Sunday, December 6, 2009

Another Great 49er Bottle Show


The 49er Bottle Clubs 32nd annual bottle show and sale kicked off Friday at noon sharp. A big turnout of early lookers, and early buyers, stormed the doors looking for bargains on bottles, insulators and collectibles. The first few hours of the show sales were brisk and dealers kept busy selling items and answering questions about their merchandise. The sales action continued all day Friday and dealers commented on how well items were selling.
( Click on the pictures to enlarge them)











On Saturday morning a Turner's "Shootout" was held with collectors Richard Siri, Bill Ham, Steve Hubbell, Ken Edward and Rick Simi displaying 7 different variants of the Turner Brothers Forest Wine Bitters bottle. Smooth base and iron pontiled examples, including an extremely rare iron pontil aqua variant, were discussed, compared and photographed by several collectors.









In the last few years western bottle shows have been suffering from items being stolen from dealers tables. The ongoing theft problem was addressed very well by the club, announcements about every hour warning dealers to watch their tables and keep track of their sales items were very helpful and reminded dealers that the 49er club was "aware" of the stolen merchandise problem.











I was pleased to get a chance to talk to collectors & dealers from Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Wisconsin and Texas and meet a few collectors "face to face" for the first time.
















Western bitters that changed hands during the two day event included: a pea green Cundurango, A.H. Powers Dr. Mott's Wild Cherry Tonic in light yellow amber with an applied top, a very crude aqua Cundurango, another Cundurango in a yellow olive, an N.B. Jacob's San Francisco in grass green, a variant 1 Rosenbaums Bitters, an Alex Von Humboldt's Stomach Bitters in light old amber and an Alpine Herb Bitters with an applied top; a tremendous amount of western bitters available for one show. I also noticed 4 different large letter Dr. Renz's Herb Bitters and a large letter Rosenbaums for sale.








The 49er Historical Bottle Association refers to their annual show as "The Best in the West" and in this old collectors opinion have earned the right to call it so. I, personally, would like to thank the staff and members of the 49er Historical Bottle Association for putting on another great bottle show.

Thanks!

12 comments:

  1. Great write-up on the show. It's always a pleasure attending this show, seeing everyone and all the nice bottles being offered. I especially liked the lunches that were offered to the dealers so they wouldn't have to leave their tables. Not doubt it is one of the BEST shows on the West Coast, great job 49er club!
    On another note and I don't mean to make sour grapes here but I've had more than enough of the theft problem, I'm done, baked, over cooked. Despite the clubs effort with the anti theft signs posted on the tables and all the beware of announcements made it was still no deterrent for the criminal activity. If a thief believes all their victims will handle them being caught in the same manner within the limits of the law I can assure them their making a huge mistake. Bottles were stolen off tables only a few spaces down on each side of us and all throughout the show. The best theft defense is to have a good offence in place whether it be at home or a show. It's time we as a group need to start seriously thinking about what it's going to take to put a stop to dealers being robbed at these shows.
    www.oldwestbottles.com

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  2. Hmmm. I missed the action, since my table took every minute of my time at the show. Despite being away very little, the thief(thieves) worked his or her(their) way to me and swiped a cheezy local pharmacy. I guess I was one of the lucky ones, others fared much worse.

    Again, I saw no Cunderangos and wasn't aware of any Turner comparisons. Oh well, not being "in the thick of things" is OK by me.

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  3. I also was not aware of the Turner comparisons but would of loved to of seen it. Was this made public or was it a private showing???

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  4. The Turner's comparison was started here on this blog in October when Richard stated that there were 7 different variants of the Turner's square.
    The comparison was to take place at the Canyonville show but a couple of collectors forgot to bring examples of their bottles so it was re-scheduled for Auburn.
    Because of the reports that there were several bottles stolen on Friday the comparison took place at 9:00 am on Saturday morning on my sales table before participants set up their sales tables.
    And yes Richard was correct - we counted 7 different mold variants for the Turner's Brothers bottle.
    rs

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  5. Super write-up and lightning-timely! I thoroughly enjoyed the 2-day show, especially the people. West coast collectors are among the nicest I've met anywhere and I plan to come out more often.
    Great to meet you Rick and thanks again for nice DICKEY!
    Jeff Burkhardt
    Cedarburg, Wi.

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  6. Rick,

    Did anyone get close-up pics of each of the different Turners varients?
    AP

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  7. GP, My recommendations would be:

    A) follow the suspects undercover at the next show, and catch them in the act.

    B) Advise dealers to invest is plexiglass table-top display cases to prevent theft of the better bottles
    AP

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  8. AP,
    Bill Ham took pictures of all the Turner's displayed for a future article for one of the bottle magazines. Bill had his portable "white box" that he used for the pictures in the whiskey book and the bitters book. Bill can be reached at billham@sbcglobal.net
    rs
    Oh.... it was good to see you at the show!

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  9. Rick

    Thanks... and likewise !

    AP

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  10. Great show, can't wait for next year ! Rick, did you change your e-mail ?

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  11. What a bottle show & trip!! Our first to Auburn We were fortunate to visit with Jeff Wichmann on Thursday when we flew in from Houston. Attended both show days and walked around Old Town. Met some of the missing links at the show. Saw Bill Hams pontiled Meds Saturday evening in Lakeport, visited Ken Swartz on Sunday in Redding, visited Mike Henness and Ken Edward on Monday and had dinner Monday night in San Francisco. This would have exhaused us if it was a vacation. Glad it was for bottles. West Coast collectors are really cool. Wish I could put my finger on why.

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  12. Andrew,
    Yes I changed my mail its ricksimi@att.net.
    Post some digging reports
    rs

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