Turner Brothers Bitters on ebay

One of our western collectors is offering a beautiful Turner Brothers Bitters on ebay.

 The description reads:

Here is a strong example of a rare western square. This big and nasty bottle dates from the late 1850s to early 1860s. The contents were "Forest Wine Bitters" and likely other products put out by the five Turner Brothers. Embossing reads " Turner Brothers, New York, Buffalo, NY & San Francisco" The color is a medium olive green and lighter than the photos depict on this cloudy day. The top is crudely applied and it has an early smooth base. This one has never been cleaned and other than a teeny pinhead open bubble or nick on the right shoulder ( no collateral radiation) it is mint. This pinhead is too tiny to show in the photos, and I doubt anyone would ever notice it...just trying to be extremely accurate

 

 

 

 

 

Nice bottle, interesting history check it out on ebay..... here

Turner's Displayed at Auburn

Here are a few of the Turner's squares displayed at the Auburn Bottle Show.

Take a look at the aqua iron pontil example on the left displayed by Richard Siri.

First one of those I have ever seen!

(Do you think Bill might have added to many zero's to the price tag on his Turner's ?)

Turner Bros.

I have my Turners Bros .bottles in a box in the truck this time .Won't forget to bring them to Auburn . for a show and tell . RTS

More on the Turner Brothers concoctions.

Here is a more comprehensivc advertisement for the Turner Brothers medicinal beverages that were marketed in California during the latter 1850's and early '60's. It's not surprising that diggers/collectors have unearthed at least four different mould variations of the bottle. Those bottles most likely had a myriad of different labels attached to cover their wide array of offerings as seen in the above ad.

The Turner Brothers

The five Turner Brothers, James, Malcolm, Archibald, Thomas and Robert, were manufacturing soda water in Buffalo New York as early as 1850.By 1853 they have opened a branch depot in San Francisco and are listed as syrup and cordial manufacturers. The Turner Brothers are advertising in the October 1858 Nevada Journal newspaper that they are manufacturers of Turner’s Ginger Wine, Forest Wine Bitters, syrups, cordials and an unrivalled Vegetable Bitters, all manufactured at their San Francisco depot. Sometime in 1865 the Turner Brothers sellout to the firm of McMillan and Kester and thereafter McMillan & Kester start advertising that they are the proprietors of the Turner brands. I do not have any information on how long McMillan & Kester used the Turner Brothers brand or if they bottled their bitters or cordials in Turner embossed bottles.

The Turner bottles come in four different variants with the earliest and rarest variant having a pontil base. Although these bottles are considered scarce the California gold rush country seems to be where most of the known examples have been found in the west.

TURNER BROS. Trade Card

Here's a real nice little trade card that was found at the Auburn Street Fair a couple of weeks ago.

There is some mystery attached to this card. Seems like the Turner Bros. sold their San Francisco operation to McMillan & Kester in 1865. The Turner Bros. continued business in New York until sometime in the early 1870's when they retired from their syrups & cordials business. McMillan & Kester, from 1865 on, were the sole agents for the Turner Bros. products on the west coast & possibly manufactured & sold various products using the Turner Bros. name.

I have seen a lot of early advertisments for the Turner Bros. Forest Wine Bitters and their far famed Ginger Wine, but have never run across an ad for the "Regulator" product.

It is believed this card dates from the mid 1880's, long after the Turner Bros. were out of business.

Any thoughts or information on the Turner Bros. - McMillan & Kester relationship sure would be helpful.....

The Turner Brothers

Which product did James, Malcolm, Archibald, Thomas and Robert Turner fill their "Turner Brothers" square quart size bottle with ?

The Turner Brothers were listed as soda water manufacturers as early as 1850 in Buffalo New York. By 1853 they had opened a branch depot in San Francisco and were listed as syrup and cordial manufacturers. By 1858 they are pushing their Ginger Wine, Forest Wine Bitters and a Vegetable Bitters in newspaper advertising. Even though the Turner's manufactured many products, most Western collectors believe that the Turners bottle contained the Forest Wine Bitters product. It would be my guess that the bottle was used for all of the products that they marketed. Just slap a different paper label on the old square for whatever the contents and you were good to go!