Bottles on the Steamship SS Republic

Posted on 24 November 2012 by Ferdinand Meyer V

Constructed in 1853 and launched at Fells Point, Baltimore. Christened as the Tennessee on August 31.

BOTTLES ON THE

S T E A M S H I P   S S   R E P U B L I C

24 November 2012

I wanted to circle back after honing up on the Steamboat Arabia (Read: Looking for Bottles Carried on the Steamboat Arabia) and Steamboat Bertrand (Read: Looking at some of the Bitters Bottles on the steamboat Bertrand – Part 1 and Looking at some of the Bitters Bottles on the steamboat Bertrand – Part 2 posts to look again at the bottles on the Steamship SS Republic.  Over the years, these three ships and their booty have gotten intermixed in my mind and these posts have helped sort them out.

I have touched on the SS Republic before though more ‘tongue in cheek’. Read: Bottles From The Deep SS Republic Shipwreck Square Bitters Bottle on eBay and My Big Idea

SS Republic

[Wikipedia] The SS Republic was a sidewheel steamship, originally named Tennessee (also named USS Mobile for a time). The SS Republic was lost in a hurricane off the coast of Georgia in October 1865, en route to New Orleans. In 2003, the wreck was located 100 miles off the coast of Savannah, Georgia. The artifacts are on display in selected museums, along with video stories about passengers and crew members.

Early Years

1853: Constructed and launched at Fells Point, Baltimore (see picture above). Christened as the Tennessee on August 31. First used as a merchant vessel in commercial service transporting passengers and cargo.

1855: The Tennessee was sent on the first trans-Atlantic crossing from Baltimore.

The ship, built in Baltimore, Maryland, for the famed War of 1812 Veteran, James Hooper, was launched in 1853, as the Tennessee. She began her service as a merchant vessel plying the Baltimore – Charleston route. Not long afterward, she was sent on the first trans-Atlantic crossing by a Baltimore steamship, sailing to Southampton, England, and Le Havre, France. A short time later Tennessee was used to open the first regular passenger steamship service between New York City and Central America.

1856: First regular passenger steamship service between New York City and Central America.

1856-57: Sailed the Nicaragua route transporting “49’ers” to the eastern shores of Panama and Nicaragua to travel to California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. The Tennessee delivered the last group of “immigrants” volunteering as mercenary soldiers for William Walker in Nicaragua.

During the California Gold Rush, the Tennessee transported “49’ers” to the eastern shores of Panama and Nicaragua to travel to California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. The Tennessee delivered the last group of “immigrants” volunteering as mercenary soldiers for William Walker in Nicaragua, and, after defeat of Walker’s forces, took home hundreds of disconsolate, defeated survivors.

1857: In commercial service transporting passengers and cargo from New York to New Orleans, and also from New Orleans to Vera Cruz, Mexico.

Tennessee for several years regularly served the Vera Cruz, Mexico – New Orleans route, often transporting immigrants to America as well as large sums of Mexican gold and silver. She was tied up in harbor at New Orleans when the American Civil War began on April 12, 1861.

Civil War Service

1861: At the outbreak of the Civil War the Tennessee was trapped in port at New Orleans, Louisiana, and was seized for use as a Confederate blockade runner as the CSS Tennessee.

At the outbreak of the Civil War she was trapped in port at New Orleans, Louisiana, and was seized for use as a Confederate blockade runner as the CSS Tennessee in 1861, although she was never able to escape blockade of the New Orleans harbor. After the Union capture of New Orleans, the ship was put into armed Union service, including as the flagship of United States Navy Admiral David G. Farragut for the conclusion of the Mississippi Campaign. As USS Tennessee, she was not only a fast and effective blockade ship in the West Gulf Squadron, but also a powerful gunship used to bombard Ft. Morgan during the Battle of Mobile Bay.

1862: After the Union capture of New Orleans, the ship was put into armed Union service, including as the flagship of United States Navy Admiral David G. Farragut for the conclusion of the Mississippi River Campaign.

1862-64: Other notable Civil War naval service included participation in the the Gulf Coast Blockade and the Battle of Mobile Bay.

1864: Name changed to USS Mobile after the Union’s Victory at the Battle of Mobile Bay to avoid confusion with the captured confederate ironclad also named Tennessee

In September, 1864, she was renamed USS Mobile to allow a famous Confederate armored ram ship to carry the name Tennessee after its capture. This second CSS Tennessee had been taken during a dramatic encounter at Mobile Bay. USS Mobile was damaged in a hurricane off the mouth of the Rio Grande in October, 1864, and sent to New York for repair. Upon inspection, the ship was judged too expensive to re-fit and was taken out of U.S. Navy commission in December, 1864. She was sold at auction in March, 1865, renamed SS Republic, repaired, and soon returned to the New York – New Orleans route hauling passengers and cargo. She was lost on her fifth civilian voyage after the war.

1865: Bought at auction by Russell Sturgis and investment group; repaired and refitted, then renamed the SS Republic and returned to a New York-New Orleans run in May

Wreck

October 18, 1865: The SS Republic leaves its New York pier bound for New Orleans loaded with a reported “$400,000 in specie.”

The Republic left New York on October 18, bound for New Orleans. According to her captain, she was carrying passengers and a cargo of $400,000 in coins, mostly in gold $10 and $20 pieces, intended for use as hard currency after the Civil War. The city of New Orleans, captured largely intact by the Union in 1862, had been the southern hub of Federal war efforts and was a thriving, busy city – but due to war, “hard money” (or gold and silver coin) was in very short supply.

October 23 1865: In the morning, the SS Republic encounters a gale which turns into a “perfect hurricane” before night, when the steamer was possibly off Carolina.

October 24, 1865: The paddlewheels stall and can’t carry the engine past dead center. The SS Republic is left powerless, drifting and at the mercy of the elements. Steam is raised on the donkey boiler to start the pumps.

On the fifth day of her voyage, a hurricane off the coast of Georgia proved too strong for the ship. By evening, her hull was leaking so badly that the fire in the boiler was extinguished, and she stalled in heavy seas, taking on water faster than her crew and passengers could bail her. At 4 pm on October 25, 1865, she sank. The passengers and crew escaped in four lifeboats and a makeshift raft, but 40-foot seas throughout the night made keeping them afloat a serious challenge. It was not until two days later, on October 27 that the survivors, now desperate with thirst, were found by the sailing ship Horace Beals. On October 29, the steamer General Hooker had been sent to look for the Republic, and rendezvoused with Horace Beals. The passengers were transferred and taken to Charleston. Most of the passengers and crew survived, although several were lost on the raft before they could be rescued. All the coins were lost.

October 25, 1865: At 9am, the “donkey boiler” fails and water pours into the hold. The crew begins work on a makeshift raft and prepares the lifeboats. At 1:30 pm the lifeboats and raft begin launching. At 4:00 pm, when all but 21 people were in the boats, the SS Republic sank suddenly. All passengers and crewmen safely make it into a lifeboat or raft except for two men who are last seen trying to swim through the ship’s floating debris. Captain Young is pulled down with the sinking ship, but he narrowly escapes and swims to the safety of a lifeboat.

October 26, 1865: Lifeboat #1, under the command of the Republic’s captain, is rescued by the brig John W. Lovitt.

October 27, 1865: Lifeboat #2 is rescued in the afternoon by the schooner Willie Dill. Lifeboat #3 is spotted and rescued late on the 27th by the barkentine Horace Beals.

October 29, 1865: Lifeboat #4 rescued after four nights at sea by the schooner Harper.

November 2, 1865: The raft, which departed with 14 to 18 people aboard, is spotted off Cape Hatteras by the U.S. Navy steamship, USS Tioga. Only two people remained on the raft to be rescued. The others disoriented by thirst and heat, leaped into the sea and drowned swimming toward what they falsely envisioned to have been land.

A photo mosaic image of the SS Republic steamship wreck, sunk in 1865, laying on ocean floor off Georgia, and assembled from hundreds of photos taken by Odyssey Marine Exploration’s remote-controlled submarine “Zeus.” – Odyssey Marine Exploration

Rediscovery

In August 2003, the wreck of the Republic was located by Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc., a commercial archaeology company in Tampa, Florida. She was found about 100 miles southeast of Savannah, Georgia, in about 1,700 feet of water. A salvage effort recovered about one-third of the rare 19th century gold and silver coins carried aboard, worth an estimated $75 million. Most of the hull of the ship is now gone, but the rudder, parts of the paddle wheel and the steam engine are still present. The search and recovery effort was depicted in a National Geographic Society TV documentary Civil War Gold.

There is also a book about the search and recovery, Lost Gold of the Republic. Many artifacts, from the 14,000 salvaged, plus silver coins from the 51,000 coins collected, are on display in selected museums. Artifacts have been on display in Tampa, New Orleans, Detroit, Elberta, Hot Springs, and Oklahoma City. The displays also present video stories about passengers and crew members, and where they moved years after the wreck. Lifeboats had been found and rescued at different times.

SS Republic is currently the subject of a lawsuit over the gold recovery, as E. Lee Spence claims in a lawsuit that Odyssey Marine used his information in their efforts to locate the wreck. A judge in South Carolina has ruled that the case may proceed in that state, reversing his own earlier decision.

Reference: Odyssey Marine Exploration

Read: U.S. Gold Coins: Holding the California Gold Rush in the Palm of Your Hand

A book in my collection, Bottles from the Deep – Ellen C. Gerth

A variety of bottles and ceramic ware were discovered on the Republic wreck site. Nearly 14,000 artifacts were excavated; most were likely shipped as cargo, but some of the items such as the sturdy ironstone china featured here could have been used on the ship as well. – Odyssey Marine Exploration

Silver coins spill from an eroded wooden barrel on the SS Republic shipwreck site. – Odyssey Marine Exploration

A Drake’s Plantation Bitters bottle is excavated from the SS Republic shipwreck site, 1,700 feet below the ocean surface. A soft limpet suction device attached to the manipulator arm of Odyssey’s Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), ZEUS delicately removes the bottle from the seabed. – Odyssey Marine Exploration

Bottles of beer recovered from the wreck of the SS Republic – Odyssey Marine Exploration

A bottle of berries, as found on the ocean floor amid the wreck of the SS Republic. – Odyssey Marine Exploration

Odyssey Marine Director of Conservation Fred Van de Walle shows a cathedral-pattered pickle bottle, one of 8,000 bottles taken from the wreck of the SS Republic.

1865 SS Republic Shipwreck Treasure Registered Bottle (see below) – on eBay now

1865 SS Republic Shipwreck Treasure Registered Bottle, more RARE than coins! – on eBay now

An assortment of glass bottles and artifacts recovered from the wreck of the SS Repulic, a small sampling of the over 14,000 bottles and artifacts excavated from the site. – Odyssey Marine Exploration

Lediard’s Morning Call Bitters Bottle. Lediard’s Morning Call was one of the may bitters bottles shipped aboard the SS Republic bound for New Orleans. The product of New York liquor merchant Charles lediard, the tonic was advertised as an “invigorating cordial bitter.” Less than a dozen examples were excavated from the site. – Odyssey Marine Exploration

A case gin bottle from the SS Republic, one of over 8,000 bottles recovered from the shipwreck site. – Odyssey Marine Exploration

Cathedral pickle bottles recovered from the SS Republic shipwreck site. These bottles once stored a variety of preserved foods important in the 19th-century American diet. – Odyssey Marine Exploration

Master ink bottles recovered from the wreck of the SS Republic were produced in varying shades of aqua, amber and green glass and feature a distinctive pouring spout for the efficient dispensing of liquid ink. – Odyssey Marine Exploration

Cathedral pepper sauce bottles recovered from the SS Republic shipwreck site. Pepper sauces were an important staple in 19th-century America, commonly used to season meat that had spoiled due to a lack of cold storage. – Odyssey Marine Exploration

Posted in Bitters, Civil War, Collectors & Collections, Digging and Finding, Diving, eBay, History, Museums, Pepper Sauce, Pickle Jars, Pottery, Questions, Spirits, Treasure | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The many apostrophes of Udolpho Wolfe’s – Tom Doligale

Posted on 23 November 2012 by Ferdinand Meyer V

‘U;D`O:L”P.H-O   W”O,L’F/E`S

The apostrophe ( ’ although often rendered as ‘ ) is a punctuation mark, 

Leading Udolpho Wolfe’s Schnapps authority Tom Doligale has put together a truly amazing image gallery on the Bottle Collectors facebook page of the many and various apostrophes for Udolpho Wolfes. Tom has cornered the market and truly has an outstanding collection.

The apostrophe and comma certainly poised challenges for early mold makers. Great job Tom with this wonderful look at glass typography. FYI, Tom has many more examples as this is just a taste.

The Apostrophe

The apostrophe ( ’ although often rendered as ‘ ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets. In English, it serves three purposes:

1) The marking of the omission of one or more letters (as in the contraction of do not to don’t).

2) The marking of possessive case (as in the cat’s whiskers).

3) The marking as plural of written items that are not words established in English orthography (as in P’s and Q’s, the late 1950’s). (This is considered incorrect by some; see Use in forming certain plurals. The use of the apostrophe to form plurals of proper words, as in apple’s, banana’s, etc., is universally considered incorrect.)

According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), ‘apostrophe’ comes ultimately from Greek ἡ ἀπόστροφος [προσῳδία] (hē apóstrophos [prosōidía], “[the accent of] ‘turning away’, or elision”), through Latin and French. The apostrophe usually looks the same as a closing single quotation mark, although they have different meanings. The apostrophe also looks similar to the prime symbol ( ′ ), which is used to indicate measurement in feet or arcminutes, as well as for various mathematical purposes, and the ʻokina ( ʻ ), which represents a glottal stop in Polynesian languages.

Good Lord. No wonder the English language is so tough. As a board member of the FOHBC, I have the luxury of having super proof-reader Bill Baab looking at my President’s Message and Bottles and Extras articles. I have to smile as Bill usually adds a hundred or so punctuation marks, usually comma’s and apostrophe’s to each article. One of these days I might get it!

One of the classic mis-uses of the apostrophe mark can be seen when viewing the variant 1 Cassin’s from the variant 2 Cassin,s – Warren Friedrich

Read more: Tom Doligale and his Uldolpho Wolfe’s Aromatic Schnapps

The prismatic apostrophe

The minimalist apostrophe and squished in ‘s’

The equidistant apostrophe

Big boy hook apostrophe

King Kong apostrophe

Rising balloon apostrophe

The submerged apostrophe

The Hurricane apostrophe

Elephant Head apostrophe

Blob of Glass apostrophe

The Comma apostrophe

Trigger apostrophe

Back-swirl apostrophe

Match the serif apostrophe

Crescent Moon apostrophe

The Dimple apostrophe

Bent Slug apostrophe

The Part of the ‘S’ apostrophe

Tadpole apostrophe

Posted in Collectors & Collections, Color Runs, Glass Makers, Photography, Schnapps | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

White Seal Pure Rye – Hulman & Beggs – Terre Haute, Indiana

Posted on 23 November 2012 by Ferdinand Meyer V

W H I T E    S E A L    P U R E    R Y E

White Seal Pure Rye – Hulman & Beggs trade card, Terre Haute, Indiana, James Modrell Representative (front) – Dave’s Great Cards (eBay)

White Seal Pure Rye – Hulman & Beggs – Terre Haute, Indiana

23 November 2012

Apple-Touch-IconAI was looking on eBay yesterday and saw this great trade card presented by Dave’s Great Cards. Dave really comes across some cool and rare items as I have a number of them in my collection. I just love the art here and have to admit, I do not know anything about the product White Seal Pure Rye or the liquor merchant Hulman & Beggs. So my thought was to find a bottle with a label and see if the label matched, in any way, the trade card art above.

White Seal Pure Rye – Hulman & Beggs trade card reverse of above – Dave’s Great Cards (eBay)

Looking online, I see a great quote by the recently inducted FOHBC Hall of Fame recipient Jack Sullivan referencing the same art, though framed in a larger advertising sign.

“The sign advertising White Seal Whiskey points up another frequent scheme for showing female nudity: Place the ladies in a mythical or Oriental scene. Here a pair of young lovers — she bare breasted — are being escorted down their river of love on a flower garlanded boat by no fewer than five totally nude river nereids. This was a very popular bar sign from the Hulman and Beggs Company of Terre Haute, Indiana. Herman Hulman, progenitor of the famous Hulman motor racing family, was in the liquor business for many years but his alliance with John Beggs apparently lasted only from 1894 to 1896.”

JACK SULLIVAN

Here is where it gets interesting as Jack’s comment and other references also talk about the name Hulman and motor racing.

[Wikipedia] Anton “Big Tone” Hulman, Jr. (February 11, 1901 – October 27, 1977) was a businessman from Terre Haute, Indiana who rescued the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1945 and made the Indianapolis 500 popular.

Hulman is probably best known for buying the dilapidated Indianapolis Motor Speedway from a group led by World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker immediately after World War II. Influenced by three-time Indy 500 winner Wilbur Shaw (who became the track’s president in the early years of the Hulman regime), Hulman made numerous improvements to the track in time for the race to be held in 1946.

Following Shaw’s death in a plane crash on October 30, 1954, Hulman stepped into his soon-to-be-familiar role as the “face” of the Speedway. He followed the tradition of launching the Indianapolis 500 with the command, “Gentlemen, start your engines!” Into the 1970s, despite the fact he’d given the command so many times before, he would always practice it extensively beforehand, and on race day, he would invariably pull a card containing the famous words: “GENNNNNTLEMENNNNN, STARRRRRT YOURRRRRR ENNNNNNNGINES!” from the pocket of his suit as he stepped to the microphone. Luke Walton, who with Wilbur Shaw had founded the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network, was for many years a sportscaster and worked annually with Tony (and later with Mrs. Hulman) to ensure each word was delivered with the proper emphasis.

Read: Herman’s Whiskey Started the Hulman Engines

There is abundant information online including text mentioning their names from the local libraries:

The initial board consisted of William Riley McKeen, Herman Hulman, Deloss W. Minshall, Josephus Collett, Willard Kidder and Robert Nixon, president of the company. Located at the southwest corner of First and Wilson streets on the same grounds used by pioneer Terre Haute distillers Ezra Smith, Horace Button and Alexander McGregor in the 1840s, the distillery was managed by Crawford Fairbanks and John H. Beggs.

TERRE HAUTE — The second annual Licensed Saloonkeepers’ League of Indiana meeting was staged in Terre Haute on Sept. 14-16, 1893. After the delegates met in Bindley Hall, they were entertained at a banquet at the wholesale liquor firm of Hulman & Beggs which had just moved into its new five-story building, 25-27 Ninth St. at the corner of Cherry Street.

The Terre Haute Express newspaper described the firm and the event: “Herman Hulman Jr. and J. E. Beggs are both young men, the former being 27 and the latter 31 years of age. On Oct. 5, 1892, these young men formed a partnership and relieved Mr. H. Hulman Sr. of the ownership and management of the wholesale liquor department of H. Hulman.

“In assuming the great expense of entertaining their friends with such a banquet, the firm had shown their appreciation of the retailers of Illinois and Indiana.

“The large room at the rear of the offices on the first floor was tastefully decorated with flags and bunting and converted into a temporary banquet hall. The lunch was served by Caterer Sage, who was under instructions to spare neither pains nor expense in preparing a menu in harmony with the numerous other progressive strides made by Hulman & Beggs.” [Terre Haute Express 1892]

Question #1: Does anyone have a bottle and or labeled example of the White Seal Pure Rye or the the Hulman & Begg’s Wild Cherry Biters?

Question #2: Trying to link Beggs Dandelion Bitters – Chicago (note: there was a Chicago office for Hulman & Beggs) *Seeing a Charles W. Beggs on patent.

Great Web Site: www.pre-pro.com Distillers & Importers, Most leading brands of Sour Mash Whiskies and Ryes. Serving all your pre-Prohibition Research and Collecting Needs.

G A L L E R Y

Hulman & Beggs, Wholesale Liquors (picture of building exterior) – Vigo County Public Library

Exterior Hulman & Beggs showing workers – Indiana State University & pre-pro.com

Hulman and Beggs (arched script) / (picture of a large building with horses and carts in the foreground and a sign on the roof that reads: HULMAN AND BEGGS WHOLESALE LIQUORS) – pre-pro.com

Posted in Advertising, Advice, Ephemera, FOHBC News, Liquor Merchant, Questions, Shot Glasses, Spirits, Trade Cards, Whiskey | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Who doesn’t love Scroll Flasks?

Posted on 21 November 2012 by Ferdinand Meyer V

Who doesn’t love 1/2 pint scroll flasks? – Mike Stephano

Who doesn’t love Scroll Flasks?

21 November 2012 (R•052915)

Apple-Touch-IconABeing a color run ‘kinda-guy’ I just gotta’ say ‘‘Who doesn’t love Scroll Flasks?” Don’t cringe, I guess I coulda’ called this “Scrolling thru some Scrolls.” Anyway, credit for this post belongs to Mike Stephano as the first two pictures of gorgeous Scroll Flasks are from Mike’s collection.

Read: A Stroll through the Scrolls

The Scroll Flasks represent Group IX – Scroll or Violin Flasks in the The McKearin Historical Flask Groups. There are 52 in the Scroll group.

According to Historic Glasshouse, antique scroll flasks are easy to spot thanks to their distinctive shape. While aqua is the most commonly found color by far, other brilliant colors (greens, ambers, blues) are not infrequently encountered and fetch top dollar by collectors. George and Helen McKearin described the scroll (or violin) flasks in their book, American Glass, in the 1940s with details on 51 different molds. This list was later expanded with many variants in American Bottles and Flasks and Their Ancestry. Often, the difference between molds for scroll flasks comes down to the precise placement and shape of embossed stars and other details.

Scroll flasks were made by blowing hot glass into a two piece iron mold. The hinged mold was then opened and the bottle was removed while still attached to the blowpipe. An assistant would then attach another rod (called a pontil) to the base of the bottle. The glass blower could then detach the bottle from its lip by shearing the still soft glass. Most often you will find scroll flasks with a plain sheared lip. Some flasks would receive additional work to finish the mouth and lip. Commonly found are the applied band of glass and, infrequently, an applied lip.

S T E P H A N O    S C R O L L    F L A S K S

Window shot of my 1/2 pint scrolls. No, the GIX-41 is not sapphire, I could only wish..the lighting hints at it being that color though doesn’t it? Just a deep mid-western aqua – Mike Stephano

S C R O L L    F L A S K    G A L L E R Y

Two aqua Scroll Flasks – American, ca 1852-64. A pint example possibly by the Lancaster NY Glass Works, GIX-10, with sheared plain lip and smooth base with molded 5 x 5; 7.25″ high. Together with a half-pint GIX-31 with flat base and rough pontil; 5.75″ high. – Cowan’s Auctions

Lot 59. Scroll Flask, “LOUISVILLE, KY. – GLASS WORKS“, (GIX-6), Louisville Glass Works, Louisville, Kentucky, ca. 1845 – 1855, olive yellow quart, red iron pontil, sheared and tooled lip, perfect. Crude pebbly glass, brilliant color, as good as it gets! Rarely seen in aqua and never seen in as stunning a color as this one!mWinning Bid: $ 27,000 (37 Bids) – Glass Works Auction #92

Some of the aqua and green Scroll flasks found on the Steamboat Arabia – Arabia Steamboat Museum

“B P & B” Scroll Flask, Bakewell, Page & Bakewells Glass Manufacturers, 1827 – 1832. Medium golden amber, sheared mouth – blowpipe pontil scar, half pint, GIX-39. A scarce, desirable mold and an exceptional rarity in color with only two or possibly three examples known to exist in amber. In addition, a beautiful example in color, character and condition – Lot 29 – American Glass Gallery | Auction 8

Colored quart Scroll flasks – Newman Collection

Probably John Robinson & Son Glass Manufacturers, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1830 – 1834. Aquamarine, sheared, tooled and expanded wide mouth – blowpipe pontil scar, ½ pint, perfect! GIX-41. A very scarce, early and attractive mold to begin with, this example was fashioned by the glassblower into a jar, possibly for snuff. A great rarity and one of only a handful of documented or known flasks that have been made into whimseys or jars. Note: this example is likely one of the earliest of the various Scroll Flask molds and as mentioned, in a unique class with only a handful of other known flasks that were made into snuff jars or whimseys. – American Glass Gallery Auction #9

Lot: 32 Scroll Flask, possibly Louisville Glass Works, Louisville, Kentucky, 1845-1860. Deep forest green, crude applied round collared mouth – huge iron pontil mark, pint; (small spot of damage, includes a chip from the upper medial rib on one side accompanied by a hard to see 1 1/2 inch fissure). Probably GIX-11a Beautiful color, displays well, has an extremely crude and interesting mouth application. David Beadle collection. – Norman C. Heckler & Company

Extremely rare half gallon Fleur de lis Scroll Flask – Newman Collection

mportant, deep sapphire, GIX-38, embossed BP&B/ Fleur- de- lis, lead glass, Bakewell Page and Bakewell, Pittsburgh, Pa, c.1832, ex. Charlie Gardner, ex. Bill Polard, ½”internal hair line crack on side, seen with loop, otherwise perfect! – The SAXE Collection – Glass International Auction 24

Beautiful Scroll flask in a teal coloration – Mitchell Collection

Pint “scroll” flasks in rare colors – American, ca. 1845-1860 – HistoricBottles.com

Three Midwestern aqua Scroll flasks showing pontils – Live Auctioneers

This particular Scroll flask announces that it was made at the Louisville Glass Works, in Louisville, Kentucky, which operated between 1855 and 1874 in a factory opened in 1850 by the Kentucky Glass Works. – Ian Simmonds (Note: The detail picture at the top of this post is the same flask and credited the same)

A photo of my half-pint scroll, from the Vanderbilt sale several years ago. – Dana Charlton-Zarro

Sure wish this was made in the 1850s, but alas, it is one of the excellent Clevenger Brothers reproductions from sometime in the mid-20th century. Note quite early American, but a reproduction of such. I believe this is an imitation of the GIX-10 pint scroll mold which the company made in the 1950s and 1960s according to McKearin & Wilson (1978). – High Desert

DarkBlueScroll_ABA58

SCROLL FLASK. Probably GIX-2. 9”. Quart with sheared lip and open pontil. Here is one of the finest scrolls we’ve handled in our twenty years of business. Open pontil, sheared lip, this is what collectors are looking for. A brilliant deep blue, the color becomes a little lighter on the opposite side and for sheer overall appearance, this one really lights up a room. Condition is perfect with only base wear to remind us of its historic past. This bottle was part of the California whiskey collection kept in boxes for the last 40 or so years. He told us that it was his wife’s favorite bottle. We kind of like it, too. Grade is 9.8. Winning Bid: $ 17,000

AGG14PurpScroll

“J R & Son” SCROLL FLASK, John Robinson & Son Glass Manufacturers, Pittsburgh, PA, 1830 – 1834. Beautiful medium amethyst in the shoulders shading to clear, pale amethyst in the lower scroll and foot area, with profuse striations through the center and lower portion of the flask, sheared mouth – blowpipe pontil scar, Pt; (a shallow, approx. ¼” wide, pontil flake that extends to the edge of the base, and some high point wear). GIX-43. An exceptional flask, exceptional color, and eye-appeal. This flask is an exciting, and significant, “fresh” discovery for the antique bottle world. Quoting Jay Hawkins, a well known scholar of Pittsburgh glass and glass manufacturers, and author of the 2009, 550-plus page book, Glasshouses & Glass Manufacturers of the Pittsburgh Region, 1795 – 1910, “At this year’s Baltimore Bottle show on March 8th I had the opportunity to view and hold what is arguably the quintessential bottle or flask produced in Pittsburgh.” The flask is one of only four, or possibly five examples known. Of the four confirmed examples, three are in museum collections, the fourth, and only confirmed privately held example, is the Ex. Fred Salisbury, Ex. George Austin example, with damage. The museum examples include: The Corning Museum of Glass (a very deep amethyst coloration), The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC (another dark example), and a lavender example that was in the renowned George Lorimer collection, bequeathed to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1938. – American Glass Gallery – Auction 14

Posted in Collectors & Collections, Color Runs, Early American Glass, Flasks, Glass Companies & Works, Historical Flasks | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A couple of Jesse Moore Old Bourbon questions?

Posted on 21 November 2012 by Ferdinand Meyer V

Jesse Moore & Co. Trade Card, E. Chielovich & Co., San Francisco, California – CasperWhiskey.com

A couple of Jesse Moore Old Bourbon questions?

21 November 2012

Two incoming Jesse Moore questions to PRG that Lance Westfall was kind enough to help me sort out. I find it really interesting to look at the eastern and western variants. What is Lance talking about when he says “German blown?”

Facebook Question: You couldn’t tell me for sure more about my J. Moore bottle (see picture below) could ya? Aaron

Incoming e-mail:

Dear Mr. Meyer,

During the early seventies, a friend took me bottle digging, next to an old cemetary in Decatur. He was a few feet down and I was going through the tailings, when I found a J. Moore Bourbon bottle (see picture below). Guess who kept it, and I still have it. It’s in excellent condition, and I am considering selling it. Would you be willing to give some advise as to how I could go about getting it sold at an auction. Any help you give would be appreciated. The bottle is 6 1/2″ tall. (Revised 11/26 to 6.25″ tall)

Sincerely, David

Lance Westfall: 

Yes, this is the eastern variant J. Moore (top picture). They rarely have much character and are common, but play somewhat scarce due to the wide appeal of Jesse & J. Moore bottles and go-with items. I believe the applied top variants normally sell in the $350-$550 range & the tooled tops (like this one) are about $100-$200.

I’ll email you a few pics of the western J. Moore which only comes applied, and are fairly rare, highly desirable, and quite valuable $2,500-$6500, with the exception being the $12,500 example Dale (Mlasko) sold in Jeff’s (Wichmann) auction last year.

Lance

JESSE MOORE OLD BOURBON & RYE cylinders in a window – photo Lance Westfall

Close-up of my current example. The “Western” J. Moore. The biggest giveaway is the big & bubbly enbossing. – Lance Westfall

JESSE MOORE cylinder color run. All are western blown with the exception of the one on far left being blown in
Germany — slightly shorter & reddish in color, usually highly whittled. – photo Lance Westfall

These were all Dale’s (Mlasko) at one point. The one on left is THE example. I currently own the dark one in center, and formerly owned the lighter example on the right. There are likely only about 30-35 undamaged examples known. – Lance Westfall

JESSE MOORE flask. Pint strapside, olive old-amber. Western blown. Approx. 35 known. Former Mlasko, now
my dad’s (Larry Westfall). – Lance Westfall

Read More: JESSE MOORE The Bourbon Whiskey King by Gordon E. White

Posted in Advice, Bourbon, Color Runs, Flasks, Questions, Spirits, Whiskey | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

The Tippecanoe Bitters Figural Log and Mushroom

Posted on 19 November 2012 by Ferdinand Meyer V

‘TIPPECANOE – The Best For Malaria Tired Feeling’, framed advertising print – Dan Cowman antiques booth at the Antique Gallery of Houston.

The Tippecanoe Bitters Figural Log and Mushroom

19 November 2012

Lance and Brianna Westfall (San Diego, California) were in H-Town (Bayou City) visiting family over the weekend. Lance said he was able to get in a few probes in Old Town Spring (north of Houston) and to visit a few antique shops. One was the 85,000 sq ft Antique Gallery of Houston which includes over 250 dealers. Lance noticed immediately a booth as he walked in, full of bottles, labeled medicines and advertising. He immediately set his eyes on and purchased a gorgeous, whittled Drakes Plantation Bitters in raspberry and a Drake’s Plantation Bitters Sign for me (see picture below).

For those of you ‘in the know’ down here, Lance had discovered the antiques booth of none other than Dan Cowman. Dan is probably the most well known, along with Terry McMurray (Kirkwood, New York), labeled medicine and advertising collector and dealer in the United States. We sit near each other at the Houston Antique Bottle Show (see: 2012 Houston Antique Bottle Show – Rain or Shine!) and his table is always full to the brim with great stuff. Dan is a fantastic guy that usually has great bottles too. Lance said this could have been, quite possibly, the nicest bottle booth he has ever seen in an antique shop!

Lance, while he was at the Cowman booth, noticed this framed Tippecanoe Bitters advertising piece (see top of post) that when I saw the photo he shot me, I discounted because I thought I had it already. What Lance and I discovered when he visited Peach Ridge yesterday and saw my piece (see below) was that the support copy was different. The sign Lance saw reads, ‘TIPPECANOE – The Best For Malaria Tired Feeling’ rather than ‘TIPPECANOE – The Best For Bilious Headache. Blood Disorders’. I thought this was pretty interesting so it prompted me to look a little further and develop this post on the widely popular TIPPECANOE Bitters figural log.

‘TIPPECANOE – The Best For Bilious Headache. Blood Disorders’, framed advertising print – Meyer Collection

You do not venture anywhere with H. H. Warner from Rochester, New York without acknowledging the great work of Steve Jackson (pictured to left) on the Warner’s Safe Cure Blog. Steve is the foremost authority with the great and wide variety of Warner products in my book. From Steve’s blog “I have always heard that if you are going to create a web page or, in this case, a blog, you should pick a topic about which you are passionate. For over 30 years, I have collected Warner’s Safe Cures, Remedies, almanacs, trade cards, etc. My collection consists of well over 100 varieties of these bottles, including a couple “one of a kinds.” I have had the privilege of meeting some great and famous Warner’s collectors from around the country and some of the bottles and ephemera purchased from them grace my collection.”

T H E    B A T T L E    

O F    T I P P E C A N O E

Battle of Tippecanoe trade card – Meyer Collection

William Henry Harrison as painted by Rembrandt Peale in 1814

[Wikipedia] The Battle of Tippecanoe was fought on November 7, 1811, between United States forces led by Governor William Henry Harrison of the Indiana Territory and Native American warriors associated with the Shawnee leader Tecumseh. Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa (commonly known as “The Prophet”) were leaders of a confederacy of Native Americans from various tribes that opposed U.S. expansion into Native territory.

As tensions and violence increased, Governor Harrison marched with an army of about 1,000 men to disperse the confederacy’s headquarters at Prophetstown, near the confluence of the Tippecanoe and Wabash Rivers.

Tecumseh, by Benson Lossing in 1848 based on 1808 drawing.

Tecumseh, not yet ready to oppose the United States by force, was away recruiting allies when Harrison’s army arrived. Tenskwatawa, a spiritual leader but not a military man, was in charge. Harrison camped near Prophetstown on November 6 and arranged to meet with Tenskwatawa the following day. Early the next morning, warriors from Prophetstown attacked Harrison’s army.

Although the outnumbered attackers took Harrison’s army by surprise, Harrison and his men stood their ground for more than two hours. The Natives were ultimately repulsed when their ammunition ran low. After the battle, the Natives abandoned Prophetstown. Harrison’s men burned the town and returned home.

The Shawnee Prophet, Tenskwatawa by Charles Bird King.

Harrison, having accomplished his goal of destroying Prophetstown, proclaimed that he had won a decisive victory. He acquired the nickname “Tippecanoe”, which was popularized in the song “Tippecanoe and Tyler too” during the election of 1840, when Harrison was elected president. But some of Harrison’s contemporaries, as well as some subsequent historians, raised doubts about whether the expedition had been much of a success.

Although the defeat was a setback for Tecumseh’s confederacy, the Natives soon rebuilt Prophetstown, and frontier violence actually increased after the battle. Public opinion in the United States blamed the violence on British interference. This suspicion led to further deterioration of U.S. relations with Great Britain and served as a catalyst of the War of 1812, which began six months later. By the time the U.S. declared war on Great Britain, Tecumseh’s confederacy was ready to launch its war against the United States and embrace an alliance with the British.

The Carlyn Ring and W.C. Ham listing in Bitters Bottles is as follows:

TIPPECANOE BITTERS, Circa 1880 – 1895

L…Tippecanoe XXX Trade Mark Use No Nostrums Nor Preparations
TIPPECANOE / motif birch tree bark, a canoe, birch tree bark / H. H. WARNER & CO. // ( b ) PAT NOV, 20, 83 // ROCHESTER // NY // 5
9 x 2 7/8 (7)
Round, Amber, FM meant to represent a fungus (mushroom) growing out of the log shaped bottle.
Label: The best stomach tonic. Illustration of typical Warner’s Safe with Trade Mark and Warner’s Cure. Tippecanoe Trade Mark. The best for dyspepsia assimilation of food, stomach disorders, general functional derangements, constipation, tired feelings, malaria, blood disorders, skin eruptions, loss of energy, female disability, feeble appetite, bilious headache, etc.
Drug Catalog: 1885 Goodwin, 1887 Meyer, Trade Cards available.

T I P P E C A N O E    G A L L E R Y

Labeled TIPPECANOE – Glass Works Auctions

TIPPECANOE / motif birch tree bark, a canoe, birch tree bark / H. H. WARNER & CO. in amber – Meyer Collection

TIPPECANOE / motif birch tree bark, a canoe, birch tree bark / H. H. WARNER & CO. in amber – GreatAntiqueBottles.com

TIPPECANOE / motif birch tree bark, a canoe, birch tree bark / H. H. WARNER & CO. in a green toned amber and amber. From time to time, I used to hear that you could find the infamous Tippecanoe in an olive variety. Generally speaking, I considered this to be myth until I actually saw an example that I considered olive. They do exist and some are strikingly olive. More often than not, however, they tend to be amber examples with shades of olive. This makes sense, because the olive coloring is most likely the result of impurities in the glass manufacturing process rather than an intention by either Warner or his bottle supplier to issue an olive Tippecanoe. I mean, really, who wants a green log? – Warner’s Safe Cure Blog (bottles from American Bottle Auctions)

TIPPECANOE / motif birch tree bark, a canoe, birch tree bark / H. H. WARNER & CO. in green – American Glass Gallery Auction #6, Lot 177 (fetched a cool $8,500)

Labeled TIPPECANOE – Glass Works Auctions

Tippecanoe_GW

“H.H. WARNER & CO / (motif of a canoe and tree bark) / TIPPECANOE”, (T-30.8L), New York, ca. 1875 – 1890, amber, 9”h, “PAT NOV. 20, 83 / ROCHESTER / N.Y.” on smooth base, applied mouth, 98% original label. Pristine perfect, you won’t find a nicer one. Of the few known labeled Tippecanoe bottles, this one is thought to have the most complete and free of stain label! Ex. Carlyn Ring Collection. – Glass Works Auctions January 2013

Tippecanoe Patent drawing – Warner’s Safe Cure Blog

Battle of Tippecanoe Trade Card, The Warner trade card pictured above attempts to depict the famous battle. Presumably Harrison is the guy on the horse with his sabre drawn. The message reads “After once using our Tippecanoe – You will use no nostrums nor preparations called Bitters.”  I guess that taking Warner’s Tippecanoe gave you the strength to take on a band of marauding indians. It was clearly an attempt by Warner to move away from the term bitters, although the content of the preparation was doubtless the same. – Warner’s Safe Cure Blog

Tippecanoe Bitters Indian trade card is circa 1880’s and has Indians in canoes going down the waters and on a rock it says ‘Tippecanoe’ Try It! The top of the card has advertising for Tippecanoe Bitters. – Etsy

Posted in Advertising, Bitters, Collectors & Collections, Digging and Finding, Ephemera, Figural Bottles, History, Medicines & Cures, News, Questions, Tonics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Latest news from Outhouse Patrol up in Montana

Posted on 19 November 2012 by Ferdinand Meyer V

“We awoke to a very cold early October rainy morning after trying to sleep through high winds whistling through the broken out windows and creaking old door.”

Always nice to hear from my friend James Campiglia and the Outhouse Patrol as he represents the very essence of our hobby in our northern region of the FOHBC. He reminds me of the Baltimore star, Chris Rowell. These guys are always thinking bottles, history, digging and furthering our hobby 24/7/365. I sit here in my warm abode and have to smile when I see the lengths that these guys go to looking for privies.

Hello Ferd,

Really was a pleasure to talk the other day as I was on way to Butte to do a little digging. My friend found three nice older plain bottles but I found nothing but that’s fine, he’s a beginner. Looks like we found an old dump and hope to get permission soon.

If you can get the name of the persons (lady with changing looks, etc) and find if they are in Auburn we can watch them. I had an idea that might really shock them. Print up a want list of about ten misc. bottles but include all of those stolen in Reno, and a few misc. Hand out wanted posters but to not be suspicious pass to other dealers but mainly target the suspects. Have a few collectors present to read their actions when they realize its the stolen bottles we are showing them on the want lists. Maybe print some extras for the front door table too. And have these dealers, the suspected ones, set up at other shows does anyone really know them? Did you reach Mike McKillop regarding Auburn?

[PRG: I have been consulting with James on the theft issue plaguing some of our western shows]

I booked a flight tonight and will be in the area a couple of days prior and after the show. Maybe do some digging or go see some collections.

Just saw the Bertrand infomation and the Kintzing bottle shards I had sent in. Thanks for posting some of my notes. Here’s a picture of our latest dig. Way up in the hills. As you can see a ghost town. We awoke to a very cold early October rainy morning after trying to sleep through high winds whistling through the broken out windows and creaking old door. The slapping of the tin on the roof was quite nerve-wracking as well but after a good breakfast at about noon the sun was out and we we digging away. When we find some good bottles will send pictures. 1880’s to 20’s era town with outhouses still standing! And we have full permission to dig away.

And a week later the snow was falling (mid October) It was time to pack up but I hope to return maybe this weekend as hear the snow has melted but a sudden snow storm could come on quick up in these beautiful hills.

See you in Auburn!

Thanks,
James
www.jameschips.com
www.outhousepatrol.com

Posted in Collectors & Collections, Digging and Finding, FOHBC News, News | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

American Dialect Society and the origin of the word “jazz”

Posted on 18 November 2012 by Ferdinand Meyer V

J A Z Z

Virginia Minstrels circa 1843

An interesting question that Mike Bryant (San Diego Antique Bottle and Collectibles Club) forwarded… I have added the pictures for post support. If anyone can help with bottle and/or advertising images and information it would be greatly appreciated.

“Does anyone have a bottle from the Boyes Spring mineral water spring. Is it identified as “jazz water” or as having “jazz”? (perhaps spelled jaz, jass, or jas)”

Ferdinand ‘Jelly Roll’ Morton poster – circa 1915

Mike Bryant has just forwarded to me the picture of the Boyes Spring bottle. Thank you very much. I have forwarded it to members of the American Dialect Society who are interested in the origin of the word “jazz”.

Louis Armstrong, jazz trumpeter

Mr. Bryant:

Is it possible to put a research question into The Bottleneck newsletter, or
in some other way bring it to the attention of the members of the club?

The question is this: Does anyone have a bottle from the Boyes Spring mineral water spring. Is it identified as “jazz water” or as having “jazz”? (perhaps spelled jaz, jass, or jas)

The story behind this is this. In 1913 the San Francisco Seal baseball team went to the Boyes Spring resort for spring training. A sports reporter from an San Francisco paper who was covering the team picked up the word “jazz” there, meaning “energy”, “enthusiasm” (and also, sometimes, “nonsense”), and used it 8 or 10 times in the course of the season. When the Seals were winning, they were full of jazz; when they were in a slump, the jazz had run out, and the manager had better send off for a couple of cases more.

San Francisco Seals – circa 1909

Meanwhile, the entertainment director at the Springs was a young band leader named Art Hickman who also liked the word, and started to use it to identify his music: energetic, sparkling music for dancing. He went on to be a very popular band leader in San Francisco in the mid-1910s, and one of his musicians went to Chicago with the word, where it was picked up by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, which had a huge hit record at the beginning of 1917, and so the music got a name. The reference to the manager sending away for a case of fresh jazz suggests that the springs bottled the stuff. I’m curious to know for certain that they did, and whether they described the water as having jazz.

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of “The African Theatre”, Northwestern Univ.

The large “plunge pool” at Boyes Hot Springs was billed as the largest swimming pool in Northern California.

[Wikipedia] The San Francisco Seals were a minor league baseball team in San Francisco, California, that played in the Pacific Coast League from 1903 until 1957 before transferring to Phoenix, Arizona. They were named for the abundant California Sea Lion and Harbor Seal populations in the Bay Area.

[Wikipedia] Boyes Hot Springs is a census-designated place (CDP) in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, United States. The population was 6,656 people at the 2010 census. Resorts in Boyes Hot Springs, El Verano, Fetters Hot Springs, and Agua Caliente were popular health retreats for tourists from San Francisco and points beyond until the middle of the 20th century because of the geothermic hot springs that still well up from deep within the earth. Today the Sonoma Mission Inn in Boyes Hot Springs remains as a main destination resort, and the surrounding valley’s wineries, historic sites, and natural beauty are popular tourist attractions.

[Wikipedia] Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in black communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. Its African pedigree is evident in its use of blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation and the swung note. From its early development until the present day, jazz has also incorporated elements from American popular music.

As the music has developed and spread around the world it has drawn on many different national, regional and local musical cultures giving rise, since its early 20th century American beginnings, to many distinctive styles: New Orleans jazz dating from the early 1910s, big band swing, Kansas City jazz and Gypsy jazz from the 1930s and 1940s, bebop from the mid-1940s and on down through West Coast jazz, cool jazz, avant-garde jazz, Afro-Cuban jazz, modal jazz, free jazz, Latin jazz in various forms, soul jazz, jazz fusion and jazz rock, smooth jazz, jazz-funk, punk jazz, acid jazz, ethno jazz, jazz rap, cyber jazz, Indo jazz, M-Base, nu jazz, urban jazz and other ways of playing the music.

[Wikipedia] 1913-1918 – A more lasting influence emerged in 1913, in a series of articles by E.T. “Scoop” Gleeson in the San Francisco Bulletin, found by researchers Peter Tamony (who carried out the pioneering research in this area) and Dick Holbrook, that likely were instrumental in bringing jazz to a broader public. These initial articles were written in Boyes Springs, California, where the San Francisco Seals baseball team was in training. In the earliest reference, on March 3, 1913, jazz was used in a negative sense, to indicate that disparaging information about ball player George Clifford McCarl had turned out to be inaccurate: “McCarl has been heralded all along the line as a ‘busher,’ but now it develops that this dope is very much to the ‘jazz.’

Three days later, on March 6, Gleeson used jazz extensively in a longer article, in which he explained the term’s meaning, which had now turned from negative to positive connotations: Everybody has come back to the old town full of the old “jazz” and they promise to knock the fans off their feet with their playing. What is the “jazz”? Why, it’s a little of that “old life,” the “gin-i-ker,” the “pep,” otherwise known as the enthusiasalum. A grain of “jazz” and you feel like going out and eating your way through Twin Peaks. It’s that spirit which makes ordinary ball players step around like Lajoies and Cobbs.

The article uses jazz several more times and says that the San Francisco Seals’ “members have trained on ragtime and ‘jazz’ and manager Del Howard says there’s no stopping them.” The context of the article as a whole shows that a musical meaning of jazz is not intended; rather, ragtime and “jazz” were both used as markers of ebullient spirit.
Gleeson used jazz in a number of articles in March and April 1913, and other journalists began to use the term as well. The Bulletin on April 5, 1913, published an article by Ernest J. Hopkins entitled “In Praise of ‘Jazz,’ a Futurist Word Which Has Just Joined the Language.” The article, which used the spellings jaz and jazz interchangeably, discussed the term at length and included a highly positive definition: “JAZZ” (WE CHANGE the spelling each time so as not to offend either faction) can be defined, but it cannot be synonymized. If there were another word that exactly expressed the meaning of “jaz,” “jazz” would never have been born. A new word, like a new muscle, only comes into being when it has long been needed. This remarkable and satisfactory-sounding word, however, means something like life, vigor, energy, effervescence of spirit, joy, pep, magnetism, verve, virility ebulliency, courage, happiness–oh, what’s the use?–JAZZ.

Jazz, in the sense of pep and enthusiasm, continued in use in California for several years before being submerged by the jazz music meaning. Amateur etymologist Barry Popik has located a number of examples from the Berkeley Daily Californian and the Daily Palo Alto, showing that jazz in this sense was collegiate slang at the University of California, Berkeley in the period 1915 to 1917 and at Stanford University in the period 1916 to 1918. President Benjamin Ide Wheeler at Berkeley apparently used jazz with such frequency that many supposed he originated the term, although the Daily Californian stated on February 18, 1916, that he denied this.

Boyes Mineral Water possibly made in 1951 at the Duraglas plant in Oakland, CA (which started in 1937), and is a machine-made bottle. – Collectors Weekly

Boyes Spring Mineral Water – eBay (darker liquid used to show graphics I suppose)

Boyes Spring Mineral Water detail – eBay (darker liquid used to show graphics I suppose)

Posted in Advertising, Bottling Works, Club News, History, Mineral Water, Painted Label, Questions, Soda Bottles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dr Zabriskie’s Bitters – Jersey City, New Jersey

Posted on 17 November 2012 by Ferdinand Meyer V

Dr Zabriskie’s Bitters – Jersey City, New Jersey

17 November 2012 (R•022518)

New Jersey has certainly been in the news of late with the terrible destruction from Hurricane Sandy which has been just tragic. I now see that the inane show Jersey Shore has run its course too. What a shame. New Jersey, you are on our minds.

With that said, I was pleasantly surprised to see a bitters brand and bottle that I was not familiar with in John Pastor’s American Glass Gallery Auction #9. This was the Dr. Zabriskie’s Bitters from Jersey City. Johns write-up:

“Dr Zabriskie’s – Bitters – Jersey City / N. J.”, America, 1840 – 1855. Moonstone, rectangular with indented panels, a very crude, likely applied, thin flanged mouth – solid glass tipped pontil scar, ht. 6”, virtually attic mint condition. R/H #Z1. An extremely rare bitters, and probably quite early, in a color that is seldom seen except on rare occasions in a handful of early flasks. Believed to be only a handful of examples (less than half dozen), in any condition known to exist.

“DR ZABRISKIE’S – BITTERS – JERSEY CITY / N.J.”, (Ring/Ham, Z-1), New Jersey, ca. 1850 – 1860, clear glass, 6 1/8”h, pontil scarred base, tooled mouth. An in manufacturing 3/16” by 1/8” chip off the underside of the flared out lip, otherwise perfect. Extremely rare, one of only a few known examples. T.H. Zabriskie & Sons were located at 122 Deuce Street, Brooklyn. Larry Umbreit Collection. – Glass Works Auctions – Auction 119

The Carlyn Ring and W.C. Ham listing in Bitters Bottles Supplement is as follows:

Z1  DR. ZABRISKIE’S BITTERS
DR ZABRISKIES // f // BITTERS // JERSEY CITY / N.J. //
6 3/4 x 2 1/4 (6 1/8) 3/8
Square, FM, 3 sp, Clear with moonstone tone, Extremely rare
T. H. Zabriskie & Sons, 122 Deuce Street, Brooklyn, N.Y., 176 Washington Street   Courtland, N.Y.
Also manufacturers of Zabriskie’s Polish Liniment
Only 3 or 4 known examples, all of which were dug from a privy in Northern New Jersey in the mid 1990’s.

Zabriskie is certainly a unique Polish name, at least to me. Searching online, I see that New Jersey and New York is the epicenter for the Zabriskie name. I was quite amazed to see the name in posts dating from the 1600s to present day. Obviously a strong family name with generations of history. A few snippets of potential information are posted below.

Added new communication below on 26 November 2012

Hi, My buddy Connor sent me a link showing me that one of the Zabriskie Bitters from Jersey City was at auction. One of my digging partners and myself had the pleasure of digging all three of those that exist in one outhouse pit in Jersey City. They are made of flint glass which give them that not so clear appearance. They were a lot worse before I cleaned them. According to the map we were using, there was a flint glass works at the end of the street the pit was on. I’m almost sure the bottles would have been made right there. Also, Dr. Zabriskie lived right on the same street. Thought you might like to know some of the back story from those great bottles.-Tom.

What Zabriskie are we talking about?

Polish Roots – The Polish People of Passaic

There is no authentic record of, first Polish settlement in Passaic, which was settled by wealthy Dutch farmers as early as 1679. However, one of the earliest Polish land owners in the area was the Zabriskie family, which claims descent from Olbracht Zaborowski who emigrated from Prussia to New Amsterdam in 1662. There is no record of the exact time when the family took up residence in Passaic, but deeds recorded in the land office for Passaic County at Paterson, New Jersey, reveal purchases of land in Passaic by Henry J. Zabriskie in 1816, by Christian B. Zabriskie in 1824, and by Abraham Zabriskie in 1832. At the time Passaic was still a predominantly agricultural and commercial village.

Abraham Zabriskie built a dock in Passaic and operated a fleet of boats sailing to New York. He tried to improve the navigation facilities of the Passaic River and spent fifty thousand dollars for this purpose. The project was unsuccessful and brought about his financial ruin.

Another member of the family, Dr. John B. Zabriskie, was licensed to practice medicine and surgery in New Jersey on November 4, 1826. Unable to make a success of his practice, he moved to New York and later settled in Jersey City.

Still another descendant, Christian B. Zabriskie, took part in the planning of a bridge to be erected at some point between Zabriskie’s Landing and the Dundee Dam before the Civil War, but the undertaking proved a failure.

Christian A. Zabriskie, who was born March 14, 1829, was considered one of the oldest residents of Passaic.

John C. Zabriskie, also from Passaic, took part in the Civil War.

The Zabriskie Tenant House

The Zabriskie Tenant House was an historic house on Dunkerhook Road in Paramus, New Jersey. The Zabriskie family built the home to house their slaves, who remained tenants even after they were liberated. It was one of the few structures left in New Jersey directly related to slavery in the state. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 24, 1984.

A proposal to demolish the house and subdivide the land for housing development was approved by the Paramus Planning Board in late April, 2011, and the house was scheduled to be demolished in June, 2011. Local historians and preservationists had worked out a plan to move the house to Bergen Community College for an educational adaptive reuse, a plan supported by the County’s Board of Chosen Freeholders. The county was in the process petitioning the state for funds to move and rehabilitate the structure when on 13 July 2012, the developer Sal Petruzella demolished the Zabriskie Tenant House with no warning or indication to the preservation community.

Westwood in 1894

January 5, 1894: Dr. Zabriskie has begun excavating for his new building.

February 9, 1894: Dr. Zabriskie’s new building has been raised and will be pushed to completion. Westwood will then have what it has needed for a long time: a drug store.

April 27, 1894: J.W. Wardell, a druggist from Closter, has leased Dr. Zabriskie’s new building and will open a drug store.

Cornelius Zabriskie

Cornelius Zabriskie, banker, born in that part of Bergen county, N. J., known as Cherry Hill, Feb. 24, 1839, is a son of the late David A. Zabriskie, a prominent and influential citizen and great grandson of a paymaster in the Continental army; noted both for his bravery and careful supervision of the finances. The family is an old one and its members have always borne a high reputation and shown marked public spirit in their respective generations.

Leaving home at the age of fifteen, Mr. Zabriskie moved to Jersey City, where,
after completing his studies at the public schools, he gained a thorough knowledge of
chemistry and was for nine years connected with the oldest drug house in Jersey City.

I understand that this bottle will be joining a collection of Bitters bottles in Texas. It will certainly go in the “Aqua Room’ on a special lower shelf of rare clear bitters.

A Q U A    R O O M

Posted in Auction News, Bitters, Druggist & Drugstore, History, Medicines & Cures | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Looking for Bottles Carried on the Steamboat Arabia

Posted on 16 November 2012 by Ferdinand Meyer V

T H E    S T E A M B O A T    A R A B I A

Looking at famed Civil War author Jim Schmidt’s interview with Andrew W. Hall and the Galveston-Houston Packet this morning made me think of the bottles stored on these and other steamboats that traveled our waterways. While looking at the Steamboat Bertrand cargo recently (see: Looking at some of the Bitters Bottles on the steamboat Bertrand – Part 1 and Looking at some of the Bitters Bottles on the steamboat Bertrand – Part 2), I was reminded of the Steamboat Arabia in Missouri. I also did a post recently where some Charles Lediard products were found on the SS Republic (see: Charles Lediard and his Liquor Products). What amazes me most is that the Arabia was found beneath 45 feet of silt and topsoil as the Missouri River had shifted 1/2 of a mile from where the Arabia was found. I suppose I always assumed great rivers shifted course over eons of time and not in 130 or so years.

Over time, the river shifted a half a mile to the east. The site of the sinking is in present-day Kansas City, Kansas.

Let’s look a little closer at the Arabia steamboat and see what bottles were recovered. I am particularly interested in seeing if Kelly’s Old Cabin Bitters, OK Plantation Bitters, Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters and any of the other famed bitters products were on board.

Steamboat Arabia Museum Postcard

[Wikipedia] The steamboat Arabia was a side wheeler steamboat which hit a snag in the Missouri River and sank near what today is Parkville, Missouri, on September 5, 1856. It was rediscovered in 1988 by a team of researchers. Today, the artifacts recovered from the site are housed in the Arabia Steamboat Museum.

The Arabia was built in 1853 on the banks of the Monongahela River in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. Its paddlewheels were 28 feet across, and its steam boilers consumed approximately thirty cords of wood per day. The boat averaged five miles an hour going upstream. The boat traveled the Ohio and Mississippi rivers before it was bought by Captain John Shaw, who operated the boat on the Missouri River. Her first trip was to carry 109 soldiers from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Pierre, which was located up river in South Dakota. The boat then traveled up the Yellowstone River, adding an additional 700 miles to the trip. In all, the trip took nearly three months to complete.

In spring of 1856, the boat was sold to Captain William Terrill and William Boyd, and it made fourteen trips up and down the Missouri during their ownership. In March, while heading up river, the boat collided with an obstacle and nearly sank. Repairs were made in nearby Portland. A few weeks later the boat blew a cylinder head and had to be repaired again. The rest of the season was uneventful for the boat until September 5.

On September 5, 1856, the Arabia set out for a routine trip. At Quindaro Bend, near the town of Parkville, Missouri, the boat hit a submerged walnut tree snag (see picture above of actual tree part found in hull). The snag ripped open the hull, which rapidly filled with water. The upper decks of the boat stayed above water, and the only casualty was a mule that was tied to sawmill equipment and forgotten. The boat sank so rapidly into the mud that by the next morning, only the smokestacks and pilot house remained visible. Within a few days, these traces of the boat were also swept away. Numerous salvage attempts failed, and eventually the boat was completely covered by water. Over time, the river shifted a half a mile to the east. The site of the sinking is in present-day Kansas City, Kansas, although, as described below, many of the remnants have been removed to a museum in Kansas City, Missouri.

In the 1860s, Elisha Sortor purchased the property where the boat lay. Over the years, legends were passed through the family that the boat was located somewhere under the land. In the surrounding town, stories were also told of the steamboat, but the exact location of the boat was lost over time.

In 1987, Bob Hawley and his sons, Greg and David, set out to find the boat. The Hawleys used old maps and a proton magnetometer to figure out the probable location, and finally discovered the Arabia half a mile from the river and under 45 feet of silt and topsoil.

The owners of the farm gave permission for excavation, with the condition that the work be completed before the spring planting. The Hawleys, along with family friends Jerry Mackey and David Luttrell, set out to excavate the boat during the winter months while the water table was at its lowest point. They performed a series of drilling tests to determine the exact location of the hull, then marked the perimeter with powdered chalk. Heavy equipment, including a 100-ton crane, was brought in by both river and road transport during the summer and fall. Twenty irrigation pumps were installed around the site to lower the water level and to keep the site from flooding. The 65-foot-deep wells removed 20,000 US gallons per minute from the ground. On November 26, 1988, the boat was exposed. Four days later, artifacts from the boat began to appear, beginning with a Goodyear rubber overshoe. On December 5, a wooden crate filled with elegant china was unearthed. The mud was such an effective preserver that the yellow packing straw was still visible. Thousands of artifacts were recovered intact, including jars of preserved food that are still edible. The artifacts that were recovered are housed in the Steamboat Arabia Museum.

I soon located what I had traveled this distance to see — bottles! Food bottles embossed ‘Well’s, Miller & Provost‘ filled several shelves, many had original lead labels and contents. Earlier ‘large size’, Dr. Hostetter’s Bitters, were in abundance, as were a number of unembossed ‘lady’s leg’  bottles, both having original contents. Peppersauce bottles with the desirable ‘Western Spice Mills‘ embossed appeared in several areas, as did a sprinkling of various pontiled cologne and scent bottles. One case exhibited several rows of medicine bottles.

Another case exhibited several rows of medicine bottles: ‘Mexican Mustang Liniment’, ‘McGuire Druggist, St. Louis’, and ‘Nerve and Bone Liniment‘, all still in their original contents. Ink bottles, still in their original packing box, and early case gins were also to be found.

To me the most rewarding display of all was a portion of one wall holding row after row of early Scroll flasks! Approximately 100 were on display, all being pint and quart size. They were displayed in alternating rows of deep aquamarine and medium yellow green and all sparkled like the day they were blown!

Treasures of The Steamboat Arabia

What a surprise. Obviously the cargo was meant for the small grocers, hardware stores, businesses and eating and drinking establishments. The Steamboat Arabia Museum is definitely a place I want to visit. What and where do you suppose all those Scroll Flasks were headed and doing on board?

A R A B I A    G A L L E R Y

Read More: Treasures of The Steamboat Arabia

Read More: Steamboat Arabia – A Historian’s Blog (great!)

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