A little history on the Henley's Bitters

Here is a little history for the beginning of the Henley's Wild Grape Root IXL Bitters product. This Notice was placed in the Portland Morning Oregonian newspaper on March 13th, 1868 [bottom]. Louis Gross placed it to solicit his customers to continue to patronize his former establishment which he sold on March 11th.

After arriving in San Francisco, and establishing L. Gross & Co, the first advertisement for the Dr. Henley's Wild Grape Root IXL Bitters was placed on July 1st, 1868 in the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle newspaper [bottom left]. The ad ran for 3 mos in this paper and followed suit in others as well. His establishment was located at 312 Sacramento Street, S.F. Bottles made during this time did not have the IXL logo circled.

By late 1869, L. Gross & Co had relocated to 518 Front Street, S.F. and the ad [upper right] was placed on October 21st, 1869 and ran for 6 mos. The emphasis on the IXL logo having a circle around it may have been to differentiate his product from the recently introduced Cassin's XXX Wild Grape Root Bitters which was most likely done on purpose to capture part of his success. The second embossed variant of this bitters bottle exhibits a circular design very close in style to the above advertisement.

The next advertisement was placed under H. Epstein & Co who were successors to L. Gross & Co and this ad ran from February 1st, 1871 thru March 27th. Notice the circle style around the IXL is now more oval in style [above left] and the third variant bottle style follows this format as well, which was marketed under the name Dr. Henley's California IXL Bitters and distributed out of the Chicago branch.

Can you "FIND THE LACOUR'S" ?

The "Not so Snobby" Bitters

Boy oh boy, over on the whiskey site I noticed that someone named anonymous (hey anonymous, come on out of the closet) called us bitters collectors snobbish, arrogant and I presume that also means uppity. Nothing could be further from the truth. Heck I don't own any bitters over 10K! And just to show you folks that believe we are "clannish" and snooty, a thing or two, here's some photos of "The Peoples" bitters. Power to the People! Enjoy!

How about a Marshall's? It doesn't get anymore down to earth than that!

Always the peoples favorite Hibernia Bitters.

And last but not least a real salt of the earth Bennett's Celebrated Stomach Bitters

Now don't y'all be calling us Bitters folks snobby!

Dr. Wonser's U.S.A. Indian Root Bitters

In researching this bitters product, I came across two interesting advertisements. The bottom ad is the earliest I've found for this product. The ad was placed in The Gilroy Advocate paper and ran from June 25th, 1870 for 3 mos. Notice that the manufactory and depot for this bitters was at 645 Third Street, S.F. He was not at this address very long, as the upper ad indicates by December 17th, 1870 he had relocated to 418 Sacramento St. The upper ad was placed in the San Francisco Daily Examiner on December 17th, 1870 and ran for 1 month.

The time frame that his product is being marketed is interesting as San Francisco Glass Works had not begun operations at their rebuilt facility until September 12th, 1870. The lettering style is the same as the earlier large lettered Renz's bitters bottle, both bottles probably made by the same pattern maker.

The bottle itself is interesting in that it has been made in two variations. Both are the amber colored examples. One variant has a configured base with sharp edge and a stepped ledge going into a concave circle with small center dot. The more often seen variant has a rounded edge base with a semi-shallow kick up with center dot, the aqua examples also share this mould feature. I do not consider the different style tops to be a variant, this is just a difference of lipping tools used for the completion of the mouth.

Bottle junk dealers

In my research for writing a book on Early Glassworks of California, I stumbled upon some interesting information that may shed some light on why we don't often find the quantities of certain types of bottles. This article appeared in the S.F. Evening Bulletin of July 31st, 1875.

The column was titled "RAGS, SACKS and BOTTLES" The Curiosities of the Old Junk Trade-How Five Hundred People Earn their Living in a Large City. "Any rags, sacks or bottles?' is a cry heard from early morn till the shades of evening on all the highways and byways of San Francisco. How the two hundred or more gatherers of these refuse articles can obtain a livelihood is probably a mystery to most people. But the business is not so precarious as would first appear. Besides owning their own horse and wagon, some of these 'rag, sack and bottle' gatherers have accumulated at times quite a competency, but their boardings generally melt away more quickly than they are acquired. Wealth does not sit well with some people, and this class is not an exception. There are many Chinese scavengers who go about the street, scratching up here and there with a hooked stick such waste matter as can be converted to use in one form or another. They collect rags, paper, tin-foil, etc., and though they are not munificently rewarded for their labor, they contrive to 'pick up a living.'

The junk shops are mainly dependent upon the two classes spoken of for their stock in trade. It is estimated that there are at least five hundred people in San Francisco who earn a living directly or indirectly from the junk business. There are several junk shops which employ quite a large number of men, mostly Chinese, and they have a lucrative trade. Charles Harley & Co, at Nos. 116 and 118 Davis street, are the principal dealers, and they employ about their premises thirty-five or forty men. They have a branch house in New York, to which are consigned large quantities of rags suitable for making shoddy cloth. Rags of all descriptions are sent here from all parts of this State and Nevada by the principal dealers. At Harley & Co's may be seen everything imaginable in the cast-off line, from a mouse-trap to a sheet-anchor. All is fish that comes to their net, and nothing is refused. They obtain a large share of small truck from parties 'declining housekeeping,' who are only too glad in most instances to get any price for their 'old rubbish.'

The prices paid for rags by the junk dealers range from one to five cents per pound, as to quality. These are carefully sorted over at the shops, according to the use to which they are to be put. The cotton rags all go to the different paper mills in this State, and all that contain any wool are sent off to be made over into inferior clothing. Manila rope is untwisted, packed up, and subsequently converted into Manila paper , and burlap sacks, to much worn to be used for any other purpose, are made into 'bogus' Manila paper. Paper of all kinds is worked over and comes from the mills nice and clean. Wrought scrap-iron is bought up by the Pacific Rolling Mill in this city, and all the old pieces of copper and brass are taken by the brass foundries. Yellow metal sheathing, taken from vessels, is mostly sold to Chinese, who ship it to China, there to be converted to various uses.

Some dealers make a specialty of sacks and bottles. The bottles are procured at the saloons, hotels, drug stores and from private families, and the sacks come principally from the restaurants and stables. The bottles are thoroughly cleansed and afterward find there way back to the places whence they came. The flour mills take a great many of the burlap bags, and the gunnies mostly go to the farmers. Charcoal dealers take the ragged or unsound gunnies. A. Waugh & Co. at 112 Main street receive from 18,000 to 25,000 prescription bottles in a month, and of all kinds of bottles, they handle from 30,00o to 40,000 daily.

As it is generally understood that soda bottles are returned after their contents are consumed it may seem strange that such large quantitites of them are to be found in the junk shops. One dealer explained it in this wise: 'You see,' said he, 'there is a good deal of competition among the soda factories, and if any of them get too particular about their bottles, why they stand a chance to lose their customers. And there are a good many people who go to the saloons for a small quantity of liquor and the soda bottles are the best adapted to this trade.'

It is unnecessary to enumerate all the junk dealers, as there is nothing peculiar in the business of any, and the foregoing remarks will apply to all, as a general thing. Thus is seen now at least five hundred people in San Francisco derive their support from what is generally regarded almost as worthless."

I thought some of our blog site followers would find this article interesting.

E. G. Lyons Manufacturers SanFco

The earliest advertisements for E. G. Lyons & Co was published in the San Francisco Daily Alta California paper on January 7th, 1865. E. G. Lyons was successors to Crevolin & Co; they were wholesale dealers in wines and liquors and manufacturers of syrups, cordials & bitters. The & Co consisted of Jules Hayes.

The above example is apparently one of four, currently in collections in this light pastel green color. There are at this time two different variants known. The differences can be seen on the base of the bottles. The example above has a diagonal mold seam that runs from one beveled edge to an opposite beveled edge. The other variant has a mold seam that runs parallel along the bottom base edge on two adjacent panels, which end up on opposite diagonal beveled edges. The second variant would be my guess as to the older of the two, it shares the mold characteristics of another early made bitters, the G. A. Simon's Medicated Aromatic Bitters which can be pinpointed more accurately to late 1865 thru early 1866 time period thru written documentation.

The lettering style and embossing pattern seem to be identical between the variants, I cannot distinguish any differences. This product bottle most likely contained a cordial or bitters. How long these bottles were being produced is not known. There is strong evidence to suggest that these were made at the Pacific Glass Works. A bottle that appears to be a Lyons is pictured in the stereoscopic view card photo taken of their glassware display at the 1869 San Francisco Mechanics Institute Fair. The above bottle has physical features that distinguish it quite easily from other similarly shaped bottles.

A Western Bitters For Sale or Wanted Section?

A while back on the Western Glop Top Whiskey site a discussion was started about having an area on the site for users of the site to sell bottles. Ideas were thrown around and then the subject was dropped. I was disappointed that the subject didn't get any further than just talk.

What I would like to propose, for this site, is an area that we could use to post bitters for sale or trade or bitters bottles wanted. By this I mean something like a message board, where collectors could list a bottle for sale (or wanted) and be put in touch with other collectors that might be interested in buying or selling.
For example:

For Sale: Dr. Renz's Herb Bitters -large letter variant, olive amber, near mint condition. If interested contact g.o. at rcs@digitalpath.net.

Wanted: Cassin's Grape Brandy Bitters - contact Warren at warrenls6@sbcglobal.net

I want to stress that we do not want to sell bottles on this site, nor do we want to compete with the auction houses, bottle merchants or ebay. What we would like to do is put collectors in touch with other collectors that might be interested in buying or selling. Old Fashioned one on one bottle dealing with today's technology.

If you look over to the right side of this page you will see an area called Western Bitters Swap Shop. This is where we would list the bottles for sale or wanted.

Hey, this site is for all of you collectors to enjoy and participate to the degree of your choice, so if you want to comment on this or have suggestions about it (or don't even want to see it here) feel free to comment on this idea. Heck, we can call it Swap Shop, Buy & Sell section or whatever you all want, if you want it. So, tell us what you think!

If you are a member of this blog and want to author posts contact g.o. at rcs@digitalpath.net and I will set you up as an author.
g.o.

Federation National show

This years show was the first held in California. One hundred fifty-one tables were set-up. Although I came away empty handed without a western bitters, there were some that did end up in collectors hands. A very rare Orizaba Bitters, J. Maristany Jr. and a Dr. Harvey's Blood Bitters were seen with new owners. A Dr. Henley's Wild Grape Root IXL Bitters in the scarce square bottle style was seen for sale, as was a large variant Rosenbaums Bitters, N. B. Jacobs & Co, San Francisco in an old amber coloration. A blue aqua Cundurango bitters was also for sale.

Other more common western bitters noted for sale were two amber square Pipifax bitters (applied top and tooled top variants), Dr. Henley's Wild Grape Root IXL (circle) aqua cylinder variant, Dr. Thos Hall's California Pepsin Wine Bitters (tool top), Lash's Kidney and Liver Bitters (indented panel) square in light amber, Peruvian Bitters in red amber, Marshall's Bitters, Wait's Kidney and Liver Bitters, Star Kidney and Liver Bitters in square amber tooled top style. A dealer from Oklahoma had an aqua Yerba Buena Bitters he was inquiring about its value.

There were 16 bottle displays, the most interesting was a display put up by two members of the San Diego Antique Bottle club, it consisted of western glass dug that did not make it out of the ground in complete condition, it was called R.I.P and the examples shown would make the most advanced western glass collector salivate as well as cry....it was an emotional display to say the least! Had I known of this display, I could have contributed two very good examples to this display, an amber Cassin's and blue-green Renz's. A yellow-olive Dr. Boerhaave's Stomach Bitters was among the examples exhibited.

Bitters lecture at the National

Here a some portions of the fine presentation that Warren Friedrich offered up at the National Show this past weekend. The room was fairly full, I had one empty seat in front of me, and was able to get most of Warren's discussion on video. My storage and battery power were not able to handle the overload of information presented at the bitters seminar. They actually titled it the Bitters Roundtable as several collectors presented information and stories relating to Bitters collecting.

Bottle Certification

Here is a few comments from the Bitters Round Table held at the National Show this past weekend. Ferdinand Meyer's comments on the need for a certification process in the bottle collecting hobby are particularly important. Stamps, coins, sports cards, and other fields have a certification service or a grading service available to help eliminate fraud and misrepresentation. I remember the start of the coin grading and authenticating services in the 1980's. Much bad mouthing and skepticism from the old collectors/dealers. Now very, very few quality coins or stamps sell without being certified. Is it time for this in our hobby?

A Mystery and a Boerhaave's!

Here is a shard that was sent in from Rob Goodson, it is a partial panel from a square style bottle. It was dug along with a Dr. Boerhaave's Stomach Bitters example below.

This Boerhaave's example is in a terrific olive color, which I have never seen before. There are approximately 11 examples of this bottle currently in western collections, most being the dark green with a couple in old amber.

This is another bitters product which was advertised briefly. Three different advertisements were found for this product in four different newspapers. The earliest advertisement shows Siegfried Wertheimber as the agent at 311 Commercial St, San Francisco, this ad began on March 7th, 1868 and ran several times in the San Francisco Daily Dramatic Chronicle paper. This product was also advertised in the Los Angeles paper in 1868 by a local druggist. It was also marketed in Oregon by Millard & Van Schuyver agents in the Portland Morning Oregonian paper from May 15th, 1868 thru January 28, 1869. Again S. Wertheimber was the agent in S.F. The last advertisement shows S. Wertheimber & L. Waterman in an ad, where there location was now 219 Commercial St, S.F.

(The ads promoted this product by using a testimonial from a Prof. Hildebrand, a distinguished Physician of Vienna, who has used them for thirty years.)

Western Glass

Here are three western bitters that will be at this years Federation National Show. They are also three of the bottles that I researched their histories, and will be included, in an upcoming book being written on Early Glassworks of California 1859 to 1875. Left Lacour's, center AT & Co and right Cassin's.

Renz and Von Humboldts Bitters

These two early bitters share some unique characteristics that give some clues to when and where they were made.

The variant 1 Dr. Renz's Herb Bitters has 4 key features in common with the Alex Von Humboldts Stomach Bitters
which suggests that both bottles were made by the same moldmaker which probably was associated with the same glassworks. (Renz variants 2 & 3 have different mould features and are probably made and blown by a different glassworks)

The Renz bitters was first introduced to the California public on August 31st, 1867, the Von Humboldts bitters was a product of Charles V. Fleishmann, and first advertised in early 1868.

Both bottles have the same style & size of lettering, both bottles were made with a 7/16th wide bevel edge (uncomon on squares), both have a particular circular inset in the base with a rather large center dot and both have a unique mold line running parallel along two adjacent panels on the base. These two western squares share features with two other western figural bitters which are associated with SFGW. At the 1868 S. F. Mechanics Fair, the San Francisco Daily Times reported in their article about SFGW's display that among their varied display of glassware were bitters bottles with names stamped into the glass.

In my research of western bitters, those particularly made or marketed during the 1860's the evidence suggests that San Francisco Glass Works most likely was responsible for these two bottles and their respective moulds.

The Surveys top pick

Here are some examples of the top Western bitters as chosen by the survey participants. Shown are both examples of the Cassin's bitters. The example on the left (a yellow green) is the earlier variant (inset panel), marketed in 1867. The center example (an olive color) is the later variant (flat panel) marketed thru 1868. The right example (dark orangish amber) is also a variant 1, however it appears more like a variant 2 due to it being underblown using a much heavier glass material.

The 2008 Western Bitters Survey

About a year ago, three western glass collectors decided to set about the task of compiling the opinions of antique bottle collectors on their ranking of embossed western distributed and western manufactured bitters bottles. This task would be made more daunting by the fact that there were approximately 100 variants known, and how to keep the prospective survey taker interested in completing this time consuming ordeal. As it was the survey comprised of five pages and certainly could have been more, with additions like color, size, and mold variations.

Our goal was to weigh each bottle against the other, using factors that antique bottle collectors strive for; such as age, color, shape, glass characteristics, lettering style, interesting name, etc. We made a relatively complete comprehensive listing of known bottles, including a place for listing a candidate not included on the list. We also wanted the bottle collector to rank the bottle by their criteria of importance, whatever that may mean to them. We were able to present 94 bitters in their ranking of importance, we were able to show the importance of the ranking position in relation to each other by the collector, and we were able to show the average ranked position each bottle held to each other. This gave us a good indication as to which bottles appeal to collectors and where they stood in relation to each other. There is no monetary ranking, but from this data, it can be extrapolated as to which bottles in a direct comparison to each other appeal more favorably to the collector over any other one.

Over 220 surveys were handed out at western bottle shows and mailed to collectors.
Of those 220 surveys 65 were returned to be tabulated.

Here then are the results:

1. CASSIN'S GRAPE BRANDY BITTERS

2. CALIFORNIA BITTERS MANUFACTURED ONLY BY J.G. FRISCH SAN FRANCISCO

3. DR. WONSER'S U.S.A. INDIAN ROOT BITTERS (cylinder)

4. BRYANT'S STOMACH BITTERS (cone style)

5. LACOUR'S SARSAPARIPHERE BITTERS

6. CALIFORNIA WINE BITTERS M. KELLER LOS ANGELES

7. G.A. SIMON'S MEDICATED AROMATIC BITTERS

8. CHALMER'S CATAWBA WINE BITTERS SPRUANCE STANLEY & CO.

9. DR. MILLER'S RATAFIA DAMIANA SIEBE BROS. & PLAGEMANN S.F.

10. CATAWBA WINE BITTERS

11. ALEX VON HUMBOLDTs STOMACH BITTERS

12. ROSENBAUMS BITTERS N.B. JACOBS & Co SAN FRANCISCO (small western variant)

13. DR. BOERHAAVE'S STOMACH BITTERS

14. ROSENBAUMS BITTERS N. B. JACOBS & Co SAN FRANCISCO (large eastern variant)

15. E.G. LYONS & CO MANUFACTURERS SANFco

16. E. WIDEMAN & J. CHAPPAZ ( Alpine Stomach Bitters)

17. V. SQUARZA (anti-dyspeptic or hygienic bitters)

18. DR. HENLEY'S EYE OPENER

19. WORMSER BROS'. SAN FRANCISCO

20. DR. HAUSEMAN'S GERMAN BITTERS (flask)

Western Bitters Top Dog?

Over on the WesternGlopTopWhiskies blog site, there has been a lively discussion about whether the California Clubhouse whiskey is the top dog of the western whiskey world. Several reasons were cited as to why it should retain the number 1 spot among the collectors of these coveted cylinders of glass. Full face embossing, interesting, elaborate monogram, color, etc.

I thought it might be interesting to do such a parallel comparison with the bitters. Here is a picture of the California Bitters / Manufactured only by / J. G. Frisch San Francisco, this bitters has the word California spelled out, it also has San Francisco spelled out and it would compare with the whiskies that have full face embossing by having 3 embossed panels. It's definitely an early made bottle among the bitters bottles standards. It's rarity is pretty much unquestioned with this example residing on the East coast and the other residing on the West coast. Both examples are an amber coloration with a iron pontil mark on the base. It certainly deserves to rank among the top contenders for the number 1 coveted spot. The one area that it may fall short is whether bitters collectors would consider a bottle that was of western distribution, but eastern in manufacture to hold the coveted number 1 ranking. Obviously there is some consensus to this, as another highly desireable bitters, the Bryant's Stomach Bitters also a western marketed product but of eastern origin and manufacture is coveted by advanced western bitters collectors and has been published in print as to being considered the top western bitters.

If a vote were to be held between these two examples only, my personal choice would be the Frisch bottle probably based on similar criteria that the whiskey collectors use. However like the whiskey collectors if the listing of choice for the coveted top honor were open, I certainly would have nominated another contender!

Detachable Plates for Glass Molds

Have you ever wondered why two of the bottles you own have different embossing but look like they were blown in the same mold. Well - that's because they were !!!!

Back in February of 1875 Gustavus Storm applied for, and was granted in May of the same year, a patent for Improvement in Detachable Plates for Glass Molds.

Gustravus didn't invent the slug plate he just made improvements to the original concept, stacking several plates together and venting the plates for air to escape when the molten glass was blown into the mold.

This improvement allowed the glass houses to carry a "standard mold" for a particular style of bottle, for instance, a medicine mold, beer mold, bitters mold and so on.

The detachable slug plate was then engraved to the clients specifications - for example -

DR. MOTT'S

WILD CHERRY TONIC

A.H. POWERS & Co.

Take a look at the Taussig and Mott's bottles pictured at left. Sure looks like an identical mold with different embossing to my eyes.

The side view of the bottle mold in Figure 1 shows how the slug plate sits in a hollow in the mold. Note the rivets holding several plates together.

Each plate could possibly hold from one to several engraved letters.

Figure 2 shows the engraved plates in the bottle mold. Notice how the engraved letters are backwards on the plates. Ever wonder why some bottles have a backwards letter in the embossing.

The top view of the bottle mold in Figure 3 shows the detachable slug plates sitting in the hollow of the mold.

Figure 4 shows the "stacked" plates before being engraved. Rivets hold the plates together

Henleys' earliest IXL bitters

Here is a nice grouping of Dr. Henley's Wild Grape Root IXL Bitters in an array of western colors. The examples shown are the earliest mold variant without circled IXL logo.

Louis Gross & Co were the manufacturers and proprietors and began marketing this product in early 1868. His location was 312 Sacramento St, San Francisco. In 1869 L. Gross & Co relocated to 518 Front St, where there advertisements now used their logo with the circle around the IXL trademark.

The variant 1 & 2 molds marketed by Gross & Co from 1868 thru 1870 come in a variety of colors, and are a product of Pacific Glass Works, (an example can be seen in the glassware display exhibited at the 1869 Mechanics Institute Fair in S.F.) and these examples often exhibit great glass characteristics, such as drippy tops, seedy bubbles, whittley glass, etc.

The above bottles were on display at the 2008 Downieville Bottle Show

Excelsior Sierra County California

The gold rush camp of Excelsior lies on a steep hillside about a mile northeast of Monte Cristo at the head of Excelsior Ravine. This early mining camp was founded by prospectors from Monte Cristo sometime in 1853. During the peak of Excelsior’s growth this camp had a population of one hundred men, ten ladies and several children. Two grocery stores, a hardware store, blacksmith shop, livery stable and a couple dozen cabins were situated precariously on the steep hillside.

In researching this camp it is interesting to note that in a letter written to the Mountain Messenger in June of 1860 the correspondent “Dead Broke” commented on the fact that “Excelsior still has no place where liquor is sold”. From this correspondence I believe that although several different kinds of spirit bottles were found at Excelsior, liquor was not sold and saloons did not exist in this small gold rush camp.

A tunnel drifted into the side of the mountain to reach the ancient river channel was the most often used method of mining at this small camp. North of the townsite there is one section of ground that was washed away by hydraulic monitors.

The placer diggings paid well at Excelsior, but as in other areas of Sierra County, an exodus was taking place during the early 1860’s as can be documented by another excerpt from a letter to the Mountain Messenger dated June 26, 1861 from “Dead Broke”.

“A great many of our citizens have left within the last few months, and many more are preparing to follow. I am glad to state from personal knowledge that they are all leaving with means enough at their command to insure them a happy home in some of our fertile valleys. Your correspondent, however, is not one of them, as he thinks he will have to stay on the mountain until Gabriel blows his horn".

Excelsior’s days as a productive camp were numbered and more miners and families left this little settlement during the 1860’s. The Mountain Messenger in its issue of June 18, 1862 reports the following about mining at Excelsior. “This place does not seem to improve much during the last year, but all claims appear to be doing well.”

Excelsior was mined during the depression era but the citizen’s that left during the waning years of the gold rush must have had “means enough” judging by the amount of artifacts that they left behind. Discoveries at Excelsior include hundreds of feet of ore car rail, a 400 pound anvil, a hydraulic monitor and other mining related equipment. Bottles that have been recovered from the townsite include several black Hostetter's bitters, a Booth & Sedgwick London Cordial Gin, Udolpho Wolfe’s Aromatic Schnapps, Chestnut Grove Whiskey, a handled Whitney Glass Works whiskey, Patent whiskey fifths, an emerald green Teakettle ink, a large size Sand’s Sarsaparilla open pontil, open pontil umbrella inks in amber, green, aqua and scores of open pontil and smooth base food bottles. In 2008 on a field trip to Excelsior I discovered a broken Crowell, Crane & Brigham Sarsaparilla & Yellow Dock with an iron pontil.

At the site of this early camp a hydraulic mine pit, scattered trash, a caved in drift tunnel and one cabin still remain.

The above post was taken from the forthcoming book "Gold Rush Camps and Bottles of Sierra County" available in September at the Downieville Bottle Show

What was Dr. Henleys Tamarack???

Not sure what Tamarack was but it looks like it might have cured the results of too much eye opener..........or bitters. Looks like he was double ending that deal, create a product with lots of alcohol and then come up with a product that brings em back around, so they can start all over again. From an edition of the Wasp July 21, 1888. A clean stomach makes a clear head, was this some sort of vomit inducement? Must not have been a big seller, never seen an embossed one. Any comments?

Dr. Renzs Advertisement 1893 Tooled Top?

This advertisement is from the 1893 Edition of The California Demokrat, a German periodical of the time printed in San Francisco, CAL. Renz must have still been producing the product, although it may have been paper labeled at that point. Listed as being at 315 Commercial Street, San Francisco, probably between Montgomery and Sansome Streets at that time. It also makes mention of Renzs Blackberry Brandy, so maybe he ordered large and then took his sweet time to unload the inventory. The Germans really controlled the wholesale liquor and brewing industries for years, and a whole community within a community existed, enough to support this newspaper which has great ads of other dealers all written and printed in the native tongue. Has anyone seen a tooled top Renzs?

The Shard Table

Pictured above is a table full of "criers" that was on display at a recent get together.
3 Lacour's, a California Clubhouse base, Baker & Cutting pickles, 2 large Rosenbaums, 1 small lettered Renz, 2 Cassin's and shards of other rare western bottles can be seen on the table. Just an awesome display of broken western glass!

Ya Gotta Love the Name.

Just a fascinating name for a product! Curiosity alone should have helped sell this product! One of three Henley's products marketed in this cylinder shaped container. It is believed to be the third product marketed, behind the famous Dr. Henley's Wild Grape Root IXL Bitters first brought to the market in 1868, followed by the OK Bitters, which was a spiced wine bitters product marketed in late 1871, followed by this product Dr. Henley's Eye Opener some years later.

With a product name like this, one would think that the base vehicle ingredient used would be stronger than the wines, brandies, rum or wheat whiskies that were being used in other bitters type products.

Louis Gross & Co was the sole proprietor in San Francisco for Henley's Wild Grape Root Bitters in 1868, Henry Epstein & Co were the sole proprietors in S.F. when the OK Bitters was marketed. Most likely Isador Landsberger was promoting the Henley products when the Eye Opener was brought to market.

These bottles come in some beautiful colors, some examples in current collections are yellow-olive, light green and blue-aqua as seen here. Approximately 10 or so examples are in western collections.

Close, but no cigar.

Oh well, that's how bottle digging goes sometimes. Todays attempt showed possibles, but feeble results in the end. We did dig a bunch of bottles, just nothing to write home about. A few SF jakes, a couple Farrells, a nice six sided cathedral sauce, piles of the usual throw back blacks, star based unembossed fifths and sixths, inks, etc, etc. Criers were cobalt and green sodas, a shoulder crown Martin fifth, and a super colored Hostie. The major criers were two crackerjacked Lacour's. Why are the "goodies" always thrashed? Yeah, the open pontilled Richardson's came out whole, but that's barely a keeper. I guess there's always tomorrow. One thing we did get to dig were tons of monster hunks of granite.

Western Beauty!

Here is my favorite color in western glass. In a natural light setting with overcast skies behind; this vibrant yellow-green is simply stunning. Pictured left to right are a CUNDURANGO, E. G. LYONS & DR. RENZ's.