Young America or Young Frankenstein?

Posted on 21 April 2011 by Ferdinand Meyer V

Young America or Young Frankenstein?

21 April 2011 (R•110914) (R•111014)

Along with collecting and specializing in the beautiful color runs, I cherish the freakish and absurdly crude, rare and x-rare bitters squares. This example of a Young America Stomach Bitters was purchased on eBay back in 2002. It is so raw, crude and orange peeled that you can only imagine Young Frank drinking from it!! This bottle is to DIE for. When back illuminated, it looks like It’s Alive!

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

Y7 YOUNG AMERICA STOMACH BITTERS

YOUNG AMERICA // STOMACH / BITTERS // f // P. RINDSKOPF & BRO //
9 1/2 x 3 (6 1/2) 3/8
Square, Amber, LTC, Applied mouth, Rare

Young America Stomach Bitters – Meyer Collection

Rindskopf

They story starts here with Loeb Rindskopf from Bohemia who was one of the Jewish pioneers in Milwaukee arriving in the mid 1850s or so. He had a large family with many sons and daughters. Listings show a P. Rindskoph & Brother, wines and liquors (Phillip and Louis Rindskoph) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin city directories from 1862-1878 at 277 E. Water. There was also a L. Rindskoph & Son, wholesale wines and liquors (Leopold and Samuel Rindskoph) at 266 E. Water during the same years. Later they were in to bottling and brewing.

“P. Rindskoph & Bro” is embossed on the Young America Stomach Bitters. Phillip Rindskopf was born on March 16, 1836 in Bohemia and died on February 22, 1867 in Milwaukee ward 15, at the young age of 31. Prior to this, Isham & Company (Percy Ray Isham) was selling the bitters per the advertisement below. They were sole agents in Milwaukee.

Read: Isham’s Stomach Bitters – Chicago

Take note of what appears to be a black women with a top hat carrying an oversized bottle of Young America Stomach Bitters. Pretty cool. I see some characters on the hat? Are those two little swords? I am missing some of the symbolism though this is Civil War era.

IshamAd2The_Daily_Milwaukee_News_Sat__Sep_21__1861_ copy

Isham & Co. selling the Celebrated Young America Stomach Bitters – The Daily Milwaukee News, Saturday, September 21, 1861

Isham’s Celebrated Stomach Bitters label – Library of Congress

The very similar, Isham’s Stomach Bitters – Meyer Collection

Posted in Bitters, eBay, History, Humor - Lighter Side, Liquor Merchant, Medicines & Cures | Tagged bitters, eBay, Isham, Meyer, Meyer Collection, milwaukee, Rindskopf & Bro, Wisconsin, Young America Stomach Bitters, Young Frankenstein | Leave a comment

Maryo Visit to the Getty Villa

Posted on 20 April 2011 by Ferdinand Meyer V

Just in from Dave Maryo (FOHBC Western Region Director and President Los Angeles Historical Bottle Club) who with his wife Cindy, just visited the Getty Villa in Malibu this past weekend to see the Greek and Roman glass on display. It is amazing according to Dave. “Collectors of antique glass highly prize bottles that just started being embossed with designs in the early 1800’s. Embossed mold blown glass was a common art form two thousand years prior“.

Dave, who has a passion for early glass, went specifically to see the Erwin Oppenländer collection. There are over 180 ancient glass objects in the collection. The Oppenländer collection, which the Getty acquired in 2003, is remarkable for its cultural and chronological breadth. It includes works made in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Greek world, and the Roman Empire, and spans the entire period of ancient glass production, from its origins in Mesopotamia in about 2500 B.C. to Byzantine and Islamic glass of the eleventh century A.D. Also notable in the Oppenländer collection is the variety of ancient glassmaking techniques, such as casting, core forming, mosaic, inflation, mold blowing, cameo carving, incising, and cutting. All these techniques are still used by glass artists today.

Just a few of Dave’s visit photographs are posted below.Thanks Dave!! Bet this is on my agenda next time I’m out west.

Posted in Ancient Glass, Art & Architecture, Club News, Collectors & Collections, History, Museums | Tagged Byzantine, Dave Maryo, Early Glass, Egypt, Erwin Oppenlander, fohbc, Getty Villa, Greek, Greek and Roman Glass, LAHBC, Los Angeles Historical Bottle Club, Malibu, Mesopotamia | Leave a comment

Amazing Film Clip of Cable Car In San Francisco In 1906

Posted on 18 April 2011 by Ferdinand Meyer V

***This just in from West Coast Marble Collector and Dealer Bill O’Conner…

Watch Video

This film was “lost” for many years. It was the first 35mm film ever that has come to light. It was taken by a camera mounted on the front of a cable car as it was traveling down the street. You feel as if you are really there, standing at the front looking down the street, amazing piece of historic film. The number of automobiles is staggering for 1906. Absolutely amazing! The clock tower at the end of Market Street at the Embarcadero wharf is still there. How many “street cleaning” people were employed to pick up after the horses? Talk about going green!

This film, originally thought to be from 1905 until David Kiehn with the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum figured out exactly when it was shot. From New York trade papers announcing wet streets from recent heavy rainfall and shadows indicating time of year and actual weather and conditions on historical record, even when the cars were registered (he even knows who owned them and when the plates were issued!).. It was filmed only four days before the Great California Earthquake of April 18^th, 1906 and shipped by train to NY for processing. Amazing, but true!

No wonder there had to be laws created to regulate driving habits. This is insane. Good thing they couldn’t go very fast. This is a fascinating movie. A camera on the front of a streetcar 104 years ago. I watched it a couple of times. Look at the hats the ladies were wearing and the long dresses. Some of the cars had the steering wheels on the right side, I wonder when they standardized on the left? Sure was still a lot of horse drawn vehicles in use. Mass transit looked like the way to get around. Looks like everybody had the right of way.

Perhaps the oldest “home movie” that you will ever see!

Posted in History, Humor - Lighter Side | Tagged Bill O'Conner, cable car, Embarcadero, History, home movie, Market Street, San Francisco, Silent Film Museum | Leave a comment

XR Uncle-Toms-Bitters Shows Up on eBay

Posted on 18 April 2011 by Ferdinand Meyer V

eBay Photo 1

I have been snatching up extremely rare square and rectangular Bitters Bottles on eBay for years and have been doing pretty well. This was not the case last night, Sunday, 17 April 2011.

I had been watching this R/H U5 Uncle Toms Bitters for a few days, dropped in a healthy bid on Saturday and stayed on top throughout the day Sunday. I even supplemented my high bid with a reserve. Well, let me tell you, I went to check on ‘my win’ as I had been walking my dogs, and saw 11 seconds left. My bid was in red and the bids were jumping fast. The Uncle Toms settled at $2,025.00!! This is a healthy price for an amber square. The eBay listing was as follows:

Rare Uncle Toms Bitters, Trevorton PA, Thomas Foulds & Son, nice yellow small town bitters. It is in perfect condition and has a little inside stain from I think the contents. 10 3/8 tall by 2 7/8 square. One indented panel says Uncle-Toms-Bitters, the next says, Thomas Foulds & Son, the last says Trevorton PA, the back is flat and blank. good luck bidding. 28 bids $2,025.00 Bottledigger1072 Danville, PA.

eBay Photo 2

eBay Photo 3

Posted in Bitters, eBay | Tagged bitters bottle, bitters square, eBay, Thomas Foulds & Son, Trevorton, Uncle Tom's Bitters | Leave a comment

Big Boy Lightning Rod Ball

Posted on 18 April 2011 by Ferdinand Meyer V

**email from Jeff Burkhardt to Ferdinand Meyer 17 April 2011…regarding our respective Lightning Rod Ball collections…

Ferdinand- You got balls, I got balls, but do ‘ya have these balls?

Yes, the 5-1/2″ POINT PLEAT is a “big-boy”. It dwarfs “big” SCA quilt! Collar embossing-“Pat’d July 3rd 77” Faint haze, some soil too. Maybe all washable, but like to keep dirt to validate that it was “up”. No cracks from chipping on the one collar. EX- Russell Barnes coll. , a TEXAS collector. Ever meet him?

JEFF (FROGGY) BURKHARDT

Larger Point Pleat next to a Quilt LRB

Posted in Collectors & Collections, Lightning Rod Balls | Tagged ferdinand meyer, Jeff Burkhardt, Lightning Rod Ball, Point Pleat, Quilt, Russell Barnes, SCA | Leave a comment

Bromo-Seltzer Bottles and the Famous Baltimore Namesake Tower

Posted on 16 April 2011 by Ferdinand Meyer V

BROMO SELTZER

As a child growing up in Baltimore, you couldn’t help to not notice the abundance of the pretty blue Bromo-Seltzer bottles or hear the jingle from their repeating ads. Even trips downtown, led your eyes to the wonderful Bromo-Seltzer Tower. The combination of finding an old post card (pictured below) and receiving a Bromo-Seltzer article by Cecil Munsey got me wandering down memory lane…

According to Wikipidia, Bromo-Seltzer was an antacid used to relieve pain occurring together with heartburn, upset stomach, or acid indigestion. Originally produced by inventor Isaac E. Emerson’s Emerson Drug Company of Baltimore, Maryland Bromo-Seltzer was sold in the United States in the form of effervescent granules which must be mixed with water before ingestion.

In the days of classic radio, it was known for its slogan which was repeated rhythmically in imitation of a railroad steam engine: “BRO-mo-Selt-zer, BRO-mo-Selt-zer, …” There is also a clock tower in Baltimore, Maryland, known as the Bromo-Seltzer Tower, and has the name written on the face of the clock in lieu of the hours. Patterned on the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The product took its name from a component of the original formula, sodium bromide; it contained 3.2 mEq/teaspoon of this active ingredient. Bromides are a class of tranquilizers that were withdrawn from the American market in 1975 due to their toxicity. Their sedative effect probably accounted for Bromo-Seltzer’s popularity as a hangover remedy. Early formulas also used Acetanilide as the analgesic, a known poisonous substance.

Some good background articles can be found on the Cecil Munsey web site…

Baltimore’s famous Bromo-Seltzer Tower Post Card

Early Bromo-Seltzer Wagon

Posted in Article Publications, Druggist & Drugstore, Ephemera, History, Medicines & Cures | Tagged Baltimore, blue, Bromo-Seltzer, Bromo-Seltzer Tower, Cecil Munsey, Emerson Drug Company, Isaac E. Emerson, maryland, sodium bromide | Leave a comment

Norman C. Heckler & Company Auction 91 Top Lots

Posted on 16 April 2011 by Ferdinand Meyer V

The 30 March 2011 Heckler Auction was full of great glass as usual though for the first time in a while, no Bitters Bottles were on or near center stage. There were however, two (2) fantastic flasks that I watched with interest. Both sold for big dollars. They were cataloged as follows:

Lot 52 “Jenny Lind” and Bust – Glass Factory Portrait Calabash Flask, probably Ravenna Glass Works, Ravenna, Ohio, 1845-1860. Golden Amber with root beer tone, applied collared mouth – tubular pontil scar, quart. GI-104 Exceptional color, fine condition, strong embossing, extremely rare. Est: $15,000-$30,000. This Jenny Lind ended up selling for $29,000.00.

Lot 79 “Baltimore” Below Washington Monument – “Corn fo the World” And Ear of Corn Historical Flask, Baltimore Glass Works, Baltimore. Maryland, 1840-1860. Brilliant emerald green, sheared mouth – pontil scar, half pint. GVI-7 Brilliant, rare clear color, numerous interesting bubbles in the glass, strong embossing, exceptional. Est: $10,000-$20,000. This beauty ended up selling for $28,000.00.

Lot 52 Jenny Lind Portrait Calabash Flask - Heckler 91 Auction

Lot 79 Corn For The World Historical Flask - Heckler 91 Auction

Posted in Auction News, Flasks, Historical Flasks | Tagged auction, Baltimore, Baltimore Glass Works, Corn For The World, Flask, Heckler, Historical Flask, Jenny Lind Calabash Flask, ohio, Ravenna, Ravenna Glass Works | Leave a comment

Awesome Smith’s Druid Bitters Moves from West Virginia to Houston to Oregon

Posted on 14 April 2011 by Ferdinand Meyer V

Smith’s Druid Bitters Catching Some Sunlight

Awesome Smith’s Druid Bitters Moves from West Virginia to Houston to Oregon

14 April 2011

This past January 2011, I made my 2nd trip to Baker, West Virginia to meet with noted West Virginia Bottle Collector, Rodney Funkhouser. On this trip, I picked up the famous green Smith’s Druid Bitters. As events turn, this bottle was then resold to Figural Collector Bill Taylor in Grants Pass, Oregon. The bottle is written up in Ring/Ham as follows…

S 124 B. T. 1865 S. C. ( au ) / SMITH’S / DRUID BITTERS ( ad ) // c // circa 1869 1/2 x 2 1/2 Round barrel, 10-10, NSC, Applied mouth, Amber and Puce – Rare; Yellowish olive green and Olive yellow – Very Rare.

Rodney Funkhouser had and cherished this bottle since 2000. Joel Sidney (Michigan) had this bottle before Rodney for about 2 years. Mark West originally obtained the bottle from an antique dealer named Jerry Shobe (specialized in stoneware) in Winchester, Virginia. Jerry has since passed. Mark purchased the bottle around 1989. The antique dealer obtained the bottle from a boy who found the bottle in an old store in Gore, Virginia (west of Winchester) that was being torn down. Rodney remembers the store as a child. Three of the Smiths Druids have shown up in this region leading some to speculate a local distributor for this extremely rare Baltimore Bitters Bottle. Rodney’s Puce example was found in Stephens City which is west of Winchester.

I first saw this bottle outside of the Baltimore Antique Bottle Show some 3 or 4 years ago at Rodney’s car. Rodney was fishing for a sale. Bob Ferarro also had a private showing. Some pictures I took from this January are posted below..

Rodney in his West Virginia Bottle Bunker

Embossing So Crisp You Could Hang Your Hat On

Posted in Bitters, Collectors & Collections, Figural Bottles | Tagged Baker, Baltimore, Bill Taylor, Gore, Grants Pass, Jerry Shobe, Joel Sidney, Mark West, oregon, Rodney Funkhouser, Smith's Druid Bitters, Virginia, West Virginia | Leave a comment

Mike Henness – One of My Early Inspirations

Posted on 13 April 2011 by Ferdinand Meyer V

Elizabeth and I visited with Mike Henness after the Auburn, California 49er Show on 07 December 2009. Ken Edward was also there with Mike. Mike used to have this web site (odd, I can not find it now) that pictured all of his figural bitters, many in color runs. This floored me back in 2002, put some wind in my sails and now I am now totally dedicated to color runs. I also have a number of Mike’s great bottles that have somehow found their way to me via an East Coast collector.

Mike has some really fine bottles. Of course I loved the Bitters Bottles but I really dug his Mineral and Soda Waters and various Gin Bottles. Mike has a good eye. A few of our visit pictures are shown below…

Checking Mike's Drakes Colors With my Own

Groovy Colors - Check out those IXL's

Lots and Lots of Killer Mineral Water Bottles

Some Drakes to Die For

Posted in Advice, Bitters, Collectors & Collections, Color Runs, Mineral Water, Soda Water | Tagged 49er Show, Auburn, bitters bottles, color runs, Drakes, Figural Bitters, gin bottles, IXL's, Ken Edwards, Mike Henness, mimeral water, Soda Water | Leave a comment

Thailand’s Million Beer Bottle Temple

Posted on 13 April 2011 by Ferdinand Meyer V

Thailand’s Million Beer Bottle Temple

13 April 2011

In Houston there is a very famous Folk Art House called the Beer Can House (pictured below). I was reminded of this after Carl Sturm sent me some great pictures of Thailand’s Million Beer Bottle Temple.

The Monk’s spent 25 years building this temple. 1.5 million beer bottles were used. It is the only temple in the world made entirely of beer bottles (go figure?). The project was started in 1984. The initial idea was to clean up beer bottle pollution. The end result is this stunning piece of cultural architecture.

See attached link for a PowerPoint… MillionBottleTemple

Beer Can House – Houston, Texas

Thailand Beer Bottle Temple Exterior

Thailand Beer Bottle Temple Detail

Posted in Art & Architecture, Breweriana, Folk Art, Humor - Lighter Side, Museums, News | Tagged Beer Bottle, Beer Can House, Carl Sturm, Houston, Million Beer Bottle, Monk, Thailand | Leave a comment

Peachridge Glass