Sunday, May 16, 2010

Recent happenings

At a recent event of bottle diggers/collectors, a selection of some terrific bitters were on display. A comparison of the large variant Rosenbaums Bitters were assembled, with examples being contributed by 6 collectors displaying 10 bottles. Other collector/diggers brought 2 small Rosenbaums Bitters for display. Another collector brought a N. B. JACOBS / SAN FRANCISO square [just full of bubbles] for display. A small variant Rosenbaums bitters in grass green was found broken while digging, a portion of the shards were pieced together. A yellowish olive-green variant 3 Renz's bitters was also brought for showing.

Other incredible examples dug but broken were brought for show and tell. A deeper grass green variant 1 LACOUR'S BITTERS and a lighter green DR. BOERHAAVE'S STOMACH BITTERS; both just incredible examples!

A beautiful whittled example of the small lettered DR. RENZ'S HERB BITTERS was displayed by another digger, it was yellow-olive amber, along with some incredible pieces of a Old Valley Flask and Dr. Henley's Wild Grape Root IXL Bitters [a variant 1].

Probably the highlight for me was the incredible display of 2 E.G. LYONS squares in a medium amber and a darker green, both examples exhibiting a million seed bubbles.

Other very rare western square bitters were an example of the DR. HAUSEMAN'S GERMAN BITTERS and an OLD MAN'S STOMACH BITTERS / MARCUS SASS. Several collector/diggers have never before even laid eyes on these examples!

Other incredible glass brought for show/display were 2 Dr. Townsend's Sarsaparilla Albany, NY squares, 1 in a Prussian blue coloration with an extremely crude bare-iron pontil mark, the other in a beautiful medium emeral green with crude pontil mark! This was followed by a light yellow London Jockey Club Gin and an incredible Neptune Glass Works / Old Dominion / Mint Julip square.

Recenly dug by a western glass collector was a large size aqua open pontiled OLD SACHEM BITTERS/ AND / WIGWAM TONIC barrel.

6 comments:

  1. There were some fantastic bitters on display! I also saw some Hostetters in many different versions, and colors. The small size black examples are tough to find, and there were two on one display table. The Boerhaave's which were broken were incredible, but the mint example came out of the box for a few minutes and was passed around. Once it was in my hands, I ran as fast as I could down the road, with several people in persuit. After about a mile, the older ones ran out of steam, but a few kept on coming! I ran into a vinyard, and hid for about an hour. I waited for everyone to have a few more glasses of wine, or beer. They did, and I eventually returned to show everyone my Boerhaave's Bitters. They were very excited that I brought it, and congratulated me on such a find.
    After waking up from my little afternoon nap, I saw M.H. gently putting the bottle back in it's box safely, and being congratulated on his find. What a bottle that is!!!!! Even dreaming about owning it for a brief moment is exciting.

    M.E.

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  2. Did I miss some "fun" by only drinkin' water, M.E.? LOL It was a great event, though, with some very nice folks and super glass to ogle and fondle. The food was excellent, too. Thanks a bunch, Lou and Leisa, for hosting this fun event for the second time. This year it wasn't quite as warm as last year, which is a very good thing.

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  3. I hated to miss this event this year after having such a great time last year. Hopefully we can look forward to it as an annual event. Sounds like some great stuff appeared and a good time was had. Thanks for the report!

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  4. That was an incredible showing of killer bottles especially the Western squares. I don't ever recall seeing so many great squares together like this all in one place at the same time. Those E.G. Lyon's had more bubbles than a fountain full of bubble bath and that puce Catawba was a treat to behold. The recently dug criers brought tears to my eyes, that Lacours & Old Valley were unreal.

    That newly discovered Portland 5th you have to see to believe, it's just an incredible bottle. I lost Millers Extra though after about a half mile when he entered the vineyard thanks to all that great food & drink, boy can that guy run!

    Who ever it was that left the $$$ thank you so very much but that was really not necessary, it was our treat. I can't say enough how much we enjoyed the company of all our friends and the glass they brought to share with everyone.

    The presentation made to us as a token of appreciation by Jerry Forbes totally caught me off guard, I'm blown away by this mans gracious generosity, thank you again Jerry.

    Thank you too Warren for organizing that great Rosembaum display, your contribution to the hobby and to all the others that helped make this event a fun time & huge success.
    www.oldwestbottles.com

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  5. This event is the kind of thing that could be the future of bottle collecting. Bottle shows are always very busy and more time is spent trying to acquire something new than having time to socialize. The level of particpation by people wanting to show a few nice things from their collection shows how well received this kind of event can be. It reminds me of what Norm Hecklers event appears to be like. I have never been but the reports of His gathering are always fun to read about. Lou and Lisa ; I just want to thank you for opening your home to me and other fellow collecters, I hope your event inspires others to host the same type of gathering. Thanks Again MAX BELL

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  6. Sounds like I missed a great Lou-B-Q.

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