To all our Friends, Collectors and the folks that contributed Posts to the Western Bitters News over the past year
 
 THANK YOU!

 

Three Squares

 

 

Aqua Wonser's
 

 

Colored Wines

 

 

Blue minature Milk Can

 

 

Some sort of green bottle

 

 

 Sierra County Finds

 

Pratt's New Life

 

 

Western Fifths

 

 

 Ol' Virginny

 

Three "Cunder's"

 

 

Two Happy Wine Tasters at the 2012 Downieville Bottle Show

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

 

 

 

 

Sierra County Gold Rush Bottles

SANDS

SARSAPARILLA

NEW YORK

Circa: 1848 - 1858

 

Abraham B. Sands of New York City opened his first retail drug store sometime around 1840. In 1842 he expanded his horizons and opened a wholesale store at another location installing David Sands in the original retail store. By 1843 Sands has published a pamphlet on the curative properties of their sarsaparilla product   Sometime in early 1850 the firm of A B & D Sands emerged as a wholesale and retail drug company and were advertising regularly in local newspapers.

 

By 1851 David retired, was replaced by William Sands, and the firm was listed as A.B. Sands & Co. After 1851 Sands & Co. became primarily a wholesale drug operation. Sands produced other products (Horehound Cough Syrup, Liquid Opeldoc and Anodyne Liniment) but his sarsaparilla was by far his best seller. A.B. Sands & Co. continued in business until 1875 when the company was dissolved.

 

Pictured at right is the earliest example of the Sands Sarsaparilla. It has widely beveled corners and is embossed on three panels SANDS SARSAPARILLA NEW YORK. The Sand’s Sarsaparilla was distributed throughout the Sierra County gold rush country. Open pontil examples of the Sand’s have been found in the settlements of Chaparral Hill, Excelsior and Monte Cristo. These bottles are considered very scarce but as with all gold rush era bottles are highly collectable. The Sand’s that I have examined, that were recovered from Sierra County, are usually pretty crude, highly whittled and usually come out of the ground without mineral staining

 

 

 

Pictured at left is a copy of a Sand's Sarsaparilla advertisement. The second variant of the Sand's bottle, on the right side of the ad, is being filled with the sarsaparilla product. Sand's sarsaparilla was "The Very Best Remedy for Purifying the Blood"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Pictured at right is the later variant of the Sands bottle that was produced sometime after 1858. It still has a pontil base, but is a larger size, different shape, and has “GENUINE” embossed on one panel.

One whole example of the second variant of the Sands was recovered from the gold rush settlement of Excelsior in the early 1990’s. Two examples were recovered from Plum Valley and another mint example was un-earthed at Brandy City by a Nevada City digger. Numerous broken examples have been found at Monte Cristo, Poker Flat, Chaparral Hill and Rattlesnake. This variant of the Sands is considered more common than the earlier example with the widely beveled corners but is still a scarce and collectable gold rush bottle.

Future posts will feature some of the gold rush settlements  in Sierra County where these  early glass containers have been discovered

 

Welcome to My World

This Fall, I secured permission at a circa 1880 house in a Western town. The temperature was 105 and the permission was solid, so after probing 3 pits, I arranged to come back when the weather was cooler. Mistake #1. A few weeks ago, I returned alone to open up the first pit which was a five footer, and stacked with whole glass at about 3 feet under an ash layer. The fill included some misc. local stuff and some eastern meds, with the best find being a yellow topaz ground top mason...pretty sweet for the top two feet.
 The sky opened up and being alone and unprepared for heavy rains that day, I filled the hole in again to return the following week after the rains subsided...Mistake #2.

 This past weekend was raining again, but undaunted and determined, I brought a canopy, submersible pump, tons of buckets, tubs and tarps..( you ever see what a few thousand gallons of black muddy water does to a nice yard, or the slick going down the street in to a storm drain)? Anyway, at one foot the earth opened up and the raging torrent gurgling from the ground was impossible to bucket...out came the pump. This is a 1200 GPM submersible pump, and apparently it does not like chocolate milk going through it as even with a screen and a bucket it quit after a couple of minutes. Gentle probing indicates quite a few whole bottles and pottery at three to five feet under the ash. This lot became a debacle and I will buy a mud pump this week to finally recover the slick meds which likely await me! Ah Winter digging in the Valley! Stay tuned. Dale M.

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Hi Rick,

Would you be so kind as to add this photo to my "wet hole" post? I cannot seem to do it with my phone.

Thanks!

Dale

 



Sierra County Gold Rush Bottles

Davis Vegetable Pain Killer

 

Perry Davis of Taunton Massachusetts started marketing his Pain Killer as early as 1839. In a court case in 1840 Davis was awarded the exclusive right to the use of the words “Pain Killer” in conjunction with all of his medicines that were to follow. This decision set a precedent and you can well imagine the implications that the Perry decision imposed on his competition.

 Davis Vegetable Pain Killer is believed to be the first nationally advertised remedy specifically for pain. Pain Killer was distributed by Christian missionaries around the world. Davis later went on to build his company into one of the most successful merchandisers of medicinal products of the 19^th century.

 

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 The earliest of the Davis Pain Killer products is in a five inch tall rectangular bottle that has an open pontil base and is usually fairly crude.

 

 

 

The Davis Company manufactured and sold the pain killer well into the 1890’s and produced at least twenty different variants of the bottle in three different sizes.

 

 

Davis Vegetable Pain Killer was one of the most popular and bestselling medicines from the start of the gold rush to the turn of the century and is found in all of the camps and towns in Sierra County that were occupied during that period.

 

 

 



Unknown "Star"

 After seeing Dale's post on that Star Bitters with the wrong label. Which I have seen many times. I have decieded to expose my one of a kind "Star". I have had this bottle in my collection for some time now and not one of the Sacramento collectors has ever seen this labeled bottle or one since. Not even The Great Dolcini, whom I got the box from as a go with, a couple years ago. It seems that these Sacramento bitters companies like sticking labels on whatever bottle looks good.

"Wait...It is a Star"

When my financial services career gets in the way of my passion for glass, I either go digging, travel to a bottle show, or hit the junk shops. Today was "junk shop day" and I had visions of blue Wolf Barrel's or green Angeli S.F. flasks. Such was not the case today, but in the back of a dark cabinet, I noticed an amber square with it's neck foil and cork. After digging through the ACL sodas, I was surprised to find a very crude western bitters! This is a Star Kidney and Liver Bitters, with a Wait's label and neck foil. There are about half of the contents remaining, and they look tasty! I have seen the Star Bitters before, and the Wait's brand. I was not aware of a connection.
 I know this is not a super old or rare bitters, but it was a nice surprise for a stressful day of managing funds, and benefits plans.

  Any other antique or junk shop finds lately? Dale M

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Hi Dale;

Back in the 80's when I had a fairly complete collection of western squares, I had two variants of the Star Kidney and Liver B itters. They were quite similar; the difference being that the embossing pattern on one was slightly tilted to the right at the top, whereas the other was straight up and down.

 I did quite a bit of research at the time on the company and found out that Star was actually a competitor to Wait; both originally doing business out of Sacramento . 415 19th St. to be exact. According to Wilso, Star B itters Co. was owned by the Heilrath B ros., along with a Wm. Kliensage, who joined in a couple years after the inception of the company in 1908. Although it was rumored that the company moved to San Francisco in 1912, I found documentation contradicting this in the form of the Treasury Dept. / IRS records of 1917, which clearly states that the Star B itters Company was still located in Sacramento at that time. The National Drug Clerk of the same year reinforces this.

 

 

Getting back to the anomaly of a Waits label on a Star B itters, I'd have to side with Warren . Wait was located at 531 J St . in Sac. B oth bottles were blown by SFPGW and both company's were in business at the same time. Perhaps a shipment got mixed up and being fierce competitors neither wanted to communicate with the other. Wait figured he'd get a credit for the botched deal, keep the bottles and end up with some free glass. (Wow! there's some conjecture! rs) However, most of the pirated labeled bottles that I've encountered over the years had the paper applied over the embossing. There's no doubt in my mind that yours is the real deal; the neck foil is the proof in the pudding.

Verrry interesting~

Bruce

 

Here's a map of their respective locations. A is Star, B is Waits

 

 

Just in from Denny Bray

 

 

Hi Guys,

Seen your comments about the fifths Roger uses for his blog-site cover. I sure miss those babies. Here's 3 of the original pics. My photo skills suck so bad it's pitiful, but that day I guess I lucked out. I sure miss those whiskies! The only one I still have is my F&P J Cassins out of the 5 in the picture. It's about the lighest amber one I've seen, close to the one Ted Siri owns.

 I'll send you another group of 5 others I took on the same day. Tom, you'll recognize one of them.

 Rick, while I got you on the email... Thank you for posting the info about Dolcini on your Western Bitters News. 

 Take care fellas,

Denny Bray

 

 

Here's the other 5 whiskies. Sometimes Roger uses one of these pictures on his blog cover, but I'm not sure which one.

Tom, recognize that Laurel Crown? It was your old one. Man, that example had a great strike!

The only one I still have out of these five is the green Teakettle.

 You may not believe me, but my favorite out of the 10 of them was the Tom Taylor. In fact, I think it was my favorite fifth. It came from VC years past and ol Tom Chapman shook it out of a collection, then I ended up with it. Man, I've got to quick reminiscing about these western fifths. Next thing you know I'll be selling off my EC&M's and sodas to start collecting whiskies again! LOL!!

 If I don't see or talk to you guys before then, I wish all of you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas!

Denny

 

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It would not surprise me to hear Denny is back collecting western fifths

rs

 



Can't You Just Feel It?

 Here in the West, we have been absolutely hammered by Biblical proportion rains...This after a very dry Summer for us where a pounder probe had been a must. I cannot just sit around all Summer waiting for the ground to soften, and after digging all of my previously probed pits, one must fight the triple digit heat. Now, the rains have come, the "lookie Lou's" are back indoors, and digging season is ON!.
 I was cleaning out my vehicle last week and stumbled upon an old disposable camera which I used to bring on weekly digs and capture a bit of the action. I love looking at digging photos, and with today's smart phones, one can send a pic to your buddies before the glass is extracted from the ground. These fuzzy old "film" pictures were a delayed enjoyment, but are fun to look at again.

  This was a solid petrified parking lot pit a few years ago, with a nice black saratoga seeing the light of day. Fun Stuff! If anyone wishes to post a dig pic or two, that would be great. DM
 

I am very sad to report Mike Dolcini passed away today December 4th at 3:00 pm. Mike will be greatly missed by all of his friends and the bottle collecting community. What a great loss to all of us that knew Mike and to the bottle collecting hobby.

 

Mike was an avid digger, collector and researcher of western related bottles, advertising, antiques and Winchester rifles.  No details as of yet but I will post the details about the services when I receive the information.

Services for Mike Dolcini

For those who would like to attend Mike's funeral, services will be held on Wednesday 12/12/12 at 11:00 am at Holy Spirit Church 3159 Land Park Dr. Sac. 95818 and reception/lunch to follow at Park Terrace Swim Club 5500 Parkfield Ct. Sac. 95822

 

MISSING IN ACTION

Crown Distilleries miniature, amber 5" tall, rare slug plate variant w/correct
Embossed Riley inside thread stopper.

 

This bottle was liberated (as in stolen) from Oregon collector Bruce Silva's table during the Auburn Bottle Show. If you have any information please contact Bruce at:  jsglass@q.com

 

 

All of us in the bottle community are getting pretty fed up with all of the items that go missing off of our tables at the local bottle shows. Getting fed up, to those of you that have never experienced it, means if you get caught stealing at a bottle show we can not guarantee in what condition you will be leaving the show........You have been warned!

 

 

49er HBA - Soda Display

A big thanks to 49er HBA member Mike Henness for this incredable display of western soda's at this years Auburn bottle show

 



Mike  had over 50 western soda bottles on display

 

 

Lynde & Putnam, Italian and Golden Gate soda's

 

 

Rare colored Billing's and Champagne Mead

 

 

 

Extremely rare M.R. & D and M.R. soda's..... WOWSER!

 

 

Gold Rush era Merriam's, San Francisco Glass Works and Pacific Congress Water 

 

Also a big "THANKS" to the 49er HBA show chairman Mike McKillop and 49er club members that did a fantastic job of putting on the annual show under wet and wild weather conditions over the weekend.

Great Job!

 

 

 

 

 

 



49er HBA Show & Sale

Thought you might enjoy some pictures of the annual 49er HBA show and sale:

 

Dan and Max Bell

 

$1000 in cash raffle prizes donated by American Bottle Auctions

 

 

Some of the bottles offered by the Westfall family

 

 

The Westfall's

 

 

Cundurango and Rosebaum's bitters display

 

 

 

 

Rick and Jackie Lindgren

 

 

 

Cundurango bitters in green

 

 

Another Cundurango

 

 

Aqua Cundurango

 

 

Western blown Rosenbaum's bitters

 

 

Four Rosenbaum's



ATTENTION BOTTLE COMMUNITY!

Two bottles stolen from the 49er Show on 12-1-12.

1- Dr. Browder's Compound Syrup of Indian Turnip,
Aqua rectangular open pontil, beveled edges. Scuff mark on edge above Dr.

If you see this bottle, please call Mark Weaver (775)267-5375

2- Crown Distilleries miniture, amber 4 1/2" tall, rare slug plate variant w/content.
Embossed Riley inside thread stopper.

If you see this bottle,please call Bruce Silva (541)821-8949

I encourage all shows to post stolen bottles on the internet. This will help track down the bottles and the thieves.
                                         49er HBA

Hey Rick, I just saw your post on the stolen bottles and wanted to add a dealer named Tom, (i dont know his last name), in the lower building also had a green ink stolen from him. I'm not sure how to contact him but possibly Mike M. would know.