility of consigning a item or group of items, or for more information regarding this sale, please contact: John R. Pastor, 1st Vice President – Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors 7288 Thorncrest Dr. SE, Ada, MI 49301 (616) 285-7604
The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors On the Cover: Left: The Genuine Old Bourbon Whiskey, see page 18 for story, Right: A grouping of different forms of flasks.
Vol. 14 No. 1 Winter 2003
South Dakota: Bottles and Advertising Crockery, Jim Louks.................................46 Ohio: The North Balitmore Bottle Glass Company Joe Terry..................................48
Table of Contents Bottle Buzz..............................................2 Collinsville Show Well Attended Mike Elling................................4
Arizona: Grand Canyon Glass Michael Miller..........................51 Collecting Western Whiskey Flasks Ralph Van Brocklin......................18 Collector’s Spotlight Charlie Barnette..........................29
Recent Finds............................................5 Coke and the Peabody Cecil Munsey.............................6 Federation Business President’s Message..................8 John Bidwell’s Thatcher Milk Bottle Randy Taylor.............................9 Applied Color Label (ACL) Bottles Fred Arwood............................11 Let’s Talk About Ink Ed and Lucy Faulkner.............12 The Story of Cyrus Noble Whiskey Bottles Kitty and Russell Umbraco.....15 Eastern Whiskey : Names in the Glass Don Denzin.............................16
Random Shots Howard Currier...........................32 Poisonland Mike Dickman.............................34 Collecting Owl Drug Store Stuff Jim Bilyeu....................................36
Colorado: Whiskey Bottle Collecting John M. Eatwell.......................52 Iowa: Wm. Beardsley: Druggist, Bottler & Patentee Michael Burggraaf................54 Utah: Utah Liquor Company Stan Sanders............................56 Oregon: A Choice Western Flask Dale R. Mlasko........................58 Nevada: Embossed Bottles....................59
Lash’s - Not Just Bitters Donald Yates................................39 White House Vinegar Wade Cox.....................................40 Veterinary Roundtable Mike Smith, DVM........................42 The Top 25 Bottles of Georgia Bill Baab......................................44
Alabama: The Magnificient Seven Tom Lines.................................60 Montana: Bottle Collecting in Montana Ray Thompson..........................62 Special Deliveries Membership and Ads Info........67 FOHBC Show-Biz Show Listing............................68
WHO DO I CONTACT ABOUT THE MAGAZINE? To ADVERTISE, SUBSCRIBE or RENEW a subscription, see PAGE 67 for DETAILS. To SUBMIT A STORY, send a letter to the Editor or have comments and concerns, Contact Kathy Hopson, B&E Editor, 1966 King Springs Rd, Johnson City, TN 37601 E-mail: kathy@thesodafizz.com BOTTLES AND EXTRAS (ISSN 1050-5598) is published quarterly (4 Issues per year) by the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, Inc. (a nonprofit IRS C3 educational organization) at 3706 Deerfield Cove, P.O. Box 341062, Bartlett, TN 38135; (901) 372-8428; Internet Address: http://www.fohbc.com. Periodicals Postage Paid at Memphis, TN 38101 and additional entries. Pub #005062. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Bottles & Extras, Ralph VanBrocklin, 1021 W. Oakland Ave, Suite 109, Johnson City, TN 37604. Annual subscription rate is: $30.00 (+$15.00 for Air Mail inside the U.S.), Canada: $35.00 (+$14.00 for Air Mail), Overseas: $45.00 Surface (U.S. funds) (+$15.00 Air Mail). Phone: 661-946-2051. We assume no responsibility for products and services advertised. Printing establishment: Central Plains Book Mfg., Winfield, KS 67156 The names: Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, Inc., and Bottles and Extras, are copyrighted names of the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, Inc., and no use of either, other than as references to, may be used without expressed written consent from the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, Inc. Certain material contained in this publication is copyrighted and remains the sole property of the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, Inc., while others remain property of the submitting authors. Detailed information concerning a particular article may be obtained from the Editor.
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Bottle Buzz News, Notes, Tips & Hobby Happenings Send BuzzNotes to: Kathy Hopson, E-mail: kathy@thesodafizz.com or write to: Buzz, 1966 King Springs Rd, Johnson City TN 37601
Collectors and Archaeologists: A Time for Reconciliation and Cooperation © Bill Lockhart 2002 From time to time, a collector writes an article in one of the bottle magazines complaining about archaeologists and how they are trying to ruin collecting. Also, periodically, someone on HISTARCH, a listserve for historical archaeologists, brings up the subject of collectors and how they are ruining historical sites. Each complainer presents what to him or her is a compelling argument about why the other should be prevented from interfering with what each group considers its own turf. Neither group offers any compromise, and neither looks at the possibility that its own people may be contributing to the problem. These are examples of the extremists in both groups. Extremists in archaeology, for example, feel that bottle collectors are just another form of “pot hunters” who haphazardly dig holes and destroy evidence that could be used someday by “legitimate” researchers. The collector counterparts are angry because archaeologists are trying to destroy their “legitimate” hobby. Neither extreme is willing to admit that the other side has any good point in its favor, or to seek any compromise. One idea that further fires the argument is that of “ownership.” Each side believes in ownership but ownership of different types. Ownership is easy to see in collectors. Each collector wants to own the finest example of the type of bottle that she or he is attracted to. Value is attached to the object. Of at least equal importance is the scarcity of the specific bottle. The rarer the bottle, the more incentive is attached to finding others like it, either for monetary gain or
the value of possession. Archaeologists, on the other hand, want to own the information attached to the object. Value, in this case, is attached to the information. To the archaeologist, once the object (in this case, the bottle) is removed from its “context,” much of the information is lost. A bottle is valuable only in connection with its exact location. This includes how deeply the bottle is buried, the objects (or lack thereof) surrounding the bottle, the soil type, and other factors. It also includes the surroundings (for example, a bottle pit, privy, trash dump, or under a no-longer-existing porch). In short, the context is just as important as the bottle (or maybe even more so), and all broken pieces are as important as a complete container. The big problem is–where do we draw the line? The extremists of both groups want the line drawn in such a way as to exclude the other group. Not surprisingly, this elicits a negative reaction from people in the opposite court. Collectors want a hands-off approach from archaeologists – a freedom to dig wherever they want. Archaeologists want to exclude collectors from digging anywhere–a preservation of historical heritage. The real question is: Where to we draw the line? Currently, the line has been drawn by federal law. Only information-based excavation is allowed on governmentowned land, including public property. However, the same law allows bottle collectors to dig on privately-owned land with the landowner’s permission. Although no one on either extreme is willing to admit it, this actually provides an acceptable compromise. Because public land occupies so much space in the United States, a large portion of potential information is preserved for the archaeologists.
Bottles and Extras Another large segment of land (private) is at the disposal of bottle collectors. Neither group gets the whole pie, but each is allotted a substantial piece of it. Actually, archaeologists have always had a love/hate relationship (or maybe a value/anger relationship would be more correct) with collectors. I have already discussed the anger part, but we need to look at the value. Until recently, almost all the literature about bottles was generated by collectors. Although it contains many errors (we have learned more since the 1960s!!), Grace Kendrick’s small book, The Antique Bottle Collector, has probably been cited in more archaeology reports than any other single source of bottle information. Books by Bill and Betty Wilson are still used, and Betty Zumwalt’s (the former Betty Wilson) book, Ketchup Pickles Sauces: 19th Century Food in Glass, remains the bible for culinary bottles. No historical archaeologist would attempt bottle dating without Julian Harrison Toulouse’s Bottle Makers and Their Marks (written for collectors), and Glass Milk Bottles: Their Makers and Marks, by Jeffery L. Giarde is unmatched for dating milk bottles. Clearly, certain bottle collectors are excellent researchers. Although mostly used for teaching and comparison, a form of collection, called a type collection, is frequently used by archaeologists. Probably the most common type collections are for projectile points (arrow heads) and pottery sherds. Type collections enable archaeologists to compare examples excavated in the field with known sherds or points of a specific type. They are also used as a teaching aid to show students what to expect when they collect information. I am in the process of putting together a type collection of bottles from Southern New Mexico, El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico. This collection allows me to write books and articles of interest to both archaeologists and collectors. These works contain valuable information on dating and classifying soft drink, beer, liquor, dairy, and drug store bottles from this part of the Southwest. This brings us to another point: although the focus is different, collectors and historical archaeologists are basically
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interested in the same thing – bottles. Since our interests are similar, it would be better for both groups to cooperate to learn more about the objects of our mutual interest. I first began studying bottles at the University of Texas at El Paso in 1994 and have been gathering information from collectors, other archaeologists, bottle makers, bottle sellers, and bottle fillers since 1992. In fact, I am working on joint research projects with two bottle collectors now. Mike Miller, a collector from Arizona (and author of A Collector’s Guide to Arizona Bottles & Stoneware: A History of Merchant Containers in Arizona) and I collaborated on a history of the Southwestern Coca-Cola Bottling Company (with branches in both New Mexico and Arizona) and produced a talk that was well received at the New Mexico-Arizona Joint History Convention, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in April 2002. We plan to eventually submit an article to one of the collectors’ magazines and are
currently working on a dating guide for Southwestern’s bottles. Another collector, Mike Hennech (author of Encyclopedia of Texas Breweries: Pre-Prohibition (1836-1918) and various articles on breweries), and I are engaged in writing a book on the breweries of El Paso, Texas. Mike must have connections with every breweriana collector in the world – he has found an incredible amount of information. Also of great help on the same project is Rick Chavez, longtime collector of Harry Mitchell beer bottles, cans, and other articles. Rick opened his entire files to me, including such incredible finds as the entire incorporation records for the company. When we are finished, we will have a very complete history of the breweries of the city and a good chronology of the bottles used by each company. My contributions to the partnerships includes my abilities on computer
(especially for internet publication), connections for publication in local historical and archaeological journals, as well as collector publications, and abilities in historical research. I seem to be especially good at finding obscure connections to relatives and descendants of bottlers along with finding historical references. In both cases, Mike and I (and Rick and I) make a good team. We complement each other. And so I spend much of my time telling archaeologists what great people most bottle collectors are and telling collectors what great people most archaeologists are. Despite the occasional letters of outrage (from and about both groups), I believe most bottle collectors and archaeologists are willing to work with each other for the common good. I still feel that our goals are not that dissimilar, and, if we concentrate more on the commonalities we share and less on the perceived differences, that both groups have much to contribute to each other.
Room hopping From: Bryan & Pearl Grapentine Here is an idea to make the annual Federation shows even more interesting and fun. We have attended many National Coca-Cola Conventions around the United States, and a very popular feature of these conventions is “Room Hopping”. The conventions are always held at a large hotel and most of the attendees stay at this hotel. Anyone who wants to sell something simply displays the items in his hotel room
and props his door open, often attaching a small sign on the door. Room selling is in addition to selling by dealers, a silent and live auction and a swap meet, so it does not detract from the main event. Items are often placed on the bed, dresser or on a small table brought from home. Buyers wander the corridors and visit all the rooms with open doors and merchandise visible. It’s a lot of fun and an inexpensive way to buy and sell. “Room Hopping” should work at a Federation show perhaps Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings. It would be par-
ticularly useful to the person who has only a few items to sell, not enough to rent a table at the show. Collectors traveling by air could bring just a few items to sell. Others traveling a long way who don’t want to bring much, would have an outlet to sell a few items. It might be a good way to sell large advertising items which are often difficult to display at a show. We encourage the show and publicity chairman to consider promoting room hopping at FOHBC Shows – what do we have to loose?
English Club soda, bottled by George H. Mitchell Company, was the successor to a bottling operation on the corner of Ticonic and Kelsey Streets, in Waterville, Maine, that went back to 1904. Begun by a man named Moses Rudman, the operation passed to Harry Gitlin and Henry Jacobson in 1920. Jacobson became the sole proprietor in the late 1920s, and it was he who sold the firm to George H. Mitchell around 1939. George, born in Waterville, had been in several businesses with his brothers,
Buddy and Joseph. Now it was time to do his own thing, and he did it well. At one point in the 1950s, the George H. Mitchell Company had 14 delivery trucks on the road, covering central Maine, from Rangeley to Jackson, to Ellsworth to Bath. In addition to a full line of English Club Beverages, the firm also bottled under franchise, Moxie, Squirt, Hire’s, Nesbitt’s, Whistle, Orange Crush, Royal Crown and Nehi through the years. George Mitchell served as president of both the Maine State and the New England Bottlers Association. In 1947, George switched locations because he needed more room. The result was a brand-new plant at 13 Railroad Square. George was also on the move in
other ways too. He was the pioneer in northern New England with respect to premix: syrup, water and C02 mixed in five-gallon bulk containers to be “tapped” and sold at fast-food, and other retail outlets. In fact, by 1962, premix was doing so well that George pretty much went out of the bottling end of things. George H. Mitchell passed away in July, 1977. His son Darrell ran the business almost a decade longer, liquidating in 1986. The company’s original Ticonic and Kelsey location is now home to CED’s Market. The newer plant houses the Railroad Square Cinema, and the Waterville Family Practice medical office. KH
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Bottles and Extras
Collinsville Show Well Attended From: Mike Elling, Sharon, TN The Metro-East annual Bottle and Jar Association Show and Sale, held Sunday, November 3, 2002, was well attended as cool, rainy weather brought people indoors. The weekend was also scheduled for driving among the brilliant autumn foliage surrounding the area. The show is held at the Gateway Center in Collinsville, Illinois, across the river from St. Louis. An estimated 450 people attended. Over 150 tables were available for collectors to browse. Antique bottles of all kinds, medicines, sodas, inks, fly traps, lightning balls and fire grenades. One vendor set up a table of glass marbles, some dating to the earliest days of American glass making. Among some of the soda bottle finds were Susan Kaiser, of Holt's Summit, MO, with a 1pt. 8 oz. , Lily Belle, in unusual green glass picturing a nude kneeling holding two calla lilies. The paint is white/red and the bottler is Tru-Ade, of St. Louis, in 1951. For the techie's, this bottle features the terms, "Needle Point Carbonation" and the initials "L-B" at the neck. Fred Arwood, of Gate City, VA, found a Tumble Brook, a highly prized quart from Hartford, CT, dated 1965. This green glass bottle features a woodland scene in bright yellow/white paint; a clear glass quart from Ashland, WI, Paramount Beverage Company with a mountain on it in blue paint; and a 12 oz red/white, Tops For Thirst. This Grapette Bottling Company item from
DeSoto, MO, shows a large picture of a soda bottle, 2 drink glasses, and an ice bowl over a large rectangle. It is mould dated 1955. Delbert Roley, of Stewardson, IL, always a lucky finder, got a non-Dr Pepper clockface bottle called Berry's Big Time. The 10 oz clear glass shows a large clockface with the hands set at 2:45. It has a knurled neck, is in red/white, and is a Fairmont, WV, factory of the Owen-Illinois Company dated 1958. Sparkling mint, this New Lexington, Ohio bottle was tagged at $25.00. Delbert also found another scarce Knox Glass Mississippi Delta bottle, a Dixieland. This is the one showing a cotton boll, and a ginning factory, in white/green from Jackson, MS. The reverse picture is a road map showing Jackson as the commercial hub of farm and industry in Mississippi, with the terms "Crossroad of the South." Mould dated 1946, the item was only in grade 3 condition and tagged at $125.00. "By getting this one now, maybe I'll find a mint one next time," Delbert explained. Milford and Sue Anglin, of Siloam Springs, AK, were set up and selling many scarce ACL sodas. Milford found a very scarce Maumee Valley, with the trademark Indian Princess in Canoe picture, but in red/white clear glass in 12 oz! The bottle is an early 1941, issued by the Cleo-Cola/ Whistle bottler in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The color is still complete and the item is by the Glenshaw Glass Co., and coded with the letter "M".
Among the celebrities seen was Mr. Bill Meier, of Breese, IL. He is current manager of the Excel Bottling Company, and grandson of the founder. He is the last remaining bottler of soda products in returnable glass bottles in Illinois. He bottles Ski, the highly successful non-caffeine citrus drink of the Double Cola Company, and several other fruit flavor drinks under his own brand. He currently uses Nesbitt's bottles for marketing these. He attended the show looking for more glass leads in high quantities and had his 3 young children with him. He has the ability to scan a table covered with soda bottles and spotting all of the ones his company has used over the years instantly. I too found a scarce quart, a NEHI. It is green glass and has the classy "Par-T-Pak" brand name and the flavor "Tom Collins Mixer" in white/red paint. The picture shows a bevy of party tumblers and stem glasses full of mixed drinks indicating this is the product to insure party gaiety. The bottle is in perfect color and glass registration and is dated 1964, by Liberty Glass. The bottler name is "Royal Crown Bottling Co. Main Office, Salisbury, MD." It was tagged at $40.00 The bargain of the day was a partial case of Bauneq Beq Beverages quarts from Springvale, Maine. These bottles were made by the Reed Glass Works of Rochester, NY, and the action scene is a male snow skier flying far above the pine trees in green/white in 1949. They were tagged at $8.00 each in near mint condition.
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Recent Finds Warren Borton reports that he dug a previously unknown Montana pumpkinseed flask this Fall. Embossed: GEO. C. FITSCHEN & BRO / MAIN STREET / BUTTE CITY / MONT. it represents only the second example of a true pumpkinseed flask with double rolled top known from the state of Montana (the other is from the Placer Hotel in Helena, an enterprise which also presented us with a ground screw-top pumpkinseed) Alas, it was broken, as is the only known example of a shoofly flask from this proprietor. Marc Lutsko provides the following information about George C Fitschen flasks: The only known example of the shoofly flask is a pint and it was dug in the old Butte dump in the Dug in the Spring of 2002 by J. Cress was a previously unknown western pumpkinseed flask embossed: ED EDWARDS / MINT SALOON / 605 COMMERCIAL ST, S.F. The fascinating aspect of this find was not so much the fact that no prior examples had
1960's. George and August Fitschen are first listed in Butte in the 1889 directory with a saloon at 25 South Main Street. In 1891 they are listed as G. C. Fitschen & Bro at 17 South Main Street, a listing which is maintained through 1902. In the 1905 directory, the enterprise is known as Fitschen Bros Commercial Company and in 1906 the company name changes to Gus Fitschen & Company, maintaining the 17 South Main Street address. The most likely time period for these two flasks would then be from 1891-1902. The time period might be shortened , somewhat, with the knowledge of when Butte City became simply Butte. Readers?
been unearthed-- rather it was that it was dug in a privy in Alton, Illinois! The first listing for the Mint Saloon that I find in the San Francisco directories is 1876. At that time it was under the proprietorship of James Noel and George W. Vincent. The initial indication of Edward Edwards in the San Francisco liquor trade is the year 1877, when he is listed as a bartender for Brander & Company at 225 Clay Street. This firm was comprised of the estate of John S. Brander and George Hager. Hager apparently maintained the Clay Street saloon to some degree through at least 1879-80 following acquisition of the Mint Saloon in 1878. Edward Edwards is listed as a bartender for George Hager into 1886, purchasing the Mint Saloon sometime in that year. The final listing for him is in the 1896 San Francisco directory. The Mint Saloon is not listed beyond 1896, either. The BARTLETT & OSTREICHER / GEM SALOON / ELKO NEV. was also dug by him this summer.
Warren also dug this plate and Hire's Root Beer Mug from an early privy hole in northern Wyoming. The Hire's mug is Mettlach, from Germany, and he also believes the plate is as well.
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South after the Civil War, the new venture was named The Peabody. The original hotel was built at the corner of Main and Monroe in downtown Memphis and was considered one of the finest in the South. It had 75 rooms with private baths, a ballroom, saloon and lobby. Cecil Munsey It cost a precious $3 or $4 a day for room and If you’re ever in Memphis, Tennessee meals and extra for a fire or gas light. The one of the most important places to visit is Peabody Hotel remained in the builder’s The Peabody Hotel. The establishment is family directly or indirectly for 96 years. world famous as “The South’s Grand The Peabody was the place to see and Hotel.” be seen. Over the years it played host to The Peabody was originally built more such notables as U. S. Presidents, Confedthan 130 years ago. That’s 30 years before erate Generals, plantation owners, profesthe Coca-Cola Bottling Company of sional gamblers, important businessmen Memphis was opened in 1902, to become such as the owner of the local Coca-Cola one of several pioneering Coke bottling bottling company, movie stars and other franchises in Tennessee. celebrities. The Peabody enjoyed success Coca-Cola’s promotional association until 1923 when it closed. with “The South’s Grand Hotel” did not Two years later, in 1925, a $5 million new come about until 78 years after the first Peabody hotel, designed by architect bottling plant opened in Memphis. But Walter Ahlschlager, opened at its present that’s getting ahead of the historical tale to downtown address – 149 Union Avenue. be told here. R. Brinkley Snowden, great-grandson of To begin with, it’s interesting to note that the original builder, owned the new hotel. Native Americans living in what is now The new 468-room hotel exudes a grandMemphis, Tennessee had their first con- dame charm and is still the place to see tact with Europeans, in 1541, when they and be seen. It serves as the social hub for encountered the Hernando De Soto Memphis and the Mid-South elite. expedition. Things went very well for the new propNot much is recorded about that first erty throughout the 1930s through the meeting but approximately 200 years later 1970s. In the 1970s downtown Memphis, (1739) French explorers built Fort like many urban areas, experienced a Assumption on the Memphis site. Then 56 years later (1795) the Spanish built Fort San Fernando de Las Barrancas in the same area. Just two years later the United States built Fort Adams and officially gained control of the area. The city of Memphis was actually founded on May 22, 1819 by Andrew Jackson, John Overton, and James Winchester. It took 53 years before the first Peabody Hotel appeared on the scene. Col.
Coke and
the Peabody
Robert C. Brinkley built the original hotel.
Just prior to its opening, Brinkley received news of the death of his good friend, philanthropist George Peabody, whom he met on a trip to Europe. As a sign of respect for Peabody, who endowed George Peabody College in Nashville and contributed heavily to the disadvantaged
Bottles and Extras social and economic decline. Businesses, retailers and shoppers soon left the area, causing all downtown to suffer. After several fires and changes in ownership, The Peabody closed (1975) once again. After a six-year, $25 million renovation, “The South’s Grand Hotel” reopened on September 1, 1981. For collectors of soft drink memorabilia that is noteworthy because on that date, to commemorate the reopening of The Peabody, The Coca-Cola Company issued a commemorative tray (pictured here) that today commands a price of over one hundred dollars in the collector marketplace. Also it’s good for collectors to recall that The Coca-Cola Company used round and oval trays exclusively from the 1890s to 1910. From 1910 to the 1990s, most trays advertising Coca-Cola have been rectangular like Peabody hotel commemorative tray featured in this article. End of story? No, no! If you’ll look closely you will note that the commemorative tray features a pictorial rendering of some ducks. While the hotel is famous in its own right as an historic building with Mississippi Delta style architecture, it’s the ducks that are, perhaps, even more famous than the historic hotel itself. Indeed, every day at 11:00 a.m. in Memphis, at The Peabody, the “Duckmaster” escorts his fowl onto the elevator at roof level. When the group of five mallards arrives in the lobby of the hotel, a red carpet is unrolled, a John Philip Sousa march is played, and the flock marches from the elevator to the Italian Travertine Marble fountain, up a few steps and in they go. At 5:00 p.m. they do it all over again–
Bottles and Extras only in reverse order. They jump from the fountain onto the red carpet and waddle to the elevator and head up to the “Duck Palace” for a good night’s rest. The size of the crowd trying to catch a glimpse of the comings and goings of the famous ducks sometimes numbers in the hundreds. The children often squeal with anticipation. Interestingly, the whole show lasts for only 20 seconds. The tradition of The Peabody marching Ducks began in 1930. General Manager Frank Schutt, an avid sportsman, and a friend returned from hunting emptyhanded. They decided to play a prank and put their live-duck decoys (legal at the time) in the lobby fountain. The reaction from the guests was nothing short of enthusiastic. In 1940, Bellman Edward Pembroke, a former circus animal trainer, offered to help with delivering the ducks to and from the fountain each day and taught them the famous Peabody Duck March. Pembroke became the Duckmaster and served in that capacity for more that 50 years until his retirement in 1991. Today’s Duckmaster is Toby Carter. Mr. Carter delights in telling how the mallards are trained and cared for. Each set of five ducks is employed for just three months, after which they are “retired” to a local farm. Past incarnations of the Peabody Ducks have toured in Louisville and San Francisco. They have even appeared as guests on “Good Morning America.” And, of course, the Peabody Ducks are permanently enshrined on the 1981 commemorative Coca-Cola serving tray! Other Memphis landmarks: 1909 - W. C. Handy wrote the “Memphis Blues.” 1916 - Clarence Saunders opened the first Piggly Wiggly store. 1954 - Elvis Presley gave his first concert in Memphis. 1958 - Stax Records, creator of the “Memphis Sound,” was organized. 1972 - Federal Express Corporation was organized in Memphis. 1977 - Elvis Presley died at his Graceland home on August 16. 1982 - Mud Island Park and River Walk opened. 1983 - Redeveloped Beale Street, home of the Memphis Blues, was opened as a tourist attraction. 1991 - Memphis Pyramid was opened.
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Federation of Historic Bottle Collectors
Business & News The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors is a non-profit organization for collectors of historical bottles and related collectible items. Our primary goal is educational as it relates to the history and manufacture of historical bottles and related artifacts.
FOHBC Officers 2002-2004 President : Ralph VanBrocklin, 1021 W. Oakland Ave, Suite 109, Johnson City, TN 37604 Home (423) 9131378 Office (432) 282-8393 E-mail: thegenuine@aol.com First Vice-President : John Pastor, 7288 Thorncrest Dr. SE, Ada, MI 49301 (616) 285-7604 E-mail: JPastor2000@msn.com Second Vice-President : Jack Hewitt, 1765 Potomac Ct., Lawrenceville, GA 30043 (770) 963-0220 Secretary : Ed Provine, 401 Fawn Lake Drive, Millington, TN 38053 (901) 876-3296 Treasurer : Alan DeMaison, 6583 Berkshire Dr. Mentor, OH 44060 (440)255-3880 E-mail: violinbottle@aol.com Historian : Richard Watson, 10 S. Wendover Rd., Medford, NJ 08055 (856) 983-1364 E-mail : rewatson@bellatlantic.net Editor : Kathy Hopson, 1966 King Springs Rd., Johnson City, TN 37601 (423) 926-7160 E-mail : kathy@thesodafizz.com Merchandising Director : Margie Williams, 1835 Oak Terr., Newcastle, CA 95658 (926) 663-1510 E-mail : margie@altarfire.com; Fax : (926) 663-2030 Membership Director : Fred Holabird, 701 Gold Run Court, Reno, NV 89511 (775) 851-0837 Convention Director : Adam Koch, 10512 Northfield Rd., Northfield, OH 44067 (330) 467-1551
Business Manager / Subscriptions: June Lowry, 401 Johnson Ct., Raymore, MO 64083 E-mail : JarDocLowry@aol.com Director-At-Large : Sheldon Baugh, 252 W. Valley, Russelville, KY 42276 (270) 726-2712; Fax : (270) 726-7618 E-mail : sheldonb@logantele.com Director-At-Large : Norman Barnett, P.O. Box 38, Flat Rock, IIN 47234 (812) 587-5560 Director-At-Large: Carl Strum, 88 Sweetbriar Branch, Longwood, FL 32750-2783 (407) 332-7689 E-mail : glassmancarl@sprintmail.com
Midwest Region Director : Rick Baldwin, 1931 Thorpe Circle, Brunswick, OH 44212-4261 (330) 225-3576 E-mail : rsbaldwin@worldnet.att.net Northeast Region Director : Larry Fox, 5478 Route 21, Canandaiqua, NY 14424 (716) 394-8958 Southern Region Director : Tom Lines, PO Box 382831, Birmingham, AL 35238 (205) 987-0650 Western Region Director : Kent Williams, 1835 Oak Terr., Newcastle, CA 95658 (916)663-2030 Public Relations Director : Mike Polak, PO Box 30328, Long Beach, CA 90853 (562) 438-9209 E-mail : bottleking@earthlink.net
Visit us on the Web : http://www.fohbc.com
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Federation of Historic Bottle Collectors
President’s Message Winter 2003
Happy New Year To All! The start of this New Year marks the start of a new publication for our members. Our new Editor, Kathy Hopson, has spent countless hours preparing this initial quarterly issue for your enjoyment. David Cheadle has provided support and advice based upon his two years experience as our former Editor. Past Editors, including Scott Grandstaff and David Hinson have been gracious enough to lend input or will be adding such in upcoming issues. We have been gratified to receive an outpouring of offers to write for the Quarterly Bottles and Extras. Many of the authors you see on these pages will be writing consistent quarterly columns. Whether the contributions are with promises of ongoing involvement or a one-time article, I cannot begin to adequately thank all of our contributors for their expertise and assistance!!! It is our authors who make the magazine possible and who help the Federation Board fulfill what I consider our most important premise for existence — education. Among the areas we wish to emphasize are columns pertaining to the individual states, perspectives such as the included article by Bill Lockhart on the relationship between archaelogists and bottle diggers and columns about each of the major areas of collecting. Your willingness to help us in these areas — and particularily in the areas that you do not see represented this issue — is critical to the long-term success of this publication and to the vitality of the Federation as a whole! We encourage each and every member to become involved as an author. Writing assistance is available— don’t let your concerns about writing ability prevent you
from sharing your knowledge with other members of this fine hobby. An important addition in this issue is the “New Finds” column. This is a subject which really depends upon reader involvement and we hope that you will consider contributing to it. We will be be happy to attempt to obtain information about the item(s) which you contribute to this feature if we have members or authors who have expertise in that particular item/ category. Our thrust in this issue and in future issues will be to provide you a “seminarquality” article on how to collect in a given category with a corresponding article on the author’s collection or another advanced collection that emphasizes the points in the seminar article. This issues focus is on Western flasks and we have tentative promise for articles on Saratoga collecting and Peppermint bottles in the upcoming issues. As this is what we hope to feature for our members, we hope that many of you will step forward and help to educate in your area of collecting. Owing to a longer lead time required to publish using offset printing, this issue will lack the Regional Reports many of you enjoy perusing. They will return in subsequent issues and will be found in the quarterly newsletters which will go out to members in mid-February, mid-May, midAugust and mid-November. If you have ideas for the newsletters, please contact me. Plans are beginning to gel for the 2003 National Show in Louisville, June 28-29. I have contracts and flyers available for those interested in attending or selling. We desperately need nice displays and collectors who would be willing to provide a 30 - 60 minute seminar in their area of expertise. Additionally, if there is anyone
Bottles and Extras
President : Ralph VanBrocklin 2021 W Oakland Ave., Suite 109 Johnson City, TN 37604 (423) 913-1378 thegenuine@aol.com
who would be willing to assist in any aspect of the show (promotion, set-up, displays, front-table, banquet, auction, etc.), you would have my eternal gratitude! Please note the Federation advertisement from John Pastor regarding the need for quality consignments for the auction at the National Show. Consignments in the 2002 auction at Syracuse received vigorous bidding and market to market-plus value was received. In order for John to have the photography done and the catalogues ready ahead of time he will need items in hand prior to March 1st. Thank you for your suggestions regarding individuals and clubs the Federation should honor. Please keep those coming in for this years and subsequent years awards. As I mentioned in my last “Message”, we want to provide recognition to deserving parties. Along those lines, I extend my thanks to Alan DeMaison, the Federation’s new Treasurer. We hope that you will enjoy the new Quarterly Botttles and Extras and find it to be a solid benefit of being a member of the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors! Ralph Jay Van Brocklin
WANTED Advertising Manager Help is needed. Please consider the position. Contact Ralph at the info listed above.
Bottles and Extras
Winter 2003
JOHN BIDWELL’S THATCHER MILK BOTTLE Randy Taylor
The transportation and preservation of fresh milk presented a major problem for suppliers until nearly the end of the 19th century. For generations milk was delivered to market in cans or earthen crocks and doled out to the consumer, who carried it home in his own pail or bottle, which was often unsanitary. The first known patent for milk bottles was issued to the Warren Glass Works Company on March 23, 1880. Four years later, the Whiteman Milk Jar was patented, and the same year, Dr. Harvey D. Thatcher, a druggist from Potsdam, New York, invented a milk bottle he called the "Thatcher Milk Protector", with a similar closure to that employed on the Lightning fruit jar, a bail type fastener. The Thatcher container was the also the first embossed milk bottle. The name John Bidwell is well known
The Thatcher Milk Bottle
in the West. He was one of the first immigrants to come across the plains in 1841 and was instrumental in founding early California. Friends with John Sutter at Sutter’s Fort in Sacramento, he was involved in getting California away from the Mexican Government, and making it a state. Bidwell received a large land grant, the Rancho Ayroyo Chico, and used it to found the town of Chico, about 100 miles north of Sacramento, where he donated land and laid out the streets. John Bidwell was in on the gold rush as well, discovering and founding Bidwell’s Bar, which is now under Lake Oroville, a bustling gold rush town. An active politician also, he ran for Governor of California several times. He was a member of Congress and also was a candidate for President of the United States with the Prohibition party in 1892, getting the most votes for a third party candidate in history. Very active in local politics and ranching, that is where he made his contribution to bottle collecting history. I am sure he had no idea the bottle he picked for his dairy would become a valuable historical artifact long after he was gone. In 1888 Thatcher introduced the cap seal bottle that we see most often. This puts the Bidwell bottle in use between 1886 and 1888. Bidwell’s decision to use the Thatcher design was a good idea, although short-lived. Bidwell always used the best materials and products at his Rancho Chico estate, and the container he chose was no exception.
9 A very attractive bottle, with a Quaker seated on a stool, milking a cow under the words ABSOLUTELY PURE MILK, and under the cow and man is embossed THE MILK PROTECTOR. The other side is embossed in a circular slug plate RANCHO CHICO DAIRY / CHICO, CAL. / JOHN BIDWELL. This is very unusual, as most milk bottle collectors will tell you, the Thatcher bottle is usually not embossed with a dairy name, especially West of the Mississippi River. The pint-size bottle also has the glass lid and wire bale, with a flat metal piece to hold it secure. The lid is embossed with the 1886 patent date. This bottle is at the least, elusive. In my 30 years of looking, I have never found one for sale, or even dug a piece of one. I know of only four examples, three of which are damaged or incomplete. Two of them are in local museums and the other two are in private collections. About the author: Randy Taylor lives in Chico, CA., and has collected bottles and jars since 1968, mainly the colored fruit jars, midget pints and early free-blown jars. Other areas of his interest include jar-ring boxes, and other fruit jar related go-withs, odd Worcestershire sauce type bottles, Bixby Shoe polish bottles and an odd selection of miscellaneous bottles that he says “just strike my fancy." Randy also collects local bottles from his area of Northern California, as well as postcards, photographs, tokens, calendars and other assorted knickknacks. To contact Randy, by mail: Randy Taylor, PO Box 1065, Chico, Ca. 95927; or E-mail: rtjarguy@aol.com.
Drawing of the Bidwell Thatcher bottle
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Winter 2003
THE 2003 NATIONAL SHOW KENTUCKY INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTER
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY JUNE 28 - 29, 2003 Saturday June 28th
Sunday June 29th
Dealer Set-Up & Early Admission 1-5 PM
Dealer Set-Up & Early Admission 7-9 AM
General Admission 9 AM - 3 PM
Contact: Ralph Van Brocklin 1021 W Oakland Ave Suite #109 Johnson City, TN 37601 thegenuine@aol.com (423) 913-1378
Winter Winter 2003 2003
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Applied Color Label (ACL) Bottles by Fred Arwood One of the fastest growing areas of bottle collecting over the past few years has been in Painted Label Sodas. These are also referred by some as ACLs (applied color labels), silk-screened, pop and soda. Regardless of the name, all have enamel-paint applied on glass bottles. Most ACL collectors prefer to build a collection of small bottles, in the 6 to 12-ounce range. Nearly all collectors prefer bottles with two or more colors applied to clear, green or amber glass, and labels which that have pictures which show scenic views, Indians, females, animals and historic events. Some collectors limit their collections to geographic regions, companies, states and glass or paint colors. Several years ago, I started collecting ACL “Quarts”. Referring to them as “quarts” is a broad category that includes ACLs in the 24 to 32-ounce range. I found that they are still rather inexpensive, had larger labels, and displayed well. Disadvantages are that they are heavy, and require more space for storage. The most desirable ACLs of any size are the bottles from “Mom and Pop” bottling plants that have been out of business for many years. If you are considering a new soda collectible, then ACL “Quarts” might be worthy of your interest. Here, I share a dozen bottles with you from my personal collection.
From Left to Right: 1.Calvert’s, 30-ounces, clear glass, green and white label, from PA, 1942 2. Capital Club, 32-ounces, green glass, red and white label, from PA, 1959 3. Cottom Club, 32-ounces, clear glass, red, white and blue label, from OH, 1942 4. Derby Club, 29-ounces, clear glass, blue and white label, from NH, 1948
From Left to Right: 1.C & P - 28-ounces, clear glass, red and yellow label, from MA, 1940 2. Myopia Club, 28-ounces, clear glass, red and white label, from Ma, 1954 3. Big Chief Ginger Ale, 32-ounces, green glass, red, tan and yellow label, from CO, 1945 4. Peconic, 29-ounces, clear glass, red and white label, from CT, 1952
From Left to Right: 1. Liberty, 29-ounces, clear glass, green and yellow label, from NJ, 1958 2. LIberty, 30-ounces, clear glass, red and white label, from PA, 1947 3. Liberty Bell, 32-ounces, green glass, red and white label, from PA, 1952 4. Liberty Club, 28-ounces, clear glass, red and white label, from MA, 1946
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Winter 2000
Let’s Talk About Ink
Ed and L ucy FFaulkner aulkner Lucy The history of ink can be traced to ancient people who made and used it in many colors, but we mainly want to discuss ink in America in this article. In Colonial America ink was a necessity in the business community and the government, but was not used extensively by the common folk for several reasons. It was expensive to buy, quality was not always good, and a lot of people did not read or write very well. Also, it was very expensive to have a post rider carry a letter, and most people relied on someone who was traveling to carry what few letters they did write. Therefore, the use of ink grew as the general population grew and became more literate. As literacy and education grew, so did the use of ink and general writing materials. Many people made their own ink at home, but it was also sold by most druggists, merchants, and bookshop dealers, who mixed it from recipes popular during that time. Later on, ink powder, and sometimes ink sticks, were available for mixing in quantity. An E.S. Curtis broadside from around 1840 gave the following directions for mixing their powdered ink: To one groce of ink powder, in a wooden vessel, add five gallons of vinegar, stir well with a stick every day for a week, then add twenty gallons of rain water and it is ready for immediate use. Water must be added from time to time to preserve the liquidity. A groce will make about 36 gallons. To deepen the color from blue-black to jetblack, add about an ounce of powdered Aleppo Galls to each gallon. Directions were given also for making smaller amounts.
This early ink left much to be desired. Quite often it had sediment left in it, and it tended to mold quickly. Early writings suggest that mold was quite common and many ways to prevent it were tried including the use of cloves, oil of lavender, salt, and even a bit of carbolic acid. In a Massachusetts letter written in 1820, the writer asks for the ingredients to make his own, as he can find “no ink fit to write with.” By the middle 1800’s, ads began appearing stating that the quality of ink was improving. It was advertised as being free from sediment and would not corrode steel pens. Shopkeepers who mixed ink for sale bought their bottles from local glass houses and used a paper label with their name. The earliest known advertisement that listed “inks of all sorts” for sale was in 1772 by the Manheim Glass Factory in Pennsylvania. George Ball of New York listed inkbottles for sale in 1775 and Thomas Tisdale, a Hartford merchant, listed inks for sale in 1788. These were probably common utilitarian type bottles.
Most inkbottles shipped to the colonies from England were pottery bottles until the 19th century. By mid-19th century a few of the larger ink companies were using embossed bottles as glass bottles became more common and less expensive. By the 1860’s, some ink manufacturers designed and patented bottles to be unique to their company. The first patented ink bottle was a pottery bottle by Thaddeus Davids in January 1859. Although ink was imported by American businesses as early as the l700’s, there was not a large established ink manufacturing company in the US until 1816. Maynard and Noyes was the first American manufacturer of ink, beginning in 1816, followed by Thaddeus Davids, whose letterhead states his company was begun in 1825. However it was not until the 1840’s and 50’s that other big ink companies began operation. These included James Mason and Hover in Philadelphia, J. J. Butler in Cincinnati, E. Waters in Troy, NY., and F. Kidder, and Wm. Kidder and others. Perhaps the most well-known was Apollos W. Harrison, who marketed his ink as Harrison’s Columbian Ink. The word Columbian simply meant it was American ink and not imported. His first listing in the Philadelphia directory was 1847 and no listing was found after 1877. Like many older companies, HC made other products that included perfumes and hair dye. Harrison envelopes from the early 1860’s show his company as Perfumery and Ink. We also have an extract bottle with A.W. Harrison embossed on it. It is the typical rectangular bottle like most extracts. The label says Harrison’s Flavoring Extract, A.W. Harrison, Philadelphia. This must have been either a short-lived venture, or was not successful, as the bottle is rarely seen.
F. Kidder Indelible Ink box and bottle Above: An early soapstone inwell and quill
Bottles and Extras
Harrison Columbian bottles are perhaps the easiest to find today of the early inkbottles. They were made in sizes ranging from about an ounce to a gallon size, the gallon size being extremely rare. They were made mostly in aqua and shades of blue, and are less common in green. The small aqua ones can still be found at reasonable prices and are nice older embossed bottles for the ink collector. Some of the earlier bottles have the word indelible on them. This meant it was durable and could be used to mark cloth and save time from needlework for items to be marked. The earliest indelible inkbottles most often seen are F. Kidder, and Wm. Kidder and Williston’s. These were small aqua rectangular bottles with pontils, although there are later F. Kidder bottles with a smooth bottom. It was probably in the 1840’s that uniformity in bottles was started. With slates and slate pencils on the way out, there was more demand for ink in the schoolroom. A bottle was needed that would not tip over easily, yet small enough for individual use. The “cone” and “umbrella” inks first became popular about this time, although the short round and octagonal bottles were preferred by Harrison. Cones and umbrellas stayed popular the rest of the century and some cones were made by ABM in the 20th century, although umbrellas are not known to have been made by machine. These bottles came in a wide range of colors, with the umbrella being made in all shades of aqua, green, blue, amber, amethyst, and more rarely, clear. Cones also can be found in many colors. Pontiled umbrellas (unembossed) are easy to find in aqua at very reasonable prices. Pontiled cones are harder to come by, but can be found at most large bottle shows and frequently in Internet auctions. Cones and umbrellas, pontiled and smooth
Winter 2000
bottom, are especially desirable with today’s collectors because of the wide range of colors to be found, as well as embossing of manufacturer on some. As ink manufacturing became more common, different means had to be found to compete. The Carter’s, Sanford’s, and Stafford’s companies, as well as many others, were established around 1858 and competition was fierce in the next few years. Perfumed ink in several colors was advertised to appeal to the ladies. Combined writing and copying ink was advertised. Different shaped bottles were made that were not only colorful, but decorative as well, as most bottles were kept on the top of the desk. W. E. Bonney advertised a “barrel”
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inkbottle in sizes up to a quart. Other shapes included cabins and houses. The first known cabin was made in 1840 for the “Log Cabin and Hard Cider” campaign of William Henry Harrison. The house ink was made off and on through the 1880’s. Other shapes included a locomotive ink and teakettles, so called because of the spout. But perhaps the most popular one, and the most easily found today, is the “turtle” ink by J.& I.E. Moore. This bottle was designed to be popular with students in the schoolroom and remained popular until the late 1890’s. Most other large manufacturers used this shape as well, but the Moore bottle is the one most commonly found. Although made in several colors, only the aqua is easily found at reasonable prices. Also mention needs to be made of pottery bottles - these were used during all of the 19th century and were both imported from England as well as being made in American potteries. Many of these have been found in Civil War sites and can still be obtained at very reasonable prices in both small and master sizes. The Bourne & Denby Stamp (English) on a lot of these bottles is the potter and not the ink company. Arnold was one of the largest English ink manufacturers to use pottery bottles for export to the US. Most of the larger American companies also used them from both English and American potters. American pottery bottles were seldom marked with a pottery name. According to William Covill, in his book, INK BOTTLES AND INKWELLS, the Robinson Clay Products of Akron, Ohio made many pottery inks. The best-known marked pottery bottle is by Boss Brothers, an Ohio maker. Ink collectors quite often have a preference for either small bottles or the large bottles called master inks. The most
Winter 2000
14 desirable of either size are the embossed, and are even better if they still have the
original label. Older master inks quite often had a pour spout and the later ones had attached metal spouts and later plastic pour spouts. As can be seen in the Williams’ Ink Co. ad, a great many companies offered ink in larger quantities. Some companies offered 5, 10, 20 and even 50 gallon barrels. We have been looking for an example of one of these barrels for a number of years but have never found anyone who has even seen one. There must be one out there somewhere! Inkbottles are popular to collect because there are so many varieties, colors, shapes, and sizes. While some collectors, like us, prefer the early bottles, many prefer only labeled bottles, regardless of age. Ink collecting offers many different categories to please any collector. Bottle shows are still the best place to learn about old bottles of any kind. Nothing beats actually seeing and handling a bottle that is over a hundred years old.
Ink use declined rapidly with the invention of the ball-point pen. Although the modern ball-point pen was invented in 1935, it was not in general use until the middle to late 1950’s. With the ball-point pen, one did not have to worry about blotting or ink smears as much, and ink began a rapid decline, with only a few companies still making ink today. One old company that did survive is the Sanford Company. They survived by going to other office products when ink use declined. You can find their history by going to www.Sanfordcorp.com. There are still people today who enjoy repairing and using old fountain pens, or the new designer variety. Ink can still be found in specialty or office supply stores for those who want to use it. In future articles we hope to be able to have information on some of the older ink companies. Parts of this article first appeared in The Digger, the newsletter of the Richmond, Virginia Bottle Club, edited by Ed Faulkner.
Above: An early ad for Thaddeus Davide Right: 1891 Williams’ ad offered a variety of products
Bottles and Extras
J. & I. E. Moore turtle ink References: Pen, Ink, and Evidence Joe Nickell 1990 American Bottles and Flasks Mckearin and Wilson 1978 Ink Bottles and Inkwells William Covill 1971
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Wnter 2003
The Story of Cyrus Noble Whiskey Bottles By Kitty and Russell Umbraco
The Cyrus Noble story is truly a San Francisco success story, with roots in our California gold rush. Cyrus Noble, himself, had tried his luck in the California gold fields, but unsuccessfully, and had returned to his home in Ohio. There, Cyrus took a job with the Freiberg-Workum distillery, in Lynchburg, Ohio, where his tasting and blending talents were soon recognized. By 1871, he was made superintendent of the distillery, and at this time, a brand of whiskey was named after him. The exact circumstance is somewhat shaded, but it is said that Cyrus was a famous drinker, and one day, while checking the premium vats, he fell in! Well, of course, after that, nothing would do but to name the whiskey – “Cyrus Noble.” At the same time, in 1871, Ernest Reuben Lilienthal, an attorney just out of Cincinnati Law School, decided to go into the wholesale liquor business in San Francisco. Ernest contracted with Freiberg’s and handled, exclusively, their products under their trademarks, as well as his own. Ernest apparently liked the Cyrus Noble anecdote, and adopted “Cyrus Noble” as the trademark for his finest whiskey. Another brand that he made famous, and is still surviving today, is “W. A. Lacey.” The company was initially called Lilienthal and Company. It grew rapidly, and by 1895, it was the largest wholesale liquor company in the West Coast. The company’s interests were so diverse by 1895, that the liquor interests were split off and were called “Crown Distilleries Co.” During this time, Cyrus Noble Whiskey became a Western favorite.
Here are two stories concerning Cyrus Noble Whiskey: Cyrus Noble whiskey’s fame had grown far and wide. In May of 1899, when Admiral Dewey was informed of his promotion to Admiral of the United States Navy, he celebrated thusly – “He then reached for a bottle of Cyrus Noble, a sour mash bourbon, filled two glasses” – and with his friend, drank a toast.
1901, Searchlight, Nevada – a riproaring mining camp: John Coleman, a prospector, came to town. As with many prospectors of the day, he was willing to trade his claim for a new grubstake, or whatever else he could get. In this case, John traded his claim for a bottle of “the best bourbon in town,” which was Cyrus Noble Whiskey. The claim was later developed into a
rich mine, and was called the Cyrus Noble Mine, which yielded over $250,000 in gold. Crown Distilleries Co. liquidated its assets in 1917, anticipating prohibition, under the direction of Ben Lilienthal, Ernest’s son. Ben kept the company trademarks until his brother, Samuel, acquired them from him in 1934 for Haas Brother. With the end of prohibition, Haas Brothers, a wholesale grocery firm, went into the wholesale liquor business, and continues through today. With the ever-increasing demand for figural ceramic bottles made for collectors, Haas Brothers brought out their first collectible ceramic figural bottle in 1970. It was the Goldminer, filled with Cyrus Noble Whiskey, and accompanied with a story. In this case, the Cyrus Noble Goldmine Story, Searchlight, Nevada. Since the first figural, acceptance was so overwhelming that Haas Brothers, under the direction of Ernest R. Lilienthal – grandson of the founder of Cyrus Noble Whiskey – has continued to produce the figural bottles of the finest quality at a rate of four or five each year. This is only a part of the Cyrus Noble Story. Collectors of old bottles have about one hundred different bottles for which to look. For those who also collect old ads and bar paraphernalia, there are at least another 100 items related to Cyrus Noble Whiskey to search out and find. And for the history buff, from San Francisco to New York, one can follow the Cyrus Noble trail and the Lilienthal family, who made it famous.
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Winter 2003
old bottles anyway? Information We collectors of antique bottles want it. That’s why, for many of us, the sequence was the same. We acquired our first bottles. Then we acquired our first Don Denzin bottle books. We appreciated old So I get this phone call from a guy I glass for what it was, but we wanted – and don’t know. I’m busy, but it turns out he want – more. collects antique bottles. Suddenly, I’ve got Fortunately, as the bottle collecting plenty of time to talk. enterprise has matured over the years, “What do you know about a bottle researchers have unearthed information just embossed H.F. & B. N.Y?” he asks. “I as people with shovels have freed glass have one.” from the ground. We are in debt to both “Very little,” I respond honestly. “I think kinds of diggers. We even acknowledge one sold at auction a few years ago for a that, in some ways, their pursuits are simihandsome price.” I’m trying to remember lar. Each seeks elusive relics from a bygone the catalog photo. Dark glass, I think. Odd era. A bitters bottle and a bitters advertiselooking piece. I’m pretty certain it’s rare. ment are both historical objects, after all. “Thanks,” he says, “but who or what The difference is that one looks good in the does H.F. & B. N.Y. stand for?” light; the other sheds it. “I don’t know,” I tell him. It is in the spirit of shedding light that “You said in your book the bottle was this and future articles offer information on melon-shaped. What the heck is melon- pre-prohibition, U.S. spirits bottles from the shaped?” eastern states. Since research is about “Well…” I’m stalling now. I can’t putting together puzzles a piece at a time, summon the bottle to mind. There are these pages present pieces, even when the literally thousands of embossed antique larger picture itself may remain incomplete. eastern whiskey bottles. These pages, therefore, blend information “I’m holding it now,” he says. “It sure and an invitation. If you can use the looks more like a bottle than a melon.” information, fine. If you have unpublished I’m grateful he’s broken the silence and, information to share, please share it. okay; he’s not holding a melon. But my Contact me through this magazine’s editor, curiosity is giving way to nervousness. I’m and I’ll try to include your bottle facts in a wondering if I botched the description in future article. my book. A dazzlingly large list of bottle shapes, sizes, colors, and embossings could cause that. We talk further. We discover we’re both going to the Baltimore bottle show. He agrees to bring his bottle for me to look at. Cool! “Thanks for anything you can tell me,” he adds, as we’re ready to hang up. “And, oh, I almost forgot. My bottle looks like it was made in a snap case. Got all the marks. Your book doesn’t say anything about that.” Yeah. Thanks. This is not so cool, I concede silently. Now I’m sure I’ve botched the description. After all, how many H.F. & B. N.Y. bottles can there be? And just how much can anyone really know about
EASTERN WHISKEY BOTTLES:
Names in the Glass
Bottles and Extras This article deals with three spirits distributors whose names appear in glass: Turner Brothers, B.M. & E.A. Whitlock, and, yes, H.F. & B. N.Y. It summarizes what is generally known already and provides what may be “new” information to many collectors. Turner Brothers No matter what kind of bottles grace their shelves, nearly all collectors recognize the raised letters, TURNER BROTHERS. At least three distinct bottles with that embossing exist. Perhaps most in demand is a glass barrel that occurs in a range of colors - usually shades of amber and yellow green. A pair of these from the Burton Spiller collection fetched healthy four-digit prices at auction. Two different square bottles also exist. TURNER BROTHERS / NEW YORK / BUFFALO NY / SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. Square bottle, dark green, 10 inches tall, smooth base, embossing on four lines, c. 1850’s. TURNER BROTHERS / NEW YORK, BUFFALO, NY / & SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. Square bottle, dark green, 10 inches tall, smooth base, embossing on three lines, c. 1850’s. TURNER BROTHERS / NEW YORK Figural barrel, amber and greenish colorations; square collared mouth, 9 ½ to 10 inches tall, ten rings above and ten rings below middle section, c. 1855-1865. According to Turner Brothers ads, the company was established in 1844 in Buffalo N.Y., and Thomas and James Turner first appear in the 1847 city directory as “manufacturers” of soda, mead, and beer. By the mid-1850’s the firm had expanded its distribution to New York City and San Francisco, and produced “ginger wine, syrups, cordials, native wines, etc.” In the 1850’s, the firm is listed in New York City on Greenwich St. and later on Washington St. The Buffalo listing for 1862 adds bitters to the product line, and “Turner’s Forest Wine Bitters,” is reported by Carlyn Ring. “Our goods are sold,” the 1862 listing asserts, “at wholesale by the principal grocers, druggists, liquor and wine dealers… throughout North America and South America, and in many parts of Europe and Asia.”
Bottles and Extras With such an impressively large distribution, the firm must have enjoyed considerable commercial success. Yet the business seemingly concluded after less than twenty years because 1862 is the last time Buffalo listings for Turner Brothers appear. Bill and Betty Wilson report that the San Francisco business was sold in 1865. It seems likely, therefore, that surviving Turner Brothers bottles are no younger than the era of the Civil War. Many are doubtless older. There were actually six Turner Brothers, James, Malcolm, Archibald, George, Thomas, and Robert. Their portraits are depicted on product labels, or at least on the label pictured here, which comes from an unembossed cylinder with most of its contents intact. B.M. & E.A. Whitlock Several distinctive bottles commissioned with the names of these two New York City merchants have survived for collectors to acquire. Some are rare. All represent worthy additions to any collection that includes eastern whiskies. They probably date from between the mid 1850’s and 1860’s. The bottles include: THE / OLD MILL / WHITLOCK & CO. embossing on applied seal “suspended” on bottle with a ribbon-like glass strand; amber cone-shaped bottle with applied handle; applied double lip; 8 ¼ inches tall; OP base. AMBROSIAL / B.M. & E.A. W. & CO. embossing on applied seal; amber flattened chestnut bottle with applied handle; ring lip; 8 ¼ to 9 inches tall; OP base. AMBROSIAL / B.M. & E.A. W. & CO. embossing on applied seal located at base of applied handle; amber flattened chestnut bottle; ring lip; 8 3/4 inches tall; OP base. B.M. & E.A. WHITLOCK & CO / NEW YORK aqua figural barrel with four sets of dual rings; inverted, tapered lip that flares upward; 7 7/8 inches tall; OP base. B.M. & E.A. WHITLOCK & CO aqua; bell-like shape; inverted, tapered lip that flares upward; 8 5/8 inches tall; OP base. A square bottle, amber, with fancy, roped corners may also exist, though it remains to be fully documented. Even though they were New York City businessmen, the Whitlocks, Benjamin M. and Edward A., were described by a contemporary at the height of the Civil War
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as “Southern grocers and sympathizers.” Whatever their leanings or lineage, their firm appears in New York directories throughout the first half of the 1860’s. Sometime prior to this, the enterprise was identified as Whitlock, Nichols & Co. Interestingly, an advertising broadside dated 1853 mentions the “late B.M. Whitlock & Co.” giving rise to speculation that the firm may have begun and ended an affiliation with Mr. Nichols. If so, this probably - though not necessarily - occurred before the bottles identified above were produced. H.F. & B. N.Y. Now to H.F. & B.N.Y. and the Baltimore bottle show. The guy on the phone turned out to be collector, George Burlock from Maryland, and he arrived on schedule with his bottle. To my delight, the glass container he showed me was completely different than the one I had described in the book. His bottle looked nothing like a melon. Darned if it didn’t look just like a bottle! Clearly two different bottles existed, and his was undocumented. And what a bottle! It had six sides, two rings of glass encircling its neck, and shimmered with hammered crudeness through an almost ebony-like shade of puce. The Baltimore show was special that year! But there’s more to the story. Before meeting George, I toured the bottle show’s tables. There, in the middle of the room, sat a melon-shaped H.F. & B. N.Y. bottle! What were the odds! I’m sure I dickered with the dealer over the price, but I don’t remember much about our discussion because I just plain had to have that bottle! Neatly wrapped, it went under my arm in minutes. I felt like a digger who’d uncovered a treasure! Imagine George’s surprise when I handed him a bottle as he handed one to
me. We both now knew two different bottles existed. For the record, here are their descriptions: H.F. & B. N.Y. letters within embossed shield; dark puce; melon-like bottle with fourteen vertical ribs; ring around neck; applied lip; 9 3/8 inches tall; smooth base; c. 1855 to 1865. H.F. & B. N.Y. letters within embossed oval; dark puce; six-sided bottle with applied lip; 11 ½ inches tall; smooth base, snap-case mold marks, c. 1855 to 1865. Crude and nearly perfect, the two bottles made a great pair at the show. We frankly enjoyed seeing them side-by-side, perhaps reunited for the first time in more than 150 years. Other collectors who spotted the bottles also appreciated the impromptu exhibit. But curious George still wanted to know. Whose were the embossed initials? The answer came a short time later from the New York City directory for 1857. H.F. & B. belonged to Joseph T. Hotchkiss, Thomas Fenner, and Henry Bennet, grocers and liquor dealers at 40 Vesey St. Of course, assigning names to the initials didn’t make the bottles any “better.” But it gave them a context. It answered our questions with information. And besides, George said, “Thanks.” Don Denzin has collected American spirits bottles for 20 years. He is the author of the 1994 book, Antique Eastern Whiskey Bottles.
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Collecting n Wes ter est ern Flask s Flasks
many of the colored flasks can make runs of several of any given bottle seem like that many more totally different bottles. The history of the firms which utilized them is the history of importance, and many of these histories are truly fascinating.
R alph V an Br oc klin Van Broc ocklin The allure of Western glass can be just as strong to the modern collector as the prospect of finding gold was to the miners that utilized that glass. The ability to re-live history through the glass, as well as an appreciation of the character and unique qualities of this early glass from the West, provide a strong draw for collectors nationwide. And, in no category does this hold more true than in Western whiskeys! Many of todays Western collectors focus on the cylindrical fifths, of which no fewer than 800 examples have been catalogued. Early and crude cylinders are at a premium, while the tooled-top examples of the 1890's, extending up to Prohibition, tend to be more readily available. In the flasks, the earlier and cruder specimens attract the most attention, but even the tool-tops tend generally to be quite rare and comparatively difficult to acquire. Those who collect the flasks understand that the process of compiling a sizeable collection is a gradual one which can take many years. For those who are patient, a special and unique collecting category awaits. CLEAR VERSUS COLORED FLASKS There are two distinctly different roads which the Western flask collector can take. For those who have a love of history and interest in local firms and different communities, the clear flasks are the obvious choice. These tend to be a little more recent, with the earliest firms existing in the late 1870's, but most being
Bottles and Extras
in business from the early-to-mid 1880's, forward to Prohibition. Consequently, the glass tends to be more uniform in character and there are only minor color variations. They offer the opportunity to collect from up to several hundred communities, and from most of the Western states. A larger and more comprehensive collection is possible than can be assembled in the colored Western flasks The quantity of colored Western flasks is very limited, with only sixty-two different bottles known in the more popular styles. The distribution of these bottles is also limited, with most being from the cities of Portland and San Francisco. What they lack in plentifulness, they make up for in color and crudity! Drippy tops, whittle, bubbles and colors that range from green to yellow, red to chocolate; variations in the glass in
CLEAR FLASKS The styles of clear flasks utilized in the West mirror the styles used in other parts of the country. Certain areas tended to use certain styles to the exclusion of others. Among the styles used with some frequency were the Coffin, the Dandy, the Defender, the Eagle, the Olympia, the Pumpkinseed (or Picnic), the Shoofly, the Basket-Base (or Swirl Base) shoofly and the Strap-Sided (or Banded) flask. This article will empasize the styles which attract the most attention with collectors: the Coffin, Olympia, Pumpkinseed, Shoofly and Strap-Sided flasks. Pumpkinseeds The pumpkinseed flask is undoubtably the most popular style in the clear Western flasks, with the coffins being the next most desired. This bottle has a rounded or pumpkinseed shape with a flattened face and back, and is found with a single roll or double roll top or ground screw-cap top variant. The ground screw cap pumpkinseeds seem to be limited in distribution to the Rocky Mountain state region. Coffin / Shoofly The coffin and shoofly flasks look very similar when viewed from the front or
[Fig. 1] Left to Right: Defender. Washington, Eagle and Dandy flasks
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Winter 2003
reverse, but the bases are distinctly different. The coffin sports sharp and highly defined angles and the shoofly has more rounded sides. [See Fig 2] The basket-base shoofly flasks seem to be particularily popular in Montana and there are a couple of variations to these fancy-based shooflies that additionally have ground screw-cap tops from the state of Colorado. Olympia The distribution of the Olympia-style flask is predominantly the Northwestern and northern Rocky Mountain states, although a few examples have also been found as far west and south as the San Francisco Bay area. One is known from Arizona and a very few are found from the Mid-Western states. I have never seen this flask utilized by a North-Eastern or Southern liquor concern. This flask has broader shoulders than its base, a flat front and reverse and a very distinctive flared ring top. The base is marked "Design Patented - Pat. Aug 9, 1898". [See Fig. 4] Strap-Side The strap-sided flask is also known as a banded flask. [See Fig. 4] Its popularity in the states west of the Rockies never reached the level that it seemed to in the Mid-West, North-East and South. There exist eight amber Western strapsides, seven of which are from California and one is from Butte, Montana. I know of no clear examples from the
[Fig. 2] Left to Right: Shoofly, Coffin and basket-base Shoofly flasks area west of the Rockies, although the style was quite popular in Texas and Oklahoma Territory. Factors Which Contribute to Value in the Clear Western Flasks Crudity and color are largely eliminated as determining factors of value in this area of collecting. There is the occasional flask which will demonstrate
[Fig. 3] A grouping of Marysville, California Coffin and Pumpkinseed flasks
nice crudity, and there certainly are flasks with varying degrees of sun colored amethyst coloration, factors which lend eye appeal and increase the value of the bottle. The more important parameters tend to be condition, rarity and desirability. As in any aspect of bottle collecting, the condition of the bottle is important. All things equal, every collector would love to have a collection of perfectly mint and clean specimens. In the clear flasks, limiting oneself to that high of standard would severely limit the size and breadth of ones collection. The poor quality of the glass used, in combination with the minerals in the soils of the West, results in significant staining to many of the bottles The fragility of the pumpkinseed flasks, in particular, makes them a true hazard to clean, and most serious collectors of these bottles reach a point where stain is an acceptable flaw, as long as the price reflects it. Thus, the cleanliness of the bottle may not hamper its value as much as might be seen in other fields of bottle collecting. Nicks, chips, bruises and other more serious damage truly does affect value. This is particularily true in the more common bottles.
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[Fig. 4] Olympia and strap-sided flasks
Seldom does a severely damaged specimen warrant more than a few dollars as an example for the "Crier" shelf. But, with a very rare bottle, the occasional surprise occurs - as an instance, a Gem Saloon coffin flask from Elko, Nevada, with a blown-out shoulder recently realized $170 on EBay. This is an instance of rarity (only two other specimens known) outweighing condition as a factor in determining value. Just as condition is an important, but not exclusive, parameter in determining value, rarity is not always the most important feature. The most common of the Colorado shoofly flasks (CROFF & COLLINS / WINES & LIQUORS / DENVER / & / SALIDA / COLO.) would command as much as many of the California pumpkinseed flasks, of which only one to three specimens are known. [See Fig. 5] That serves to point out how very important the desirability of the item is, and as you might guess, local appeal is a large portion of what creates the situation just mentioned. The influence of local appeal derives from a number of factors, including the number of collectors for that area seeking the same item and the availablility of other collectible bottles from that area. The popularity of the clear flasks tends to be higher in areas where colored and early crude glass is not available. Because of the relative youth of many of the western states, this early colored group of bottles is very limited. This has bearing on the local appeal of the clear flasks to Colorado collectors (colored and early glass from the state is scarce) and helps explain why the prices paid for the clear flasks from that state are so much higher
Winter 2003 than is typically commanded by a clear flask from California (where a number of categories of bottles have early, crude and colored examples available.) Within any given state there are areas where local appeal tends to drive the market more than in others. In the Western states the driving force of the economy at this time was mining. Much of the lore of the West was associated with these mining towns and not surprisingly the bottles from these towns are extremely seriously sought. Three flasks which would easily eclipse $1000 include the mining town coffin flasks from Cripple Creek, Victor and Leadville, Colorado. [Fig. 6] The local appeal effect for one given community is well demonstrated by the A. Weinberg flask [Fig. 7] from Tacoma, Washington Territory.
[Fig 5] Rare California pumpkinseed flask and common Colorado coffin
There are at least 8-10 of the half pints available, providing sufficient examples to quench the appetitite of local collectors, plus answer the collecting desires of collectors out of area. Price falls within the $500-700 range for the half-pint examples, and collectors from out of region typically would not value the pint any differently. With only two examples known in the pint-size, and more local interest than the supply can accomodate, value markedly escalates. The example unearthed last year reportedly had a $3000 offer tendered and it was not accepted by the digger! The territorial embossed flasks are a highly desired grouping, in-and-ofthemselves. The Western states with territorial embossing on their flasks include Washington (four pumpkinseeds, five coffins and one amber union oval flask), Oklahoma (one pumpkinseed, one coffin and fourteen strap-sides) and Arizona (one
Bottles and Extras straight-sided flask from Douglas, A.T.). The state of Washington affords the opportunity to put together a very nice grouping, of which the Walla Walla Saloon pumpkinseed pictured [Fig. 8] is a choice example. Not only is it territorial, it is from a small Eastern Washington town and embossed "Saloon" (another feature which adds desirability). The saloon flasks are all highly collectible, and of the various categories in the clear Western flasks, they are the ones with the strongest national appeal and market. Consequently, the prices tend to be higher on these. Flasks from smaller towns tend to command a premium, unless a cache of them has been found. The Tuolumne flasks pictured [Fig 9] are highly sought due to the nice names of the saloons (Elk and Rainier), the small size of the community and the communities association with mining. Several saloon embossed flasks are available from the town of Marysville, [See Fig. 3] another town associated with California's early mining history. Combined with the other bottles available from this town, another factor lending desirability is seen - the ability to put together a nice grouping from a single community or area. A total of nine pumpkinseeds and two coffin flasks are known from the community and with each likely existing in both the pint and the half-pint size, plus a variety of the other style flasks also available; a very appealing collection from that town, alone, is possible! While I collect a certain number of Western cylindical fifths associated with the companies that distributed my flasks, there is a larger number of collectors who collect in exactly the opposite fashion. Flasks which coorespond to embossed cylindrical fifths, such as the Lilienthal and Co and the Phoenix Old Bourbon have obvious appeal to those who collect fifths from the same concerns. Another flask that fits this category is
[Fig. 6[ Victor, Leadville and Cripple Creek Colorado coffin flasks
Bottles and Extras the Kolb & Denhard pumpkinseed from San Francisco, [Fig. 11] which also falls into the most desireable grouping of flasks - the picture flasks. Of the Western picture pumpkinseeds, it is hard for a flask to have much more going for it than the Kolb & Denhard - a bold picture of a stag's head on a San Francisco bottle, a one-ofa-kind flask from a famous Western firm advertising a famous brand. Truly the type of bottle that is a centerpiece to a collection! Other very nice picture flasks include the Phoenix Bourbon with embossed phoenix [Fig. 32], the Log Cabin Portland pumpkinseed with embossed cabin [Fig. 12], The Brearley & Uniake pumpkinseed with embossed owl from Reno [Fig. 33] and the The Bureau coffin and pumpkinseed flasks from Portland with their embossed crown. The picture flasks make up a small grouping, with only twelve known pumpkinseeds and six coffins/shooflies known, but what a desireable group of bottles to own! Other areas of collecting that are of note include collecting flasks with unusual sayings such as the S.F. Rose pumpkinseed from Vallejo embossed "Straight Goods From The Wood" and flasks with
Winter 2003 great bar names such as "The Delay". [Fig. 10] Could a San Francisco flask come from a bar with a more pertinent and appealing name than "The Fair Wind" or "The Arrival"??? The pictures these names conjure up place these two flasks among my most favorite of the 600 on my shelves! Availability of Clear Flasks By State The following listing will give an idea of what is available from each of the states west of the Rockies:
[Fig 9] Pioneer Saloon and Rainier Saloon pumpkinseed flasks from Tuolumne, CA
[Fig 8] Desirable Washington Territory “Saloon� pumpkinseed
[Fig. 7] A. Weinberg Tacoma W.T. coffin flask
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Alaska - No embossed flasks are known. Arizona - Only three flasks are known. The Wellington Saloon olympia flask from Prescott exists in both the half pint and pint sizes. (Despite being considered the "available" flask from the state, it took me over ten years to acquire my pint example.) There is only one example of the "Thorne's Palace" pumpkinseed from Prescott (badly damaged) and only one example of the rare straight-sided territorial "Old Crow" from Douglas, A.T. California - As might be anticipated, there are more flasks available from California than any other Western state. There are numerous examples of the dandy flasks scattered across the state, with likely no fewer than 75 each from Los Angeles and San Francisco. A few of the olympia-style flasks exist with none south of the Bay Area, to my knowledge.
A few Washington style flasks exist, as well as the Lavanthal style Approximately 240 pumpkinseeds and 120 coffin/shoofly flasks are known in clear. The vast majority of the amber flasks from the west also come from this state. Colorado - The Colorado flasks present a wonderful array of bottles. A large number of the dandy, defender and Baltimore oval flasks complement the forty-eight known coffins, seven pumpkinseeds, four screw-cap pumpkinseeds and thirteen basket-base shooflies of two different styles. Additional new flasks are periodically dug, adding to the interest in collecting from this state. Prices tend to be be high, with even the most common flasks in the $100 range and many of the mining town flasks at $500-1000, and up. One base embossed amber flask is known. Hawaii - Two embossed straight-sided flasks are known, with no pumpkinseeds, coffins or olympia-styles accounted for. Although not a popular style, they are rare and they command a strong price. Idaho - The Idaho flasks are all scarce and there are very limited numbers of each bottle known. There exist six different olympia-style flasks, one pumpkinseed and one Baltimore oval flask The prices have remained reasonable on the Idaho flasks, considering their rarity, with the olympia flask typically in the $300 range or less. The Log Cabin pumpkinseed from Boise falls in the $600800 range. [Fig. 34] Montana - Montana has a nice assortment of flasks, including some Baltimore ovals, "medicine"-type, defenders and dandies to
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Bottles and Extras
[Fig. 10] An appealing bar name
[Fig 11] Nonpareil Kolb & Denhard
[Fig. 12] A nice Oregon “Picture� flask
go with fifteen shooflies, four basket-base shooflies, three olympia-style, one screwcap pumpkinseed and two double-ring top pumpkinseeds. Both of the standard top pumpkinseeds have surfaced in the past year (see 'New Finds' section in this magazine). Most flasks from this state sell for under $500. There exists one amber strap-sided flask from Butte (King & Lowry) to complement the clear flasks. Nevada - There are a very limited number of flasks available from this state, with two coffins, four shooflies and five pumpkinseeds available, as well as four or five dandy-style flasks. Aggressively pursued by the local collectors over the years, these flasks have always been expensive, but a waning in interest as the prices escalated has caused them to back up in price a little in the past three years. One flask which has not dropped (and will likely not) is the Brearley & Uniake pumpkinseed with the embossed owl. With only about five examples of this picture flask known, it places in the top five of all Western clear flasks. Expect to pay $1000 and up on any Nevada flask other than the The Waldorf dandy flask from Reno. New Mexico - No embossed flasks have surfaced to date. There are a few labeled flasks known and an embossed cylinder (broken) was discovered last year, so one day there may be one to report. Oregon - The Oregon flasks offer the
opportunity to assemble a nice grouping, with at least eighteen pumpkinseeds, eighteen coffins, two shooflies, three basket-base shooflies and four olympiastyle flasks available. Numerous dandy and defender flasks also exist, particularily from Portland. Several amber flasks are available from Portland and a very appealing amber union oval flask is available from Salem (see article this issue from Dale Mlasko). Many of the clear Oregon flasks are in sufficient supply that they currently sell for under $200. Exceptions include (but are not limited to) the The Portland pumpkinseed, the Marx & Jorgensen coffin flask, the AAA Old Valley early shoofly, the Billy Winters Log Cabin pumpkinseed, a rare crown-embossed Cutter shoofly and the Marx Baumgart pumpkinseed from Albany. This latter flask is the only pumpkinseed known from an Oregon city other than Portland and would certainly command in the $500 range. Utah - The flasks from Utah are very rare. There are only five clear flasks and one colored flask known. The clear flasks include the The Falstaff and the The Crystal dandy flasks from Ogden, the John Lollins olympiastyle and the The Bismark and C. Bonetti shooflies from Salt Lake City. The clear flasks range from about $300-400 for the John Lollins to the $750 range for the The Bismark. Pieces in aqua, green and amber have been found for the California Wine Depot
bottle from Salt Lake City, but to date only pieces have been found. An intact example of this flask would certainly command in the $20,000 range. Washington and Washington Territory The Washington flasks have recently begun to increase in popularity. There was a time when few of the flasks other than the Territorials would command over $150. Most of the pumpkinseeds and coffins would now easily eclipse that mark and several of the Territorial flasks would command $1500+. Two of the top ten Western clear flasks come from this state - the Walla Walla Saloon pumpkinseed and the M. Gottstein, Seattle W.T. pumpkinseed featuring a picture of an Indian paddling a canoe. Just as the states of Oregon and California offer the possibility of putting together a sizeable collection, so does the state of Washington. There are seven pumpkinseeds, five territorial pumpkinseeds, one shoofly, three basket-base shooflies, six olympia-style, seven coffin and five territorial coffin flasks accounted for. In addition to this, there are a significant number of dandy flasks and a very rare amber union oval flask from J.C. Nixon, Seattle W.T. Wyoming - As with most of the Rocky Mountain region, the Wyoming flasks are rare, with many of the flasks having three or less known examples. To this point we know of six screwcap pumpkinseeds, eight defender flasks, one olympia-style, one shoofly and four
Bottles and Extras coffin flasks. Cities represented include Casper, Cheyenne, Kemmerer, Laramie, Rawlins, and Rock Springs. Oklahoma Territory and Dakota Territory - Although east of the Rockies, these two states are included due to their territorial designations. The Oklahoma Territory flasks are prime examples of bottles where local appeal drives the market, with most flasks commanding $500 and up. There are currently four strap-sides, one pumpkinseed and one coffin flask known. Many of these bottles are extremely difficult to obtain. There is one pumpkinseed flask known from Dakota Territory. Embossed FROM / HENRY J. SIEMS / WHOLESALE / LIQUORS / PIERRE, D.T., it is a choice bottle to own.
AMBER FLASKS The amber Western flasks present a challenge to collect, both from a scarcity standpoint and from a cost standpoint. There are only sixty-two known amber flasks in the more popular styles, many of which have less than five known specimens. A few of the newer ones were put out by saloon proprietors or grocers, while the older ones were associated with large liquor distillers or distributors. For the older examples, then, the history tends to be a history of the firm rather than a community or merchant within a community. Several different styles of bottles are represented in the Western amber flasks. Known examples include two pumpkinseed flasks, six coffins, eight shooflies, ten strap-sides, thirty-three union ovals, two knife-edge flasks and one teardrop. The Union oval and knife-edge flasks both demonstrate a rounded shoulder and are a little broader at the shoulder than at the base. Their difference lies in the angle at the junction of the edges of the flask and the base. Where the union oval is rounded, the knife-edge has a more "pointed" projection. The teardrop is a unique form and appears as the name would imply. The other forms have been discussed, previously. Only six of the Western states have flasks in this grouping. Oregon has one knife edge, three union ovals and two shooflies. Washington Territory and Utah each have one union oval, Colorado has
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[Fig 13] Forms from Left to Right: Pumpkinseed, Shoofly, Strap-Side, Knife-Edge (laying down), Union-Oval, Coffin and Teardrop one base-embossed union oval, while Montana has a single strap-sided flask. California is the most significantly represented, with two pumpkinseeds, six coffins, six shooflies, one knife-edge, nine strap-sides, twenty-seven union ovals and one teardrop. Many of the factors which lend value to the clear flasks are applicable to the colored flasks. Certainly condition, rarity and factors promoting desirability all pertain. Collectors of the cylindical fifths love to include a Fleckenstein & Mayer, a Jesse Moore or J F Cutter Star & Shield flask to their cylinders from the same company.
A collector of Territorial bottles would love to have the J C Nixon Seattle W.T. flask on their shelf, as would a "saloon" bottle collector enjoy having the Peppertree Saloon coffin or shoofly flask from San Pedro, California. Add to this the crudity and tremendous color variation noted in these flasks and the demand for them becomes understandable. The most ardent collectors try to assemble a complete collection of the colored flasks. To my knowledge no-one has ever been able to make the claim that they once owned an example of every bottle. This is a testimony to the extreme rarity of certain of the bottles.
[Fig. 14] Group of: Fleckenstein & Mayer bottles
24 Typically, the first 25 of the flasks can be obtained in a five-year period of time and those first twenty-five tend to be available in the $200-$2500 range. After that, there are another ten or so that may become available with some patience and a willingness to spend in the $2000-$5000 range. The remainder of the flasks are tough to acquire, no matter how industrious you are and, to a degree, no matter how much money you have available to acquire them. Several of the top flasks become available only when a collection breaks up, or if a new find of the bottle occurs. Considering the above, it is easy to understand why a number of collectors sub-categorize the ambers and collect only a fraction of them. Some desire only the flasks from their own state. Others collect only those that correspond to an embossed cylinder they own (up to forty-three of the flasks apply to that criterion). Others seek the Territorial or Saloon designations mentioned earlier. The very specialized collector is the bitters collector, who has only one embossed Western flask to choose - the union oval Wilmerding & Co Peruvian Bitters flask. For those who collect the flasks as an entity in-and-of-their-own, there are a couple of very significant divisions for collecting. There are those who limit collecting to only the older private mold embossed flasks and those who collect only bottles that have applied (gloppy) tops, but not the flasks with tooled tops. Collecting the Private Mold Embossed Flasks This group includes all of the flasks distributed by Western firms prior to the advent of the slug plate (patented in 1875, and beginning to see widespread use in the West by the late 1870's). The full-faced embossing on many of these bottles is very eye-appealing and the value of these flasks comes from this and the tremendous variations in color and crudity they demonstrate, rather than simply from rarity The twenty-one flasks in this grouping are: AAA OLD VALLEY WHISKEY - Ca 1871-1882 These show temendous variation in color and crudity. They are quite desireable, although not rare. Over 100 specimens of this union oval exist. J ANGELI & CO SAN FRANCISCO -
Winter 2003 Ca 1868-1872 With only 6 known examples, it is in the top five of Western flasks. Union oval. OLD BOURBON CASTLE WHISKEY - Ca 1875-1880; F CHEVALIER & CO Rare, with less than 15 examples known. These union ovals show nice variation in color and crudity. [Fig. 17] JF CUTTER EXTRA OLD BOURBON - Ca 1870-1880; Star and Shield Available in a wide array of colors and crudity, they have the added popularity of the Cutter name. Scarce, but not rare, with over twenty-five examples of this strapside in collections. [Fig. 18] J H CUTTER OLD BOURBON, E MARTIN - Ca 1873-1877; Crown Another top Western flask, a rare strapside with 10-15 known examples. They are typically found in golden amber colorations. Olive colorations are in particular demand. [Fig. 19] C P MOORMAN SAN FRANCISCO Ca 1873-1879 The Moorman is the only shoofly flask in the early private mold group. It is a fairly common bottle ranging from dark amber to yellow-green and can be incredibly crude. The possibility of collecting a run of colors at a reasonable price adds to its appeal. MILLERS EXTRA (TRADE shield MARK) OLD - Ca 1871-1879; BOURBON, E MARTIN & CO (large pattern) This is another fairly common union
[Fig 15] Private Mold Embossed flask
Bottles and Extras oval flask, with over 100 examples in collections. [Fig. 20] This bottle comes in a wide varity of colors and, as with the C P Moorman, nice color runs can be put together affordably. MILLERS EXTRA (TRADE shield MARK) OLD - Ca 1871-1879; BOURBON, E MARTIN & CO) The small pattern embossed Millers flask is considerably more rare, with on the order of thirty examples known of the union oval. [Fig. 21] Colors in the green spectrum are actually more common than the ambers - an unusual circumstance for a Western flask. FLECKENSTEIN & MAYER, PORTLAND - Ca 1877-1885; (knife edge) This full-face embossed flask is comparatively scarce, with less than twenty-five specimens known. The key to collecting is to find one with strong embossing. [Fig. 22] FLECKENSTEIN & MAYER, PORTLAND - Ca 1877-1885 Very rare in the applied with two pints and less than six of the half pints known. It is an example of a flask that bridges over into the tooled top era, despite being a private mold bottle. Interestingly, the tooled examples are also rare. Union oval shape THE GENUINE OLD BOURBON WHISKEY - Ca early 1870's; N. GRANGE In the top three of Western flasks for desirability. Very rare with three known examples, two of which are damaged. Union oval THE GENUINE OLD BOURBON WHISKEY - Ca early 1870's; NG monogram, SF [See Front Cover] Pairs with its brother as one of the top three Western flasks. Three examples are known-- one electric green, one citron and one golden amber. Union oval. JESSE MOORE & CO - Ca 1878-1882; antler motif Approximately twenty-five examples are known ranging from dark amber to olive in coloration. [Fig. 16] Although not rare, it is a top example of a Western flask and very tough to acquire as no-one ever parts with theirs. Strap-side. "HIGH S. F." LILIENTHAL & CO Ca 1872-1880 This large union oval was distributed through the mining camps of the West. An early and fairly common flask, the key to collecting it is to find a nice yellow green
Winter 2003
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[Fig 16]
[Fig 20]
[Fig 24]
[Fig 17]
[Fig 21]
[Fig 25]
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[Fig 18]
[Fig 22]
[Fig 26]
[Fig 19]
[Fig 23]
[Fig 27]
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Bottles and Extras
Winter 2003
[Fig 28]
[Fig 32]
[Fig 29]
[Fig 31]
[Fig 30]
[Fig 33]
Hildebrandt & Poster pumpkinseeds
[Fig 34]
Bottles and Extras or green specimen with good strike. "LOW S. F." LILIENTHAL & CO - Ca 1872-1880 Identical in shape and size to the above, the placement of "S.F." is a little lower on this flask. Tough to find with a good strike. LILIENTHAL & CO (L & Co) - Ca 1876-1880; Teardrop Unique in design for a Western flask, it is comparatively scarce with about twenty specimens in collections. [Fig 31] LILIENTHAL & CO, S.F. - Ca 18781882; (banded) A recent dig produced about half a dozen of these, but it still remains a rare flask with only about a dozen example known. It is known as the "Lilienthal Cognac" due to being the same diminuitive size as the banded Wormser Bros "Fine Old Cognac". CALIFORNIA WINE DEPOT, AM SMITH - Ca 1874-1875; SALT LAKE CITY [See inside back cover] This is an extremely desireable flask with no known intact examples in any collection. It is a union oval form with champagne top and the examples that have been unearthed have been green, aqua and amber in color. It would clearly fall in the top three of all Western colored flasks. WORMSER BROS SF, FINE OLD COGNAC - Ca 1870-1872 This short, squat banded flask tends towards olive colorations. Rare with less than six specimens known. WORMSER BROS, SAN FRANCISCO - Ca 1865-1867; (horizontal embossing) Early and tending towards the olive colorations, this union oval flask is a top five bottle. Less than ten examples are known, most with significant damage. Three examples have a champagne top, a feature seen in only one other Western flask. [See Fig. 15] WORMSER BROS, SAN FRANCISCO - Ca 1867-1872; (vertical embossing) As rare as the horizontal Wormser is, this one is common. Well over onehundred examples exist, some with a large top and others with a small top. Color variation is an appealing feature of this flask, with coloration varying from yellow to olive and into the orangish and reddish ambers. [Fig. 28] Collecting the Slug Plate Embossed Union Oval Style Flasks Dating from about 1878 to 1895, the flasks in this grouping are a mixture of applied top and tooled top bottles. They
Winter 2003 are generally less crude and demonstrate less pronounced color variation that the private mold embossed flasks. Their desirabilty is largely based upon their relative rarity, with the aquisition of applied top examples (where they exist) and specimens with color and crudity the focus. There are eighteen examples known in this style of flask: S ADOLPH & CO, SALEM O. - late 1870's-1885 This is a very rare flask, with only two applied top pints and one tooled top halfpint known. F BRASSY OLD BOURBON - Ca 18811883; SAN JOSE As with the Adolph, this is a "small" town flask, a feature which lends interest. Less than ten total specimens known. Pint and half-pint tool top flask. F BRICKWEDEL & CO, SF - Ca 18801883 Considered an "available" flask, there are probably still less than forty known. They come in applied top and tooled top in both the pint and half pint size. FLECKENSTEIN & MAYER, PORTLAND - Ca 1880-1885 This flask is found as a tooled top in both the pint and half-pint sizes. It is a nice later addition to the private mold bottles from this company. GILMAN WALKER & CO, SF - Ca 1878-1886 A very rare and desirable tooled top flask, with six known half pint union ovals and one pint that has been attributed to being a knife-edge rather than a union oval. KANE, O'LEARY & CO, SF - Ca 18811882 [Fig. 25] Another very rare flask with only one tooled top pint and a total of six half-pints in tooled top and applied top known. LIVINGSTON & CO, CALIFORNIA ST - Ca 1878-1883 Very rare. Four applied top pints are known. LIVINGSTON & CO, FREMONT ST - Ca 1883-1885 Very rare, with four tooled top examples known. MILLER'S OLD BOURBON WHISKEY - Ca 1878-1883; WEIL BROS, SF There are reported to be two examples of this flask, but I have never been able to confirm its existence. A rare and very desirable flask. NANSCAWEN & CO, VISALIA - Ca
27 1881-1889 This is a small-town Central Valley flask. Very rare with only one or two specimens in existence. Tooled top. [Fig. 23] NEWMARK, GRUENBERG & CO, SF - Ca 1883-1885 Another rare flask, it comes in both sizes in both the tooled and applied tops. 10-12 examples known. J C NIXON & CO, SEATTLE W.T. Ca 1882-1889 This is a very appealing flask that has the distinction of being the only colored flask with Territorial designation. Rare, with only five or six examples known. One applied top pint is known. All of the halfpints are reported to have tooled tops. PHOENIX BOURBON, PALMTAG Ca 1890-1895; BERNHARDT, HOLLISTER AGTS [Fig. 24] Found as a tooled top half-pint, it is very rare and an extremely desirable small town flask. Four specimens are known. STEVENS & CO, VISALIA - Ca 18811891 One tooled top pint is known of this flask. Very desireable. TAUSSIG & CO, BATTERY ST, SF Ca 1881 - 1883 This flask reportedly exists in an applied top, but it is much more likely that all have tooled tops. Both sizes exist and the bottle would be considered scarce to rare. TAUSSIG & CO, MAIN ST, SF - Ca 1884 - 1886 Tooled top half-pints and pints exist. A few more examples exist of the Main Street than the Battery Street address. WILMERDING & CO, PERUVIAN Ca 1885; BITTERS, SF This is superb piece for the flask collector or the collector of Western bitters. There are less than six examples known. Found as a tooled top in both the pint and half-pint sizes. WOLTERS BROS & CO, SF - Ca 1884 - 1885 Recently unearthed, there is only the one half-pint tooled top example known. COLLECTING THE SLUG PLATE EMBOSSED STRAP-SIDED FLASKS Just as the union ovals are found in a mixture of applied top and tooled top bottles, so too are the strap-sides Although these are a popular style in many regions of the country, in the West they tend to be among the least sought of
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Winter 2003
the colored flasks. Adding specimens with applied tops, lighter colors and some crudity is the focus among those collecting these flasks. Five examples exist in this style: KING & LOWRY, BUTTE MONT - Ca early 1880's This is a scarce flask and only one of two from the Rocky Mountain states. Approximately a half dozen applied top examples are known in each of the pint and half-pint sizes. [Fig. 26] LILIENTHAL & CO, CINCINNATI, SF & NY - Ca 1880-1885 This flask is found in both the applied and tooled top in both the pint and halfpint sizes. A comparatively rare bottle. LILIENTHAL & CO DISTILLERS Ca 1883-1889 This flask is very common in the tooled top and scarce in the applied top. It is found in both sizes. [Fig. 29] ROTH & CO, SF - Ca 1880-1885 This is considered one of the most common of the slug plate Western flasks. It is found as a tooled top and applied top in both sizes. There additionally exists a rare double slug plate variant with applied top. SPRUANCE, STANLEY & CO, SF - Ca 1880-1885 This flask is found in both sizes as a tooled top bottle. Applied top pints are also known. It is scarce in the tooled top and rare in the applied top. COLLECTING THE COLORED PUMPKINSEED, COFFIN AND SHOOFLY FLASKS For those that collect the clear flasks of similar style, the impetus to collect the ambers often begins with the addition of one or more of the flasks in this grouping. These flasks add the elements of color and crudity to the overall collection that are missing in a grouping of solely clear flasks. Cohesiveness of the collection is attained through the overlap, which these fifteen bottles, along with the C P Moorman previously mentioned, provide. COFFINS AND SHOOFLIES JOHN BOWMAN OLD COMET BOURBON - Ca 1886-1890 This is a very rare coffin flask, with one broken pint and three half-pints known. JOHN BOWMAN OLD JEWEL
BOURBON - Ca 1886-1892 A very rare coffin flask with three pints known. J H CUTTER, A P HOTALING, PORTLAND - Ca 1879-1885; (Newman patent) A very rare screw-cap pint shoofly, with only two examples known. J H CUTTER, A. P. HOTALING - Ca 1884-1886; (slugged out "Sole Agents") A rare shoofly flask, with approximately six examples in collections. A recent find of one with "Sole Agents" on the bottle finally answered the question as to what the slugged out area originally said. JOHN FERGUSON, ABC HOUSE, SF - Ca mid-1880s This is an early crude and rare coffin flask. Two are reported, with only one known to exist. GOUDIE & McKELVEY PEPPERTREE SALOON - Ca 1915-1917; San Pedro Desired for the "Saloon" embossing, there are approximately three of the halfpints and five of the pints known of this shoofly flask. C N McKELVEY, PEPPERTREE SALOON - Ca 1916-1917; San Pedro This is a rare coffin flask, known only in the half-pint size. Five to ten known. J.D. HEISE & CO, SAN FRANCISCO - Ca 1900-1903 This is a rare shoofly flask, with less than five examples know. LILIENTHAL & CO DISTILLERS Ca 1900-1903
Bottles and Extras This is a rare coffin flask, with five to ten known, in the pint size only. PHOENIX BOURBON, NABER, ALFS & BRUNE - Ca 1888-1895; SF, Sole Agts A common shoofly found in the pint only. Nice color variations exist, and with the embossed Phoenix, are a popular flask. PHOENIX BOURBON, NABER, ALFS & BRUNE - Ca 1895-1899 A common coffin flask found in the half-pint size only. Nice color variations exist, and with the embossed Phoenix, they are a popular flask. PHOENIX BOURBON, NABER, ALFS & BRUNE - Ca 1880-1885; Hollister Agts An extremely rare coffin flask with only two pint examples known. [Fig. 27] PUMPKINSEEDS THE ARLINGTON, M A LINDBERG, BAKERSFIELD - Ca 1907-1917 This is a scarce flask with less than fifteen examples in amber. Found in both sizes in both clear and amber. HILDEBRANDT, POSNER & CO, SF - Ca 1885-1890 A rare pumpkinseed in the amber shades, it is found in both sizes, in amber and clear. Green examples exist, and are highly desirable. [Fig. 31] Ambers, clears... when you appreciate the form, it is hard to resist the temptation to try to put them ALL on the shelf.
Ralph Van Brocklin is a collector of Western glass, miniature advertising jugs and shotglasses. His collecting empasis is clear and colored Western flasks. He is an oral sugeon living in Johnson City, Tennessee, and currently serves as president of The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors. He can be reached at thegenuine@aol.com or (423) 913-1378.
Bottles and Extras
Winter 2003
Collector’s Spotlight by Charlie Barnette
When you walk into the office of Ralph Van Brocklin, you are immediately struck by his passion for Western glass and stoneware. A collector for 35 years, his collecting interests run the spectrum of glass, but the focus has always returned to items from the West, with an emphasis on liquor items. The private office houses a wonderful collection of the early amber flasks, colored western bitters and his collection of clear pumpkinseed and coffin flasks. His home study includes a nice assortment of Western beers, mini jugs and Western fifths. "As with many in our hobby, I started out in an area of collecting quite peripheral to bottles - coins. That interest was sparked by the changeover from silver coinage to clad in 1965. But, as an elementary school student, it was a challenge to pick up nice coins, and when my friend who got me started, introduced me to his bottle-collecting brother, it sounded awfully appealing. After all, who could resist a hobby where you dug what you collected, and the only cost was 'an occasional new shovel! The recommendation has certainly been a wonderful one, but the advice of the cost.... Another matter!" Ralph started out collecting what he dug and gradually began to focus on Western half-pint beers, also known as "splits". He still has his early collection of beers, a collection that still continues to get additions.
In his private study are approximately 200 different half-pint beers, in colors ranging from green to yellow to red amber. An occasional aqua and clear example is also seen. Among the choice examples are the early applied top Swan Brewery Co XXX Ale with embossed Swan (reported to be San Francisco's earliest beer) in four different colors, and an aqua W.B. Co (Wilmot Brewing Company) with embossed Sun, also a San Francisco beer. "I had to purchase the Swans and the Wilmont - these examples came out of a privy Randy Haumann and I missed by a little more than a probe length in a 1981 dig. We dug two dry holes inside of a
29 condemned building, probed the sides and felt nothing, so we went home. Overnight, one of the San Francisco diggers, Ed Jost, popped in and hit the hole. We were sick when we saw all of the pieces at the edge of the hole the next morning! A lot of money spent for a missed hole!" Besides the applied top San Francisco half-pints, Ralph's favorites are the picture beers. He has examples with embossed eagles from the Eagle Brewing Co S.F. and American Brewing and Raspiller Brewing, each from West Berkeley, plus a number of variants of the Golden Gate Bottling Company, with embossed bear holding a mug. "Although they are not particularly rare, I really enjoy the Golden Gate beers - the motif is so classically California. I have examples of two of the three California beers with embossed bears, but I have never been able to add the one I truly desire, the Jacob Denzler with the three drinking bears. That is a bottle I used to dream of digging when I'd drive up to San Francisco to dig as a youngster!" Included with the half-pint beers are eight of the early San Francisco quarts, including the "A. Cappelli & Co with embossed standing stag, the A & R Postel with walking bear, the C.D. Postel with embossed wheat sheaves, two variants of the Philadelphia Bottling Co with embossed eagle on nest, and a Nick Zuck with embossed eagle. There would be more, but he indicates, "I had to sell my initial collection of the early quarts to help finance the purchase of an extensive Western flask collection in 1996." That comment serves to illustrate the true love of his collecting - the Western flask. His collection is the most comprehensive ever put together, including over 100 of the old ambers, and over 600 clear coffin and pumpkinseed flasks from Western states. "Even though I started out collecting beers, and have continued to add to that early collection, I always loved the flasks - and particularly, I liked the style of the pumpkinseeds. I remember, as if it were yesterday, seeing some of the more ardent Central Coast diggers pulling them out of holes when I was still too inexperienced to find my own, and thinking how much I'd like to find some.
Winter 2003
30
Three nice “picture” 1/2-pt or “split” beers
At that time, the notion of buying them was impossible - $10-25 was a princely sum, and the half-pint beers at $1-5 were at least feasible." Ralph still has a number of the pharmacies and other bottles he dug growing up in Salinas, California, on his shelves in his study at home. "It reminds me of some very happy times, and some unusual circumstances I'd get myself into in the quest for more bottles." The best bottle that he ever dug was absent from his shelves from 1975 to 1996 however. "I dug whenever I got the chance throughout high school and college. Starting with dental school in 1977, and then through my period of residency in oral and maxillofacial surgery, digging was pretty much impossible, and with the exception of a year in residency in San Francisco in 1981, I was essentially out of the hobby during those years. In 1987, I got back into the hobby, after re-subscribing to Antique Bottles and Glass Collector and finding in it a listing for a bottle I had always wanted - a puce Greeley's Bitters barrel. An advertisement in the magazine by Bob Barnett, a whiskey dealer from Oregon, got me started in the flasks." From 1987 through 1996, Ralph collected figural bitters and Western whiskey flasks, with the bitters purchases slowing as the Western whiskeys began to escalate in price.
"When I first started getting Bob Barnett's lists, I'd buy pretty much every pumpkinseed and coffin flask that I did not already have. By starting at that time, I was able to amass a big portion of the collection I have, which is fortunate, considering that bottles I was buying then for $15-75 are now $75-1000 plus." The cabin and barrel bitters were a safe facet of Ralph's collection, until a collector named Chuck Wilkie convinced him that he ought to start collecting the
Bottles and Extras Until 1993, his amber flask collecting was limited to trying to upgrade and add colors. In 1993, the Scott McClain collection, which was purchased by Wendell Clodfeller, was offered, and it added some choice Oregon flasks in both color and clear. This added fuel to his collecing fire, and he began to inquire of one collector, in particular, about one bottle in particular. "In 1975, my digging partner and I hit a hole in a locale known for many years only as 'downtown Prunedale' (aka 'none of your business', as Prunedale was a newer and rural locale). Digging in a 12-inch wide trench bordered on each side by pavement with a newly laid sewer pipe strategically placed over the hole and making access almost impossible, I pulled out a citron-colored example of the top Western flask, and the flask from which my eBay moniker comes, 'The Genuine'. I have to admit that I thought of the bottle as 'pretty', but really had no idea what I had dug. My partner, on the other hand, was going nuts! That bottle sold for $800 to Mike Homer, the premier flask collector at the time. It allowed me to pay almost two quarters of tuition at UCLA, so I was happy...until I started collecting the Western flasks, that is!" Ralph began to write periodic letters to Mike about re-acquiring "The Genuine". None were answered, until
amber flasks. "I really was quite content with the clear flasks and my bitters, and had not really even considered trying to collect the amber Western flasks. Then Chuck called me about a J.F. Cutter "Star and Shield" he had, and more-or-less twisted my arm to at least look at it. I don't know if that was a good thing, or a bad thing. I just know that it started an obsession which I still cannot shake!" Over the next couple of years, Ralph added amber flasks whenever they became available. Next was a AAA Old Valley in orange amber (again from Chuck), then a couple of different Lilienthal & Co flasks, an amber The Arlington Bakersfield California pumpkinseed, a large embossed Millers Extra, and a C.P. Moorman. "I absolutely fell in love with the color shades and the crudity of the glass. Suddenly the bitters were not such a priority." About 30 flasks into collecting the amber flasks, the "available" bottles Three rare green Western “squares” were acquired.
Bottles and Extras
Display in one of the office’s windows
about two weeks before the Nashville Expo, when..."I got home from the office, and walked out to the mailbox to discover a letter from Mike Homer. The text began, 'Today is your lucky day. But I do not want to sell just 'The Genuine' - I want to sell the entire collection.' When I saw the price, I just about had a heart attack! But, when I sat down with the list, and started figuring conservative value, the price was reasonable, and then it was a matter of how to raise the funds to do the deal. Luckily the Expo was just after receipt of the offer, and thus, the perfect venue for raising money with the sale of colored bitters and other good glass. I sold enough to come within $5000 of the asking price, and the deal was done." Purchasing Mike's collection added all of the key flasks that had eluded Ralph, including "The Genuine", an Angeli, a Jesse Moore, a Crown-Shoulder Cutter, a
Winter 2003 Chevalier Old Castle Bourbon, a horizontal Wormser and a Wormser Fine Old Cognac. A total of twenty new flasks came from the collection, as well as a number of flasks in different colors than ones he previously had. He is particularly fond of the two Hollister California Phoenix flasks (a coffin and an union oval) and the yellow-green Hildebrandt, Posner & Co pumpkinseed that came out of the collection. Ralph has added to the collection in the meantime with the purchase of the Ben Loader collection and the purchase of the two Visalia ambers from long-time Central Valley collectors Bill and Betty Seals. The variety of flasks and the color runs of certain of the flasks make a lovely display in the back-lighted cases in his office! No fewer than a dozen large and small pattern Millers Extra flasks adorn the shelves, ranging from green into yellow, and then up into chocolate amber. There are eight of the C.P. Moormans, all crude and all shades. Duplicates of several of the major flasks exist, although he insists, "I am not as obsessed as I once was - I've sold a couple of my Jesse Moores, Crown Shoulder Cutters and Old Castle Bourbons. And my duplicate Angeli flask is presently being offered in Pacific Glass Auctions." Other bottles in the lighted cases and in the shelving of the windows of his office include a nice assortment of Western bitters, including a couple of different colors in the Laquors and the Wormser barrel. His 'green' squares include a N.B. Jacobs, several Hostetters and a 3-bottle
31
Panel of choice jugs, bottles and mini-jugs in Ralph’s study at his home
frame of green large and small embossed Renz's with a Lyon's in between. A run of Reynold's Celebrated Herb Beer, an applied-top beer bottle from Salt Lake City, graces one of the top shelves in his lighted display. The cylindrical fifths at his home, and in his office, "actually belong to my son, but he does not have space in his room for them. So, I get to enjoy them!" Add to all of this around 300 Western and Tennessee shotglasses, an occasional Tennessee or Southern 'Saloon' flask (including the Big Springs Saloon strapsided flask from his home in Johnson City, Tennessee), a few large-size Western jugs and over 300 miniature advertising jugs...and you get the picture! A lovely and quite comprehensive collection.
Winter 2003
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Bottles and Extras title (OASG) is out of print. It sometimes surfaces at auction on eBay and is quickly grabbed up. Together, the two books list over 3,200 entries. Of the glasses I’ve gathered into my database, 1,700 are not listed in the Edmonson books, so that brings, at minimum, a total of close to 5,000 and that, I feel, is just the tip of the iceberg.
Random Shots Welcome to the first of Bottles and Extras’ quarterly columns dealing with the fascinating world of pre-prohibition shot glasses. Often relegated to the areas of “gowiths” or “extras” by many bottle enthusiasts, shot glasses have a very lively and growing following of their own. This inaugural column will be devoted to an overview of the topic and recent changes in collecting habits brought about by the Internet and by eBay especially. It used to be that there were “glassrich” areas and “glass-poor” areas. EBay has pretty much changed all that. One of the things I want to do in this issue is to share some data I’ve collected on eBay shot glass auctions over the last four years. It may drive home the impact the web has had on collecting. As we go to press, the number of auctions for pre-prohibition shot glasses on eBay has gone over the 7,000 mark for the time frame covered: i.e. from mid 1999 to now. This number includes close to 3,000 different brands, distillers, dealers, saloons, hotels, etc. Of these 3,000, the number of different glasses that have appeared once and once only is about 1,600. Now, those are pretty scarce! From there, the frequency rises all the way up to the 297 Hayner glasses that have popped up like dandelions all over the place. And in between lie the classic shot glasses that cover most collectors’ shelves. This would be a good time to clarify what I mean by a “glass” and what I mean by “pre-prohibition”. The usual shot glass is thin walled and stands about 2" high and about 1 3/4" across the rim. Many collectors include tonic shaped
Discovering where they are from
with Howard Currier
glasses and highball glasses, which can run up to 4" tall. And, we’re talking “spirits” here. (Beer glasses, soda glasses and dose glasses have their own followings). The term “pre-pro”, when applied to this type of glass, indicates a date range between the mid 1890’s and 1919, with the bulk of them falling into the heyday of the sample glass - the twelve year period between 1904 to1915. Of course, exceptions abound to all of these standards, and often, distillers and dealers used whatever sizes the nearest glassmaker had on hand or on sale. So, how many different glasses are out there? The “bible” of the pre-pro shot glass collector, fittingly, is comprised of two books: Historic Shot Glasses - The Pre-Prohibition Era, published in 1985 and revised in 1992, and Old Advertising Spirits Glasses, published in 1988. Barbara Edmonson, to whom every prepro shot glass collector owes unending tribute, wrote both. The revised edition of the former title (HSG) is available in bookstores and through amazon.com. Sadly, the second
Usually, this is fairly easy. After all, these were given out as a form of dvertising, so virtually all dealers, saloons and distributors let you know where to find them right on the glass. Frequently distillers, laying claim to trade mark ownership, put the name of the distillery beneath the name of the brand. But sometimes they didn’t and that’s where the fun of researching the information comes into play, much like it does with bottle collectors. The Edmonson books are the first resort. Quite often, she’s already done the work for you. And just this past year, Bob Snyder has made the results of years of research available in his multi-part binder, Whiskey Brands. This is available directly from Bob at 4235 West 13th, Amarilo TX 79106. A good investment for the serious collector. Geographic distribution Of those 3,000 glasses I’ve catalogued, I was a little bit surprised that over a third (1,022) came from just four states: Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania, all represented fairly equally.
Bottles and Extras And two cities alone: Louisville and Cincinnati accounted for over ten percent of the total number. Glasses fetching the highest prices on eBay: Using a purely arbitrary and subjective figure of $75 to represent an expensive glass, I found that 158 sold at auction for that price and above. California had the most at 23, followed by Pennsylvania - 18, Ohio - 12 and, surprisingly, Colorado with 10. So western shot glasses continue to fetch the highest prices both on eBay and at bottle shows. That pretty much wraps it up for eBay shot glass trivia. At least as far as my database takes me. Can I take a look at this database? To an extent, yes. I’m sharing a modified version of the database on the web. Just type in: http://12.253.179.109 When it’s open on my desktop, you’ll be able to browse through the records. If you’re finding it difficult coordinating times, email me at hecurrier@attbi.com and we’ll work out a time to get it on my server. Some fields, like the prices the glasses have sold for and the frequency of listings, are not shared. That’s my payoff for doing this. However, there are close to 3,000 entries and about 80% of them have photos. It could be just the tool you might need to locate a whiskey brand that’s got you puzzled. The particular version I’m sharing is a work in progress but eventually all of the new fields will be filled in. Please be patient.
Winter 2003 And while you’re on the web, you’ll have to visit the new site on pre-pro shot glasses that Robin Preston, a Philadelphia collector, has put together. It can be accessed at http://www.pre-pro.com This is a fascinating site and could easily serve as a template for anyone interested in setting up a page for other collectibles. It is a breeze to navigate, has great eye appeal and a lot of valuable information on the history of shot glasses. It contains insights into various types of theme collections: bitters, souvenir, novelty and masonic and other fraternal glasses. It has a great bibliography and other pages cover different types of glass and types of labels. One of the more fascinating features is a slide show presentation — a gallery of shot glasses that will make your mouth water. This site just opened in early November (2002) and seems to get updated pretty much on a daily basis. Most importantly, it has a discussion room. The world of shot glass collectors is far-flung and up to now, there’s been no common ground or “meeting place”. This should do the trick nicely. Also, Robin is looking for people to contribute data and photos from their collection toward a database he’s assembling that will be available to all collectors. By the time you read this, I will have uploaded the information from my personal collection and I hope that a lot of you will log on and do the same. At any rate, take a good look at the site and let him know what you think about it. If it seems that this first column was very heavy into web pages, databases and the like, I do apologize. This one was intended as an overview of what’s going
33 on in the shot glass collecting field and quite a bit of it seems to be happening on the internet. Future columns will involve individual collections and collectors from around the country. I certainly would appreciate any suggestions on topics and specialty collections you’d like to see covered. Howard Currier is an avid collector of shot glasses and breweriana from Boston, Denver and San Francisco. Visit him at the websites mentioned or email him at hecurrier@attbi.com
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Winter 2003
POISONLAND
Mike Dickman Welcome to a new series of articles about the subject of poison bottles (as you may have guessed from the title). Both the author and the photographer are avid collectors: John, who lives in southern California, collects only American embossed poisons, while Mike hails from Santa Fe, New Mexico and collects every kind of poison bottle under the sun. Our first few articles will focus on the basics, with apologies to those of you who have more advanced knowledge of these matters. From the dawn of time, human beings likely have known about the existence and deadly effects of poisonous substances. It is easy to imagine the quick learning curve of our early ancestors as they tentatively tasted various roots, berries and other substances or observed animals doing so. The obvious and first use of poisons, not surprisingly, would have been to murder, secretly and without detection, and many ancient texts make reference to the methodology and use of poisons. In fact, intentional homicide by poisoning became a standard political tool of the Roman Empire and Renaissance Italy. The Roman Empress Livia is believed
Poison bottle collectors love to nickname the bottles. For obvious reasons, this British bottle is called a "Submarine". It was registered in 1899, and is known in three different sizes, all cobalt. The bottle is denominated as KU-6 in Rudy Kuhn's classification system, which will be discussed in a future article.
to have poisoned several of her own kin to pave the way for the accession to the throne of her son Tiberius, who reigned during the Ministry and Crucifixion of Jesus. Arsenic is one poison that has been so used for centuries and may have been used by Livia. As a colorless, odorless and tasteless powder, it is perfectly suited for nefarious purposes, and history abounds with its deadly use. Pope Clement VII, who excommunicated Henry VIII of England, was poisoned when somebody apparently blended arsenic into the wax of a candle which he carried in a religious procession, causing him to inhale its deadly fumes. The trial of Madeleine Smith in Scotland in 1857, reported around the world as a 19th century "O.J. Simpson" event, featured the stunningly beautiful Miss Smith's alleged placement of arsenic into her estranged lover's cup of hot cocoa...using a dose large enough to have killed fifty men, according to the testimony. But, despite strong circumstantial evidence including incriminating letters in her own handwriting and her multiple purchases of huge quantities of arsenic, the jury (all male) acquitted her of the murder. Thereafter, the indomitable lady emigrated to America andlived to the ripe old age of 92. As time passed, the Human Race had learned that some poisons possessed medicinal or beneficial properties. Nux Vomica (literally "Vomit Nut" in Latin) is made from the ground-up seed of an Asiatic tree; it contains Strychnine, one of the deadliest and most violent poisons known, but in minute amounts was prescribed for thousands of years as a medical stimulant. Indeed, Nux Vomica apparently was used as an ingredient in some of the bitters of the nineteenth century! Another such poison is Mercury (also called Quicksilver), which can be toxic, but has a long history of medical use as a laxative, antiseptic and treatment for syphilis and body lice, the last use continuing through the Second World War in the form of an external salve called Blue Ointment. The soldiers had a famous ditty about Blue Ointment: "One night with Venus, an eternity with Mercury."
Bottles and Extras
These rare Coffins were blown in the US for the Drug Products Company.
A modern example is Fluoride, which may be ingested safely in tiny quantities in order to harden tooth enamel (and in fact is used for that purpose in most modern American water systems) but which, in a dose as small as a heaping teaspoonful, will cause death. From the earliest days, chemists and pharmacists kept poisonous substances apart from other kinds of substances, for obvious reasons. Often, they were stored in separate locked cabinets, and the individual containers were usually marked in order to identify them as toxic. But as the Industrial Revolution caused living standards to rise and consumerism to take hold, more and more poisons were distributed to ordinary people, either for medicinal purposes (such as Laudanum, a solution of opium and alcohol which can be lethal if overused), household use (such as Carbolic Acid, a popular disinfectant) or as poison for killing vermin such as rats, lice and bedbugs. During a period when most people were unable to read, and interior lighting from fireplaces, candles and gas lamps was dim at best, it became necessary to have an effective way of identifying poisonous substances. By the early 1800's, accidental poisoning was a significant problem in both the United States and Great Britain, and there was a constant stream of legislative attempts, often unsuccessful, to require pharmacists and manufacturers to use widely-known identifying marks such as the Death's Head (the skull-and-
Bottles and Extras
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Many of the most astonishing or ludiIn 1859, for example, two London pharmacists crous designs were never made (as far as designed a poison bottle we know) but others were, and were in which "the outer actually used by pharmacists. Today, they are sought after and cherpart...may be formed of six, eight or more sides ished by the fraternity of poison bottle and fluted vertically, collectors. We'll be looking at many of these unhorizontally, or diagonally, or may be usual poison bottles in future articles. The era of "classic" poison bottles embossed or otherwise raised on the outer petered out during the Great Depression, surface...so that a person when the focus of safety turned from the taking hold of it either in shape and color of the bottle to external the dark or thoughtlessly screw caps and other closures. From what we know, it appears that the must immediately find that the bottle is unusu- last of these classic poison bottles was ally strange to the feel of patented on January 1, 1936: a small These are the three sizes of the Figural Skull (KU-10), which Carlton H. Lee of Boston patented in the US in 1894, amber iodine bottle with a rounded back, the hand." and which also was used in Great Britain. The base of the Thus was born the five vertical sides on the front and an embottle is embossed with crossed bones, upon which the "classic" poison bottle bossed grimacing Death's Head molded skull sits. (although archetypical into the glass to warn users about the crossbones), or to make the bottle itself might be a better word) - a bottle designed deadly consequences of drinking the distinctive so as to warn users of its to warn of its lethal contents. dangerous contents. In his book "The Benign Blue Coffin", contents intrinsically by its shape, color Interestingly, poisoning is still the third and embossing, in addition to and apart Roy Morgan speculates that the use of the most common cause of accidental death from whatever written words might be "weird and wonderful poison bottles" to children in the United States, notwith- printed on the labels. actually may have increased the death rate, standing our prolific use of "child proof" Between 1860 and the 1930s, inventors, because "such bottles were a novelty and caps. glass manufacturers and appealed to the eye" and thus they may In 1847-48, and again in 1863, the Brit- pharmaceutical companies on both sides have "defeated their purpose and attracted ish Parliament debated, but did not enact, of the Atlantic Ocean (and to a lesser many an unsuspecting youngster into an such laws, including one which would extent in Australia, New Zealand, early grave." have required the use of Germany, France and Hungary) brought We'll never know for sure whether these hexagonal-shaped bottles for poisonous forth an enormous number of distinctive- bottles ultimately did more harm than good, substances. but we know one thing for sure: we as collooking poison bottles. In the United States, the American PharThe United States and British Patent lectors love them. maceutical Association adopted a resolu- Offices issued literally hundreds of See References : Page 38 tion in 1853 mandating that patents and design registrations during pharmacists use poison bottles "distinctly those years, some for truly bizarre bottles. PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN GREGORY labeled" with the word "Poison" or a Death's Head, and over thirty state legislatures followed suit in the ensuing years. Although these laws typically focused on labels, many American glass manufacturers began to emboss warnings, distinct stars and ridges and/or skull-andcrossbones directly onto the glass itself, and to make their poison bottles in distinctive cobalt, amber and green colors so as to call attention to themselves. In 1908, Parliament finally enacted a law that all poisons must be sold in "bottles or other containers distinguishable by The US Patent Office archives contains sketches of strange poison bottle designs touch from ordinary bottles." As is often which, unfortunately, were never manufactured. Many were ingenious, but utterly the case, however, the lawmakers were impratical. From left to right: 1893 patent granted to Edward M. Cone of Newark, behind the curve. New Jersey; 1895 patent granted to James H. Valentine of Chatham, New Jersey; Starting in the 1850s, British inventors, and 1897 patent granted to Henry Lemmermann of Hasbrouck Heights, New Jerpharmacists and glassmakers had begun to sey. One may wonder: why New Jersey? (Courtesy of George B. Griffenhagen, register and patent designs for distincJournal of the American Pharmaceutical Association, reprinted in Collecting Bottles, tively-shaped poison bottles. by Cecil Munsey, p. 163.)
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Collecting DRUG STORE Stuff By: Jim Bilyeu bilyeu@qnet.com
Part I One of the most interesting, varied and rewarding categories of collecting is the Owl Drug Store of San Francisco. I started collecting “Owls” in 1985, after discovering a beautiful blob-top citrate, light blue in color, filled with bubbles on a shelf in Goldfield, Nevada. The different variations, types and colors of owl bottles are exceptional. The different types of “birds” embossed on the bottles and associated items are in themselves a collection. Within this category of bottle collecting there are many other cross-categories like different colors; amber, cobalt, milkglass, poison bottles, pharmacy bottles, Florida waters, Jamaica gingers, perfumes, animal characters, drug store and others. The Owl Drug Company was founded in San Francisco during 1892 and spread
through California into Oregon and Washington and later many other states. I believe the “Owl” was selected as a logo because the Owl once represented wisdom and was also a nocturnal bird (24-hour stores). At the turn of the century common practice was to treat oneself for medical conditions. The President and founder was a Canadian, Richard E. Miller. They were one of the first cut-rate drug store companies with stores open twenty-four hours. Their motto was “the customer is always right”. Each employee was treated fairly and considered part of the family. A monthly newsletter “The Owl Drug Store Doings” was “Published Monthly in the Interests of the Customers of the Owl Drug Company”. Each one of these issues is very collectible and contains many historical facts about the chain of stores.
Bottles and Extras They were intended both as advertising and also contained poems, quotes, health tips and other interesting tidbits. The first store at 1128 Market Street was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Some bottles and items bear this address embossed on the glass. The Owl Drug Company also founded a mail order business and any of their products could be ordered from their catalog and shipped via Railway Express to any location within the United States and the world. Unfortunately during the depression years they entered bankruptcy and were bought out by the United Drug Company of Boston (Rexall Drug and Chemical Company). The name was changed to Owl/Rexall and adopted the orange and blue colors which identified later stores. Most of the earlier embossed bottles were used up and discontinued sometime in the early 1950’s. Standard Pharmaceutical bottles were usually filled at warehouse facilities and distributed to stores for retail sales. Prescription bottles were usually filled and sold at the individual drug stores by a pharmacist. These series of bottles were stored at the individual drug stores and filled from bulk containers. Very few of these bottles had ounces embossed on the glass, therefore, each size or height represents an equivalent capacity in ounces. Many of these bottles can be found in various shades of sun colored amethyst, meaning they have been exposed to the sun and the manganese, originally placed into
Bottles and Extras the glass prior to 1914 for clarity, actually colored the glass. Some collectors seek only these (SCA) colored bottles. Not all drug stores which sold The Owl Drug Company products were company stores, some were Authorized Agents, others were private. In Prescott, Arizona, the Owl Drug & Candy Company (different owl logo) sold TODCO (The Owl Drug Company) products. From 1892 through March 1917, twenty-four (24) stores were opened in California, Oregon and Washington: San Francisco - 1128 Market Street 778 Market Street Grant Avenue and Post 710 Market Street Golden Gate and Market Streets Sixteenth and Mission Streets Fillmore and Geary Streets Twenty-Second and Mission Streets Sixteenth and San Pablo Streets Oakland - Thirteenth and Broadway Fourteenth and Washington Sixteenth and San Pablo Los Angeles - Fifth and Broadway Fifth and Spring Third and Spring Seventh and Hill Street 625 Broadway Pasadena - Colorado and Fair Oaks Sacramento - Ninth and K Streets San Diego - Fourth and Broadway Portland - Broadway and Washington Spokane - Riverside and Wall Seattle - Third and Pike Fresno - J and Tulare Streets San Jose - First and San Antonio
Winter 2003 Stockton - Main and California In October 1919, the following were included in the roster: San Francisco - Powell and Market Powell and O’Farrell Streets Los Angeles - Third and Broadway Milwaukee, WI - Grant and Second Chicago, IL - State and Quincy Streets Minneapolis, MN - 7th and Hennepin The earliest of the Owl Drug Company bottles from 1128 Market Street, had no embossed owl and only the “The Owl Drug Company” is embossed in script on these bottles. They are very hard to find and the color is usually clear with some variations. Later bottles almost always had their trademark, an embossed Owl perched on a mortar and pestle which bears the letters T.O.D.C.O. As a general rule, bottles before 1920 were usually tooled top, after 1920 they were ABM. Also as a general rule the early bottles had a one-wing bird and the later bottles a two-wing bird. Over the years many author/bottle collectors have published articles on the Owl Drug Company and these articles are in themselves collectible. I have divided the bottles, glass containers and other items into the following 31 groups or series; this is not inclusive and only used as a reference. 1) Script, including Cod Liver Oil 2) Dr Ira Baker *
37 3) Rectangular prescription a) early rectangular, round shoulder with panel - one-wing bird b) rectangular, no panel – one-wing bird c) rectangular, no panel – one-wing bird (aqua color) d) rectangular, no panel – one-wing bird (GWL**) e) rectangular, no panel – two-wing bird f) rectangular, amber in color – onewing bird g) rectangular, amber in color – twowing bird h) rectangular, milkglass in color – one-wing bird i) rectangular, screw-top with long neck – two-wing j) rectangular, screw-top with short neck – two-wing k) rectangular, screw-top slug panel (Oz) 4) Standard pharmaceutical, square bottom rectangular a) one-wing bird b) two-wing bird c) two-wing bird, screw top 5) Salt square bottom, rectangular cobalt color 6) Cobalt blue triangular poisons a) one-wing, 2½, 3½, 4½, 5, 6½, 7¼, 8, 9½ (varies in height) b) two-wing, 2¼, 3¼, 4, 4½, 5½, 6½ (varies in height)
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7) Extract two-ring, no owl 8) Extract one-ring, no owl 9) Bay Rum Cylinder a) one-wing b) one-wing (GWL) c) two-wing d) two-wing screw-top 10) Hair tonic, various styles 11) Florida Water 12) Jamaica Ginger 13) Peroxide amber Tool Top 14) Olive oil 15) Ointment jars 16) Miscellaneous jars 17) Coldcream rounds 18) Whiskey tops 19) Citrate (Soda) a) blob top b) crown top 20) Dose glasses 21) Perfume 22) Pill 23) Cardboard rounds 24) Cardboard boxes 25) Tins 26) Plaques 27) Paper Items 28) Photographs 29) Advertising 30) Miscellaneous 31) Owl Copycat items*** *Dr Ira Baker was the first official physician on the Owl Drug Company staff
**GWL, there has been some argument as to whether the mold maker inadvertently used a letter G rather than the letter O, however, paper letterheads are to be found with this configuration. ***Other companies tried to take advantage of the Owl Drug Company logo and fame. They produced bottles and items of their own using the Owl to market their products. These are very collectible as a side collection of the Owl Drug Company. Many different states have embossed Owl Drug bottles. Some of the more rare and expensive Owl Drug Store bottles in no specific order are: 1) Green Whiskey Top 2) Large Salt Cobalt with Grandpappy bird 3) Small Salt Cobalt with Grandpappy 4) Any Script 5) 5 inch Cobalt poison with Grandpappy bird 6) 7¼” Cobalt poison 7) Reversed Owl on 11¾ inch Whiskey Top Clear 8) Milkglass ointment jars 9) Amber Pharmacy (larger sizes) 10) Citrate with large Sarah bird. You should look for the cobalt, green, and amber bottles along with powder blue, rose milkglass, light green jars and
coldcream rounds. The cylinder citrates (sodas) are reportedly found in nine different colors or shades. The colored bottles are sought after as more collectible. The 7-inch bottles in any prescription series are harder to find. Some collectors prefer labeled bottles only; other collectors prefer non-labels to better show colors. When collecting the Owl, try to find a prime strike also, as the mold was used to produce bottles it tended to wear down, although some probably were bad engravings to begin with. One-wing birds are generally older than two-wing. Always check your selection for dings, cracks, repairs and other imperfections. Let the buyer beware. Bibliography: Old Owl Drug Bottles and Others Al Jensen Tail of the Owl Ken Marco in Western Collector Sept. 1966 The Owl Drug Company Annette O’Connell Old Bottle Magazine, Aug. 1982 Drug Store Doings The Owl Drug Company
Continued from Poisonland, page 35 References: Glassman, M. and A., "The Contents of This is Poison", article in The Poison Bottle Newsletter, Vol. 1, No. 4 (1991). The Poison Bottle Newsletter is the official quarterly newsletter of the Antique Poison Bottle Collectors Association; dues are $10 per year. Contact Joan Cabaniss, Secretary/Editor, 312 Summer Lane, Huddleston, VA 24104.
Griffenhagen, G. and Bogard, M., "History of Drug and Their Labels" (American Institute of the History of Pharmacy, Madison, WI; 1999), p. 92-93. Hauser, C., "Blue Ointment Tins", article in The Poison Bottle Newsletter, Vol. 2, No. 1 (1992). Kuhn, Rudy, "Poison Bottle Workbook" Volumes I and II (privately published). Morgan, Roy, "The Benign Blue Coffin" (Kollectarama, England; 1978) pp. 5-16. Wallechinsky, D. and Wallace, I., "The People's Almanac" (Doubleday & Co., Inc., NY; 1975), pp. 571-572, 1411.
Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors’ Slide Shows for Rent Educational Fun Informative To rent one of these excellent programs, or if you have questions about the specific content of a program, please contact:
Barbara Hill, Box 60, Tulare, CA 93275 Phone: (559) 686-1873
Bottles and Extras
~ Lash’s ~ Not Just Bitters Donald Yates This article was contributed by Douglas Lash, who is a member of the Lash Family Hierarchy and originally appeared in: “PHARMACY IN HISTORY JOURNAL – VOL. 43 No 1, 2001.” “LASH’S BITTERS: From the Bathroom to the Bedroom”, by Benjamin C. Torbenson, Jonathon Erlen, & Michael S. Torbenson. If you ever attend antique bottle shows or antique malls, you will notice Lash stoneware root beer mugs as well as Lash bitters bottles. Until now, we did not realize that these were products of the same company. The soft drink bottlers & drug companies were typically different industries. So herein is another mystery solved, thanks to Douglas Lash, who we met at the Ohio Bottle Club Show in Kirtland, Ohio. We are still seeking more Lash family genealogy. From 1850 to 1899, many questionable medicines were promoted & sold in the USA. These were called: patent medicines, proprietary medicines, or nostrums. Bitters was one category of these early medicines. During the reign of King George II, (1727-1760) the term bitters originated in England, in response to taxes levied on the sale of alcoholic beverages. Small amounts of bitter tasting plants were included in the liquor, and the transformed beverage was sold as a medicine. There is relatively little historical information on the Lash Bitters Co., in business from 1884 to 1966, and also manufactured soft drinks. After Hires, Lash root beer mugs are most commonly seen at antique bottle shows, which may be attributed to several regions of Lash bottling plants. The Lash Bitters Co. was established by Pharmacist, John Spieker. John was born in 1855 and moved Cincinnati to Sacramento in 1875. A year later, he formed a partnership with Pharmacist A.C. Tufts, to produce a medicine called Yerba Santa Cough Balsam. John Spieker married Cornelia Ackley in 1882. John was an independent druggist for the next few years and developed patent medicines. T M LASH & CO. In February, 1884, John Spieker formed a new partnership with Tito M. Lash, a
Winter 2003 filter manufacturer and named the company T. M. Lash & Co. to produce Lash’s Liver & Kidney Bitters. Other products were Homer’s Kidney & Liver Cure, Lash’s Magic Liniment, Lash’s Wild Cherry Tonic, Lash’s Honey of Horehound & Tar, and several non-alcoholic soft drinks, including Lash’s Root Beer. Tito Lash, mainly responsible for acquiring new clients, shared the duties within T. M. Lash & Co with John Spieker, who was the manager of the medical products and also the treasurer. The company was very successful and Lash’s Bitters became very popular in many regions. Tito hired an accountant in 1889, who found questionable accounting problems in the company’s books. In October, an injunction was granted that denied Spieker from access to any accounts, money, or property, and the partnership was officially terminated. Ten days later, Spieker bought out his former partner, and also Lash’s half of the rights to produce and market the firm’s line of products. LASH’S BITTERS CO. John Spieker then established a new company called Lash’s Bitters Co. and continued to manufacture Lash’s Bitters, and a few other medicines, including Homer’s Kidney & Liver Cure, a product he purchased from Homer Williams. The company moved to San Francisco in 1893, and a year later, it was officially incorporated as Lash’s Bitters Co. The business was very successful and in 1901, the Chicago office was opened, and in 1904, the New York City office. Their financial situation was quite promising, and the rights to make Peruvian Bitters, another already successful product, was purchased. The new labels included: “Lash‘s Bitters Co.” George M. Pond, the manager of Lash’s
39 Chicago business, left and started his own bitters company and produced Pond’s Bitters for the next 15 years. John Spieker died in 1914 at the age of 59. John’s wife, Cornelia Ackley Spieker became the new manager of Lash’s Bitters Co., with their son, Warren Spieker, as president, in the San Francisco Office. The Lash’s Bitters Co. had a long history of bottling soft drinks and other nonalcoholic beverages, as well as their main line of patent medicines. At that time, their production changed to soft drinks. Prohibition prevented selling of liquor, so any Lash Bitters had to be sold as a medicine. The New York operation closed in 1930, still during Prohibition. The Chicago and San Francisco offices closed in 1934 and the business offices and manufacturing were consolidated in Anaheim, where they continued production through 1943. Lash produced beverages at their Passaic, NJ. bottling works, which opened in 1925 and remained in production through 1966, following the death of Manager, Martin O’Shea. Lash’s Bitters was a prominent medicine, claiming to cure: Biliousness, Malaria, Dyspepsia, Indigestion, Headache, Sour Stomach, Neuralgia, Back Pain, and all afflictions of the Kidneys and Liver. The principal active ingredient in Lash’s Bitters was an extract from the bark of the buckthorn tree, and also contained cinnamon bark, licorice, cardamom seed, coriander seed and sugar. Lash’s Root Beer probably also had great medicinal value, as well as some similar ingredients. The Lash Root Beer mugs were made of stoneware by the Sherwood Brothers Pottery in New Brighton, Pennsylvania. Many thanks to Douglas Lash for contributing this article on his family history. Donald Yates is the author of Ginger Beer & Root Beer Heritage and by E-mail: donaldbetsyyates@earthlink.net
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Winter 2003
White House Vinegar Wade Cox The business which is now the National Fruit Product Company, Inc. had its beginning on the west bank of the Potomac River in Alexandria, Virginia, September 1st, 1908. The first plant had a clear view of the Presidential estate in Washington, D.C., which is why “White House� was adopted as the brand name, and it was then and there that the White House label was born. As legend has it, White House Apple Cider Vinegar was delivered regularly to
the presidential mansion by horse drawn carriages from around 1908, during their very early days. For four-and-one-half years, the founders operated it as Board, Armstrong & Company. Upon the death of Mr. Board, the Armstrong family formed the present Corporation in 1913. The original plant in Alexandria was limed to the production of sweet cider and cider vinegar. There was not a sufficient apple supply in the area, so they had to go as far as New York State to get apples. A fire in 1925 destroyed the plant, and because the location was not in the apple producing area, it was impractical to rebuild there after the fire. In 1915 the company began operations in Winchester, Virginia. At this time, the apple plantings of the Appalachian area were developing rapidly. Then in 1918, the company added a canning plant to the Winchester operations and began canning applesauce in the early twenties. In 1919, property in Martinsburg, West Virginia was acquired. The years 1929-1931 showed expansion with the purchase of plants in Glassboro, New Jersey; Strasburg, Virginia and a second plant in Martinsburg.
Bottles and Extras With the acquisition of more plants, other products were added to the sweet cider and cider vinegars, such as jellies, apple butter, spiced apple rings, apple juice, specialty vinegars, etc. Other plants have been added over the years. The General Offices of the Company were moved to Winchester in 1938 from Washington, D.C., where they had been since the early days of the organization. The original containers were glass, identified by a paper label. Some were made in different shapes and figures to attract the attention of the housewife. Also these jugs and jars were designed to be reusable, and the housewife could bring the empties back to the store for a refill from the wooden kegs in which the vinegar was shipped. The first labels were dark blue in color and dated from the mid-1910s. In 1920, a new label began that was very similar to its predecessor. White became the predominant color, the spray was removed from the fountain, and a flag was added to the top of the White House. In 1925, green and yellow became the signature colors of the label, and the familiar apple vignette was introduced. To make their labels distinctive, different styles began to be used. In the late 1930s, the green was made darker and the apple was slightly modified.
Bottles and Extras Significant changes occurred in 1953. The apples were place outside the frame of the vignette, with the product’s name moving inside. This also became the look for the Company’s logo and slogans were also added. With the coming age of computers, the company had to add a UPC to their labels in the 1970s. Artwork was no longer used and was instead replaced by photographs. Also, at this time, different colors were used to identify different products. How did I get started in collecting the White House bottles? In the mid-70s, the state started construction on the Eastern Star Exit, off of I-181. My wife’s grandparent’s house was in what is now the middle of that exit. When tearing down their house, I found a screw-top jug, with the picture of the White House embossed on the front. I thought it would be fun to find the entire set of jugs as a collection. Never did I realize there were so many White House bottles, jars, jugs, flasks, etc.
Winter 2003 There are even different styles of jugs for each set. This was the beginning of my hunt for the elusive White House jar, or label, that was not in my collection. I have visited the National Fruit Company in Winchester, Virginia, and toured the plant where White House Vinegar is produced and bottled. The President, and owner, of the company has been very helpful in giving me information, showing me the company’s own collection of the bottles in which they have distributed vinegar and other products, as well as shared with me the history behind the National Fruit Company. Frank Armstrong IV is the greatgrandson of the first Frank Armstrong back in 1908, the fourth generation currently producing White House products. The Ole Time Vinegar Society* is a vinegar club open to any and all collectors of all brands of vinegar memorabilia, not just White House. The Club holds an official meeting once each year, as well
41 as informal meetings timed in conjunction with various bottle shows. Three books, to my knowledge, have been published identifying White House vinegar containers, which have been a great help in my collecting. Two of them were written by Charlie Perry** and are very useful in identifying the bottles or jars which are missing their labels. My search for White House has taken me to Tennessee, the Carolinas, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, just to name a few places, for over 25 years. Besides being a member of the Ole Time Vinegar Society, I am a member of the State of Franklin Antique Bottles and Collectibles club in my area, and have been learning about jars and bottles other than White House. There seems to be no end to what you can collect! It has been a long and enjoyable road, and I am still looking for that one, elusive White House bottle that I may not have in my collection. *Ole Time Vinegar Society, Chuck Wallace, 9216 Rodeo Drive, Mechanicsville, VA 23116, Phone: (804) 730-9493 or E-mail: martink@bellatlantic.net. **White House - The Collection of Charles Perry Bottles, Jugs, and Jars available from Charlie Perry, Route 2, Box 102-B, Norlina, NC 27563, Phone: (252) 257-4008.
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Veterinary Roundtable By Mike Smith, DVM Petvet@mindspring.com I would like to start this column with a thank you to the Federation for expanding the number of collecting categories for which regular articles will be written and with an introduction. I am a practicing veterinarian in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. I purchased my first veterinary patent medicine bottle in 1981 and have actively collected in this area since that time. I have published “Veterinary Collectibles Roundtable,” a newsletter dedicated to veterinary patent medicine collecting for the last ten years. My aim in this column is to update you on the state of veterinary collecting; it’s past, present and future. Future articles will focus on the history of veterinary patent medicine companies. I hope to provide this information in such a way that even collectors who have never spent a waking moment considering veterinary patent medicines before will find a bit of interesting knowledge to add to their collecting consciousness. As long as there has been livestock in America, there have been home remedies to treat their ills. For the first three-quarters of the 19th century, veterinary medicine was in its highest form of quackery. It was not until after the Civil War that formal veterinary education had any support. Up until that time and into the first part of the 20th Century, the majority of veterinary medicine was practiced by horsemen and livestock owners on their own animals. Anyone could hang out a shingle as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. The majority of “veterinarians” were selftaught men or apprenticed under other socalled “veterinarians.” Since horses and livestock were so essential to almost every family in the growing America of the 19th century and veterinary knowledge and medicine was so limited, the patent medicine companies
were happy to take advantage of the fears of the common man. Animal medicine could be purchased at the blacksmith, country store, or from the traveling salesmen’s wagon. Sure cures for every animal ailment were available in those medicine bottles. Merchant’s Gargling Oil from Lockport, New York is considered the first successful, mass produced and marketed veterinary patent medicine, manufactured to treat the harness sores on the horses pulling barges along the Erie Canal. Later, two men without any formal veterinary education would produce competing empires. Dr. J. G. Lesure of Keene, New Hampshire and Dr. A. C. Daniels’ of Boston, Massachusetts would take mass marketing of complete lines of veterinary remedies not only nationally, but world wide. Few collectors before 1970 collected strictly in the veterinary or animal medicine field. Most were general bottle, medicine, or cure collectors to whom animal medicines were only a minor category in their collecting interests. These people were primarily interested in a bottle’s embossing and color. Many a bottle’s label was soaked off so that the color and embossing could be displayed in a window or lighted cabinet. It seems that veterinary collecting has come full circle as those once annoying labels are now the object of desire for most veterinary collecting specialists. Collectors seeking medicines in their original condition dominate veterinary bottle collecting today. Examples with label, contents, and packaging are typically the most desired. Graphics and color on the label or packaging can add significantly to a medicine’s desirability and cost. Condition of the bottle is
Bottles and Extras important, but a nice clean, colorful label will greatly outweigh a minor lip chip. Embossed bottles without a label are not as highly sought after in today’s market. However there are a few exceptions. The highest prices for veterinary bottles are still brought by colored, embossed, pontiled medicines. The Warner’s Safe Cure animal size bottle is another highly sought and priced example. The very limited supply helps keep these prices elevated. A fellow collector recently told me that he adds only one pontiled medicine to his collection a year on average. The highest prices are typically paid, not by veterinary specialists, but by cross collecting pontiled medicine collectors. Availability of quality material in the marketplace is a problem for almost all collecting hobbies. While it is true that veterinary collector numbers have grown rapidly over the last ten years, interest in animal medicines by country store and vintage advertising collectors have also bolstered the field. Most collectors have expanded their collections to include not only medicines, but also vintage advertising, paper ephemera, and company give-aways. Seemingly, many people believe that the“good stuff” is all in collections. Quality material is still popping up in all manor of venues for the people who seek it out. Certainly the Internet is the current favorite, but bottle shows and antique markets still bring surprises to the table. The future of this collecting field is bright. Quality material is highly sought and prices are strong for better and mid-range items. Average and common items are lagging or finding no takers at any price. I predict that the next long established and diverse veterinary collection to come to auction will set benchmark prices for the next generation of collectors. I look forward to hearing from any collector with a question or comment about veterinary collecting. I can be reached by email at Petvet@mindspring.com or weekdays at 770-482-5100.
Bottles and Extras Nancy Hanks Veterinary Liniment Amber embossed bottle with label and contents. 6" x 2". Embossed: NANCY HANKS / VETERINARY LINIMENT / MF’G BY THE / H.L. LOHMEYER DRUG CO. / PITTS. PA. Nancy Hanks was a famous trotting horse whose record in the mile of 2: 04 is printed below
Winter 2003 Yankee Compound Aqua, embossed bottle with label from N. T. Dore, Boston. 7 3/4" x 2 1/2". Embossed: YA N K E E COMPOUND // N. T. DORE // BOSTON, M A S S . Without the label, this bottle could not be identified as a veterinary medicine. Label clearly states its veterinary only use in horses with Ringbone, Spavin, or Curb.
Security Healer Bottle with original contents, label and box. 7" x 2 1/2" without embossing. Colorful and graphic box makes this a very desirable medicine.
43 The Wright Colic Remedy Clear, embossed bottle with paper label from Richmond, Virginia. Embossed: THE WRIGHT H O R S E REMEDIES / MANUFACTURED AT / RICHMOND, VA. 6 1/2" x 2 1/ 4". Slight d a m a g e to label would have no effect on this rare bottle’s value.
Dr. Dent’s Dog Vermifuge Clear bottle with label and box from Newburgh, New York. 4 1/2" x 1 5/8". Dog medicines are much less common than examples for livestock and horses. All dog medicines are highly collected. Vermifugeisa dewormer.
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Winter 2003
Bottles and Extras
The TOP 25
Bottles Bill Baab
Left: Less than seven examples of the 1840s E. D. Meyer / Augusta, Geo soda are known. Six of the cobalt-blue iron-pontiled bottles are in Georgia collections. Right: Georgia’s No. 1 bottle is this circa 1790s cylinder with applied seal of Dr. George Harral. Photo by Bob Simmons
Below: The large River Swamp Chill & Fever Cure with embossed alligator is not only a favorite with cure collectors, but is No.5 on Georgia’s Top 25 bottle list.
A one-of-a-kind, black glass bottle with an applied seal is Georgia’s No. 1 bottle, according to a poll conducted among 11 of the state’s advanced collectors. The circa 1797 bottle bearing the seal of Dr. G(eorge) Harral of Savannah was dug in a Savannah privy and casually tossed onto the back seat of a car by its owner, who thought it was just another of the common black glass cylinders dating to the turn of the 19th century.
The bottle is now the property of Bob Simmons of Atlanta, who participated in the poll. Harral, who was a medical doctor as well as a pharmacist, practiced at various times in Savannah and in Augusta, according to Drugs and Pharmacy in the Life of Georgia 1733-1959 by Robert Cumming Wilson, Dean Emeritus of the University of Georgia School of Pharmacy in Athens (Foote & Davies, Atlanta, 1959).
His address is listed as "George Harral, M.D., Sign of the Mortar & Pestle, Market Square, Savannah, Georgia." He published The Medicine Chest Book, which was advertised for sale to planters, ship owners or other persons who found themselves out of contact with medical help. While Wilson’s book is out of print, copies are still available through booksellers who conduct title searches as
Bottles and Extras a part of their business. The book is invaluable to collectors as well as historians. A facsimile of a Harral ad published in a Savannah newspaper on Sept. 22, 1797 appears in the book. A glance through the sports sections of daily newspapers, especially during the fall and winter months, reveals Top 25 polls in college basketball and college football. Why not, the author asked himself, conduct such a poll to determine Georgia’s Top 25 antique bottles? Names of the 11 participating collectors, including himself, may be found at the end of the poll. The No. 2 bottle in the state is a oneof-a-kind amber Golden Eagle Bitters concocted by Dr. William H. Tutt of Augusta. This specimen is the only one of several Golden Eagle Bitters in existence that sports "Augusta, Ga." embossed on one of the side panels. A yellow W.A. Carlton’s Antidyseptic & Tonic Bitters from Athens is No. 3, any variety of Savannah’s John Ryan sodas in red, strawberry or pink is No. 4 and the large size River Swamp Chill & Fever Cure with embossed alligator from Augusta rounds out the top 5. The attic mint cobalt John Ryan / 1867 /Atlanta soda with intact wire bail, which was sold by the now deceased poll participant Peyton Youmans of Savannah for nearly $10,000, was voted No. 6. Atlanta’s amber Ponce de Leon Bitters is No. 7, the open pontiled green Thomas Maher soda from Savannah is No. 8 and there is a tie for No. 9. Augusta’s aquamarine Dr. Dennis’s Georgia Sarsaparilla sporting an iron pontil and the iron-pontiled C. Ells & Son Mineral Water, a cobalt beauty from Macon, each garnered 85 votes. The teal crown-topped Jones & Co., from Marietta is No. 11, while there was a deadlock for 12th place. The cobalt John Ryan/Columbus with a block R on the side and the cobalt, iron-pontiled E.D. (Ehlers Diterich) Meyer from Augusta each collected 76 points. The amber Barrett, Land & Co. (W.H. Barrett and R.H. Land) Georgia Bitters of which three are known sits in 14th place. The clear Coca-Cola Hutchinson bearing no city name is 15th and the super-rare John Ryan amber roundbottomed ginger ale is 16th. Seventeenth is the iron-pontiled, cobalt L. Glinde soda from Savannah, while Columbus’ open-
Winter 2003 pontiled Woodruff’s Dysentery Cordial is 18th. One of the latter was dug during an excavation years ago in Old Williamsburg, Va. Super-rare pottery pig bottles from Elberton and Macon, respectively, occupy 19th and 20th places, while an E.P.C. Fowler Hutchinson from Tallapoosa is 21st. Fowler was an officer in the Dixie Glass Works of Tallapoosa, which manufactured the bottle. It has DIXIE embossed on the base. A one-of-a-kind, amber Sarsaparilla & Queen’s Delight produced by Dr. William H. Tutt in Augusta is 22nd, edging out a smooth-based cobalt, 1880 E. (for Edward) Sheehan from Augusta at 23rd. Twentyfourth place is occupied by a one-of-a-kind dark green Dr. J. Dennis’s Georgia Sarsaparilla with iron pontil from Augusta. Rounding out the poll is Atlanta’s aqua Life Everlasting Bitters. This list was compiled just for the fun of it. As entries began to come in, it soon became evident that many bottles from different geographical sections of the state that deserved to be in the Top 25 wouldn’t make it. One example is the rare Swamp Fox Fever & Ague Cure/Curry Arrington Co./ Rome, Ga., and another is the machinemade cobalt Frog Pond Chill & Fever Tonic from Augusta, not to mention that city’s amber Frog Pond Chill & Fever Cure. Other examples are the W.P. Renfroe/ Big Injun Bar/Valdosta, Ga., flask, and a Blue Ridge Hutchinson from that north Georgia community. So future projects may include conducting polls to determine the Top 25 antique bottles from the northwest, northcentral, northeast, west, central and east, southwest, south-central and southeast Georgia, as well as the Top 25 from the state’s major cities of Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, Macon and Savannah. Other ideas are to name the Top 25 Georgia sodas, patent medicines, bitters, cures and drug store bottles. All that is going to take awhile. The Poll: Here are Georgia's Top 25 antique bottles following voting from a panel of 11 experts from around the state. Firstplace votes are worth 25 points each, second-place votes 24 points, etc. First place votes are listed in parentheses,
45 followed by the total number of points each bottle received: 1. Black glass Dr. G./Harral/Druggist/ Savannah, Ga. (7) 197. 2. Yellow-amber Dr. Wm. H. Tutt's/Golden Eagle Bitters/Augusta, Ga. 124. 3. Yellow W.A. Carlton's/Antidyseptic & Tonic Bitters/Athens, Ga. 121. 4. Strawberry (red, pink, etc.) John Ryan/ XX Phila., Porter/Savannah, Ga. 112. 5. Amber large River Swamp Chill & Fever Cure, Augusta, Ga. 101. 6. Cobalt John Ryan/1867/Atlanta, Ga. (Attic mint, wire bail) (1) 112. 7. Amber Ponce de Leon Bitters/Atlanta, Ga. 87. 8. Green Thomas Maher/Savannah, Ga. (Open pontil) 86. 9. Aqua Dr. J. Dennis's/Georgia Sarsaparilla/Augusta, Ga. (Iron pontil) 85. 9. Cobalt C. Ells & Son/Mineral Water/ Macon, Ga. 85. 11. Teal Jones & Company/Marietta, Ga. crown top. 84 12. Cobalt John Ryan/Columbus, Ga., with block R. 76. 12. Cobalt E.D. Meyer/Augusta, Ga. (Iron pontil) 76. 14. Amber Barrett, Land & Co/Georgia Bitters (1) 69. 15. Clear Coca-Cola Hutchison, no city name 61. 16. Amber John Ryan/Ginger Ale/ Savannah, Ga. (Round-bottomed) 59. 17. Cobalt L. Glinde/Savannah, Ga. (Iron pontil) 52. 18.Aqua Woodruff's Dysentry Cordial/Columbus, Ga. (Open pontil) 47. 19. Pottery pig bottle, Elberton, Ga. 45. 20. Pottery pig bottle, Macon, Ga. 43. 21. Aqua E.P.C. Fowler/Tallapoosa, Ga., Hutchinson (1) 39. 22. Dark amber Dr. Wm. H. Tutt's/Sarsaparilla & Queen's Delight/Augusta, Ga. 36. 23. Deep cobalt E. Sheehan/1880/Augusta, Ga. 35. 24. Dr. J. Dennis's/Georgia Sarsaparilla/ Augusta, Ga., green overtones (Iron pontil). 34. 25. Aqua Life Everlasting Bitters/Atlanta, Ga. 25. Members of the panel of voters: Butch Alley, Lithia Springs; Bill Baab, Augusta; Russ Butler, Gavana, FL; Tom Hicks, Eatonton; Bob Jenkins, Carrollton; Jerry Mitchell, Bremen; Tommy Mitchiner, Gordon; Ken Nease, Claxton; Mike Nwman, Augusta; Bob Simmons, Atlanta; and Peyton Youmans, Savannah.
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Winter 2003
South Dakota Bottles and Advertising Crockery One Town’s Rush to Gold Jim Louks Lead, South Dakota It is said that gold and silver were the elements that brought civilization to western South Dakota, particularly the Black Hills. The Indians had long considered the Black Hills the home of evil spirits, a very dark and fearful place. Even earlier, some believe that the Spanish explorer Coronado was searching for gold and got as far as present day Kansas before turning back. In 1833, the Ezra Kind party set up camp in the hills and as the quote goes, “Got all the gold we could carry.” This cryptic message was scratched on a stone (now known as the Thoen Stone) by the last survivor of that party. The gold rush to the Black Hills brought the money responsible for the establishment of many communities many of which are present day ghost towns. Of all the mining towns and camps established within the Black Hills, three became permanent fixtures - Lead, Deadwood, and Central City. Lead City, which later became Lead (and is pronounced ‘Leed’), was the home of the
mighty Homestake Mining Company. As Homestake mining operations increased, merchants flocked to Lead, each out-doing each other in attempt to capture the miner’s dollars. And those merchants produced some of the finest bottles and advertising pieces in the state of South Dakota.
W.R. Dickinson Two of Lead’s most prominent early day businessmen were Dr. Daniel K. Dickinson and his brother W. R. Dickinson. D. K. Dickinson arrived in the Black Hills in 1877 and set up his medical practice in Lead. Dr. Dickinson served as the head surgeon for the Homestake Mining Company and in later years served as a county surgeon for Lawrence County. His brother, W. R. Dickinson, gained fame by producing local cures (with Homestake’s blessing) and became a very wealthy businessman. In the early years, W. R. Dickinson operated a pharmacy with his business partner Frank Cornes [Fig. 1] (Dickinson & Cornes). They operated pharmacies in each of the mining towns of Central City, Lead City, and Carbonate Camp before W. R. Dickinson bought out his partner in the 1890s W. R. Dickinson ran a pharmacy for many years and his Left: Homestake Sarsaparilla name is associated Middle: Homestake Cough Cure with three desirable Right: Marcoux Rheumatic Elixir embossed bottles from
Bottles and Extras the Black Hills. Pictured are three known embossed bottles from W. R. Dickinson. [See Fig. 1] W. R. Dickinson also produced a number of different pharmacy bottles that have been dug in various areas of the Black Hills. But the three bottles above are the crown jewels from his business. W. R. Dickinson was known as “Billy Dick”. There are numerous old advertisements for other ‘Dick’ products, such as Dick’s Toothache Drops, Dick’s Corn Cure, Dick’s Peptorated Beef Iron and Wine, and Dick’s Benzoated Cream Lotion. As of today, there have not been any embossed bottles found bearing these strikes, but you never know, someday one might just surface.
[Fig. 2]
L. P. Jenkins L. P. Jenkins received fame as Lead’s second mayor from 1894-1898. Today, many of his pharmacy bottles deserve a place on any South Dakota collector’s shelf. The emerald green pharmacy bottles [Fig. 2], as well as his ornately shaped pharmacy and paper label cure bottles were an attempt by this early pioneer to influence the buying patterns of the early day consumer. In its heyday, Lead had more
Bottles and Extras pharmacies than any other community in the Black Hills. Just like today's modern business, the early pioneer had to find ways toattractively package his product to lure sales away from the competition. Richardson and Maillard Lead was not without its early seller of soda. Henry Maillard established himself as one of the premiere soda distributors in the Black Hills. His Hutchinson sodas [Fig. 3] can be dug from the extreme northern portion of the Hills well into the Southern Hills. Maillard first established his business in Deadwood, South Dakota, but later moved it to Lead. Early day advertisements for Maillard showed him offering a Maillard’s Paris Cocktail Bitters, which was sure to cure all ailments. J. R. Richardson made his unique mark with a line of beautiful green seltzer bottles - his name elegantly etched on the glass and again engraved in the metal band around the neck. In later years he became the Coca Cola distributor in Lead. Coke bottles bearing the Lead, S.D. embossing on the bottom are not terribly rare and can still be found in thrift shops and garage sales throughout the area. [See Fig. 4] Advertising Crockery Over the years, more crock advertising jugs from Lead have been dug than anywhere else in the state. Due to the wealth that Homestake brought to many merchants, early day Lead was a haven
Winter 2003
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for minorities and ethnic communities, each segregated within various parts of the town. Many advertising whiskey jugs such as those bearing stenciled ‘labels’ for the Cristoforo Colombo Saloon (mispelled as Christoforo) and Serasio Saloon represent this ethnic diversity. The English also had a strong influence in early day Lead, with James Cotton one of the premier early liquor dealers. His liquor partnership with William Andrews enabled the two to attract a strong following that seemed to outlast the numerous liquor dealers that came and left Lead. [See Fig. 5] Digging in the Lead area Today, just as everywhere else, legal opportunities to dig these types of bottles and advertising jugs have become increasingly rare. Mining restrictions, federal access laws, and historical preservation efforts have made digging not only difficult, but nearly impossible - in some cases, llegal. Even obtaining permission from private individuals is much more difficult than it was thirty years ago. Perseverance, however, might possibly get you access to old sites that still contain some of the premiere, perhaps even unheard of, bottles from Lead and Lead City. Present Day Lead On December 31, 2001, after one hundred and twenty-five years of active gold mining, the Homestake Mine ceased
[Fig.3] Three different Maillard sodas
[Fig. 4] Etched Richardson seltzer bottle
production and is now in the process of closure and reclamation. The gold mining era in the Black Hills may be drawing to a close but the heritage, history and precious artifacts that it leaves behind will be a pleasure to study and even more exciting to discover for years to come.
[Fig. 5} Left: Cotton and Andrews Right: Serasio Saloon
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Winter 2003 daughter in 1885. John was therefore aware of the impending boom about to take place in this area. He knew people with money to invest, and kept them posted during his travels of any possible opportunities to increase their wealth. John himself was not rich, but modestly well-off. He had in the past worked in the tobacco industry, was a soldier in the Civil War, and finally elected to the Ohio Legislature. He quit that and took a position as Assistant Food and Dairy Commissioner, which allowed him to travel extensively. He realized that North Baltimore was virgin territory for manufacturers, and with the discovery of gas, was an opportunity not to be missed. Findlay was already getting crowded; North Baltimore was busy, but still had plenty of elbow room. John made arrangements with one of the town’s most prosperous farmers, Jacob Dirk. Jacob agreed to sell his farm, provided that it was bought outright. This was in June of 1887. John returned to Cincinnati to pursue the means for funding a glass factory. Several weeks spent down there were enough to guarantee this. The rights to the farm were secured the next month, and by the sixteenth of July the papers were proclaiming the forthcoming “novelty glass works” to be built. The next step was forming a company to make glass. This involved several steps, not the least of which was money. The soon-to-be company was capitalized at $50,000. The money for this needed to come from somewhere. This was found in ready supply from Cincinnati businessman A.L. Pfau, referred to by the local papers as a “French Capitalist”. Mr. Pfau put forth the first capital, and found others to promise the rest. The next thing he needed was talent. This he found in the form of Isaiah W. Richardson, Sr., superintendent of the Hemingray Glass Company. Isaiah already knew about the boom from his boss, Robert Hemingray, who had already traveled the area. He had considered putting in a factory at Maumee, but
The North Baltimore Bottle Glass Company Joe Terry
If you ask anyone who knows anything at all about the North Baltimore Bottle Glass Company, there are several things they are likely to tell you. 1) It was in North Baltimore, Ohio, then moved to Indiana. 2) They made bottles. 3) It was started by A.L. Pfau and I.W. Richardson. The last of these statements is false. It was not started by these gentlemen, who wouldn’t have known this little Northwest Ohio town from a bump in the road. Instead, it was created and promoted by a man who had connections to both the town and the men. His name was John J. Geghan. That man was son-in-law to one of the town’s oldest and most respected pioneers, Levi Tarr. He was not a local though. He was a traveling man, calling Cincinnati home. He had married Sarah, Levi’s
John J. Geghan
Bottles and Extras declined for reasons unknown. Both of these men, Pfau and Richardson, had more reasons to stay where they were than to move. Mr. Pfau was in business in the busiest city in Ohio. The move would have taken him to a town the size of several Cincinnati neighborhoods. Mr. Richardson had been in the employ of the Hemingray glass works for over twenty years, and was an established part of the business. The draw of the gas boom was the chance at prosperity beyond one’s imaginations, and these men had plenty of imagination. A Mr. Wood from Tontogony did the initial survey of the property and also platted the first residential properties connected with the project, to be known as Geghan’s Addition. Later, Pfau had his two of his own additions surveyed. These two areas ran from Main Street across to Jewett Street. Outside of the survey nothing was done physically with the project for several months. That time was spent organizing the needs, both financial and material, of the upcoming facility. Richardson was at the head of designing the factory, and his designs were to incorporate some novel and untested ideas. This wasn’t unusual in this area, at this time, as the reduced expense for fuel allowed the glass companies more leeway in trying new ideas. It was on December 2, 1887 that the land became the property of John Geghan. He transferred it over to the corporation, now named the North Baltimore Bottle Glass Company. It was December that the men involved started descending down upon North Baltimore. Mr. Pfau, and his family moved down to temporary quarters,
Bottles and Extras as did the Richardsons. Isaiah was delayed in his arrival by illness. A complaint of pneumonia put him to bed, and doctors wouldn’t allow him to travel for weeks. His family remained in Cincinnati until May of 1888. A temporary office was put in with Frank Taylor, the firm’s local lawyer, in November, so that all correspondence could be handles promptly. Work began on the foundation in December, with gas pipe laid in a few weeks later to provide heat for the construction crews. The first job was removing the top soil. It was known that the limestone bedrock was just a few feet below the surface here. Plans called for building the facility right on top of it. This wasn’t the only novel feature of the factory. The entire lower lever was occupied by annealing ovens, which comprised the outer walls of the structure. These ovens were specifically for beer and soda bottles, which were thicker than most other glass receptacles. The factory was also going to turn out thousands of fruit jars, mostly of the Mason variety. These would be annealed on the same floor as the furnace. The lesser thickness of the jars required less heat and time to anneal, hence the dual set of ovens. There was more to do at the
Chas. Westerholm, Chicago, Ill
Winter 2003 construction site than just raising a building. There was only one railroad in North Baltimore, the Baltimore and Ohio. The factory site was over a half-a-mile away to the north. The railroad was willing to connect them to the tracks, but refused to put in so extensive of a siding. Mr. Pfau put a crew of ten men onto the problem. They set to work making ties and grading the surface. The railroad met them part way by laying the rails, and putting in the switch. Once installed, the flow of building materials increased dramatically. One of the largest single components shipped to the rapidly rising factory was the iron smoke stack. Once assembled, the stack was 60-feet long; when installed it rose 80-feet above the ground. This immense ferrous pipe was constructed in Findlay. It remained the tallest object in town until the Zihlmann factory was built. As work progressed on the buildings, so to did the organization of the firm. Mr. Pfau was originally going to fill the position of secretary, and Mr. Richardson that of president. This was soon changed; Mr. Pfau became president, Mr. Geghan became vice-president, and Mr. Richardson took that which he was suited for – superintendent. The first secretary of the firm was M.B. Waldo, a position he essentially bought. Mr. Waldo was head cashier of the People’s Bank. He had wished to purchase stock in the bottle works. His wish was granted, and a transfer of ten thousand dollars bought him a seat on the top. It was not stated if this money was his personally, or the bank’s. As the bank later went in bankruptcy due to improper financial dealings, the latter is quite possible. His position with the glass works was later filled by R.C. Wilson, and later still by Isaiah W. Richardson Jr. The factory was up and running the first week of May, 1888. The same week the notice was given that blowing would commence, Mr. Pfau announced that another, totally separate glass factory would build on the site. This was to be the Enterprise Glass Company, manufacturers of window glass. The bottle works started their blowing on fruit jars, presumably Mason’s Patent jars. They were some filling orders for beers; both blob and crown tops, sodas; especially Hutchinson style, mineral waters, and carboys. There was talk initially of manufacturing telegraph insulators, as this was a specialty at
49 Hemingray. No evidence suggests that any were ever made here; if they were, then they did not carry the company’s identification mark. All of the North Baltimore Bottle Glass Company’s standard molds were carved with a miniature “NBBG Co”, placed on the rear heel of the bottle. Private molds were different, and carried no distinguishing mark. For example, Frank J. Cheney, a Toledo, Ohio druggist/medicine manufacturer, had his bottles made in North Baltimore. In one year alone, the bottle works churned out nearly 500,000 of the 4-ounce Hall’s Catarrh Cure bottles. The blowers could turn out a reported 125 gross of fruit jars in a day. To put that in perspective, that comes to 18,000 hand blown jars. There were, at the time of the report, 60 blowers employed. That comes to 300 jars per man per day. If that were to be carried through a whole season, it would add up to nearly 4,000,000 jars, in addition to everything else they made. Volume was important to Mr. Pfau, who preferred dealing with carload lots of bottles than smaller orders. Eventually, much of their business came from major brewers and bottlers in cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, and Milwaukee. Officers were elected in January 1892. Albert Pfau retained his position as president, and also handled the secretary’s position. Joseph F. Jewett was elected to the vice-president’s station, Isaiah Richardson Sr. remained manager, and his son I.W. Richardson Jr. was made
Close-up of Westerholm embossing
50 secretary. That same month, Albert Pfau lost his son Armin to an unknown but deadly ailment. His funeral and interment were carried out back in Hartwell Heights, the family home near Cincinnati. Business was good for the factory. They had enough orders to keep them running full the whole season. This continued through the years, right into the time when natural gas became a scarce commodity. By the time the gas was turned off to the North Baltimore factories, the bottle works had built a second factory on-site to handle all of their orders. The gas problem was not easily solved, and the officers contemplated moving. Still, much time, effort and money had been put into their existing facilities. Indiana beckoned; so tempting was the offerings in that state that the bottle works actually had stationery printed up showing their address as Albany, Indiana. This town’s offer was tabled, and a refitting of the North Baltimore facility was undertaken. A new technology was installed, utilizing a fuel that was still abundant in the area – oil. Several large boilers were installed, as well as an air compressor. The oil was heated up, and then blown through the burners via the compressed air. The system worked well enough for them to continue operating in North Baltimore for a little while longer. One drawback with using oil actually came from the town fathers. Many had grown jealous of Mr. Pfau, who by now was the richest man in town. The factory began their oil experiment using tanker car loads delivered to the factory daily. To streamline the process, a pipeline was laid into the factory. The problem with it was that it crossed a street, and as soon as the mayor found out, he sent the marshal down to stop the work. All the men there were arrested, and the pipe already laid was torn up. This created very hard feelings; an animosity that increased a short while later when Mr. Pfau hired more men to drill under the road. This too was stopped. Eventually, the line was laid, but not before threats were hurled threatening lawsuits and more. The oil apparatus worked surprisingly well, and attracted a fair amount of
Winter 2003
attention. One group of interested sightseers was headed by Solon Boughton, the president of the then defunct Crystal City Glass Company of Bowling Green. He was impressed with the oil burners, but not enough to ever install them in his own factory. In 1895, the firm finally took up Albany on its offer, and moved the plant to Indiana. The name remained the same, and did so for the remainder of its existence. The bottles too retained the distinctive initials, so distinguishing those from Ohio and those from Indiana are difficult. A few years later, a new plant was built in Terre Haute, and the Albany plant eventually was phased out of business. The Terre Haute plant ran into trouble in 1920, with the passing of Prohibition. They had carved a niche for themselves in the brewing market, and with the outlawing of alcoholic beverages, they nearly collapsed. They struggled for many years, finally succumbing to defeat in 1933. To add insult to injury, that was also the year that the Prohibition Amendment was repealed. An interesting side note on the North Baltimore Bottle Glass Company concerned one of their employees. In 1899, a fellow by the name of Chapman J. Root was hired on as secretary of the firm. He had come from another glass factory, which he had managed since
Bottles and Extras 1894. He was with the firm only a short while before creating his own company, the Root Glass Company, also of Terre Haute. The Root Glass Company achieved fame by winning a contest sponsored by the Coca Cola Company. Coke was looking for a bottle that would be recognizable to everybody, even by touch in the dark. Chapman Root’s design team came up with the winning style. Even today the “hobble skirt” design is incorporated into modern plastic bottles. The concept was supposed to be based on the cola nut, but was mistakenly drawn from a picture of the cocoa bean. One of the members of Root’s design team was Alexander Samuelson, who had temporarily moved to Terre Haute for the work. His permanent address at the time was Newark, Ohio. He was given one of the first bottles from the design, which remained with the family for many years. One thing that you won’t read anywhere else about C.J. Root is this – he was already an employee of the North Baltimore Bottle Glass Company as far back as 1892. He appears on the employee roster, though his job description is not mentioned. So the originator of the famous Coca-Cola bottle was actually a resident of North Baltimore, Ohio, at least for a short while. In December of 1898, Mr. Richardson’s friend and former employer, Robert Hemingray Sr. passed away at his home at 219 Garrand Street in Covington, Kentucky. Isaiah, accompanied by Mr. Pfau, went back to Cincinnati to attend the funeral. Mr. Hemingray was 79.
Bottles and Extras
GRAND CANYON GLASS Michael Miller
Recently Ralph Van Brocklin asked me if I would be interested in writing some articles on collecting bottles in Arizona. I was honored with this opportunity to enlighten those of you from the more prosperous bottle collecting states as to how alive and well the hobby is in the Grand Canyon State. With the many-penned articles from diggers and collectors from the Northeast, California, Great Lake region and even the South, showcasing wonderful new finds, it is easy to overlook our section of the country. And the lack of such articles from our area makes it is easy to believe that the only bottles of interest in our state are those presently holding our beer on those scorching summer afternoons. It is true that we are one of those underprivileged western states, which have no bitters, no pontiled bottles, no colored medicines, one blob-top soda, and only a handful of patent medicines and whiskeys. It is also true that to dig in this state you have to have the patience of a tortoise and the digging skills of an armored clawed armadillo. So with so little going for us, by normal standards, why write
Winter 2003 about the hobby in cactus country. To put it simply, because out here the Hutchinson is king, we like our pharmacy bottles clear and if you have an Arizona whiskey in your collection you are at the top of the game. Heck, I have a complete collection of every blob-top soda from my state. Can you New York people say that? Actually, the reason for writing these articles is to explain that in the absence of the so-called higher-end categories, collectors from states such as Arizona, New Mexico, etc. have placed a high desirability on local bottles and the histories of the businesses that utilized them. Unlike the eastern states, Arizona's history in embossed glass doesn't begin until 1880 when Arizona was a territory (statehood was established in 1912). With this all said, I hope you will enjoy this tangent from the normal and find the information to follow interesting. Since the timing for this first article just happened to fall immediately after our annual show, I felt it would be appropriate to inform you on how things went. As with many activities these days, the effects of the poor economy and other issues were felt by our show this year. Undaunted by these problems, the Phoenix Antiques, Bottles & Collectibles Club put on a wonderful show, and many great items were to be found. Dealers from all over the Southwest, Texas and even Iowa were present and I saw many familiar faces amongst the buyers. Items for sale included bottles from throughout the west, territorial bottles, a great assortment of milk bottles, courtesy of Ivan Dankenbring, railroad items, Dr. Pepper bottles, ACL sodas, tokens, insulators, advertising signs, stoneware and Fred Harvey collectibles. The highlight for this year's show was the display of Arizona Hutchinson sodas. For the very first time every known Arizona Hutch bottle was presented including unique and extremely rare examples from, Clifton, Flagstaff, Yuma, Safford and Globe. Color variations of the amber
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Union B&B Hutch and Union Soda Works blob-top from Tombstone were also represented. In all, 42 bottles were displayed by 5 top collectors (Brian Grapentine, Bud Bassett, Rick Hopwood, John Hargis and Mike Miller). Estimated value of these bottles would be in the area of $25,000. Rick Hopwood and Ed Sipos also displayed their Hutchinson soda cases. Sam Michael presented an additional display of Bisbee, Arizona items, which included mining items, calendar plates, souvenir china, advertising and items from the Copper Queen Mercantile. The show will be held on October 10th & 11th at the Rendezvous Center in the city.
Show display of Arizona Hutchinsons
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Bottles and Extras
Colorado Whiskey Bottle Collecting by John M. Eatwell One of the most interesting aspects of bottle collecting is the search into the history of the person behind the company the bottle was made for. We are very fortunate to have an extensive collection of memorabilia in the "Western History" section of the Denver Public Library. I have spent many hours in this library while researching for the book "PIKE'S PEAK GOLD" (1), and for miscellaneous bottles and their source. WOLFE LONDONER certainly qualifies as an interesting and prominent part of Colorado's history, as follows: "This gentleman, well-known throughout the entire Rocky Mountain region as one of the leading merchants of Colorado, was born in the city of New York in 1839. His father being a wealthy merchant, he had in his youth all the advantages which wealth can bring, but being even then of a restless and adventurous disposition, when about thirteen years of age, he left home and, boarding a Californiabound steamship, made his way to the Pacific Coast. Arriving in San Francisco, he found employment in a hotel at $125 a month and his board, and soon afterward, was engaged by a celebrated auctioneer to sell goods at auction three hours every evening, receiving a salary of $200 a month. At this, he continued until he had saved enough money to open a grocery business of his own. After remaining in California for about four years,
at the anxious solicitation of his parents, he returned to New York and engaged in business with his father. About 1856, his father removed to DuBuque, Iowa, where he opened a large store, in charge of which he placed his elder son. Wolfe assumed charge of a branch store a few miles in the country. They did a very prosperous business until the panic of 1857-1858, when they were obliged to succumb to the pressure of the times. The father taking the remnant of their goods, went to St. Louis, hoping in that city to retrieve their shattered fortunes. Wolfe was left in charge of the family to await the receipt of funds from St. Louis for the purpose of taking them down the Mississippi. After a short time, he received $20, and being heartily tired of his life of enforced inactivitiy in DuBuque, without waiting for further remittances, he determined to attempt the removal to St. Louis at once not an easy task under the circumstances. Going to the levee, he accosted the most geniallooking captain then on the river and asked him what he would charge to take himself and family with their goods to St. Louis. The fare was $15 a passenger, but as his family must be small - he was then under twenty - the goodnatured captain offered to take them for $25. This was more than the young Londoner had, and he therefore proposed to pay $15 and the balance as soon as he
could earn it in St. Louis. To this, the captain finally consented, and a ticket was accordingly issued to "Wolfe Londoner and family." Hurrying home, he loaded their household effects on two drays and sent the family, consisting of seven persons, on board the boat, with directions to secure berths and hold them while he remained with the goods. It was not until the boat had put out from the wharf and was several miles down the river, that he ventured to approach the clerk, who by this time was quite anxious to see the holder of the tickets of the family that had appropriated so many of the staterooms. At the clerk's office, he met the captain, who charged him for deceiving him. "No," said the young Londoner, "upon my word, every one of that party is a member of my family." Looking at him in astonishment, the captain asked him to explain. "Well, captain, I will tell you, although I seldom speak of it, and hope you will not in the future, I married a widow." The captain's sympathy being aroused that the young man should be so cruelly imposed upon, closed the conversation by inviting him to drink. In the meantime, the captain's wife had made the acquaintance of the family, and at the supper table that evening, they were assigned the choicest places, next to the captain's family. The captain, in appreciation of the joke, overlooked the deception, and the acquaintance thus begun between the families ripened into an intimacy which continued for years. At St. Louis, he obtained work at $25 a month, until meeting Mr. A. Hanauer, an old friend of the family, he secured more remunerative employment.
Bottles and Extras
In the early spring of 1860, he left St. Louis to come to Denver, in the employ of Hanauer, Dold & Co., then engaged in freighting across the Plains, and in merchandising in Colorado and New Mexico. He joined the wagon train of the firm at Atchison, and the first day out, they made a distance of five miles. On the second day, as he was comfortably seated in one of the wagons, he was discovered by the Mexican wagon master, or -major domo-, who, disregarding his protestations that he was sent out by the owners of the train, ordered him to vacate his seat at once. Finding it useless to demur, he obeyed, and the balance of the journey performed on foot. Arriving in Denver, almost completely worn out, and with but $1.50 in his pocket, in a few days he assumed charge of his employers' store in West Denver. During
Winter 2003 the summer, he was sent to Carson City to start another store, and built the first stone building in that city, where he did an immense business the first year, owing to the rush from California Gulch to the San Juan country. In the fall of 1860, he gave up the managament of the Canon City store, taking the business at California Gulch for his own, which he continued until 1865. Four years of this time, he held the office of County Clerk and Recorder of Lake County, the fees of the office, during the two years of the Red Mountain excitement, amounting to $10,000 per annum. He also held offices of County Treasurer and County Commissioner. In 1865, he came to Denver, and opened his present business, building up a large and constantly increasing trade, which extends throught Colorado, and into Kansas, New Mexico and Wyoming, and amounting to nearly $1,000,000 per annum. He has also a branch store in Leadville, which is under the management of his youngest brother, Joseph Londoner. Mr. Londoner has done his share toward the build-up of Denver, and is the owner of one of the most beautiful residences in the city. He has been interested in various railroad enterprises, and is at present a stockholder in the Denver & Rio Grand Railroad. He has served one term as a member of the Board of Aldermen. He is a hard-working man, giving his constant attention to even the smallest details of his immense business. Having acquired an ample fortune, he is enabled to follow his generous impulses in dispensing a lavish hospitality. As an entertainer, he is unequaled, and wherever an editorial excursion, a board of trade, or other body of tourists, visits Denver, Wolfe Londoner is always on hand to give them a princely reception, and set before them the good things of life.
53 For several years, he has been VicePresident of the Denver Press Club, and has achieved considerable reputation as a correspondent, his letters to the Denver papers exhibiting the same happy vein of genial humor that is apparent in all his intercourse with his fellow-men." (2) Wolfe Londoner arrived in Denver in 1864 and established a wholesale and retail grocery of his own at 15th and Blake. In 1887, the business was moved to the Londoner Block, a large four-story building located at 1624-1630 Arapahoe Street. Wolfe Londoner won the nomination for mayor on the Republican ticket in 1889. Not taking any chances that Londoner would win the election on his own merit, a number of friends, led by Bat Masterson and Soapy Smith, stuffed ballot boxes and traded drinks for votes at local drinking establishments. Londoner became Denver's 20th mayor by a total of 77 votes. Disgruntled candidates began filing charges shortly thereafter. The case was taken to court, and on April 6, 1890, the jury determined that Londoner should step down from office. He made an appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court to retain his office. On February 7, 1891, his hopes were crushed when the decision of the lower court was upheld. Londoner remained in business until the time of his death in 1912. If you have unearthed a bottle that you would like to know more about, take the time to visit your local State Historical Source. You will be surprised what you find. (1) "PIKE'S PEAK GOLD", by John M. Eatwell and David K. Clint, III, 2345 So. Federal Blvd., St. 100, Denver, CO 80219; Ph: (303) 922-0815. Standard $67.50+ $8.30 S&H, Deluxe $97.50 + $8.30 S&H. (2) Vickers, "History of the City of Denver, Arapahoe County and Colorado", pp. 497-498. John M. Eatwell is a Past-President of the FOHBC, and a member of the FOHBC Hall of Fame. He is an advanced collector of Colorado whiskeys and Pike’s Peak flasks.
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Winter 2003
54
Iowa Wm. Beardsley : Druggist, Bottler & Patentee by Michael Burggraaf Nestled off the beaten path in Mahaska County lies the small town of Beacon, Iowa. Located just west of Oskaloosa, this quiet little burg was once a thriving coal mining community and home to around 1000 residents during its busiest days. Beacon had been the home of William Beardsley, who may have patented one of the most unusual soda bottles ever used in the United States. William Beardsley was born in England on October, 15, 1850. He came to the United States in 1870, living in a number of different states before moving to Beacon, Iowa in September of 1871. Soon after that, he established a drug store and eventually carried on an extensive and successful drug trade until he sold out in 1904. Of historical interest to Iowans, Mr. Beardsley had a son by the name of William Shane Beardsley. This son would later enter the druggist trade himself, as he opened a drug store in New Virginia, Iowa in 1922. After working many years as a druggist and farmer in New Virginia, William Shane Beardsley was elected Governor of Iowa in 1948. While the elder William Beardsley's main profession was that of a druggist, he also operated a soda bottling works that over the years that used no less than six very different styles of soda bottles. Judging from the variety of his bottles and the different closures that he tried, Mr. Beardsley must have been quite an inventor. Three of the bottles used the familiar Hutchinson style stopper. Two of those are pictured here, with the mug base example on the left dating to the 1890's. The shorter example has older style embossing and an applied top and dates to the mid-1880's. [See Fig. 1] The third example which used the
Hutchinson stopper is embossed in a round slug plate: WM. BEARDSLEY, BOTTLER, BEACON, IA. The larger quart sized bottle shown has an unusual square lip which is covered by an interesting closure which employs a lever and cam to clamp down on the rubber seal. The base of this particular soda bottle is embossed RICH 3. [See Fig. 2] The bottles of most interest are those with the highly unusual indentations on the shoulder of the bottle and the screw
top. [See Fig. 3] The bottle has mold formed screw threads and a ground lip. This is perhaps the only screw top soda bottle from the United States that dates to the late 1880s. There are six conical indentations evenly spaced around the shoulder area and the base is embossed PAT MAY 12TH 1885. For a number of years there was much speculation as to the purpose of the indentations on Mr. Beardsley's bottles. Some thought they were designed as finger grips for picking up the bottle, while a few locals demised that the indentations were "beacons" such as those on a lighthouse. The mystery was solved when I was lucky enough to come across the description and drawing for Mr. Beardsley's patent. The fancy description basically describes a marble stoppered bottle. The indentations were designed to keep the marble from falling into the bottle opening while the soda was being poured or drunk. A metal cap with a hole in the center was screwed onto the neck with a gasket placed in between the cap and the ground lip.
[Fig 1]
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Winter 2003
The marble was then seated against the gasket and the pressure of the soda water would keep the bottle sealed provided that the seal did not dry out. While it appears that the screw top soda bottles were never used, the exact reason for this has never really been determined. None of the bottles found have had the original caps, or the marbles. If they were designed like the Codd marble stoppered bottles, then the marble should have been inside the bottles. With his original ties to England, it may be possible that the Codd style bottles so prevalent in England may have influenced Mr. Beardsley's design for a marble stoppered bottle. More speculation leads me to believe
[Fig 2]
that the screw top bottles didn't seal as well as Mr. Beardsley had hoped. This seems to be the case as a variation of the screwtop soda bottle was designed. The screw-top was eliminated and replaced with a wide blob-lip, with an inside groove for a rubber seal for the marble to seal against. Close examination of the two styles of bottles reveals that the same mold was used, but was modified to accommodate the newly designed lip and neck. The blob-top variant is also slightly shorter than the screw-top version. The same patent date is embossed on the bottom of this style bottle. So how were these bottles discovered? Local historians related to me that the bottles had been stored in a basement of a storage building near his drugstore. Around 1905 or so, Mr. Beardsley and a friend were on a fishing trip up North. When Mr. Beardsley returned home, he found the storage building that contained the bottles had caught fire while his was gone. While the damage was contained to just the storage building, it was beyond repair and declared a total loss. The remains of the building were pushed into the basement. Around 1975, the bottles came to see the light of day again. Two young boys came home from school to find that the family dog had done some serious digging in the back yard. In the process, some glass shards and bottles were now exposed. The boys were intrigued began digging and soon had a sizable hole in their parent's back yard. What they had found was the original stash of Beardsley bottles that had been covered up so many years before. When the parents came home, the boys were in a world of trouble, but when they found out that the local antique dealer would pay cash for these bottles, they soon changed their attitude and promptly began to help the boys dig for more. The dig produced a small hoard of the screw-top sodas. Many of the bottles were broken or damaged, but a number of whole examples were found. The colors ranged from your average aqua to an ice-blue aqua to a nice light lime-green. Also found were a very small number of the blob top style soda bottles with the inside groove lip. Most of these have a star-shaped crack in the base, perhaps from landing on top
55 of the other screw-top bottles as they were probably stacked in the cases. Only two mint examples of this style bottle were found, and all examples were the light lime-green color. The other bottles found on this dig included a few whole examples of the quart-style bottles and only two of the Hutchinson-style bottles. While Mr. Beardsley had been in the drug store business for some thirty years, no examples of an embossed drug store bottle are known with his name. However, his inventiveness and success in the bottling business has left us with some of the most unusual and perhaps unique soda bottles available to collect today. Sources: 1. Phillips: Proud Mahaska 1843-1900. 2. Burggraaf & Southard: The Antique Bottles of Iowa 1846-1915.
[Fig 3]
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Winter 2003
Utah Liquor Company Three different Utah Liquor Co shot glasses
Stan Sanders
One of the most prolific of the Utah liquors firms was the Utah Liquor Company. This firm is first noted in the 1894 Salt Lake City Directory. The initial establishment was at 167 South Main Street, a locale it kept through 1902. In 1903 it moved to 223 South Main Street with a branch at 26 West Third South. The branch is not noted in subsequent years, but the Utah Liquor Company remains at the 223 South Main Street location until the advent of Prohibition. The aggressive promotion of its products provided a panacea to modern collectors. At the 167 Main Street address the company had at least two tokens produced with an unusual combination-on the front is 167 S. Main St / Good For / 12 1/2c / In Trade / Utah Liquor Company while on the reverse is a picture of the Mormon Temple! A bark-covered pocket flask with label COMPLIMENTS
OF / UTAH - (angel with banner being supported by two doves) - LIQUOR COMPANY / 167 SO MAIN ST SALT LAKE CITY provides a nice bottle from this early period in the company and there are, additionally, two pattern molded gray canteens with cobalt decoration and one stoneware jug. The canteens are among the most appealing examples of Utah stoneware. Each features on the front the advertisement UTAH LIQUOR CO / 167 SOUTH MAIN STREET / SALT LAKE CITY with the reverse of one featuring three drinking men and the other a picture of two standing elk. The canteen with the drinking scene is known in the 1/4 and 1/ 2 gallon sizes while the one featuring the elk is a gallon in capacity. The jug for this business address is a two-tone shouldered jug known in the 1/2 gallon and gallon sizes. It is stenciled in a flower blossum rectangular border (fleur-de-lis) UTAH (fleur-de-lis) / LIQUOR CO. / 167 SOUTH MAIN ST. / SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH. Dave Emett, in his book Utah Advertsising Stoneware indicates the following regarding scarcity: 1/4 gallon canteen 1/2 gallon canteen 1 gallon canteen 1/2 & 1 gallon jugs
scalloped edges embossed LEWIS 66 RYE / UTAH LIQUOR CO / PHONE 478 / 223 S. MAIN ST. There exist three varieties of this plate-- one flat, one with one edge curled upwards and the third with both edges curled upwards. In stoneware with the 223 South Main Street address there exist at least four shouldered jug variants of the general theme UTAH LIQUOR COMPANY / 223 SOUTH MAIN ST / SALT LAKE CITY (UTAH). Capacities range from 1/2 2 gallons and color varies from cream to two-tone. Most have at least 5 known examples. An exception is a gallon sized two-tone jug base marked MACOMB POTTERY CO. / MACOMB, ILL., of which only one example is known. There exists, additionally, an error jug stenciled UTAH LIQUOR COMPANY / 323 SOUTH MAIN STREET., / SALT LAKE
5-10 known 5-10 known 4-6 known 3-8 known, each size
The amount of advertising increased following the move to the 223 South Main Street address, including calanders. Several varieties of tokens with U.L.CO. / 223 SO MAIN ST // GOOD FOR / 5c / IN TRADE are known and there additionally exists one with an errant address reading U.L.C. / 233 / S. MAIN / STR / SALT LAKE CITY // GOOD FOR / 5c / IN TRADE. A superior item is a carnival glass plate in a purplish hue with
One-gallon cream-colored jug
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Winter 2003
Above: 1914 Advertisement
CITY, UTAH. This two-tone jug is found both with and without the base marking MACOMB POTTERY CO. / MACOMB ILL. Arguably the most appealing piece of stoneware at the 223 South Main Street address would be a cream colored safety valve style wide mouth crock with lid/ metal closure reading UTAH LIQUOR CO. / "THE FAMILY STORE" / 223 SO. MAIN ST. / SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH / Return this Jar and get 10 Cents in Cash. These crocks are particularily appealing due to the base marking MINN S CO / RED WING MINN. Dave Emett reports 15-20 of these known. In glass there are several paper labeled flasks, at least three clear megaphon e-shaped cylinders embossed with UTAH LIQUOR CO and two clear half-gallon "stackers". These are all highly desireable items to the Utah and western collector. 1894-1902 167 South Main Street 1896 Telephone 473 1902 Jacob Bergerman, Manager 1903 223 South Main St & 26 W 3rd St 1904-1917 223 South Main Street, Jacob Bergerman, Manager
Above: This is the Utah Liquor Company building at 167 South Main. It has been the home of Lamb’s Cafe from the early 1930’s until the present, 2002. This photo comes from a March 3, 1989 ad in the Enterprise.
Letterhead dated August 25, 1918
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Winter 2000
Oregon A Choice Western Flask by Dale R. Mlasko Western bottles have always had a strong appeal to me. After almost thirty years of collecting antique bottles, I always seem to gravitate back to early Western glass. I grew up in Central Oregon and was fortunate enough to associate with some well-known old time bottle collectors. Most are gone now, but for years, I heard about some virtually “unknown” Oregon bottles. Over the years, I have been lucky enough to either own, or at least handle, some of the rarest examples of Oregon glass. I will never forget seeing for the first time the “Marx & Jorgensen Whiskey,” the “S. F. Beer, Astoria, O.” and the “Henleys Indian Hair Restorative.” One bottle that particularly intrigued me, however, was the “S. Adolph, Salem, O. Amber Whiskey Flask.” I had heard of one example known that was dug in Portland, Oregon in the 1970s, but had never actually seen the flask, or obtained a rubbing of the embossing. Being a Western flask collector, this was constantly eating away at me. I would sure like just one chance at one of these flasks, assuming it did actually exist. Finally, after many years of dreaming about this piece of Oregon history and tracking any tidbit of information about the company, I got a break. Fellow collector Jim Xiggores in Washington suggested I try to contact the actual Adolph family, as he believed a descendant was still alive, and living in Oregon. It took several years, but I finally came face to face with Anna Rose Adolph. Anna Rose is the great, greatgranddaughter of Sam Adolph himself. She is a sweet and cordial lady, who is extremely proud of her Oregon heritage. We spent the day together as she reminisced about growing up in the Salem area, and what she had learned about her long-distant relative.
She told me that Sam had come to Oregon from Germany, in 1862. He had saved up as much money as possible and opened a brewery on Trade Street in Salem. Sam had also operated a saloon at this address, and after it was destroyed by fire in 1869, he moved to another location and rebuilt the brewery and saloon. This new location on the corner of Commercial and Trade Street was his location for the next sixteen years. Sam took a lot of pride in his business, and demanded only the finest quality beer and liquor to be sold to the many loggers and farmers who frequented his establishment. In the winder of 1879, Sam ordered one trial run of embossed flasks, which were to be given only to his select customers for the new year of 1880. However, he found this venture to be too expensive to repeat again, and to date, only two pint and one half-pint flasks exist. The two pint flasks have crudely applied tops, and are embossed in a circular plate, “S. Adolph & Co. Salem, O.” One of the pints has such a crudely made top that it would never accept a cork. The Adolph family kept this example for 120 years, until I was able to acquire it from Anna Rose. It was never buried, or used in any way. This example remains one of the most crudely made of any known Western flask. After owning the pint for a year, I received a call from Anna Rose, who asked if I would be interested in the halfpint. I assured her that I was, and arrangements were made for my purchase of this flask. The two known pint examples are in the classic Western “knife edge” style, and the half-pint is in the “union oval” style. All three examples are in a light amber coloration. This makes sense, as there were only one production un of these flasks. Since the first example was dug many years ago, I am not aware of so much as a shard of an S. Adolph flask being found. The two examples from the Adolph family are likely to be the last to be discovered for a long time to come. One can only wonder how large an undertaking it was for a small-time saloon operator in Salem, Oregon to order his own embossed flasks. Several of the extremely rare Western flasks have this same type of background. They will be
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Sam Adolph, circa. 1880 discussed in future articles. These pieces remain tangible evidence of a time long since past. I cannot thank the Adolph family enough for their courtesy and respectful attitude. They know that these two pieces will remain in a prominent place in a Western flask collection. I suppose it truly pays to follow all leads and to develop friendships with fellow collectors. Jim Xiggores has never demanded anything in return for his assistance, and my relationship with dozens of collectors will hopefully help in building a quality Western flask collection. I cannot believe how lucky I was to acquire two examples of one of the West’s rarest flasks. The way it occurred will remain one of my most treasured memories of an amazing hobby.
Bottles and Extras
Embossed Bottles
Bob Ferraro Collecting Nevada embossed bottles is a fascinating hobby because it is still possible to acquire a respectable collection even though there are not a phenomenal number of different examples still available. Fred Holabird and Jack Haddock in their two editions of The Nevada Bottle Book, published in 1979 and 1981 respectively, provided line drawings and descriptions of all the known examples at that time. The latest edition is more complete than the first and since its appearance on the market, a number of unknown bottles have been discovered. Fred Holabird has assembled extensive information on most of the known Nevada bottles since the first two books were published. However, it is unknown as to when the material will be assembled into a new book. For this article, I will attempt to provide the true collector, as well as the casual collector, of Nevada bottles with information that will be useful in knowing more about this category of collecting. Two bottles, the G.P. Morrill and the W.S. Wright, both maverick sodas from Virginia City, predate statehood which occurred on October 31, 1864. It’s possible that another G.P. Morrill bottle; namely, the unusual apothecary bottle, was made at about the same time as these sodas. The W. S. Wright Bottle is base embossed with Pacific Glass Works, an early San Francisco glass company.
Winter 2003 In my opinion, the G.P. Morrill Apothecary bottle from Virginia City is one of the most desirable Nevada bottles to own. Why? First is its age and then its cylindrical shape with a double collared lip. Also assisting greatly with this ranking is its color – something approaching emerald green. There are rarer Nevada bottles than the two aforementioned sodas and apothecary bottle. To name a few, consider the Crystal, Theyes and Reece pint whiskey flask from Reno, one known example, or the amber cylinder quart by the same proprietor. To date, only one damaged example of the cylindrical whiskey is known. I have the lower half of one of the amber cylinders in my collection since it is uncertain, if ever, an intact one will become available. Then consider the R.L. Higgins master inks from Virginia City in amber and green which are extremely desirable specimens. An amber, heavily whittled master ink recently sold at auction for $17,000. Even more provoking is the fact that several soda manufacturers established bottling plants in Las Vegas within several years after the town site was laid out in 1905. Only one example of each soda is known. Both are aqua crown tops and each would probably command a price somewhat in excess of $1000. Mentioning sodas, an Elko Coke bottle (Elko, Nevada is embossed on the base) recently sold for more than $1000. When considering that only six specimens are known, one can easily see the reason why this particular Coke bottle demands such a high price. From these quoted prices, Nevada bottles are and will continue to be very collectable. My Nevada collection consists of most of the known sizes for each firm’s embossed bottles. When it comes to medicine or druggist bottles, each firm usually had from two to twelve different sizes for sale. Often times the more established firms utilized from two to four different styles of bottles for their products.
59 For example, there are eleven variants of the A.M. Cole druggist/apothecary bottles and a similar number for the G.W. Thaxter medicine bottles with a number of sizes available for each style. These firms were located in Virginia City and Carson City respectively and both were well established by the 1870s and 80s. During the early collecting years, it was possible to acquire many of the medicines without a great outlay of cash. For this reason those of us who started collecting in the 1950’s and 1960’s were able to acquire almost every bottle variant and size used in selling a proprietor’s product. When considering whiskeys, several firms made ½ pints, pints (in several shapes) and quarts so the possibilities of putting together a complete collection of all Nevada embossed bottles is difficult to say the least, but several steadfast collectors have amassed very serious collections. It is also interesting to note that several of these serious collectors have also assembled extensive collections of embossed and painted milk bottles as well as the paper label medicine bottles. Many times I have been asked why I collect Nevada bottles when so many are not really attractive in color or in style. The answer is simple; I enjoy the history associated with the firms that placed their names on the bottles and as noted these bottles also have value and seem to be getting more valuable as time passes. When I first started collecting Nevada bottles, they were available at relatively cheap prices. As can be gleaned from this article that is no longer true. Several of the prominent firms with embossed bottles were also noteworthy for their involvement with other state historical events and for this reason, my interest in Nevada bottles is intensified. Robert S. Ferraro is an advanced collector of Nevada bottles, as well as colored figural bitters and whiskeys. His collection of Nevada bottles is the most comprehensive ever assembled. Mayor of Boulder City, Nevada, he is married to Connie BurnettFerraro and has three children. He can be contacted by E-mail at mayorferraro@aol.com or Ph: (702) 293-9400.
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The Magnificient Seven Tom Lines
have over 300 different examples! The real challenge for Hutchinson collectors here in Alabama is to get all of the known Hutchinson Coca-Cola bottles from the state, and yeah, you guessed it, there are seven different Alabama cities and towns with Hutch Cokes, called ”The Magnificent Seven”! These seven are considered to be the Holy Grail of Alabama Hutchinson bottles. These early Hutchinsons came from bottling plants in Birmingham, Bessemer, Jasper, Gadsden, Anniston, Talladega and Tuskegee. I have all except the Talladega example. I once had a chance at one, but failed to close the deal…something I sometimes regret! I’ve been very lucky over the years by having the good fortune of digging one of these rarities and acquiring others through trades and outright purchases. Most have come from within the borders of the state, but one came from the state of Washington! My dug example came from a once-ina-lifetime dig in Walker County, Alabama. A buddy and I dug seven Jasper Cokes, plus a bonus of two more from Birmingham, and 77 other Alabama Hutchinsons, all from the same very small hole!!
As a boy growing up in rural Maryland, I couldn’t wait to go see this classic Yul Brenner movie with my neighborhood buddies. And to pay our way in, we did what we had to - we picked up Coke bottles along the county roads near our homes returning them to the Foodland to collect the 2-cents deposit per bottle. (By the way, 50 bottles would be enough to pay for admission, a drink and either Looking at each town, the bottles can popcorn or a box of JuJubees.) Little did I be categorized like this: know then that, one day, finding Coke bottles in Alabama could be such a Birmingham - Often called the classiest challenge! of the Hutch Cokes because it sports the As a resident of Alabama since mid- full Spencerian-script Coca-Cola, measur1972, I caught the bottle-collecting bug ing nearly 1-inch tall by 3-inches wide. after I found my first straight-sided Coke. Both Root Glass Company and D.O. I was hooked after visiting Cunningham Glass Works with a local couple that had an produced these bottles. Based extensive bottle collection - prion my experience, there are marily of local Birmingham area approximately equal numbers bottles plus a concentration on from each glass house known. Hutchinsons of all types In all, there are an (50-state Hutchinsons, picture estimated 75 to 100 known Hutchinsons and colored examples. Hutchinsons). Hutchinsons were the hot collectible bottles in the Bessemer - This bottle features 1970s. the classic script embossing in So naturally, I liked an oval slug plate. Not as Hutchinsons…and still do! flashy as the Birmingham As a newcomer to Alabama, Coke, but certainly much more I thought collecting the different rare! Hutchinsons from across the This bottle was produced by state would be a noble endeavor. the Chattanooga Glass Little did I realize that 28 years Company in Tennessee. There later, I would still be chasing are approximately 20 to 25 Birmingham after some I didn’t have, and I known examples.
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Bessimer and Jasper Jasper - This bottle features the same classic script embossing in an oval slug plate as found on the Bessemer bottles, which makes sense because the same person founded both bottling plants. Also produced by the Chattanooga Glass Company, there are approximately 20 known example in existence. Gadsden - Featuring small block letter embossing around the base, the Gadsden Coke ranks as among the plainest “Plain Jane” Hutch Cokes. It must have had a mighty fine label! The same proprietor established the Coke plants in Gadsden, Anniston and Talladega, hence they all bear a similar appearance. The bottle is marked from Root Glass Company. There are approximately 15 to 20 known examples. Anniston - Again featuring the block letter embossing around the base, the Anniston Coke has slightly larger lettering than the Gadsden bottles and are thought to have been produced by Root Glass Co. It’s still very much a “plain Jane” bottle. There are approximately 20 known examples. Talladega - The last of the trio featuring block lettering around the base, the Talladega bottles are slightly taller than the Gadsden or Anniston examples. There are approximately 12-15 reported examples. The glass works producing the Talladega bottle is not known. Tuskegee - Having the nicest example of block lettering from the state, the Tuskegee Coke features an oval slug plate. It’s the only Hutch Coke within or outside of
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Winter 2003
Gadsden, Anniston and Alabama with a mug base. Talladega have a smaller The bottle actually comes following of collectors with twoembossing variations, seeking one but they still Coca-Cola Bottling Works and command substantial Coca-Cola Bottling Co. prices. Most will trade for The “Co.” variation is the $1,500 to $2,500 (again, hardest to find, but both are rare. dug condition, minimal The base is glass house marked “R.G.Co” Together, there are wear, no damage) when approximately 20 known available. examples. As to value, the script The two Tuskegee examples typically command a variations will typically higher price than the blocktrade in the $2,500 to lettered examples. $3,000 range when Among the three script available. Exceptional Hutch Cokes, the Bessemer examples will command would bring the most today at premiums above these $3,000 to $4,000 (dug condiprices. As with any rare and tion, minimal wear, no damage) sought after bottles, there closely followed y the Jasper at are damaged and repaired $2,500 to $3,500. examples available in the The Birmingham Cokes Tuskogee marketplace. Obviously, typically trade for $1,850 $2,500. Truly attic-found mint examples damaged and repaired items do not comwould fetch a 20%+ premium over these mand the price levels as described above. For instance, even with a replaced top, estimates. The block-lettered examples from any of these might trade in the $750 to
61 $1,500 range, depending on its overall appearance. I once sold a Bessemer Coke for $100 that was so severely cracked that I required the buyer to meet me half way between our hometowns, as I was convinced it would never survive shipping. Are there more Alabama towns with Hutch Cokes? Probably so. I base this on historical references to several Coca-Cola bottling plants being in business during the time when Hutchinson bottles were commonly used. Finding an eighth town would make my article “The Magnificent Eight”…but now that just doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it? About the Author - Tom Lines began collecting Alabama soda bottles in 1975. He has published “Alabama’s Pre-Crown Top Drink Bottles, An Illustrated Guide to Known Variations” in 1986. Tom resides in Birmingham, AL and can be reached at P.O.Box 382831 Birmingham, AL 35238 or by E-mail: tlines@resourcemgt.com.
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too great. It’s been too hot and dry and the water is too low. The trout aren’t much for eating these days. Too soft.” L: “Oh! We’re not fishing, although my Ray Thompson husband likes to once in awhile. We are looking for old bottles around the mining For all of you out there who may read camps in the hills over there. We’ve been this, I want to set the record straight. Did here before and did pretty well. There are the Californians get all the good bottles lots of sun colored bottles out there, and from Montana’s gold camps before us some old ones too.” locals woke up, pulled up our suspenders, A: “I’ve seen lots of bottles around where stepped out on the front porch and the old timers used to live, but what’s a muttered, “I wonder what all the excite- sun colored bottle?” ment is about? That is the third set of L: “Son, those are the ones that are purple, California license plates I’ve seen go by all shades of purple up here.” here this week. I think that there might A: “Are those worth anything?”, as his have been one from Oregon, too. I’m eyes lit up and the wheels began to turn in gonna take a drive up the canyon and see his head. what those folks are doing.” L: “Not much, but they are pretty and look We did wake up when the caterpillars nice in the windows at home. The darkstarted rolling through the ash dumps and colored bitters bottles are worth a little ranchers were saying, “Sure you can go more but are harder to find. My specialty up and pick up all that junk. I’ve been is collecting the old ink bottles.” trying to get that s#@* out of there for twenty years.” I guess they figured that if The attendant’s work on the car was there were so many people from outside done, so he collected his $4.00 and wished wanting all these bottles and other gar- them good luck as they headed north out bage that they must be worth something. of town. So much for the introduction to An inquiry of a passing motorist at the bottle collecting. I guess they did get quite gas station where I worked in the 1960s a few before the rest of us woke up and kind of went like this: smelled the dumps. There were seven years between the Attendant: “Morning Ma’am, nice day story above and my first look at a bottle isn’t it? What may I do for you?” collection by a Montana collector. It was Lady: “Good morning son. We need a tank now only 1967. My collection started that of gas and please check the oil and tires. year with an aqua Vaseline style bottle and We are going into the hills for a couple several black glass ales. The ales were days and don’t want any problems with the discards in a campground that I was car.” cleaning as part of a summer job. I later A: “Sure thing Ma’am, nice rig! What are thought that if they were throwing away you going to do? The fishing hasn’t been 1860s black glass ales and cracked Hostetters, what were they taking home? When I asked the question about where [Fig. 1] to go and what to look for to find some really old bottles, the answer stuck with me, “You won’t find much out there anymore since the Californians got them all.” My excursions to familiar old places were discouraging that summer, since all I found were the shards. I was a believer now, and sort of wore the California story on my sleeve for several years. That story later. Collectors from outside of Montana
[Fig. 2]
BOTTLE COLLECTING IN MONTANA
stimulated the locals into a bottle collecting frenzy by the early 1970s, and when I arrived home from the Army I was in a different collector’s world. Everybody had some bottles and was finding them all over Montana. I didn’t need much coaxing to getting a collection started myself. When I traded some friends out of a Warren Drug from Bozeman, and I dug a Choteau Drug and a Kessler beer - I was hooked on Montana bottles. That was thirty years ago and collecting has been good since. Collectors in many states have experienced ownership of a Montana bottle. I say this with some assurance that the large number of folks accumulating “state” collections of most bottle types had at least one in their hands. Some of those handled were undoubtedly rarities while others were common. Nevertheless, the many and varied types, sizes and embossments made for a lucrative collectors’ exchange. Montana bottles and artifacts are
[Fig. 3]
Bottles and Extras [Fig. 4]
sought for a variety of reasons. Foremost behind a collector’s urge might be the romance connected with a relic once part of the 1860s Gold Rush or early 1900 homesteading era. Next might be a connection to a place a family called home or where they had a business venture. Then there are those of us who have an affinity for bottle types and collect that state or one specimen from a number of states. And how many of us can be called casual collectors keeping what you dig, eventually trading for what sparks our interests? If you have dug in Montana, I am sure you have discovered a few Montana bottles and relics. No matter how we all got started, the bottom line is, “we like Montana bottles.” Montana entrepreneurs of the last century and back into the late 19th century had their names and businesses embossed on bottles representing their businesses. These bottles came in a variety of shapes, colors, and sizes that match the commonly used styles of the day. Most of us, who have collected for a while, will recognize a shoofly whiskey flask, an enameled back bar bottle, the Hutchinson soda, a stoneware jug, the seltzer, blob top beer or soda, and the prescription drugstore bottle. We have all these bearing Montana places and businesses. I will portray some of these and characterize their uses and histories for you. I do not intend to get into a detailed discussion of an individual item, as that information will be aptly presented soon in a Montana bottle book. The Hellgate Antique Bottle Club of Missoula began cataloging and describing Montana embossed and labeled bottles in 1969 or 1970. This effort, through the energy and perseverance of several ardent Montana collectors, is about to emerge as a definitive book on what our state has to offer. As some of you authors have experienced, you are always finding new
Winter 2003 items, and that is the case here. New whiskey, soda, beer and drugstore bottles have emerged in the last year. Going back for a moment to the statement I made about wearing the successes of the early bottle diggers on my sleeve, all but two of these discoveries were made out of state. Dunno, but I think we still have a few surprises in store. And to end the California story, I do not hold you responsible for anything except waking us up in time to enjoy the fantastic hobby of bottle collecting. Let’s move on and discuss some of what we have that we are proud of and seek with an intensity not measured in many states. Since I started out above with a short list, let’s start there. WHISKEY In summary, we have several clear quart embossed cylinders, a shoulder sealed cylinder in amber and olive green that comes as a quart and a “fifth”. At least 20 coffins and shooflies, that many more straight sided flasks, around 10 silver overlay flasks, several leather covered flasks, gold printed with the proprietor’s name and business, make for a nice group of very collectible bottles. There are also a few unique bottles, back bars and ceramics that contained liquor. We have evidence that the summer of “02” produced fragments of a true pumpkinseed embossed from Butte City. When this one surfaces for inspection, it will add another special bottle to pursue. Glass that has been thrown to the four seasons on a rocky hillside has not fared well. We often find items with a variety of damage. You don’t have to stretch your imagination to understand the fate of the fragile shoofly and coffin bottles. One time, during my collecting adolescence, I asked a veteran collector how long it takes to find an embossed Montana whiskey. He stated, “If you get into a single dump and dig around twenty plain ones, you are likely to find one that is embossed.” I now have reason to believe he knew what he was talking about. I was digging a trashy area below an 1895-1900 cabin and was finding whole plain shoofly bottles and other evidence that the former occupant believed in cures in a bottle. I had dug around 18 plain whiskies when the basket weave of shoofly base caught my eye. Lo and behold! It was an embossed Montana, one pint flask from
63 H. J. ZAYAS in Helena (Fig 1). Was I excited or what? And guess how many unembossed shoofly whiskey bottles were in that dump? Yup, 21! Many nice examples from nearly 60 proprietors have survived in the larger dumps. Specie from Anaconda, Butte, Great Falls, Helena, and Kalispell top the list for variety of collectible embossed flasks. These examples from Butte (Fig. 2) and Anaconda (Fig. 3) are extremely desirable. Montana businesses advertised across the state by stenciling names, businesses and products on stone ware jugs (Fig. 4). Our jugs come in the “mini” size up to, and probably exceeding, 3 gallons. We have cataloged close to 100 different jugs. Almost all are rare, 1 to 5 known. A few proprietors have 20 - 25 known, usually in several sizes. A rarity would be the FIVE TAPS SALOON from Great Falls (Sorry that my photo didn’t turn out) and more common are those from the MONTANA LIQUOR COMPANY of Butte (Fig. 4,left). Another from GOODKIND BROS./ WHOLESALE WINES/ LIQUORS AND CIGARS/ HELENA. MONT (Fig 4, right) represents the middle range of availability. Montana jugs are very collectible and highly desired by both collectors of western whiskey jugs and those who stick to Montana items. Recent bidding on available specimens has been phenomenal. SODAS Blob top, Hutchinson, Baltimore loop, and crown top sodas grace many collector’s shelves. The American sodawater bottling industry was well on its way when gold was discovered in Montana and the great, mid-1860s rushes to Virginia City, Bannack, Last Chance (Helena) and many smaller unnamed strikes were under way. A thirst followed the miners as they ventures north to the mines. Some may [Fig. 5]
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64 [Fig. 6]
have brought a bottle or two of their favorite with them. A few colored sodas from the mid west and California have been found here in the earliest mining camps. This is evidence that it wouldn’t be long before the soda bottling entrepreneur would set himself up in business in this wide open territory. By the mid-1870s, soda businesses were being established in both larger and smaller communities. The small community of Coulson on the Yellowstone River, near what is now Billings, bottled a soda in a unique, dark aqua, heavy glass bottle, succinctly embossed W. A. BOOTS. This bottle has a gravitating (?) style stopper, which is unique among Montana embossed sodas. Research is continuing on this bottle’s closure, and it may be one of the first embossed sodas in Montana. Butte and Helena proprietors were on the heels of this enterprise and had sodas bottled in embossed blob top bottles by the early 1880s. Wm. WILSON of Butte City used a bottle reminiscent of the earlier west coast blob tops, as did JURGENS & PRICE (Fig.5, right) and MERRITT & CO. of Helena. By 1885, Merritt had his own custom mold bottles in circulation (Fig. 5 left). As an historical note, Montana did not
[Fig. 7]
become a state until 1889. Of the bottles noted above, Wilson is the only one marked with M. T. for Montana Territory. SPECKART & CO./BUTTE CITY/MON. is also an example of a territorial blob top bottle. Montana has two known Hutchinson sodas that are clearly marked M. T. These are from KROGER BROS. in Butte and A. LANDT in Livingston. Several other bottles marked with MON. are also known to be of Territorial vintage. Examples are GAMER & JACKY/PHILLIPSBURG/ MON. (Fig. 6), MONTANA BOTTLING CO./BUTTE/CITY/MON., and MONTANA LIQUOR CO./GRANITE, MON. Most examples of Montana Hutchinson and Baltimore Loop sodas are embossed with Montana or Mont., suggesting their vintage is after statehood. Some of these businesses were established prior to statehood, but we are still researching when some of the bottles may have been introduced. We have a couple of others that are worth mentioning, since they are somewhat unique among Montana sodas. One is the W. H. BULLARD - MILES CITY MONT., a six-sided, round bottom, blob top aqua bottle (Fig. 7). Another is the aqua Hutchinson embossed: DEERLODGE/SODA/FACTORY. Without the state or city embossed, we call these “mavericks,” but I am sure the folks from the Deerlodge Valley had no trouble knowing where the soda factory was, since the town was one of the biggest in the Territory in the 1880s. The factory was producing soda as early as 1873, but the known bottle had to date after the patent of the Hutchinson stopper in 1879. Is there another blob top out there from Deerlodge that has yet to surface? Let’s hope so! Statewide, we can account for nearly 60 sodas that are either Hutchinson or Baltimore loop stoppered. Several from larger towns are relatively common and are a good nucleus around which you can start a very nice collection. An example is the HOLLAND RINK/ B O T T L I N G / WORKS/ BUTTE, MONT. (Fig. 5, center). Around 1900 several rare and short-
Bottles and Extras [Fig. 8]
lived, tooled top, crown finished sodas followed their older cousins, the Hutchs, into the iceboxes of Montana businesses. These are beginning to gain a following among collectors, and new examples are surfacing annually. With the advent of machine-made bottles (ABM) early in the 20th century, the hand-blown examples are surprisingly hard to find. While there are nearly 50 of the ABM types, I can account for fewer than 15 of the tooled top variety. For you aspiring collectors, the hand-blown, tooled top Montana sodas might be equivalent to the proverbial penny stock. BEERS Montana has always been a big beer drinking state. Attesting to the numerous blob top amber and aqua beers in the old dumps, many collectors left the bottles on site for the less experienced to pick up. I guess that is where the four cases of blob tops in the garage came from. I do keep them hidden so when the value goes up I can get them out, clean them up and make a bundle! I suppose by now you are all wondering what I’ve been smoking? Anyway, several Montana businesses chose to advertise their products and businesses through the use of embossed beer bottles. Nick Kessler of Helena was producing beer by 1865 and bottling in available discards and the rare shipments of new bottles that wound their way up the Missouri River to Fort Benton and then across the muddy, hilly road to Helena. We have an interesting conundrum with Kessler and when he may have chosen to emboss his bottles. Several (I can
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Bottles and Extras
[Fig. 11]
[Fig. 9]
HELENA, MONT., amber blob top split and pint. Other populated cities had embossed blobs or crowns. A nice example of the former style is the W. H. BULLARD/ MILES CITY/MONTANA. This a tall (about 28 oz.) aqua bottle finished for the Baltimore loop closure (Fig. 10). Anaconda, Great Falls, Kalispell and Lewistown also produced collectible beers. As far as we know Anaconda, Kalispell and Lewistown had only crown tops. To finish this section I will mention an extremely rare, amber blob top beer. This is embossed M. L. CO./GRANITE/ MONT. The example I have seen is a split. There isn’t a collector in Montana that wouldn’t give up his or her favorite dog and a new set of snow tires for one of them.
account for four found within 50 miles of Helena) blob top, amber beer bottles, with the letters NK peened into the side near the base, have been found by area collectors. The letters on all the examples are similar enough for us to speculate that Kessler may have had someone mark his bottles with the hope that they might be returned for refilling. The other argument is that one or several bored miners, sitting around the stove on cold wintry days, tried their hands at depicting Nick Kessler’s logo on the glass with a nail and the butt of their pistols. Who knows for sure? It is fun to speculate on the possibilities. If a positive attribution could be made - WOW! BITTERS There are less than 20 embossed blob The sole embossed contribution to this top and tooled crown top beers from category is an amber, BIMAL, French Montana. More may surface and we hope square from Deer Lodge embossed on a they do, but among the twenty, several single flat panel: J. D. EASTMAN/ are from the same companies. Kessler DEERLODGE, MONTANA. has a least four embossing styles on Mr. Eastman bottled his Oregon his beers, with the pint blob top, plate Grape Root Bitters in these labeled molded as in Fig. 8. bottles. It is purported to have been The SILVERBOW BREWING widely distributed around Montana, CO. of Butte had its crown-top yet very few examples exist. The 22-ounce, amber bottle embossed on product evolved into a tonic under a the side (Fig. 9) and also on the Dr. J. H. Owings, who managed base of its bottles. Of interest is the Eastman product line. Dr. the fact that the county, in Owings also had his own emwhich Butte is the county seat, bossed drugstore bottles beginis named Silverbow. ning in 1885, but continued to Helena had the most use an unembossed French embossed beers for one city in square for Eastman tonic. Montana with four known. In An unembossed French addition to the Kessler bottles square was also labeled as a bitthere are: CONSOLIDATED/ ters from the mining town of MILWAUKEE BEER/ Philipsburg. This one was for a AGENCY/HELENA, MONT., product called an Herb and Chaan amber blob top split (Fig. momile Bitters. I do not have [Fig. 10] 8); CAPITOL/BOTTLING the exact name at hand, but you WORKS/HELENA/MONT., get the picture that more than one an amber blob top split; and Montana businessman got into MILCH BROS./BOTTLERS/ the bitters business.
MILK Milk bottles have recently received great coverage in Marvin Michelotti’s book Montana Milk Bottles, printed by Advanced Litho Printing in Great Falls, Montana. His coverage of the collectible dairy industry bottles and memorabilia covers items manufactured and used in this state between the 1870s and 1970s. The largest and most prosperous communities had many dairies competing for peoples’ patronage. Keeping them aware of who was proving their milk was important, hence a variety of embossed and pyro names and advertisements came into being. The competition proved deadly to many dairies and closures or takeovers ended the use of their bottles. I’ve heard stories told of glass smashing parties where the embossed or otherwise marked containers were broken so that another company could not use the bottles. As the small and large dairies disappeared, their remaining bottles were destined to become valuable collectibles. PATENT MEDICINES These fantastic collectibles were produced as part of the national “snake oil” era when everyone wanted a cure or remedy in a bottle. We have all read the
[Fig. 12]
66 preposterous claims made by these proprietors. Montanans were not immune to the enterprising peddlers and their wares. Several Montana companies saw profits in this business and jumped on the medicine wagon with their own concoctions. There was the Helena based Giant Medicine Co., producing Magnetic Oil, Cough Remedy (Fig. 11) and Sarsaparilla. A Mr. J. E. Steers had his Good Samaritan/Compound. Helena also had the Silver State Veterinary Remedies under W.C. Crum, which produced a variety of specialties. All were preceded by the words Silver State. These included Pain Exterminator, Distemper and Cough Killer, Overland Liniment, and Instant Colic Cure. A few embossed examples of the Overland Liniment exist, but none of the others are known to be embossed. We believe one of he earliest embossed Montana bottles is the cobalt blue maverick: BENNET’S/MAGIC/CURE. This liniment was patented in 1876. Anyone have one? We have heard that examples exist in California (Here we go again) and Michigan. Kalispell had Marsden’s Magic Liniment and Mountain City Cough Cure, the latter being extremely rare. A Billings company may hold the gold star for the most unique name among Montana patent medicines with its HERBOTONE/THE/BOTTLED VACATION/TRADE MARK/MADE BY CHAPPLE DRUG CO. BILLINGS, MONT. Do you think a bottle was cheaper than a train ride to the west coast or Arizona? Butte, with its poor air and water quality in the late 20th Century, had a need for remedies and local druggists were not too shy to respond. There was Fair’s Pneumonia Cure, Fair’s Pneumonia Mixture, and just plain Fair’s Nu-mon-ia. Several labeled bottles indicate that other companies and individuals were also in the easier-breathing business. Other common ailments prompted Gallogly’s drug to produce a cobalt blue salve-type jar, which is embossed on the lid: GALLOGLY’S/SEAWEED/CREAM and a citrate of magnesia bottle embossed: GALLOGLY’S/PIPE STONE/ MAGNESIA. However, it was D. M. Newbro Drug Co. that produced the greatest variety and
Winter 2003 number of labeled and embossed household remedies, lotions and powders. Only a few of these were embossed. These include his Witch Hazel Almond Cream, and Herbicide for the scalp that often came in half gallon bottles. I wonder if it worked on lice as well as dandruff? As you can see there are a nice variety of collectible patents from Montana businesses. There are others but I think you have a pretty good picture of what we have to offer. I believe the discussion of patents brings us to a discussion of drugstores and their proprietors. DRUGSTORES As with many other states, Montana has numerous bottles blown with embossing advertising drugstore businesses across the state. Most communities, that had a population of several hundred and were stable enough for the druggist to invest in his wares, had at least one embossed drugstore or pharmacy bottle. When you consider the large size of our state and small population, it amazes me when I think that over 200 different embossings are represented from nearly 50 communities. The ghost towns of Marysville and Virginia City are represented as are the largest communities in the state, Anaconda, Billings, Bozeman, Butte, Great Falls, Helena, Kalispell, Lewistown and Missoula. I think the small homestead era towns (turn of the century to the Great Depression) are the toughest to find. The small initial population and short term prosperity undoubtedly makes their druggists’ wares very scarce and collectible. A few of these towns are Choteau, Columbus, Conrad, Grass Range, Hardin, Hobson, Moore, Terry and Winnett. Folks still make a living in these towns but they do most of their business in larger area towns such as Dillon, Fort Benton, Glendive, Havre, Livingston, Miles City, Red Lodge and Roundup. When any of the very early or shortlived druggist bottles come up for sale, there are usually several collectors that want them and the bidding (such as on eBay) can be entertaining. A few examples of rarities are from J. C. Mannall & Co. and A. T. Playter of Anaconda, Dr. I. A. Leighton of Boulder, the amber Roecher and Alward from Bozeman, and another amber from Butte embossed J. T. Finlen (Fig. 12), E. W.
Bottles and Extras Wynne of Butte, the Parchen D’Acheul, Butte, M. T., any of the Deerlodge and Great Falls drugstores, A. P. Curtain, Triangle Drug Store and the R. S. Hale and Parchen Drug M. T. bottles from Helena, any of the eight Lewistown bottles, J. A. Brown & Co. of Livingston, Highborn Pharmacy of Missoula, Willard Drug from Moore, any of the nine Red Lodge Drugstores, H. Elling & Comp. from Sheridan, Stevensville Drug/Rexall Store, The Terry/Drug Co. / Terry, Mont., Hinchman & Alward from Virgina City, Modern Pharmacy of Whitehall, R. H. McGinnis of White Sulphur Springs and R. J. Woods of Winnett. Whew!! Any questions? There are other groups of collectible items from Montana. Some of these are the back bar bottles, dose and shot glasses, seltzers, and the pottery and ceramic figurals. This is not to mention the labeled items and the Breweriana collectibles. Stay tuned and we will deal with those at a later time. By now you are either asleep or looking through your collections to see what is hiding in there. Let’s hope it is the latter and that you have learned a little about bottles that are collectible from Montana. This was, by any stretch of the imagination, an exhaustive discussion. Other collectors and I will contribute to Bottles and Extras over the next few months, giving you additional information on what our wonderful and unpopulated state has to offer. References: Hellgate Antique Bottle Club. Montana Bottle List, 1976. Lutsko, Marc. A Bottle Guide to Montana, A List of All Known Bottles, Jugs, Etc.; 2001 Edition. Michelotti, Marvin. Montana Milk Bottles, Advanced Litho Printing, Great Falls, Montana, 2001. Personal Collections of Ray Thompson, Stuart MacKenzie and Larry Eichorn. Research and Documentation of Henry Thies. All Photos by the Author
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Bottles and Extras
FOHBC SHO-BIZ FOHBC Sho-Biz is published in the interest of the hobby. Federation affiliated clubs are noted. Information on up-coming collecting events is welcome, but space is limited. Please send at least four months in advance, including telephone number, to: FOHBC Sho-Biz, c/o Ron Rasnake, 6301 Lilyan Parkway, Fort Pierce, FL 34951, or E-mail: RonOldGins@aol.com. Show schedules are subject to change. Please call ahead before traveling long distances. All listings published here will also be published on our web site at http://www.fohbc.com.
January 11 ~ Maitland, FL ATCA/CFIC Annual Telephone & Insulator Show (Sat. 8am–4pm, early admission 7am) at the Maitland Civic Center, 641 Maitland Ave., Maitland, Florida. Info: Paul Mikula, Ph: (407) 365-4686.* January 12 ~ Muncie, IN Midwest Antique Fruit Jar & Bottle Club’s Annual Show & Sale (Sun. 9am–3pm) at the Horizon Convention Center, 401 High St., Muncie, Indiana. Info: Norm Barnett, P. O. Box 38, Flat Rock, IN 47234, Ph: (812) 587-5560, E-mail: thebarnetts@shelbynet.net, Web site: http:// www.fruitjar.org. ** January 18 ~ Jackson, MS Mississippi Antique Bottle Club’s 18th Annual Show & Sale (Sat. 9am–4pm) at the Mississippi Fairgrounds A & I Buildings, Jackson, Mississippi. Info: John Sharp, P. O. Box 544, Louisville, MS 39339, Ph: (662) 773-7880, E-mail: johnsharp49@aol.com. January 18 ~ Strongsville, OH Western Reserve Insulator Club's 4th Annual Winterfest Swap Meet (Sat. 10am–3pm) at the Spyglass Hill Recreation Center, 13201 Compass Point Dr., Strongsville, Ohio. Info: John Hovanec, Ph: (440) 237-2242, E-mail: wric@clubs.insulators.com.* January 19 ~ Bletchley, England National Society of Collectors Fair’s Annual Winter National (Sun. 11am–4pm, early admission 9am) at the Bletchley Leisure Center, Bletchley, Milton Keynes, Bucks, England. Info: Pamela Ball, 2 Pound Cottage, Blackthorn, Bicester, Oxon OX25 1TE, England, PH/FAX: 011-44-1869 24107. January 25 ~ Anderson, CA Superior California Bottle Club’s 26th Annual Show & Sale (Sat. 9am– 4pm) at the Shasta County Fairgrounds, Anderson, California. Info: Mel Hammer, Ph: (530) 241-4878 or Phil McDonald, Ph: (530) 243-6903. January 25–26 ~ St. Petersburg, FL Suncoast Antique Bottle Collectors Association’s 34th Annual Show & Sale (Sat. 9am–5pm, Sun. 9am– 3pm) at the Florida National Guard Armory, 35th St. at 38th Ave. South, St. Petersburg, Florida. Info: Gus Dueben, 12451 94th Ave. North, Seminole, FL 33772, Ph: (727) 393-8189, E-mail: resq8w34@verizon.net or Chris Cube, 10193 64th St. North, Pinellas Park, FL 33781, Ph: (727) 5415229. ** February 1 ~ Rome, GA West Georgia Bottle & Collectibles Club’s Show & Sale (Sat. 8am–3pm) at the Rome Civic Center, Turner McCall Blvd., Rome, Georgia. Info: Jerry Mitchell, P. O. Box 475, Breben, GA 30110, Ph: (770) 537-3725, E-mail: mitjt@hotmail.com or Bob Jenkins, Ph: (770) 834-0736. February 2 ~ South River, NJ New Jersey Antique Bottle Club’s 7th Annual Show & Sale (Sun. 9am–2pm) at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 88 Jackson St., South River, New Jersey. Info: NJABC, 24 Charles St., South River, NJ 088821603, Joe Butewicz, Ph: (732) 238-3238, E-mail: botlman@aol.com or Ernest Bower,
Ph: (732) 868-0510, E-mail: xrdsrev@aol.com. ** February 7-8 ~ Las Vegas, NV Las Vegas Antique Bottle & Collectibles Club’s 38th Annual Show & Sale (Sat. 9am-5pm, early admission Fri. Noon–6pm) at the Plaza Hotel & Casino, 1 Main St., Las Vegas, Nevada. Info: Tony Palladino, 7004 Debutante Ct., Las Vegas, NV 89130, Ph: (702) 655-9752, E-mail: lvabcc@hotmail.com. ** February 9 ~ Milwaukee, WI Milwaukee Antique Bottle & Advertising Club’s 31st Annual Show & Sale (Sun. 9am–3pm) at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel, 4747 S. Howell Ave. (I-94 exit 318), Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Info: David Kapsos, 6213 Mourning Dove Dr., McFarland, WI 53558, Ph: (608) 838-8041, E-mail: foxhead@chorus.net. February 15 ~ Sarasota, FL Sarasota-Manatee Antique Bottle Collector’s 17th Annual Show & Sale (Sat. 10 am–4pm) at the Florida National Guard Armory, 2890 Ringling Blvd. (at the Manatee County Fairgrounds), Sarasota, Florida. Info: Ed Herrold. P. O. Box 18928, Sarasota, FL 34276, Ph: (941) 923-6550. February 15-16 ~ Centralia, WA Oregon Bottle Collectors Association’s Winter Show (Sun. 9am–3pm, early admission Sat. 1-7pm) at the SW Washington Fairgrounds, I-5 exit 79, Centralia, Washington. Info: Jim or Julie Dennis, Ph: (541) 4672760. ** February 22 ~ Grandville, MI West Michigan Antique Bottle Club's 13th Annual Show & Sale (Sat. 10am-3pm) at the Neal E. Fonger American Legion Post, 2327 Wilson Ave. S. W., Grandville, Michigan. Info: Elmer Ogg, 1591 Hendrick Rd., Muskegon, MI 49441, Ph: (231)-7987335, E-mail: eogg@nortonshores.org or Steve Deboode, 1166 Corvette Dr., Jenison, MI 49428, Ph: (616)-667-0214, E-mail: GRbottleguy@aol.com. February 23 ~ Enfield, CT Somers Antique Bottle Club’s 33rd Annual Show & Sale (Sun. 9 am–2pm, early admission 8am) at the St. Bernard’s School West, Pearl St., Enfield, Connecticut. Info: Rose Sokol, 164 Elm St., Enfield, CT 06082, Ph: (860) 745-7688, E-mail: ptmanfredi@rcn.com. March 1 ~ Maryland Line, MD Chesapeake Bay Insulator Club’s 15th Annual Show &Sale (Sat. 9am–3:30pm) at the Maryland Line Fire Hall, I-83 just south of the PA border, Maryland Line, Maryland. Info: Larry Novak, Ph: (301) 680-8910, E-mail: cbic@clubs.insulators.com, Web site: http:/ /www.insulators.com/clubs/cbic. * March 2 ~ Baltimore, MD Baltimore Antique Bottle Club’s 23rd Annual Show & Sale (Sun. 8am–3pm) at the Community College of Baltimore County, Essex Campus Physical Education Center, 7201 Rossville Blvd.(I-695 exit 34), Baltimore, Maryland. Info: Bob Ford, Ph: (410) 5319459, E-mail: bottles@comcast.net, Web site: http://www.antiquebottles.com/baltimore. ** March 7-8 ~ Chico, CA Bidwell Bottle Club's 37th Annual Show & Sale (Sat. 9am-4pm, early admission Fri. Noon-7pm) at the
Silver Dollar Fairgrounds, Chico, California. Info: Randy Taylor, Ph: (530) 345-0519 evenings, (530) 342-3131 days, E-mail: RTJARGUY@aol.com or Don Ayers, Ph: (530) 891-4931. March 15 ~ Deland, FL M-T Bottle Collectors Association’s 33rd Annual Show & Sale (Sat. 9am–3pm) at the Volusia County Fairgrounds, State Route 44 at I-4 (extit 118), DeLand, Florida. Info: M. Pallasch, 7 Monroe Ave., DeBary, FL 32713, Ph: (386) 668-4538. ** March 16 ~ Flint, MI Flint Antique Bottle & Collectible Club’s 33rd Annual Show & Sale, (Sun. 9am-3pm), at the Dom Polski Hall 3415, N. Linden Rd., Flint, Michigan. Info: Tim Buda, 11353 W. Cook Rd., Gaines, MI 48436. Ph: (989) 271-9193. E-Mail: tbuda@shianet.org. ** March 16 ~ St. Louis, MO St. Louis Antique Bottle Collectors Association’s 33rd Annual Show & Sale (Sun. 9am–3pm) at the Two Hearts Banquet Center, 4532 S. Lindbergh at Gravois, St. Louis, Missouri. Info: Ron Sterzik, 2080 Sterzik Dr., Arnold, MO 63010, Ph: (636) 296-3112 or George Casnar, 4455 Helterbrand Rd., Festus, MO 63028, Ph: (636) 337-2326. March 22 ~ Raleigh, NC Raleigh Bottle Club’s 3rd Annual Show & Sale (Sat. 9am–3pm, early admission 7:30am) at the State Fairgrounds Holshouser Building, Hillsborough St.& Blue Ridge Rd., Raleigh, North Carolina. Info: David Tingen, P. O. Box 18083, Raleigh, NC 27619-8083, Ph: (919) 848-4387, E-mail: RBC@antiquebottles.com, Web site: http:// www.antiquebottles.com/raleigh. ** March 22 ~ St. Joseph MO Missouri Valley Insulator Club’s Insulator/Bottle Show & Sale (Sat. 9am–4pm) at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 4520 Mitchell Ave., St. Joseph, Missouri. Info: Dennis R. Weber, 3609 Jackson, St. Joseph, MO 64507, Ph: (816) 364-1312, E-mail: drweb@ccp.com. * March 29 ~ Tarentum, PA Western Reserve Insulator Club’s Spring Show (Sat. 9am–3pm) at the Heritage Museum, 224 E. 7th Ave., Tarentum, Pennsylvania. Info: Ron Barth, 203 South 2nd St., Apollo, PA 15613, Ph: (724) 478-5299, E-mail: rktbarth@kiski.net. * April 4-5 ~ Wheaton, IL Collector's Jubilee (Fri. 10am–5pm, Sat. 9am–1pm) at the Dupage County Fairgrounds, Manchester Rd. (east of County Farm Rd.), Wheaton, Illinois. Info: Jim Crandall, 1486 Prospect Ave., Des Plaines, IL 60018, Ph: (847) 827-4727.* April 13 ~ Minneapolis, MN Minnesota's First Antique Bottle Club and North Star Historical Bottle Association's 32nd Annual Show & Sale (Sun, 9:30am-3:30pm) at the Days Inn, 1901 Killebrew Dr. (nest to the Mall of America), Bloomington, Minnesota. Info: Doug Shilson, 3308 32nd Ave. South, Minneapolis, MN 55406, Ph: (612) 721-4165, E-mail: bittersdug@aol.com or Steve Ketcham, Box 24114, Edina, MN 55424, Ph: (952) 9204205, E-mail: s.ketcham@unique-software.com. **
Shows marked ** are FOHBC Clubs. As of the day I prepare this document, I note Federation Clubs based upon membership forms in hand. If your club belongs to the Federation and is not noted as such, please verify that you have renewed your membership for the current year, and contact me at the above address if there is any confusion. Shows marked * are provided by Crown Jewels of the Wire, Box 1003, St. Charles, IL 60174.
Offering Up To $20,000 For a mint condition CALIFORNIA WINE DEPOT SALT LAKE CITY flask STRONG PRICES PAID FOR: Western Bitters Shot Glasses Mini-Jugs Flasks 5ths ALL WESTERN STATES
Ralph Van Brocklin - 1021 W Oakland Avenue Suite #109 - Johnson City, TN 37604 Phone: (423) 913-1378 - E-mail: thegenuine@aol.com
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Page 46 Bottles & Extras c/o FOHBC 1021 W. Oakland Ave Suite 109 Johnson City, TN 37601
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POSTAGE PAID MEMPHIS, TN 38101 AND ADDITIONALENTRIES