Digging News: The Blue Soda Hole

Three "Old Time" diggers got together Saturday, here in Northern California, for a day of probing, and hopefully digging a few early privies or trash pits.

The property that we were working had already produced a fairly rare western fifth from an 1880's pit and some un-embossed utility bottles from a really early pontil pit.

The morning and early afternoon were spent probing the property without any results. Around 2 in the afternoon we hit a small pit up close to the original wagon road that ran through the settlement site. A test hole into the middle of the pit produced a really early hand forged axe head and the evidence to "open up" the pit.

Once the dimensions of the pit were established the dirt started flying. First bottle out of the hole was a Wm. Eagle's Superior Mineral Waters in cobalt blue with a red iron pontil. Boy did that ratchet up the excitement level! Lying next to the Wm. Eagle were 2 broken un-embossed blacks and just the top of another blob top blue soda showing.

After some root cutting (of course the pit was right next to a locust tree) and some careful digging, out pops a blue blob top soda embossed Mineral Waters with a red iron pontil on the base. Wow!... 2 pontiled soda's and we were just getting started into the hole.

After removing some loose soil and squaring up the hole two more bottles are showing. After cutting more roots out come two unembossed blacks and a broken Mineral Waters in light green.

With daylight leaving and the pit getting close to being finished another blue soda is showing along with an un-embossed black. After recovering the black out comes the soda: A deep blue Kimball & Co also sporting a red iron pontil.

While cleaning up the bottom of the pit we recover a silver coin embossed on the obverse Napoleon Empereon and on the reverse an 1808 date. Another great find!
After filling the hole back in we take stock of our spoils:

3 blue embossed soda's,

5 un-embossed blacks,

A silver 1808 French coin and what started it all, an early hand crafted axe head.

What an incredible day;

Old friends and some old bottles from a really old gold rush hole. It just doesn't get much better!

New Western Tool Top Whiskey Site

Long time bottle collector Bruce Silva has his new blog site Western Whiskey Tool Top Gazette up and running and looking good. Bruce is one of the more knowledgeable of the Western Whiskey collectors and his new site is sure to be not only informative but also entertaining.
This quote from the Western Whiskey Tool Top Gazette's first post, I believe sums up the direction that this site is headed;

"Here we are, 2010 at last! Out with the old and in with the new. Well, maybe not out with all the old, since www.globtopwhiskies.com and westernbittersnews.com, both upstarts in 2009, are soaring along with ever increasing interest and support.

In the spirit of furthering the western collecting fraternity, I'm pleased to introduce the Western Whiskey Tooled Top Gazette. This site has been created with the intent of complimenting the aforementioned blogs. This site will serve to pick up the western whiskey saga where the glop top whiskies left off and to tie in the bitters products produced by the western liquor industry during the tooled top era. "

I, for one, am looking forward to this new whiskey site and highly recommend that all you collectors and diggers take a look at the latest "upstart" in the growing data base of western bottle collecting!

http://westernwhiskeytooltopgazette.blogspot.com/

Western Bitters Square; Star of the Union

This beautiful square bitters bottle was recently acquired from the digger, who found it in Northern California several years ago. It is a gorgeous light yellow olive, and covered in whittle effect. The top is similar to the E.G. Lyon's square. The embossing consists of a large star, with the letters"T" and "M". Since the first example of this bottle turned up in Oakland 25 years ago, there has been much speculation as to the bottle's origin, contents, and exactly what the embossing indicates. Now with about 7 known examples(all dug in California, and Nevada), there is a growing sentiment that this is indeed a Western blown bottle, and that it dates to the later 1860s- early 1870s. The color is a dead match for some other Western squares, and other bottles blown in San Francisco.
Several Western bottles display the prominent star as a trade mark. The Star Shield Cutter whiskey, which began in 1869, the Pacific Glassworks pickle bottle, and this bitters. There is a strong indicator to lead one to believe that this product was for "Star of the Union" Bitters, and was distributed by the A.Fenkhausen Company. The advertisements for the brand are pretty clear, showing the star as the trademark (which I believe the TM indicates), and the age of the bottle in relation to the product distribution. This is a great bottle that is gaining in popularity. The value has risen with demand, however I believe it is still a solid value.
Being extremely rare, there are not enough to go around.Western bitters are growing in demand, and few are available for sale.

(This post was taken from Dale Mlasko's new western bottle site) www.oregontrailantiquebottles.com

Thanks Dale!

"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

More on Ol' Doc Furber

This advertisement for the Dr. Furber's product was found in the 1870 Mining and Scientific Press. Thanks to soleagent for sending it along for all of us to enjoy. (click on the picture to enlarge it)

Tim Higgins relates this product also has a Vallejo "connection" Ol' Doc Furber kept an office in Vallejo California in the early 1870's.

Doc Furber claims his balm will help with irritated stomachs from bad liquor, alkali water and strong coffee. ( This bottle should be found in Nevada! )

The advertisement states that his Mountain Balm is for sale in San Francisco by R.H. McDonald & Co.

R.H. McDonald was a pioneer druggist in Sacramento and along with Dr. Levy was responsible for another rare (western?) bottle: the open pontil Drs. McDonald & Levy Compound Fluid Extract of Manzanita, from Sacramento City California.

Thanks guys for all the great information on this rare bottle.

Digging News 2010 Part 2

I just received word that this extremely rare Western Medicine was dug yesterday somewhere in the Bay Area.

How about a DR. FURBER'S / CORDIAL OF MOUNTAIN BALM / YREKA CAL.

WOW............

What a great find!!!!

Dr. Furber patented this product sometime in 1870.
Furber claimed that his balm contained the sap of the Oregon grape root and another "secret" ingredient that grew around the base of Mt. Shasta. This product is believed to have been distributed for only one year. Yep... Its a rare one

Digging News 2010

Here are some pictures sent to me by OldCutters from, what I believe is, the first privy dig of 2010... (Two Thousand & Ten, boy have we come a long way or what?)

The picture to the left is what the whiskey guys call a "layer shot"!

Out comes a Holden's GA soda.
Along with an amber Hostetter's with S. McKee on the base..........













.... and my favorite, a beautiful and rare 1851 NCO sword belt plate.

It isn't always about a rare bitters or whiskey....Its about getting out and enjoying our hobby.

Congratulations OldCutters !

What color? "It's just aqua"

I love Western glass for it's history, and pristine charactaristics. Typically sparkling clean right out of the ground, there is just nothing else like it. The brilliant colors, and shades of green, amber, yellow, and even blue really keep the quest for quality Western glass exciting to me. Whenever asked about the color of a particular find, one hears some creative descriptions, like yellow, olive, citron, with a touch of amber, and so on...the descriptions for the color of glass and the interpretation of such are a topic in themselves. One color that might be considered a bit mundane, is aqua. The Western aqua though, is just spectacular in it's many hues, and shades. Here are three different shades of "just aqua". Just need the "aqua" Wonsers in this grouping, but one does not currently reside in my collection...yet.

The London Jockey Clubhouse Gin

Lately there seems to be a lot of interest in the early gold rush era squares found out here in the west. Although not a bitters, one of these squares, the London Jockey Clubhouse Gin, is certainly capturing the limelight as one of the most desirable of these early western distributed squares.

The value of these bottles has escalated dramatically in the last two years. Several "western" collectors are aggressively seeking the Jockey Clubhouse and consequently have driven the price of these bottles literally "through the roof" In American Bottle Auctions auction # 47 a dark green example fetched a mid 4 figure price and in auction #48 a grass green Jockey ended at just under the mid 4 figures.

The earliest mention of the London Jockey Clubhouse, that I have found, comes from the April 1859 edition of the Sacramento Daily Union and was placed by the James Patrick Company, sole agents for California. According to the information I have gathered from early advertisements for the product the Jockey Clubhouse Gin was imported by A.C. and C.E. Tilton of New York City.

Wilson, in his book Spirit Bottles of the Old West eludes to this bottle being manufactured into the 1870's. I cannot find any reference to the Jockey Clubhouse after approximately 1866 when the Patrick Company had 1000 cases of the London Jockey Clubhouse Gin languishing in its San Francisco warehouse. A previous advertisement in the October 1862 edition of the Sacramento Daily Union lists 100 cases of the Clubhouse Gin being auctioned at 'agents rates"

Even though I don't have conclusive proof of the longevity of the London Jockey Clubhouse, auction price results and the scarcity of available examples of this bottle make it a very rare, desirable and pricey piece of early western gold rush history.

The First Embossed Hostetter's ??

While doing some online research I ran across this advertisement in the October 1856 Sacramento Daily Union from David Hostetter. David claims to be the attorney for Dr. S Hostetter and has appointed Park & White of San Francisco sole and exclusive agents for the state of California and Oregon for the sale of Dr. J. Hostetter's Stomach Bitters.

David also states in this ad that "it is never sold by the gallon anywhere, but in square bottles containing a full quart, with the cork covered with a metallic cap, and name on the cap and bottle, with the directions for use"

Could this be the 1850 -60s' 31 ounce large size bottle that we dig here in the west? Is this the first embossed Hostetter's that was shipped around the horn and into San Francisco? Even though the ad does not state that the name Hostetter's is blown in the glass, I'm leaning toward this being the advertisement for the first embossed Hostetter's. What say you diggers & collectors?

Western Bitters Search Engine

I know a lot of the folks that visit the Bitters and Whiskey Blog are looking for information on bottles but don't have the time to scroll through all the posts on these sites. If you take a look to the right of this post you will notice an area called "Search This Blog". This powerful tool can get you to what you are looking for in not only the bitters blog but also in all of our favorite links.

For example: If you are looking for information on say, "Lacour's Bitters" type it into the search box and the results will be displayed at the top of the page.

Above the results you will also see three headings...... This Blog..........Linked From Here......... Our Favorite Links................ click on any of these headings to see the results of your search.

So... if your looking for a certain post or a special subject... go ahead try the search engine, you'll be surprised how fast you can locate what your looking for.

rs

The Western Old Sachem?

Earlier this year an older post titled

"WHAT REALLY IS WESTERN" received several interesting comments on what collectors considered "Western". A highly regarded collector and digger from Sacramento related "If a bottle was blown in the East for a product that was exclusively marketed in the Far West, then the bottle must be considered Western".

I was thinking this statement made a lot of sense and started re-counting my newly discovered "WESTERN" bitters bottles when another highly regarded collector from Oregon commented "I thought I would throw in my 2 cents worth. I believe a bottle is "Western" if it is embossed in the glass with a Western company or town. It may be that a bottle was manufactured in the East, and distributed exclusively in the West (Catawba, Bryant's), but these are just cool Western distributed, or Western found bottles".
Well, another re-count using my amigo from Oregon's theory not only dwindled my western bitters inventory considerably but created a new sub-category for my collection: "Cool Western distributed, or found bottles."
Alright! now were talking... That Old Sachem Bitters and Wigwam Tonic I found up Jim Crow Creek defiantly fits into the category "Cool Western distributed, or found bottles" And, how about the Russ's Aromatic Schnapps that my deer hunting buddy kicked out of the brush a while back... not a bitters but it sure goes on the "Cool Western distributed, or found bottle" shelf right next to the Old Sachem.

The Drakes Plantation that was dug here in Downieville doesn't fit in the "blown in the East for a product that was exclusively marketed in the Far West" but sure could be placed on the " Cool Western distributed, or found" bottle shelf.

Now things were falling into place and I was re-arraigning my shelf's when up pops another comment from someone I didn't know from their blog handle "Andy" but made a lot of sense to me "Western Huh??Any bottle embossed with a western concern (Rockie Mountains to Hawaii) Make it the middle of the Rockies west, to be fair. The best of them would be made and centered about the three coastal western states and Hawaii"

Oh my goodness! that Gun Wa's Chinese Remedy square is a Denver bottle and Denver is just a tad east of the Rocky Mountains. Darn the Gun Wa's is Eastern!

Wait a minute.... if that Denver bottle was blown in a western glass house and distributed east of the Rocky Mountains we have a whole new category if we subscribe to to our Sacramento collectors theory: If a bottle was blown in the West for a product that was exclusively marketed in the east, then the bottle must be considered Eastern.

Whoa........ get me off this Merry-Go-Round

More on Dr. Mott's Wild Cherry Tonic

Here's an advertisement from the March 10, 1879 Sacramento Union for the firm of Powers & Henderson. This pretty much confirms Old Cutters timeline for the business relationship of Powers & Henderson.

The Mott's Wild Cherry Tonic embossed bottle was manufactured well after this 1879 advertisement when the firms name was changed to A.H. Powers & Co.

If you are looking for an applied top example of the A.H. Powers Dr. Mott's - I have a duplicate available for sale or trade. rs

Will the Real DR. MOTT Stand Up!

This principally Western distributed Wild Cherry Tonic was named for Dr. Valentine Mott of New York City, a famous physician and surgeon that practiced medicine from the 1830's through the 1860's.

Mott invented several "open secret" formula's and remedies that he left for anyone to use and sometime in the late 1870's A.H. Powers, a Sacramento California liquor merchant, introduced the Dr. Mott's Wild Cherry Tonic in an embossed sixth size square bottle . The bottle was embossed DR. MOTT'S WILD CHERRY TONIC A.H.POWERS & CO.

Powers only pushed the Mott's tonic for possibly a couple of years and sold the rights to the product to the Spruance Stanley Company.

Spruance Stanley continued to use the Powers bottle with the A.H. Powers slugged out of the glass and replaced with SPRUANCE STANLEY & CO.

Both the Power's and Spruance Stanley examples come with an applied top and the characteristic 2 rivet marks (or dots) on the lower portion of the panel to the right of the embossing. (pictured at left) The Louis Taussig product bottle also comes with the rivet marks in the same place on the same panel suggesting it quite possibly was blown in the same mold.

The Powers and Spruance Stanley examples of the Wild Cherry Tonic are considered "rare" but the Spruance Stanley bottle seemed to be the more difficult of the two examples to put in my collection. If you are looking for a nice pairing of western square sixth's the Powers and Spruance are a fine addition to a western collection.

The A.H. Powers bottle

The Spruance Stanley example

An advertisement for the pioneer liquor house of Wilcox & Powers listing them as sole agents for Dr. Mott's Wild Cherry Tonic

Mills letter

Letter dated 1878

Merry Christmas!

I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Thank you all for your support, and encouragement this past year.

Miller's Extra

Mills' Bitters

Another very scarce western bitters product is the Mills' Bitters / A. M. Gilman / Sole Proprietor [ladys leg fifth size] bottle. If this is a western manufactured bottle it would most likely be a product of the San Francisco & Pacific Glass Works.

The only advertisement I've ever found for this product came from a August 14th, 1878 advertisement in the San Francisco Alta California paper, which ran for about a month, see above.

The bitters market was quite competitive, the papers were full of advertisements for such products as Rosenbaum's, Renz's, Henley's, Cassin's & Lacour's bitters; yet when the collectors are avidly seeking examples of these bottles through various means, few seem to be found with any real regularity. With thousands of examples being distributed through drugstores, saloons, wholesale & retail liquor merchants; why hasn't more examples been unearthed?

A reason might be a crowded market for these products. Although most collectors covet the embossed in glass named bitters containers made during the 1860's & '70's period there were in fact many other bitters products competiting for a share of this market. In fact the above three bitters advertisements were quite prevalent among the major newspapers of the late '60's and '70's and probably accounted for a great deal of sales. Many of these containers were and are being dug by collectors without knowing it, since these products were put up in labeled only bottles for much of their sales period.

The exact number of western marketed bitters products are not known at present, there are approximately 100 variations of embossed in glass bitters containers, with another 58 or so known in paper labeled form only. In my research to write a more precise, accurate and comprehensive story on some of these bitters; I've also uncovered some new never before listed bitters marketed in California, such as Manzanita Bitters, Democratic Bitters & California Buck Bitters.

So when your digging and you unearth a round or a square unembossed fifth or sixth size bottle, you may indeed have dug yourself a bitters!

More on the Orizaba Bitters

One of the two known Orizaba Bitters.

I believe this example was sold to a Texas collector earlier this year.

Sure is a beauty!

Now let's work this out; 210 cases equals 2,520 bottles @ $9,000 a piece equals $22,680,000. I could live with that!

210 cases of Orizaba Bitters

After spending much of my time researching the glassworks for an upcoming book, I wanted to turn my focus on possibly finding some information on some of the more obscure Western Bitters.

Since there seems to be only 2 intact examples of the ORIZABA BITTERS, I thought our followers would enjoy this advertisement from the Jones & Co auctioneers who on August 19th, 1875 is going to sell a lot of these bitters!

No known advertisements for this product have been found to my knowledge, but this does narrow the date of the bottles to approximately 1875. This time frame puts this bottle as possibly being a product of SFGW or PGW. At the time of this auction the Pacific Glass Works was just purchased by Carlton Newman, owner of SFGW. (click on illustration to enlarge).

Unsolved Mystery of the None Genuine Bottle...

So far the evidence is quite minimal and speculative as to what type of product these containers held...Was it a bitters of some sort? We may never know. Due to the shapes (two variations) these come in, it does not seem to fit in with the typical bitters mold types.

I'm most inclined to lean towards a sarsaparilla, cordial, tonic, or some sort of cure/medicine. Nonetheless, these rare bottles do seem to be found throughout the West and no reports thus far from the East-side. Pictured below are the two distinct shapes of the examples that I have been able to find. The one on the left is of similar shape to a Hood's Sarsaparilla and is smaller and shorter than it's counterpart on the right. The rounded-shoulder example bears a similar resemblance in shape to a Warner's Safe Cure.


Resemblance to a Warner's Safe Cure mold:

From what I've been able to account for, here are the number of currently "known" examples:

J.F. CUTTER EXTRA: 1 Rectangular in Honey-Amber (Mint), 1 Rounded-Shoulder in Honey-Amber (Large Crack on back). Locality: (Los Angeles, Montana Mining Camp).
Dr. Barnes: 1 Rectangular in Amber. Locality: (Ebay).
RTSIRI: 1 Rectangular in Aqua. 1 Rectangular in Amber. Locality: SAC??
OLD CUTTERS: 1 Rectangular in Amber, Any others? Locality: SAC
MILLER'S EXTRA: 1 Rectangular in Amber? Locality: OR?
R. Littlefield: Had a rectangular amber example up for sale for awhile...Locality: WA or OR??

Rarity (in any Condition): 7+ Rectangular-shaped examples; 1-3 Rounded-Shoulder Examlpes

Overall Locality/Distribution: Sacramento, Los Angeles, Portland, Montana...

OLD CUTTERS, You seemed to know the most about the different colors and number of examples from the folks I've spoken with. Do you know of any other Mint examples or specimens out there?

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 ?)

Another Great 49er Bottle Show

The 49er Bottle Clubs 32nd annual bottle show and sale kicked off Friday at noon sharp. A big turnout of early lookers, and early buyers, stormed the doors looking for bargains on bottles, insulators and collectibles. The first few hours of the show sales were brisk and dealers kept busy selling items and answering questions about their merchandise. The sales action continued all day Friday and dealers commented on how well items were selling.
( Click on the pictures to enlarge them)

On Saturday morning a Turner's "Shootout" was held with collectors Richard Siri, Bill Ham, Steve Hubbell, Ken Edward and Rick Simi displaying 7 different variants of the Turner Brothers Forest Wine Bitters bottle. Smooth base and iron pontiled examples, including an extremely rare iron pontil aqua variant, were discussed, compared and photographed by several collectors.

In the last few years western bottle shows have been suffering from items being stolen from dealers tables. The ongoing theft problem was addressed very well by the club, announcements about every hour warning dealers to watch their tables and keep track of their sales items were very helpful and reminded dealers that the 49er club was "aware" of the stolen merchandise problem.

I was pleased to get a chance to talk to collectors & dealers from Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Wisconsin and Texas and meet a few collectors "face to face" for the first time.

Western bitters that changed hands during the two day event included: a pea green Cundurango, A.H. Powers Dr. Mott's Wild Cherry Tonic in light yellow amber with an applied top, a very crude aqua Cundurango, another Cundurango in a yellow olive, an N.B. Jacob's San Francisco in grass green, a variant 1 Rosenbaums Bitters, an Alex Von Humboldt's Stomach Bitters in light old amber and an Alpine Herb Bitters with an applied top; a tremendous amount of western bitters available for one show. I also noticed 4 different large letter Dr. Renz's Herb Bitters and a large letter Rosenbaums for sale.

The 49er Historical Bottle Association refers to their annual show as "The Best in the West" and in this old collectors opinion have earned the right to call it so. I, personally, would like to thank the staff and members of the 49er Historical Bottle Association for putting on another great bottle show.

Thanks!

A Renz Sampler

In answer to a question about the date of this ad I am not sure when it was published but the above ad for Renz's bitters at 219 Commercial street was published in the August 13, 1874 Sacramento Daily Union. It appears that John Renz was at 219 Commercial as early as 1874.