NEW NEVADA BOTTLE BOOK

Nevada History Through Glass  
The Nevada Bottle book
Volume 1
by Fred Holabird

The Nevada Bottle Book by Fred Holabird is the long awaited revised edition of Fred and Jack Haddock's "Nevada Bottle Book" published in 1979.

This new book by Fred is so much more than the original manuscript released back in 1979. The Nevada Bottle Book is much more than just a bottle identification and pricing book. This book is packed with facts and interesting stories about the history of the companies and people who made and used the bottles that have been found in Nevada. It also includes information about the towns and regions that sprang up from mining strikes, transportation hubs and much needed agricultural growing areas.
The text and fantastic color pictures are complimented by copies of billheads and receipts, pictures of tokens and sidebars of additional information.

I throughly enjoyed reading this book and it will go in my library of western related research books to be enjoyed through the years. This is a must have book if you are interested in Nevada bottles or Nevada history.
-rs-

Our amigo up in Chico, Randy Taylor, has The Nevada Bottle Book for sale on his ebay site:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Nevada-Bottle-Book-Fred-Holabird-Vol-1-SODA-WHISKEY-BEER-DAIRY-NEW-/280883558506?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4165f6f86a 

Who's this?

Recognize this guy? Of course, it was nearly 40 yrs ago when we were tearing it up in Broderick, CA., now known collectively as West Sacramento

Fish's, contd.

Here is C.R. Story's ad in Langley's 1861 Directory for the City of San Francisco.

FOHBC 2012 EXPO



July 27th -29th, 2012
at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino

Ifyou haven't started to make your reservations for the FOHBC 2012 Expo in Reno its time to get get with the program. The latest guesstimates are anywhere from 300 to 500 sales tables for you purchasing pleasure. Below are listed some highlights of the upcoming events:

Special Notes:

* When calling for a room at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino Hotel for the 2012 Expo, tell them that they you are with the FOHBC and the reservation code is HIBC.
* For those of you that have not looked into the facilities at the Grand Sierra Hotel where the 2012 Expo will be held please be aware that the Hotel has FREE shuttle service from the airport, a R.V. Park and the Hotel is pet friendly, bring your dog if you want.

Seminar List (will be updated):

Fred Holabird - How to value your collection
Tom Jacobs – San Francisco Beers
Tom Jacobs – Western Sodas
Dennis Bray – EC&M insulators
John Burton – Grace Brothers Co. (bottles, cans etc.)
Dwayne Anthony - Color-Altered Glass
Sheldon Baugh & Ferdinand Meyer V – Crazy year for Figural Bitters and other trends in the market.
Eric McGuire - California labels from 1850”s to 1890. All classes of bottled products will be represented. Over 200 hundred examples.
Ron Fowler - HutchBook.com and Hutchinson Bottle Collectors Association Developments. Updates on HutchBook

Western Bitters Survey 2012

Recently I was reviewing older posts on this blog, and came across the "Western Bitters Survey". I also noticed that this survey was compiled without the internet, and prior to the forum Western Bitters News. Being mainly western bitters focused in my collecting, and the apparent increase in the popularity in these gorgeous and historically significant bottles, I thought that perhaps this survey of the top 20 western bitters could be tabulated by anyone who has the ability to post their top 20. Just thought it would be interesting...

 Dale R. Mlasko

Fish’s Infallible Hair Restorative

Information Compiled by Rick Simi and Warren Friedrich

The coveted "Blue Fish's"
(Mlasko photo)

The story of this very successful product is full of controversy, and involves several different individuals who manufactured and marketed the Fish’s hair restorative. The ongoing disagreement that the three variants of the Fish bottles were blown at either a western or eastern glassworks continues to be full of rumors, speculation and not many hard facts. Hopefully the information presented in the following manuscript will help answer the question “is the Fish’s Hair Restorative a western or eastern blown bottle”.

To begin , we need to present information from a Supreme Court ruling in October 1866. A man named Benjamin F. Fish of San Francisco in 1855 “invented, manufactured and made an article for the restoring and strengthening of the human hair, to be used upon the head and hair, and gave it the name by which it was and is known, of ‘Fish’s Infallible Hair Restorative’.”


Niles Mills of San Francisco who in the year 1857, has “composed, invented, created, made, established and adopted said labels, trade-marks, devices, wrappers and circulars, and that they belonged to him, and that he had the right to use, or assign, or sell the same, and to make, use, or sell, or assign said ‘Fish’s Infallible Hair Restorative’.”

The first ad for the Fish's product by N. Mills 1858

The third major player in this story involves a man named Charles R. Story; he opened the Pacific Patent Medicine Depot, located at 421 Montgomery Street, San Francisco in the month of May 1861. On July 27^th, 1861, N. Mills sold to C. R. Story “the right to manufacture and sell in California and elsewhere, Fish’s Infallible Hair Restorative”. 

July 28, 1861 ad Mills sell Fish's to C.R. Story

The first documented ad for the Fish's
 product in a glass bottle

The first advertisement that mentions the Fish's Infallible Hair Restorative product being put up in a bottle is from C.R. Story in October of 1861. The advertisement on the left states it is put up in pint bottles.
 I believe this was an unembossed paper labeled bottle.

Redington and Co. Advertisement

The fourth major player in the Fish’s saga is John H. Redington, a San Francisco wholesale druggist and importer of drugs, medicines, etc. (Redington and Co. and C. L. Story and Co. were in partnership in this trade in 1851). The first advertisement found for Fish’s Hair Restorative by Redington  and Co. first appeared in the San Jose Mercury newspaper on April 10^th, 1862 and sold by local druggists Hewson and  Johnson.
This is still the unembossed paper labeled bottle







On April 6^th, 1863 this advertisement appeared in the San Francisco Evening Bulletin newspaper. Benjamin Fish cautions the public that the genuine article is put up in square bottles with the name “B. F. Fish – Fish’s Hair Restorative – San Francisco” blown in the bottles.
This is the first advertisement for the embossed Fish's Hair Restorative placed on May 2, 1863. This is the rectangular bottle that comes in aqua and clear glass and has, in the past, been credited to a western glass works. 
 According to Warren Friedrich in his book
 Early GlassWorks of California " The Pacific glassworks was not producing bottles until June 16th 1863 in California ". From the extensive research that Warren and I have done I am comfortable saying the first embossed B.F. Fish glassed product was blown in the east from an eastern made mold.

The first embossed Fish bottle "FISH'S HAIR RESTORATIVE / B.F.FISH / SAN FRANCISCO

The advertisement to the left is the last and most important advertisement  that was found and describes the new bottle Redington has manufactured for the Fish product. It was placed in the Sacramento Daily Union newspaper on November 24th 1864 and informs the public that from that date on Fish's Infallible Hair Restorative "will be put up in round blue pint bottles"

The mold for the blue Fish's was manufactured by the same mold maker that produced the mold for the aqua rectangular B.F. Fish bottle. Both the font style and the distinctive apostrophe shaped like a seven ( 7) appear on all three of the embossed Fish bottles. The distinctive seven also appears on the eastern blown Risley's and Rush's.
Several other factors weigh in favor of all of the Fish bottles being blown in the east including the fact that San Francisco Glass Works was not in operation during the period the blue Fish's was blown. 
It's remotely possible that the blue bottle may have been blown at Pacific Glass Works, there's just no evidence to absolutely say for sure that it was not. However there is absolute proof that the rectangular Fish's bottle was blown back East prior to PGW's start-up. That bottle and the blue bottle were made by a pattern /mould maker in the East. Several other eastern meds exhibit the same characteristic letter style, including periods, font style, etc.
Even though I'm not a betting man, I would put money down that all of the Fish's Infallible Hair Restorative bottles were blown in a eastern glass house.

Risley's

Blue Fish's

Aqua fish's

Rush's

   

Another Member of the "Club"

Here is another "Club House" that I know nothing about. I do believe that the few examples known have been found in California. These seem to be from the 1860s or earlier though they are smooth base. Anyone have any information as to who Woodgate was?

The Sierra Buttes Mine

Located north of the small town of Sierra City - The Sierra Buttes Mine was one of the largest and longest producing mines in Sierra County. Discovered in the late summer or early fall of 1850 this mine employed a major population of the town of Sierra City and was worked for over eighty years.

Early view of the Sierra Buttes Mine

It is said that the mine was discovered by a company of Italian miners, that were prospecting the area, and was first worked with arrastra’s in 1851. It is possible that the original discovery site was near Independence Ravine where a huge quartz outcropping can still be seen today. The mine was worked on nine main levels and the levels were designated as tunnels one through nine; tunnel number one being the highest in elevation and the oldest of the workings, and nine being the lowest and newest.

Arrastra in Buttes Ravine
( note gin pole in upper right of photo)

A small camp started around the mine as early as 1851 and after the heavy snow during the winter of 1852 - 53, that crushed most of the buildings in Sierra City, a settlement started to emerge at the mine site. All manner of business was represented at the site except for the sale of liquor. Company policy stated liquor was prohibited on the mining property. It is interesting to note that, although liquor was prohibited at the Sierra Buttes Mine, scores of liquor bottles ranging in age from the early 1850’s to the late 1880’s have been discovered at this site.

The number one tunnel, and the boarding house for those workings, have yielded gold rush bottles and artifacts but it the authors contention the area around the number six tunnel was the site of the settlement started after the heavy winter of 1852 -53. Weighing in favor of this contention is the fact that the area around the number six tunnel has a natural gently sloping flat that was suitable for the construction of buildings and was not as steep as the area around the number one tunnel. The amount of abandoned structure sites discovered in the number six area far outnumber the couple of sites around the number one tunnel and boarding house. Bottles and artifacts ranging from the early 1850’s to the middle 1880’s have been recovered from the number six area dating the site as a settlement in continual use since the early 1850’s.

Today heavy brush covers the Sierra Buttes Mine site and all that's left of this important gold rush settlement are acres of broken glass and scattered trash.

A group of miners at the Number Six Tunnel Portal
(note the candles instead of carbide lamps)

April in Downieville

The Old Downieville Brewery

Looking Down Main Street

A Snowy Saloon

Don't Forget Antioch!

A card.

Henry Bowman's Claim of Trade...

...Mark for St. Clair's Bay Laurel Hair Lotion.

Crown of Science

... more on the Prof. Tilton's


Here is an ad from the Salt Lake Tribune -  Feb 21, 1875

Utah diggers have found 5 or 6 of these very cool San Francisco hair bottles over the years in and around SLC and in the mining camps.   Another small mining district "Copper Mtn",  right on the Nevada/Utah border has produced 4 additional  intact examples.    One cabin of miners must have had a hair problem...

Shoot-out Update – FOHBC Reno Expo 2012

28 July 2012

A major, Antique Bottle and Glass, judged shoot-out will occur at the FOHBC Reno Expo 2012. The event will be sponsored by a major Auction House (Norman C. Heckler). This will be landmark chance to see many great examples together in one event which rarely happens. A cocktail event will occur simultaneously.

Rules are as follows:

1. All bottles will be displayed at the same time in a secure display showcase.

2. Displayer name will be on a sticker placed on the bottom of displayers bottle(s). Up to two bottles per displayer in each category will be allowed.

3. Bottles must be signed in starting at 5:45 pm. Sign in will finish at 6:30 pm. Judging will be at 7:00 pm.

4. A separate panel of three judges will be used for each of the primary categories.

5. Security will be provided. Only the person who signed the bottle in will be able to remove it from the display area.

6. Winners will receive an award and recognition in Bottles & Extras magazine and on theFOHBC web site.

7. Categories to be displayed and judged.

A. Drakes Plantation Bitters (4 log , 6 log and Arabesque)

B. J H Cutter Whiskey (#43 in Thomas Whiskey Book, Sole Agent, plain reverse)

C. Umbrella Inks (pontiled base, smooth base)

8. The event will be photographed, documented and represented in Bottles and Extrasand the FOHBC web site.

The Shoot will occur on Saturday Evening after the days show. The area will open at 5:45 pm. Tickets will be required. Attendees and Guests automatically include Reno Expo Show Dealers, Displayers, Seminar presenters, FOHBC members from current membership list (join on the spot for admittance) and friends of the Shoot-out Sponsors. Tickets to be provided and will be needed at event room door.

Join the FOHBC

Colored Western Hair Bottles

There are not very many western hair bottles in color. Here are three of the earliest colored examples. The Fish's is well known, and documented as well as quite rare. These date from about 1864. There are no other bottles quite like them in regards to mold type, and they represent western glass history at it's finest.

The Henley's Indian Queen is also quite early and date to the 1869-73 time frame. This product must not have been a big seller as there are less than 10 in collections. They come in both blue and green colorations, and have been found exclusively in Oregon and California. I am not aware of any examples being found in other western states. I have also not seen any advertising for this product.

The Tilton's is a bit later ( mid 1870s) and was put out by Dr. Joseph Tilton of San Francisco. he was "physician" there from 1874 through 1889. The words " Crown of Science" and "The Great Hair Producer" were registered in 1874. These bottles come in both blue, and occasionally aqua. I believe there are about 25-30 in collections, and they have been dug in California and Oregon.

There are a few other western hair bottles in color such as the St.Clair's Hair Lotion, and the Fountain of Youth, which may or may not be western.

Hair bottles are a category of their own, and represent some of the most colorful glass ever blown. There are comparatively few western colored hair's than from other parts of the US. I believe they were blown in brilliant colors to avoid being ingested accidentally.
I want to thank Don Fadely for his exhaustive research and study of these beautiful pieces of history.

BOTTLE SHOW THIS WEEKEND!

Morro Bay, California
Friday & Saturday March 23th & 24th
The San Luis Obispo Bottle Society’s 44th Annual Show and Sale
Friday 1:00 pm to 6: 00 pm
Saturday 9:00 am to 3:00 pm
at the Morro Bay Veterans Hall
209 Surf Street, Morro Bay, California

Just think...

If we could only go back to all of the destinations and dig, dig, dig. Of course, some have been dug, others gone or covered. From the 1853-54 Sacramento City Directory.

ADA INJECTION

Recently acquired this Western med, but know nothing about it. Anyone seen one before or have info on it? One side panel reads: ADA INJECTION The other: N&N CHEM. CO., S.F.  It's a tooled top with 768H on the base.

San Francisco Ink

This is a fantastic picture ink recently dug in the Bay Area. The picture is an eagle's head facing to the left. The embossing looks like a Western font to me. I didn't dig this but am posting a pic with the digger's permission. Embossing "Snow & Roos/eagle/San Francisco"

Joseph Melczer cigarette holder

You'll no doubt recognize the name as a liquor dealer in both SF and LA around the TOC and a few years beyond. This is an unused cigarette holder from the same concern. Pretty uncommon as far as I know. Hate to get off of the snowed in theme of course.

Low Country Digging delayed too.

Welcome to March in J'ville~

This Coming Weekend!

March 9th & 10th,             
Chico, California!
Silver Dollar Fairgrounds
Friday 10 - 7 $5~ admission
Saturday 9 - 4 Free admission
Info; Randy Taylor
530-518-7369
rtjarguy@aol.com

High Country Digging Delayed

The road from Yuba Pass to Little Truckee Summit