What are the Differences?

Pictured are three different variants of the Lacour's Bitters. The bottle on the far left is a variant 3. The bottle on the far right is a variant 2. The bottle in the center is a variant 1.

I'll pose some questions about these variations of the Lacour's bottles; and let's see if any of our followers can name the answers!

1) What 3 features does the variant 1 & 2 share in common? Same style of top, same style of lettering & small dot in base center.

2) What 2 features does variant 2 & 3 have in common? Same shoulder design of mould & same bottom brad design of base.

3) Variant 1 & 3 each have 1 unique feature not found on any other variant; what is it? Variant one has a period after the word BITTERS & variant three has a unique design top.

LACOURS

We have had a stretch of wet weather here in UT. Not much digging going on but things are "green"-ing up nicely.








Comparison of var. 1 and var. 2 Lacours. The var. 2 bottles are a bit shorter.








The easiest way for me to tell is the difference in the top of the shoulder. Var. 1 on the left.





The var. 2 Lacours have a larger dot on the base, Var. 1 not large, even hard to see at times.

I believe Warren is going to go into much more detail on the Lacours variants and colors in his upcoming book. Can't wait!!!

Lacour's Bitters Ad

This is from one of my copies of a California small town newspaper, the Red Bluff Sentinel. These little daily and weekly rags were full of interesting product and services ads. I wonder if Lacour's was sold next door at the Oriole Saloon? More likely it was available at Brooks' Pharmacy or Pharmacy Hall, two of RBs earliest drug stores. Check out the notice at the bottom where they let you know that the packages and boxes have a lighthouse on them.

I have dug many dozens of pits in Red Bluff, but can't recall ever seeing any "Lakkers chards". Plenty whiskies, though. A green Keller's was found there some years back.

Lacour's Bitters

LACOUR’S BITTERS
SARSAPARIPHERE
Circa: April 1867 – November 1869

This unusual shaped bottle was first produced by Louis Lacour in 1867. It is believed that the bottle was designed to resemble a lighthouse and the word Sarsapariphere is a French conjunction of sarsaparilla and lighthouse.
This bottle comes in three variants and western collectors speculate that the first two variants were made by the same mold maker at the San Francisco Glass Works. These same western collectors lean toward variant three being blown at the Pacific Glass Works during the 1868 to 1870 time period.
(Pictured at right are two examples of the first variant from the Warren Friedrich collection)

Relation to Sierra County
Although I do not have conclusive proof that any examples of the Lacour’s bottles have been discovered in Sierra County, I do have reports of shards of this bottle being recovered. Early Downieville diggers report that two broken examples of the Lacour’s Sarsapariphere were discovered at Chips Flat in the 1960’s. Another report from a Nevada City digger has shards of an amber example being un-earthed in the Alleghany area in the 1990’s.
Even though there are possibly as many as 75 examples of all variants of the Lacour’s bottle, collectors of western glass, bitters and figural bottles consider the Lacour’s an extremely desirable, difficult and expensive bottle to obtain for their collection.

If you have any pictures of western bitters that you would like to share with other collectors or have posted on this site. Mail them to rcs@digitalpath.net