Hostetter's Closes on Ebay

Not much to report on the auction scene. Western bitters just seem to be getting harder to find. I was surprised to see a listing on ebay for an early large size Hostetter's up for bid. The bitters listings on ebay lately have been pitiful so this listing caught my attention.

Listed as;

1857 DR J.HOSTETTER'S STOMACH BITTERS -olive square-
and just loaded with seed bubbles this 31 oz. dark olive square finished at a half a grand. It takes a pretty early and crude Hostetter's to get this old collectors interest up and this particular "Hoss" did just that. This bottle had a lot going for it and, in my opinion, went for a fair price.

Congratulations to the lucky winner!

American Bottle Auctions Lots 294 & 295

DR. HENLEY'S WILD GRAPE ROOT IXL BITTERS

As most all of you know ABA auction # 49 is underway and closes on Monday January 18th at 7:00 pm Western time.

I noticed over on the whiskey site, soleagent is reviewing some of the western fifths up for auction. Not to be left behind, we are throwing in our 4 cents worth on two western bitters bottles.

Lot # 294 is an aqua Henley's with a tool top. This bottle shows the characteristics of an air vented mold with typical sharp embossing and lack of crudity. As a matter of fact I am not certain this is a western made bottle, it has the straight (kinda) legged "R's" and appears to be made of a clear colored glass. Its not what your western collector would call "western aqua". Last year at the Downieville show we raffled off a tool top Henley's that was almost identical to this bottle. Never the less the tool top Henley's are rare and a pretty tough bottle to acquire.

Right now the Henley's is sitting at $200, a bargain in my opinion if you need the tool top example to fill in your run.

Lot # 295 is a heavily whittled, deep western aqua ( boarding on a green coloration ) example of the Wild Grape Root Bitters. Although this bottle is listed as a tool top it sure looks like it has an applied top and is embossed with the characteristic western curved "R's". Loads of seed bubbles and a slightly out of round body make this example a keeper.

Estimated to auction between $400 - $800 it sits right in the middle at $650 at the present time.

Both of these examples of the Dr. Henley's Wild Grape Root IXL Bitters would make a great addition to your collection... Good Luck Bidding!

"Western Barrel Bitters" in American Bottle Auction #49

American Bottle Auction # 49 is now up and running. Among all of the fine glass up for bidding are no less than 14 barrel shaped bitters bottles. Of particular interest are lots 297, 299, 301 and 307, all Old Sachem Bitters and Wigwam Tonic's. The Old Sachem's were marketed very aggressively on the west coast by Park & White during the 1860's; Intact and broken examples of the Old Sachem's are found throughout California's gold rush country and the early Valley supply towns.


Some western collectors believe that "a bottle manufactured on the East Coast and distributed on the West Coast" is, indeed, a western bottle so.....

.........Auction 49 boasts 4 western Old Sachem's and an un-embossed barrel (lot 302) that was sold here in the west in the early 1860's.


How do I know that the un-embossed barrel was marketed and sold out west? Well, it just happens that I dug one along with an un-embossed Drakes Plantation shaped bitters at the old gold rush camp of Chaparral Hill.

So if your looking for that special "Western Barrel Bitters" Take a look at American Bottle Auctions auction # 49

www.americanbottle.com

Western Bitters At Auction

Auction # 48 from American Bottle Auctions only offered three western bitters for us collectors to haggle over. Here's the results:

Lot # 241 WORMSER BROS. SAN FRANCISCO described as: " a couple of dots of sodium floating in the glass" also mentioned was a "small scuff" near the base ring and a "super tiny ding" and don't forget that "magnification also reveals two minuscule dots near the mouth"

In my opinion the above mentioned flaws, as superficial as they are, really hurt the final selling price of the bottle. Don't get me wrong, I think that an auction house should try and address all of the issues that might effect the selling price of the bottle, but in auction #48 some of the "possible" flaws were over emphasized.

I think sometimes, the people in this hobby, lose site of what collecting antique bottles is all about. Come on folks, these are glass containers that were manufactured in the infancy of the glass industry on the west coast,. made to be used and discarded and the majority of the bottles we collect are dug out of the ground. Of course some of these bottles are going to have "super tiny dings" and "minuscule dots" as post production "flaws".

The other thing that hurt the sale of this bottle was the color. The color was not mentioned in the description, to me it appeared to be just plain amber.

Final selling price for the Wormser, a disappointing $900 plus the buyers premium. These barrels usually sell in the 1500 - 2000 range.

Lot # 243 LACOUR'S BITTERS SARSAPARIPHERE

I actually traveled to Sacramento to look at this bottle, not once, but twice. In my opinion this Lacour's had a lot going for it. It is a variant two example in varied shades of amber with a crude out of round base. Described as "the shoulder area for instance is a brilliant tobacco yellow, while the base area is a much deeper combination of the same color. The bottle is quite crude with good whittle." I agreed with the description and went as far as 2800, unfortunately, for me, it sold for 3600. After you add in the buyers premium that's over 4K, a very strong price for an amber Lacours's, even if it is a second variant.

Lot #244 DR. RENZ'S HERB BITTERS Described as: "a solid example of this popular example of these western bitters" ( Huh?) and " a few minor scratches and the lightest bit of wear" I also looked at this bottle before the auction started. This Renz had a pinched - in area on both sides of the base

from the snap case and a bulge on the embossed side of the bottle. A nice applied top and an off color of amber with a hint of copper. I thought the 500 that it sold for was a very reasonable price. A nice example of the straight legged Renz.

I am not sure that I understand the bottle grading system used by American Bottle Auctions but here's my take on it: All bottles start out at a 10, each flaw or imperfection, depending on how severe they are, subtract "points" from the bottle. ie. a mint bottle with just a potstone might lose a few tenths bringing its grade to a 9.2 or 9.4.

Anybody that knows anymore about this grading system feel free to straighten me out on this. g.o.

Grand Prize Bitters

The Grand Prize Bitters is a square shaped sixth with a applied square collar top. This product ( Dr. Cooper's Celebrated Grand Prize Bitters) was manufactured from 1880 to 1884 by Louis Taussig & Co. of San Francisco California. The bottle is similar to the Peruvian Bitters but has three indented panels as opposed to the one indented panel on the Peruvian bottle. The Grand Prize is considered rare and western collectors believe that there are about 16 known examples of this bottle.

Recently American Bottle Auctions of Sacramento sold an example of the Grand Prize Bitters for $1000 documenting just how rare and desirable this bottle is. In forty years of collecting I have seen two examples of the Grand Prize, the example that just sold at auction and one other example several years ago.

photo courtesy American Bottle Auctions