How About Some Diggin' Pics!

Check Out This Log Jam !!!!!

 

 Nice H.C. Hudson Western Spice

 

 

Green San Francisco Glass Works w/ a Crudely Topped Spice 

 

 

Rare  1880's era Oregon Blood Purifier

 

A Pile of Broken Dreams

 

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Thanks to our Oregon Amigo for the Photo's

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A note from the digger:

 

By the way thanks for the encouragement on the early pits I have hit…so far the lot has produced, a green SF Glass Works soda, an applied Fleckenstein Mayer pint flask, a green Hudson spice, a green aqua early IXL. Some blacks, pickles, pontiled spices, and the Schnapps. Killer broken JT Daly gins, a broken black large Rosenbaum’s, broken small and large black Hostetters, a Fleckenstein Mayer glop pint in olive green(!) …it has been fun but not epic like the California boys are used to.

 

I would call it epic -rs

New Metal Detector Finds Bottle

I know all of us diggers dream of having a glass detector for finding bottles. It would be the ultimate bottle digging machine...Well, today, my brand new metal detector did just that,detecting a side yard of an early house. It was a nice strong signal and only 5" deep. ARE YOU SHITTING ME! were the words I belted out. I swung that detector over that bottle 100 times and still got that strong beeping signal. Once I removed the beautiful cornflower blue Dickey's from its tomb. I dumped out the dirt and a brass fob and chain were inside.... My dream of owning the first glass detector was crushed. So I will stick to good old fasion LUCK.

After a quick rinse.

Hmmm. What is it? A Rosenbaums? A Boerhaave's?

 

 

Just a nice old schnapps. Oh well!

 

 

Nice early find Dale !

Dr. Champlain's

Awhile back there was a posting on the Dr. Champlain's Ligneous Extract. These are crude and relatively early western medicines which are quite scarce. Years ago, several were found with labels intact and other advertising such as wrappers, flyers, and other related paper. I have read with great interest the "testimonials" indicating the amazing ability of this miracle cure for dyspepsia, and of course the dates of said testimonials. It appears that Dr. Champlain created his ligneous extract in the 1860s, yet apparently he patented the stuff in 1872. The testimonials date from about this time. For overall western glass characteristics it is a tough bottle to beat. Good color, crudity, embossing, and scarcity. I would estimate there are about 25 or so in collections. DM

 

Base of the Dr. Champlain's

Oakland GlassWorks-OGW

 Here is a nasty crude quart size ammonia. These have become a collecting category in themselves and a beautiful collection can be assembled representing virtually every western glass color in existence. I have collected the early western blown ammonia's for many years, and on rare occasion, have been fortunate to find one with the base embossing "OGW". This stands for the Oakland Glass Works. This glass works was an extremely short lived business which was located on the corner of Linden and First Streets in Oakland. It appears that anyone attempting to establish a glass factory in California really seemed to have a curse on them. The glass works were either destroyed by fire, or could not seem to figure out how to manufacture a quality product ( Baker and Cutting). Since even the ancient Roman's were able to blow glass vessels centuries before ( these artifacts can still be purchased for the price of  a tooled top fifth), and glass factories in the East, and Mid-West were cranking out quality glass a hundred years prior to the short lived "OGW".
I believe that the Oakland Glass Works were only in the biz for about 6 months, beginning in September 1884, and the proverbial fire in June 1885 marked the beginning of the end for this company.
  The bottles themselves are very attractive and exhibit characteristics which appear to be early 1870s in many cases. Apparently they were just not in to the latest glass blowing technology, or were not the most skilled. The glass character and crudity make it difficult to believe that  these bottles were mid 80s, although of course they are. This company's bottles left behind for collectors are in the form of demijohns, flasks, squares, medicines, and of course a few ammonia's. The applied top ammonia's are very rare in my experience, and the tooled top examples are also very tough to find.

  I know that there a few collectors who specialize in OGW pieces, and believe that sharing their collections with the members of this blog would be very interesting. DM
 

Future of ARPA

Received this email and thought you all might be interested:

 

On Monday, March 4, 2013, we will have Lisa Macintyre as our guest. Lisa is a Archeologist who will give us her take on the ARPA (Archeological Resource Protection Act) laws, and how they might affect all of us in the collecting community. Join us at 9:00pm EST for what is sure to be a interesting, and informative show!

http://therelicroundup.blogspot.com/

Use the above link for show player, and live chat room.

Our new call in number (678) 439-1863. Join us to listen or chat during the show on American Digger’s Relic Roundup!

See you there,
Butch Holcombe
Publisher of American Digger Magazine and Host of Relic Roundup

Funny Picture of the Week

I pirated this picture of the

 

Glass Works Team

 

 

From our friends over at Peachridge Glass
(They are off at a bottle show somewhere and I didn't think they would mind)

 

I know just about everyone grew up wanting to be a cowboy

 (at least all of us guys out here in the west)

But I'll bet those two buckaroo's holding the lever action rifles on the end never smelled any sage or punched any doggies.

I do have to admit they look like they have been in a few barroom brawls and I sure as heck wouldn't want to mess with them!

 

**** GREAT PICTURE GLASSWORKS! ****

 

 

The State of the Blogs

Yesterday while researching material for a future post I started looking at other bottle sites and blogs for a little spark of inspiration or a small piece of information to use in the article I was working on. Anymore it doesn't take much to divert my attention from the task at hand to other things that are not related to what I was originally concentrating on. As you can see, right off the bat, I have already been derailed from the original intent of this post.

 

Although my winters here in the mountains are not as busy as say someone working full time and commuting to and from that work in a large metropolitan area I have trouble at time, making the time, to keep fresh and interesting new material on this here bitters site.

 

Anyway, while looking at the other bottle sites I noticed that quite a few of the sites I like to visit are, shall we say, not quite current. There are some sites I visit that are daily updated with new and interesting articles, photos and thought provoking comments from the followers of these sites, and I make a point of looking at these sites almost every day as time allows. The sites that seem to be updated every few days I look at every few days. The sites that get updated every few weeks get less of my attention and I, like most folks, lose interest in these sites and don't visit them on a regular basis.

 

In today's information glutted world it just takes a few minutes online to pretty much find just about anything that you are looking for. Need the definition for a word you are not familiar with or a speech the president of the pez collectors society gave in 2010, then just a few minutes of searching the worldwide web will likely get you what you're looking for.

This site, The Western Bitters News, started as a way to bring information to collectors of western bitters and related collectibles. It has evolved into a site that includes information on western bottles, digging news, research articles and a forum for other collectors to voice their opinions and knowledge on the bottle collecting hobby. I hope this site has been as much fun for the followers of the site as it has been for me, the administrator, of the site.

 

Hats off to all of the dedicated folks that have the wherewithal to start a blog site and keep it current and interesting. I fully understand what it takes to keep things interesting and current. For those struggling to keep your sites current I can understand what it takes to make the time to research material and update your site regularly and I hope that you continue to add material to keep your sites up and running.

 

Long live the bottle sites!

rs



More Rowler's

 

 

Here's a beautiful smooth base Rowler's in the collection of one of our favorite Oregon collectors

 

 

The back lighting in this photo shows off the sparkling western glass and the crudity of the bottle

 

 

Thanks Dale for the photo's of this western blown beauty!

Is that the original cork?

 

Fellow collectors.... don't be bashful, send some photos of your bottles and I will be glad to add them to the site.

 

Chico is coming up next month.....See you there! - rs

 

 

Don't ya just love those early western curved "R's"





A Recent Aquisition

Here's a recent aquisition against today's snowy background.

it's a Rowler's Rheumatism Medicine Prepared by Dr. J.R. Boyce Sacramento

As you can see one side of the bottle is underblown or pushed in and it has some carbon swirls

 

 

The Rowler's is one of the first documented western blown bottles

They come with and without an open pontil

 

 

and the early western curved "R's"

 

 

Is that what you western guys call "Fire Aqua"?

Love That Early Stuff

 

Looking Good...............

 

*Getting Excited!*

 



 

Not the rarest bottle but an unembossed 150 year old Piece of History!

Boericke & Tafel's Triturations Too

Here is a couple of the  Boericke & Tafel's Triturations that I have, I had another one that was a Butterscotch color, Kool Meds, I am Interested in any Info as well. DB

"WOW!" A Fleamarket Find!

Get a lode of this fleamarket find. I was out pick'n the local fleapit this morning, and stumbled upon a box of medicine bottles with these two beauties in it. Not only an aqua Boericke & Tafel's Triturations but a light amber one as well, CHUK-CHING! Both have never been in the ground. They have their oringinal cork tops and labels as to what was in them. The aqua one is an early tool-top and the amber one is a crude applied-top. As you can see, the aqua one is whittled to hell. They measure 7 1/2" tall and are western made. I know they are some what scarce, but would like to know more.

Lets See You Wear One of These Out

Just Thinking inside the Mold..er.... Box

Mold for a cabin shaped bottle

An IXL Ahead of it's Time?

 Here is a Dr. Henley's Wild Grape Root IXL Bitters that seems like an oddball. At first it appears to be a crude, bubbly "First Circle" IXL which was actually the second IXL after the "non-circle". The first circle IXL's were used in the early 1870s, and over the next 25 years, there were all kinds of different embossing patterns. This example however is the first circle variant, and is obviously a later blown specimen as the embossing is not crisp or bold...here is the odd part...this one has a neatly tooled top. I know that for the most part, tooled IXL's are scarce, but this mold is an early mold of IXL's and every example of this mold I have ever seen has an applied top. There are at least four later produced molds, and the later molds occasionally can be found tooled, but not the second version of the IXL.
  I have compared this one to my green first circle, and the embossing is identical...definitely the same mold. I wonder if in the 1880s the old mold was used again for some reason? Maybe in 1873 the "tooled top training" was being conducted, and a few were blown this way? I have no idea, but as Richard S. recently told me, "Once you think you have seen everything, you see something different".

Bryant's Ladies Leg

Old West Bottles is offering a very historic and interesting bottle for sale.

One of the Bryant's Stomach Bitters recovered from the shipwreck "Sea Lark"

 

This picture was taken by the divers that recovered the bottles and shows the case of bitters resting on the sea floor.

"The divers were able to salvage 18 intact specimens that were all immediately scooped up by collectors. Prior to this discovery these bottles were very rare and they are still quite rare with about 30 being known in any condition. After sitting on the bottom of the ocean for 150 years the surfaces of these bottles had become stained or etched, some very etched & eroded. All of them were fairly crude and many had issues: fractured potstones, open bubbles, chips, cracks, etc. and almost all had very eroded surfaces. Attempts were made to clean the majority of these with some being destroyed in the process and others polished to death"....................

For the full story of these bottles and the example for sale head on over to OLD WEST BOTTLES...........Go to  http://www.oldwestbottles.com/tpBryants.php   

Recent Acquisitions

From Jeff Wichmann at American Bottle Auctions:

 

 

Go HERE to see all of Jeff's new treasures