Saturday, May 17, 2014

I don't know about all of you but I sure have enjoyed the discussion and pictures of the Cassin's Grape Brandy Bitters that has been featured on the site the last week or so.

It sure would be nice to see a post on the history, digging stories or an account of the amount of known Cassin's in collections. This rare bottle has some interesting stories to be told.

Anyone want to step up to the plate on this one.
- rs -


Remember this Marysville find?

15 comments:

  1. I also have enjoyed the latest Cassin,s discussions. It is interesting how the word "examples" is used in these discussions. I suppose it is all a matter of perspective as to what is considered a known example...is it a damaged bottle? maybe part of a bottle? In my travels, finding a truly undamaged Cassin,s is extremely difficult. The vast majority have issues and while a potstone or annealing check is part of early glass manufacture, a partial bottle, piece, or an example with post manufacturing damage is not considered a near mint to mint bottle. I believe there are about 15-20 variant two Cassin,s which will hold liquid, but perhaps 5 or 6 truly perfect or near perfect. I also believe there are 6 or 7 known variant 1 specimens in collections, with only one which has not been repaired. It has many flashes and other manufacturing issues, and possibly some post manufacturing or temperature change problems. While many were made, they simply do not survive the elements. DM

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  2. It would be interesting to hear where the Cassins were dug over the years:

    2 in Fort Ross area
    1+ In Marysville
    1 in Oakland
    1 in Sonora
    1 in Sacramento
    2 in SF (unverified) (excluding the 98 dig)
    ..........

    ???

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  3. Of the Cassin's I have owned, one was dug in San Jose (variant 1), another was dug in Ione (variant 1), another was found in Truckee (variant 1), another was dug in San Francisco (variant 2), and another was dug in Dayton, Nv (variant 1).

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  4. Mint bubbly amber example was found on top of the ground near McCall, Idaho. I have dug several broken examples in Virginia City, Nev. years ago. Variant 2 in yellow green, light yellow, deep aqua. Variant 1 in dark amber, reddish amber, and light green. DM

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  5. Interestingly, I cannot verify any Cassin,s being found in Portland (!?). DM

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    1. That is interesting. In my book I show that the Cassin's Grape Brandy Bitters product was advertised in the Portland Morning Oregonian newspaper with the Hildburgh Bros. as agents for Portland. The advertisement ran March 1868.

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  6. I believe the Portland find was a green variant 2 discovered inside a piano shipped from San Francisco in the 1870s. Interestingly enough there’s a French perfume bottle made in the same time period that closely resembles the Cassin’s shape.

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  8. Virtually mint (tiny base flake) Var. 2 green Cassins I once owned(Ex.- Elmer Smith ) was, according to Mike Henness, a dug or surface-found bottle. Anyone know the story?

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    1. I believe that example came from Sonora as the first poster listed.

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  9. The Sonora example listed at the top has a hole put in it by the finders probe. Sounds like Froggy had a different example. so two were found in Sonora ?

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  10. I believe the example at the top of this post was found in Marysville or close to there. The Sonora example was a different example and is now in the Forbes collection. EX Henness, Smith, Burkhart, Van Brocklin, Mlasko collections. That beauty has gotten around :)

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    1. That's correct Dale. It now resides in a Nevada City collection. The color appears a bright lime color because the bottle is full of dirt, after a cleaning the true color was the same as your former example.

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  11. It’s ironic the Cassin’s pictured above was dug shortly before I purchased the property it was found on. The remaining un-dug holes produced no other examples........

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  12. It is my understanding this bottle was heavily damaged.

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