$4.00
December 2021
Happy Holidays from the staff at AB&GC! T h e Ma g a z i n e T h at Ke eps Yo u I n fo r m e d!
Seeking quality consignments for our 2022 auction schedule!
American Glass Gallery
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American Glass Gallery • John R. Pastor • P.O. Box 227, New Hudson, Michigan 48165 phone: 248.486.0530 • www.americanglassgallery.com • email: jpastor@americanglassgallery.com
VOLUME 38, #8 • December 2021 FRONT COVER:
No matter how you dress up the Holidays, don't forget to take time to appreciate those closest to you. Tis the season for family and friends. Season's Greetings from all of us at AB&GC!
Publisher John R. Pastor
In This Issue:
Editors: Ralph Finch Bill Baab Jodi Hall
Letters to the Editor........................................................................... 2
Managing Editor Libby Smith The Medicine Chest John Panella Joe Widman New England Review Mike George Bitters Columnist Bob Strickhart Spouting off on Mineral Waters Donald Tucker Contributing Writers: Ralph Finch Kevin Sives Design, Layout & Production Jake Pluta
Heard it through the Grapevine......................................................... 4 Tom Askjem Really Digs America...................................................... 7 Fruit Jar Rambles: Two Unusual Product Jars, and a Farewell........ 17 Classified Advertisements................................................................. 22 Show Calendar.................................................................................. 26 Everything Old is New Again........................................................... 28 The Rensselaer Glass Works............................................................. 31 Jarring Coments from Tom Caniff................................................... 36 The Votes Have Been Tallied!............................................................ 38 Medicine Chest: Rushton & Aspinwall, a NYC Success Story........ 40
ANTIQUE BOTTLE & GLASS COLLECTOR (ISSN 8750-1481) is published monthly by Antique Bottle & Glass Collector, P.O. Box 227, New Hudson, MI 48165-0227. Annual Subscription $35.00 at periodical rates, $49.00 at First-class rates and $4.00 per single copy. Canadian (First-class rate available only) $54.00 (in U.S. Funds). Overseas rates please inquire. Published by Antique Bottle & Glass Collector, PO Box 227, New Hudson, MI 48165-0227. Periodicals Postage is paid at New Hudson MI and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to ANTIQUE BOTTLE & GLASS COLLECTOR, PO Box 227, New Hudson, MI 48165-0227. PH: 248.486.0530; Fax: 248.486.0538, Email: jpastor@americanglassgallery.com, Website: www.americanglassgallery.com. © Copyright 2021 all rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced in any way without written permission from the publisher.
Coming in January: Our Anniversary Bottle, by Ralph Finch Everything Old is New Again, Part 2, by Bob Strickhart Tom Askjem Digs America, Part 2, by Tom Askjem Early Georgia Sodas: A Book Review, by Bill Baab A Tale of Two Cities: Dr. Dunlap's Anchor Bitters, by Gordon Hubenet And other very cool stuff! December 2021
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LETTERS
to the Editor
A Lucky Find in the Great North of Canada Hi, John, It was interesting to read John Savastio’s two digging stories and what he found. It must be good timing about the Riker bottle, because I bought the same bottle but with its front and neck labels in a bottle auction lot here in the far great north in Canada. It did not have its stopper but I assume these were lost quite often after being discarded. When I first looked at it, I, too, thought it was a hair bottle due to the shape and color. Eventually it will return home, when I once again visit a bottle show. PS: We are the home of the longest covered bridge in the world! Stephen Dickinson Hartland, New Brunswick, Canada Editor’s note: See October’s AB&GC story “The COVID Bottles of 2020 Part 2.”
A Bridge to Canada’s Past Historical notes, edited by Ralph Finch Wikipedia reveals that “just off Hartland, New Brunswick, Canada, is by far the longest covered bridge extant in the world, at 390.75 meters long.” (1,282 feet). “Covered bridges date from the first decade of the 19th century when North American builders began using wooden trusses for long spans and covered them to prevent the truss joints from rotting. After 1840 the Howe truss, which introduced iron tension rods into the truss work, was widely adopted and New Brunswick erected numerous bridges using this technique, among them this one which was built in 1921, with the walkway being added in 1945.”
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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector
TOP: Stephen Dickinson's Riker's Septone Soap bottle, front and back. ABOVE: The world's longest covered bridge in Hartland, New Brunswick.
LETTERS
to the Editor
It’s interesting that, when the bridge was being constructed, “sermons were even preached in the area, cautioning how a ‘covered’ bridge would destroy the morals of the young people.” “Aspects of this site which contribute to its heritage values include the features of a long covered bridge, namely its construction design utilizing the Howe truss, in combination with wood framing, vertical weatherboarding and gabled roof, concrete piers and abutments, appended pedestrian walkway, wood shingle arched openings at either end and openings along its length, electrical lighting, and relationship with the river, roads and shoreline.” Also: “For some years after, snow had to be hauled each winter and placed on the bridge floor to allow horses hauling sleds to travel across it.” And one of the pleasures I’ve enjoyed as a writer was a report for the Detroit News when I visited, passed through and photographed all of the covered bridges remaining in Michigan.
A Little Help From an Astute Reader Hi, John, You had a query in your Letters to the Editor (November issue) from a gent in Delano, Tennessee. It was something about a manufacturing mark. What I was able to find was the CR&CO. Curling and Robertson was one (1834-57), and the other was Curling and Ringwalt (1857-63). Both were from Pittsburgh and specialized in pressed ware, lamp chimneys and ornamental ware. Being that he is from Tennessee, this would make sense. Hope this helped. Q &Co. was a bust. Phil Bernnard National Bottle Museum
A Train Connection: On The Right Track? I bought this circa 1850-65 Pittsburghtype pillar-molded flint glass bottle (at right) about thirty years ago, but only recently started to ponder a decor possibility. The piece measures 9.75 inches high, with a 4.75 inches diameter base. It has a single applied doughnut ring, round neck, and flat doughnut applied lip. It has the typical eight ribs, and a polished pontil. Often credited as largely being produced for the shipping trade, these heavy vessels with low center design would not easily tip during rough seas travel, though they may have had another group of clients. Upon finding this specimen in an antiques shop, someone had glued an electric lamp into the top, but thankfully didn’t drill the base for an electrical cord. The lamp’s wire was extremely old and dry-rotted, and the type of cement used to fasten to glass may have been horse glue, a type at one time made using horses hooves. In examining the top of bottle, the color of remnant glue can still be seen. Sadly, when removing the glued brass insert of lamp, I rushed the gun and proceeded to slice the metal with a hacksaw blade, then pry out the flange. Well, the cutting part worked out well, but the prying did not, thus incurring lip chipping. I had, for weeks prior, attempted to soak the top in a container of various solutions, but this did not resolve the adhered condition. Now, let’s get to the hand-painted decor. It is without doubt extremely old, and rendered by a past-adequate artist. Not sure if the plant is of grapes or a type of berries, but they are well done, including the veining to leaves.
The capitalized words spell CAR WINE. When I began pondering this after unpacking the piece after many years in storage, it made absolutely no sense why someone turning a bottle into a lamp back in the 1920s-30s would paint these words. Could the bottle have been used to carry wine in early cars? Perhaps, but this would seem more of a hassle than a help, considering bumpy car rides in turn of the century vehicles, and the sheer weight of glass full of liquid trying to pour out, or even lift to hold steady during driving excursions. Then, the dawn of reason bathed my brain to a possibility of the pillar-molded bottle having been used in an 1860s train’s club car, hence the painted words of CAR WINE. While my theory cannot as of yet be confirmed, maybe early photos of club car interiors might just reveal a pillar-molded bottle upon a table, and if discerning eyes look intently, a remote chance of wording shall spell CAR WINE. Dan Desmarais Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey December 2021
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Heard it through the
Grapevine
A ping-pong ball is light; a ball of solid coal is not. Did the seller actually try to launch a ball of coal? It might have gone one inch. (And unable to launch a glass target ball, period.) What really springs to mind is, “Why don’t people think?”
What’s It Like to be Robbed at Gun Point? Especially when it is with a 1914 wooden child’s toy By Ralph Finch It’s not the first time I’ve seen it done. I’ve been a witness to a crime before. It’s when an uneducated eBay seller offers an “Antique hand-held pitch or glass target ball launcher with pitch ball-circa 1914.” And this item, worth maybe $25 (more if complete) sold for $510 plus $10 shipping! There were four bids, which means: Four uneducated bidders or two uneducated bidders who bid twice. Sigh … Whatever, there is an eBay seller in Stillwater, Minn., who should be embarrassed. But, likely, he won’t be. People who don’t bother to inform themselves with a little research are happy not to be educated. (That’s how we end up with some of the politicians we get.) When I look at a few eBayers I’m reminded of American author and social critic H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) who is said to have written: “Nobody ever went broke
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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector
underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” OK, if you aren’t familiar with this, and most people aren’t, a little research will reveal that this is a kid’s toy that didn’t launch a target ball, but a ping-pong ball. And not only that, this device is incomplete. The original toy had a little catcher on the end. You’d shoot your ping-pong ball to another gamer and he’d try to catch the ball on his “gun.” A little history of this toy. When I produced a journal for target ball collectors, this item was often brought to my attention. I even owned one, just for the heck of it, and it could barely toss a ping-pong ball more than a few inches. In Issue XLVIII (Spring, 2011) I wrote (edited): One just sold for $50.99. In fact, two of these seven-inches-long toys have been sold as target ball throwers in the past, one for $300 in 1991, and another for $1,310!!! Another one of these, identical except for the printing of “Sporta” on the side, revealed that it was patented Jan. 23, 1914, by Harry A. Gould of St. Louis (Patent 1,100,728 for a “TOY PISTOL.”).
We’ll Drink to That (Not) Dear Readers, There are so many things collected in the States, but as you start looking around the world, things get even more different. Even strange. Ralph Finch made a visit to a recent Kiwi Auction in New Zealand and found something pretty much guaranteed you won’t see in the States (he hopes): “A 330mm tall china figure of Hongi Hika, the famous New Zealand Maori Chief, whose head forms the stopper for this Jim Beam decanter (empty).” If you wanted to collect this, it’s too late. It sold for $180 (NZ)!
Heard it through the
Grapevine Got Opium? I Just Missed My Dealer
Missing Bottle!
Suffering a major withdrawal, Ralph Finch laments:
COLUMBUS, Georgia – What is the absolutely worst experience collectors of antique bottles could ever suffer? Just ask Allen Woodall of Columbus. He’ll tell you.
By Bill Baab
My dealer, this time the Chicago Hindman auction firm’s Cincinnati branch, offered a late 1800s painted tin marked “Epps’s Opium Indica, James Epps & Co. London Est. 1839.” Hindman called it a “cannister” (I think they meant “canister”) and said it was 14 inches high.
When fellow collector Jack Hewitt recently visited Woodall to check out the latter’s museum, Woodall decided to show off one of his glass prizes, a cobalt blue John Ryan from the latter’s Columbus branch with an embossed capital R on the back.
The item was estimated at what I thought was a reasonable $300-$500. While I lived in Detroit for many years, I’m out of touch with the going rate for opium, but thought that was a fair price. But as I was about to bid on Lot 296, ever alert(?) I noted that the item sold 60 seconds before I signed onto “LiveAuctioneers.” Talk about a downer. It sold for $450 plus a 29 percent buyer’s premium. FYI: According to Wikipedia (edited), “The Epps family was well known in commerce and medicine. In the second half of the 18th century they had been settled near Ashford, Kent, for some generations, claiming descent from an equerry of Charles II, but were reduced in circumstances, when John Epps rose to prosperity as a provision merchant in *London, and restored the family fortunes. “He had four sons, of whom John Epps, George Napoleon Epps, and James Epps were notable men of their day, the two former were prominent doctors who were ardent converts to homoeopathy, and James was a homoeopathic chemist and the founder of the great cocoa business associated with his name.
r
So Woodall went to its hiding place in his office and was stunned when the ultra rare bottle could not be found. Some stickyfingered gent had preceded him.
Did you miss the 1960s? This nice Epps’s Opium container could bring back dreams of the past.
Wikipedia: “The Epps family was in every sense a phenomenal homeopathic family, comprising several homeopathic physicians and pharmacists. Their main pharmacy was established in 1839 at *Jermyn Street, SW1 1839, with other shops opening in 30 Upper King Street, Bloomsbury in 1840, and 112 Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury in 1842.”
r
*Apropos of nothing, but one of my fave restaurants in London is/was on Jermyn Street, except I could never afford to eat there! I could buy a nice target ball in England for the price of lunch on posh Jermyn Street, which dates back to 1664. It has flourished ever since and holds a worldwide reputation for London’s finest shops.
Woodall reported the theft to the Columbus Police Department and is taking his own steps in hopes of getting the bottle returned. One of those steps is this story about my friend’s great loss. So if one of you readers is offered the bottle, Woodall asks that you contact him at 1 (706) 332-6378. Another of his steps is that he is offering a $1,000 cash reward and will ask no questions if the bottle is returned.
Heard it through the Grapevine This information actually comes from Florida collector, Charlie Livingston, who is helping to spearhead the Suncoast Antique Bottle Collector’s 2022 Show. They are still working to finalize details of a new venue for an upcoming show to be held in Tampa on Saturday, February 5th. Watch our January issue for further details. In the meantime, for questions or information, please contact Charlie Livingston at 813.244.6898; email: mudfishy@aol.com. December 2021
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When You Discover Good Bottles & Glass... Send Them to Heckler’s! We welcome your conversation to discuss consignment options for a singular item, group or entire collection.
www. hecklerauction.com 860-974-1634 79 Bradford Corner Road, Woodstock Valley, CT 06282
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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector
Tom Askjem Really Digs America Give him time, and some day you’ll find him in your back yard By Tom Askjem PART I
T
om’s latest email sounds like all of his others. Hey, how have you been? I’ve been busy digging and working on my new book project but I’ll get to the book later. First off, I ended up digging not only a bottle that I thought I may never own, but three of them. In Search of the Vallandigham Hutches As you know, I’ve been a North Dakota resident my whole life, so naturally I’m drawn to Dakota bottles. With all the research I’ve done with the books, I’ve concluded rarity, examples known, etc. of many N.D. bottles. I’ve also gotten requests from collectors of the bottles they’re looking for.
There is one bottle that stuck out, The Sheyenne Bottling Works E.R. Vallandigham Hutchinson soda bottle from Valley City, N.D. There was only one example known. One of the most prominent N.D. collectors needed only that Hutch to complete his N.D. Hutch collection. He had been collecting since the 1980s. After finding all of this out, I decided to go on a hunt to find it. It started earlier this summer. After looking at maps of Valley City, I decided there wasn’t a lot of potential there, so I thought the surrounding area could have good potential. The first town I tried was Oriska, N.D., which is located just twelve miles from Valley City. I brought my friends Ethan and Jake along. The first lot we chose once had an old hotel on it. It was now vacant. I drove around and talked with some locals.
Hutches and another bottle from Fargo.
It turned out the first person I spoke with was on the city board. I found out that the lot was now owned by the city. He gave me the go ahead to probe, though he also told me that I would need to secure permission to dig. He informed us that a house stood on the rear of the property after the hotel was torn down, so it may be a bust. We started probing and after about a half hour probed out a potential dig site. I then made some calls and got the mayor’s phone number. I gave him a call and explained to him what I do. He said to OK it with one other person from the city council and told me where I could find them. I found them and spoke with them for a bit and got the go-ahead to start digging. We laid out tarps and opened up the dig site. It probed out roughly 6 feet long
and 3 feet wide. We hit an ash layer at about the 3-foot mark. We then started finding a mix of some machine-made and tooled-top bottles. This wasn’t a bad start considering the bottle we were looking for dated from 1898-1904. After a few more feet we had pulled up many ironstone fragments, some broken soap dishes stamped with “Hotel” and machine-made crown-top soda from Moorhead, Minnesota. The bottom foot or so was mostly all tooled-top bottles, though had nothing in particular that we were looking for — just a few extract bottles and a common patent med or two. The pit bottomed out and although we didn’t find the Vallindigham bottle, I felt accomplished. We dug our first pit in the area and found some bottles. December 2021
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Some of the haul from Oriska.
We then decided to go after the train station pit. The guy from the city board mentioned that the city also maintains that lot, so we went over there and started gridding it out. The ground was very hard-packed. North Dakota was in a heavy drought this year so probing was tough. We started gridding out the area and found a potential site. It seemed like a big pit, so we decided to call it a day and come back tomorrow. I live roughly an hour from Oriska. Ethan and Jake live a half hour in the other direction, so we decided to meet at my place and go from there. We got out there at about noon. We started digging and at a foot down we started to hit a bunch of rocks. We continued through and eventually started finding stove ashes. Then bottles. We found some tooled-top extract bottles and then some tooled-top drug store bottles. The pit kept going and I pulled up a Hutchinson soda from Fargo, North Dakota. It was from the American Bottling Association. I was stoked. I’m mainly a soda collector, so finding a Hutch from my home state is always a thrill. The pit was starting to get deep and we decided to widen it out. At about the 7- foot mark my buddy, Ethan, mentioned a couple sheriff vehicles were pulling up. I thought he was joking and went back to digging. I then heard him say hi to someone and I heard another voice. I looked up and saw two guys in uniform. At this point I was down too deep to get out alone so Ethan helped pull me out.
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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector
The first thing I said when I got out was “Someone must have called about us?” One of the guys said “Yeah, someone said there were some guys digging a big hole.” I then explained to them what we were doing and showed them a few newspapers I’d been in and a couple books I had written. I also informed them that we had permission to be digging there. I name-dropped a couple guys from the city board and everything checked out. I showed them a few bottles and the deep pit. They said it was one of the coolest calls they had been on and said when we were done that we should check out Nome, N.D. They said there were some old buildings out there that may have potential. They stuck around for a few minutes and then went on their way. All in all they were really cool about the whole thing. Shortly after they left I found the bottom of the pit. It was at about the 8-foot mark. I started digging across and pulled out two more American Bottling Association Hutches from Fargo, N.D. I then found the edge. The pit was roughly 8 feet deep, 8 feet long and 4 feet wide. We found many bottles, though most were slicks. I was very happy with the Fargo Hutches, though there was no sign of a Valley City bottle. I thought maybe the old city dump could have potential but decided to hold off for a bit, because I would likely need to bring in an excavator and didn’t want to overwhelm anyone in town.
We were worn out by the time we got the depot privy filled back in. We decided to call it a day. I had to drop Jake and Ethan off first in Grand Forks/East Grand Forks so it was a long drive after all the digging. I was absolutely wrecked by the time I got home. The next morning Ethan had to work so it was just Jake and me. We decided to check a couple of other spots in Oriska and then possibly head to Nome. After checking out Oriska for a while and getting turned down on the railroad boarding house lot, we headed for Nome. I looked at some old maps and confirmed there were some vacant lots where some old businesses once stood. I drove around for a while, checking out the lots and looking for any signs of life. I had just about given up on finding anyone home and was on my way out of town when I saw a guy out in his yard. I stopped and talked with him. Of all people, he was the guy who wrote the Nome history book. I showed him some of the books I had written. We talked for a bit and I asked about the vacant lots. He informed me they were owned by the city. That included two hotel sites and the store site. The train tracks had been pulled up there so the depot site was also vacant. He told us where to find the mayor. I gave a little presentation and he granted permission to dig. We decided to check out the depot site first, being that it was overgrown and would be the least invasive. The depot was built in 1901, so there was great potential to find Valley City Hutchinson bottles. There wasn’t a lot of reference to where anything had stood, other than a rough outline of where the tracks had been and a road. We took some measurements and started gridding it out, though it was getting late. We decided to call it a day and make the brutal two-hour drive back home. I would normally have camped, but it was very hot out, plus I spend so much time on the road, it’s nice to sleep in my own bed when I can.
The next day started out with me picking up Jake from East Grand Forks. Our friend Randy was planning to meet us out there and was there when we arrived. Most of the day was spent gridding, probing and digging. The ground was so hard that even in the grassy areas we needed a hammer drill to get through it. We found a couple of suspect areas and started digging. It was still hot out so we kept having to take breaks in the car with the AC on full blast. After a couple hours of digging we found that both spots we had probed out were busts. All we found were some pieces of coal and rubble from a building (likely the depot). We finished gridding the areas that seemed to have the most potential and didn’t find anything else. I started to think that maybe the pit had been dipped long ago and that there was nothing to be found. I decided to give it one last try and walked further back from where the depot had stood. I started drilling random test holes and found a location where the bit dropped in. I probed it and sure enough there was some ash and glass. I called Jake and Randy over to show them. I started finding the dimensions of the pit and concluded it was big, maybe six feet by ten feet. In no time we had it opened up and started finding glass. At first it was only machine-made cork top bottles and then a mix of tooled and machine-made. I knew the site had great potential so we continued. There were many beer and liquor bottles. Most were slicks, though there were a few generic embossed ones. Bottle after bottle came out. Most of them were whiskies and beers. At that point everything dated to about 1915. What was interesting to me about this is that the sale of alcohol was prohibited in North Dakota at that time. This indicated that there was very likely a blind pig, or illegal saloon, being run out of the place.
Tom poses with the bottles from Nome.
Do note that from what I’ve gathered, though the sale of alcohol was prohibited in North Dakota, possession was still legal and that alcohol was still federally legal. Folks would evade liquor laws by ordering the alcohol in by mail and then charging admission into the saloons. They would then “give” the alcohol away. Other than liquor bottles, we were finding many drug store bottles and fragments of blue and white china dinnerware. The dinnerware implied that there was likely a restaurant being run in connection with the depot and blind pig. While digging, I noticed embossing in one of the larger crown top bottles. I carefully pulled the bottle out and was blown away. It read “Sheyenne Bottling WorksStevens & Co Props-Valley City, ND.” It was a quart tooled-top crown soda bottle. Note this wasn’t the Vallandigham Hutch we were looking for, though it is a really good bottle. I believe there is only one other example known. Now I’ll explain the embossing: Vallandigham sold the Sheyenne Bottling Works to Stevens & Co. in 1904. Stevens was only with the company for a short time and by about 1905 he wasn’t involved. This indicated that the
Stevens & Co. bottles were only produced for some time in 1904. We were getting closer. I then saw the mug base to a Hutch. I brushed off the lettered and saw “ABA.” This was a generic Hutch used by the American Bottling Association. They had branches in Fargo, Grand Forks and Carrington, N.D. I was very happy to find it. Shortly after, I had finished that side of the pit and started digging across. I found more dinnerware fragments and more slick alcohol containers plus a red wing whiskey jug. We had nearly finished the pit, though we decided we would need to move across and dig another hole. It was undermining hard and I didn’t feel safe digging much further. We filled in that part and headed back. I was alone the next day and again it was hot out. I dug the last section of the pit down and found a few more slick whiskey bottles and another jug. I totaled the bottles at 181. Here’s a list: Nome Depot: 27 food bottles; 54 beers; 9 bitters; 14 ketchups; 33 drugstore bottles; 2 hair bottles; 1 Bromo; 2 soda; 30 whiskies; 3 patent meds; 1 shoe polish; 1 cold cream; 4 round chemical bottles; 1 whiskey jug; 181 bottles. December 2021
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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector
After that I decided to head home for the day. As mentioned, it was hot and I had been working alone. I was spent. The next day I had my friend, Randy, to help. We decided to try one of the hotel lots on the south side of Main Street. We found out that the whole south side had burned in about 1920, so there was a good chance that there would be some older stuff there and we wouldn’t have to sort through too much modern junk. We started gridding it out and after a while found a couple suspect areas. The ground was still hard packed, so we had to use a hammer drill to make pilot holes for the probe. We found four locations. One by one we dug them. The first one turned out to be a hotel pit based on the dinnerware marked “HOTEL” on bottom. We ended up getting a few crown top sodas out of that one. The other three were busts, though one yielded a few broken Fargo, N.D. Hutches also from the American Bottling Association. We decided to do some more research and found out the other hotel wasn’t built until 1910, so the odds of finding the bottles we were looking for was slim to none. Across the street where the mayor lived was where the pool hall once stood. I asked him about digging and he told us to wait until he got back from vacation. He was leaving within a few days and would be back after a week or so. This gave me down time to check out the Oriska dump. I spoke with the mayor about bringing in an excavator. He gave me the go-ahead and I made arrangements for a large excavator to be dropped PHOTOS (previous page, clockwise from top left): An ABA Hutch and a Sheyenne Bottling Works bottle from Valley City, N.D. A Western Bottling Works bottle from Moorhead, Minnesota (middle) flanked by two other finds. Tom poses with more prizes from the dig. One of the Gargoyle Mobil Oil signs. An easy and quick way to fill a privy dig.
off a couple days later. The dump consisted of a 300-foot by 300-foot area with huge mounds of dirt. The dump had been abandoned sometime in the 1980s, so I knew there would be a lot of modern junk to sort through. After a day or so the excavator was dropped off. We showed up that morning. I decided to start at the back and work my way forward. I brought my Dad along that day. He thought the whole thing was interesting, plus it helped having someone there to grab bottles rolling out of the bucket. The first few scoops I took yielded some stove ashes and cow bones which appeared to have some decent age. I dug around the area, not finding much else and then started digging toward the big mound, assuming the earliest stuff would be in the middle. Right away there was plastic junk and 1980s beer bottles. As I dug further the age didn’t change much. I then started finding some 1950s ACL sodas. Most were 7-UP. I kept digging and again found new junk. The dump was no doubt mixed up from when it was buried. I then started finding bits of aqua and clear Hemingray insulators. Then some whole examples. There were hundreds of them, though most were broken. I figure every insulator on the line running through the town was dumped there. We ended up with a couple pails full of aqua ones. While digging I found a few porcelain enamel signs. Most of them were deteriorated from being in the ground but we got a couple Gargoyle Mobil Oil signs that were kind of cool. I had dug just about to the center of the dump and didn’t see much change in age, so I decided to go to the back again. There was a smaller mound that I dug into. We found a couple Art Deco “Sheyenne Bottling Works” soda bottles and a couple Donald Duck ACLs. The area was still somewhat mixed up but had better age.
After finishing the back, I dug around the corners of the dump and found a couple BIMAL crown tops from Fargo. After digging the back, corners and a trench into the center I concluded the dump didn’t have the age we were looking for. I filled everything back in and leveled it off. I decided to pull the plug on the excavator rental being it was somewhat costly and the dump wasn’t producing enough to make it worthwhile. My next prospect was Dazey, N.D. Dazey is located about 30 miles from Valley City. There were some maps that showed building locations and there was definitely some potential. Again a lot of the vacant lots where early businesses once stood were on city property. I got a hold of the mayor and asked about digging. Justin was his name. I explained my process and what I was looking for. He seemed intrigued and basically said to have at it. I called in locates (the call before you dig number) being the ground was so hard packed. It took a few days to get everything marked. The first spot I decided to dig was where a Territory-era saloon had once stood on Main Street. The saloon was closed down due to North Dakota entering as a dry state. There was then a drugstore operating out of the building. After Prohibition ended there was another bar there. Dazey, like a lot of towns around North Dakota, didn’t get indoor plumbing until the 1960s or ’70s. This means there are A LOT of modern pits to sift through before finding the old one. After a few days I got a notification that everything had been marked out. My Dad had again volunteered to come with and help out. As soon as we got into town we were met by a local, Gary. He had been mayor prior to Justin. Gary was now retired, though knew a lot about the town. He was a great guy. He helped with connecting us to other locals and later on with lining up more permissions and even filling in the sites with a tractor. December 2021
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The following day I was on my own. I dug another bust pit on the saloon lot, finished probing it out and, after not finding anything else, decided to check out where the old pool hall and hotel once stood.
L.E. Nelson / City Drug Store / Fargo, D.T.
Gary hung around most of the day while we dug a few bust sites: a couple of modern privies and one older ash dump. I started worrying that maybe the original pits had been dipped. I probed out three more at the end of the day and decided to open them up the following. My Dad again volunteered to help out and I was hoping to show him a good bottle dig. The next day we opened the pits one at a time. The first one of the day was modern. The next one was on the other side of the property from the newer ones, so I had my hopes up. In the backfill I started finding tooled-top drugstore bottles. That was promising. I then started finding applied top beer bottles and coffin whiskeys. Saloon pit. Just being in a pioneerera pit is good enough for me, whether or not I’m finding anything I’m looking for; it’s always interesting to see what the pioneer era folks were using. It was a well-used pit and had no end in sight. I found a broken chamber pot, more liquor bottles and a bunch of Bachelor’s Hair Dye bottles. At this point I was digging with a stick and a plastic scooper so that I wouldn’t risk breaking anything. Then all of a sudden I saw a larger clear bottle. I flipped it over and right away I knew it was a good one: “City Drug Store-L.E. Nelson-Fargo, D.T.” Even better, it was a 12-ouncer and mint.
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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector
These digs don’t happen often, so I was definitely living for the moment. I finished the pit shortly after finding the drug store bottle, bottoming out at about 7 feet. Nothing more came out other than a broken beer and a few more hair dye bottles. We got it filled back in and opened up another pit. It actually turned out to have plastic in it. I rifled a test hole down, making sure there wasn’t a change in age. Nothing. I then opened up another that was in line with the first ones we had dug. I didn’t have much faith in it, though I had to know. I opened it up and right away started finding broken drug store bottles. I assumed it was a pit from when the drug store was there. It wasn’t a big pit, bottoming out at 4 feet or so. There were a good few broken drug store bottles, though nothing had local embossing. I did end up with a citron Whittemore shoe polish bottle and an olive oil bottle from Santa Barbara, California. During the dig I met a local historian. His name was Rodney. He was very helpful with telling us about local history and even did a bunch of research for me. He was into metal detecting so I told him he could detect whatever we dug up and that he could keep whatever he found. The pit finished up shortly after and we left for the day.
The second generation pool hall building is still there, but actually it’s now Punky’s Bar. The first generation pool hall and the hotel burned circa 1910. I spoke with the owner of the property. Anita was her name. She gave me permission to dig and I started gridding out the parking lot. The only issue was that my hammer drill batteries and charger were left back home. The area I was probing was a gravel parking lot, so the hammer drill was essential. I quit early for the day and needed the rest anyway, so it all worked out. The next day my friend Jake said he would help out again. We started by drilling through the parking lot and probing every few feet. It took all day but when we finished we had a couple pits probed out. They were big. Roughly 8 by 4. I sunk a 7.5-foot rod into them, indicating they should be good. We decided to dig them the following day. We got there around 11 a.m. and had to bust through the gravel with a hammer drill and after a while got down into the pit. At first we hit some modern post-Prohibition junk but I knew the pit was deep so there was some good potential of there being some earlier things. Sure enough at about the 5- to 6-foot level I started finding some tooled top whiskey bottles. Tons of them! It was almost just bottles stacked on top of each other. Many of the flasks were embossed with “Issac Weil & Sons-Minneapolis.” I had seen these before. They were fairly common, though they had good age for what we were in search of. Most of them had tooled tops so that was promising. More and more whiskey bottles came out and then I found the bottom. It was roughly 9-feet deep, 6 long and 3 wide.
I cleaned the side out and then climbed up out of there. I was amazed with how many bottles were found. There were 161! Of those there were 49 drugstore bottles, 35 whiskey quarts, 49 whiskey pints, 3 bitters, 13 beers, 2 tincture bottles, 8 extracts, 1 patent medicine and one sample medicine. I concluded that the pool hall also had a blind pig being run out of it. None of the bottles were really anything we were in search of. All of the drugstore and bitters bottles were slicks. The embossed liquor bottles were all somewhat generic, most of them being Hayners from Ohio. The pit dated from about 1905-1920, which fit the timeframe for the pool hall. After filling the pit in we called it quits for the day. The bar we were digging behind was going to be open the next day, so we decided to hold off on digging the other parking lot pit until they were closed again. This meant we would now start gridding out the west side of the bar’s property behind where the hotel once stood. There were a couple obvious spots that had settled, so we tried those first. There was definitely a difference in compaction. We opened up the big one first. We got down to about the 4 foot mark and started finding post-Prohibition bottles. Broken ACLs and art deco sodas plus many screw top bottles. I was amazed that there was anything newer than 1910 in there, being there was no record of a building standing on that lot after the fire. Later, I concluded that the hotel lot had been sold to the guy who rebuilt the pool hall. I was hoping the age would change once we got to the bottom of the pit but it didn’t. It appeared to not be an outhouse pit either, but a junk pit. Aside from post-Prohibition bottles, there was part of a Model T frame in it and a sickle mower blade arm. After digging it down to about 6 feet and tunneling down to bottom at about 8 feet, we decided to fill it in and call it a day.
The collection from the pool hall dig.
I had taken the following day off to go walk the river, being that it was really low because of the drought. We were hoping to find some old bottles but didn’t find anything remarkable in that category, but we did end up with some old bison bones. The following day we went back to the bar lot. The bar was closed that day so we decided to try the pit in the parking lot plus an ash pit that was on the edge of it. We decided to dig the ash pit first, because I don’t have much faith in ash pits around here. I figured we would be worn out later and the adrenaline of being in the better pit would keep me going. We were met by Gary, who talked with us for a while. He then said that he would open the pits up for us with the tractor.
must have saved us a half hour or more. He got down to about the 3-foot level and started hitting ashes. I still wasn’t convinced that the site had much potential, so I asked him to take another scoop. At that point I noticed some glass and thought we should start digging by hand. In no time we were pulling out bottles. Most of them were ketchup and liquor with the occasional slick drug store bottle. We also found a few A.M. Smith wine bottles from Minneapolis. They were dated 1914. Based on the other pieces were were finding, I would say that was definitely around the time the trash was thrown in. The pit was deeper and wider than I had expected and had significantly more than the probe had indicated.
He drove up to the site and took a few scoops. As mentioned, this was not an excavator; it was a tractor with a sort of loader bucket on it. The bucket measured about 8-feet across. Every scoop he took
I started tunneling across and noticed a large crock fragment. Though it was just a fragment I was excited, being that I don’t usually see pieces that big. I thought it had to be from a 20-gallon crock. I tried December 2021
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By now we were at about the 6-foot level and had just about finished the site. I was cleaning out the edges when I saw the mug base of what appeared to be a soda bottle. I cleared out around it and carefully pulled it out. It was another American Bottling Association Hutch from Fargo. It was mint. I felt accomplished. Hutchinson soda bottles are very difficult to find around North Dakota. This is likely due to late settlement and the cold climate. Though the ABA Hutches are more common among the N.D. Hutches, it was still a great find. What’s even more remarkable is that it was just about the last bottle pulled from the site. In no time the pit was finished and we called Gary, who came with the tractor to fill it in. I thought we would have had time to dig the other but it was already getting late. We decided to leave the other one for tomorrow. I made the two hour drive back to drop off Jake and then headed home. I was driving 4-5 hours per day plus digging and was exhausted. We were getting permissions to dig and had plenty of dig sites lined up though, so it was definitely worth it.
TOP: Tom in the middle of an excavation. ABOVE: Tom with the 20=gallon Red Wing crock.
pulling at it but it was lodged. I didn’t want to risk breaking anything around it so I started to carefully dig it out. Bucket after bucket full of dirt the crock piece was exposed. I pulled it out and didn’t see any stenciling, though I noticed some more pieces. I kept digging and eventually had a pieced-together 20-gallon Red Wing crock. It seemed to be an earlier slip-glazed example with a double birch leaf design.
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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector
Jake decided to take the following couple of days off. I asked my Dad if he would help out and he agreed. We made the hour and a half long drive there and opened up the other site on the pool hall lot, which I was certain was a privy. This one was also in the parking lot, so we had to use a jackhammer bit on the hammer drill to break up the gravel. After getting through the gravel I dug it down several feet only to find post-Prohibition machine-made bottles. This was somewhat discouraging. I knew that it could have earlier pieces the deeper I went, so I decided to dig a test hole down. In the process I found a 1940s ACL 7-UP bottle. The bottle was from the Jamestown Bottling Works of Jamestown, N.D. I am a soda bottle collector, so finding this was a bit of a prize. Though the pit wasn’t as early as I had hoped, I thought maybe there would be a
rare ACL in there somewhere. A rare one from this part of the country would be a Gilles Beverages from Wahpeton, N.D. Those bottles are from the 1930s and have Snow White’s Seven Dwarves featured on them. I know they are extremely rare and the odds of digging one are slim to none, though I continued. I dug around for a while and after another hour or so had seen enough. I dug it down to bottom at 7 or 8 feet and didn’t even find another piece of an ACL soda. We filled it back in and opened up another spot that I thought would have good potential. This next one was directly behind where the hotel had once stood next door. It probed out at roughly 4- by 4-foot wide and I had sunk a 7.5-foot probe into it. I thought for sure this would be the jackpot. I started digging and found a few slick tooled top pharmacy bottles. This was a good start. I kept digging and at about the 4- to 5-foot mark started finding early machine-made bottles. They post-dated the bottles I had found in the upper layers, which was strange. All the layers seemed to be intact, so I had ruled out the possibility that it had been disturbed. There also wasn’t much in it. Don’t get me wrong, it was loaded with seeds and was no doubt a well-used pit, it’s just that there wasn’t more than a few broken plate fragments and a few small machine-made cork top and screw-top bottles. I kept digging in hopes that the site would produce.
r Editor’s note: Little did Tom know, but he was just about to uncover the Holy Grail. In the next issue of AB&GC magazine, the story continues as Tom digs among his 1,300 privies.
r CONTINUED NEXT ISSUE!
December 2021
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R E N O 2 022
FOHBC RENO NATIONAL ANTIQUE BOTTLE CONVENTION WESTERN REGION
Thursday, July 28 - Sunday, July 31, 2022 Antique Bottle Show & Sales, Bottle Competition, Early Admission, Seminars, Displays, Awards Banquet, Membership Breakfast, Bowling Competition, Silent Auction, Raffle, Children’s Events and more... $5 General Admission Saturday and Sunday half day
Go to FOHBC.org for hotel booking information, schedule and dealer contracts. Hotel rooms will go fast!
Richard & Bev Siri (Show Chairs) rtsiri@sbcglobal.net
Eric McGuire (Seminars, Keynote Speaker) etmcguire@comcast.net
John Burton (Displays) JohnCBurton@msn.com
Ferdinand Meyer V (Marketing & Advertising) fmeyer@fmgdesign.com
DeAnna Jordt (Show Treasurer) dljordt@yahoo.com
Gina Pellegrini (Event Photographer) angelina.pellegrini@gmail.com
TEAM RENO
Info: FOHBC.org
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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector
Fruit Jar Rambles Extra By Tom Caniff — Photos by Deena Caniff
I began writing the “Fruit Jar Rambles” in April 1999, to replace “Granny Kath’s Kitchen,” written for years by the noted Vivian “Granny” Kath of Mountainburg, Arkansas, and this month my column, too, comes to an end. The surprising thing after writing about so many jars in the “Fruit Jar Rambles,” “The Label Space,” and “The Fruit Jar News” is that I finish with a couple product jars of which I’d never heard until just recently. But first...
THE SNH JAR About 20 years ago, in January 2002, a couple years after I began writing the “Fruit Jar Rambles,”, I speculated, in THE FRUIT JAR NEWS about the meaning of the letters on the Australian fruit jar in Photo 1. Were they intended to be read as “S N H” or “N S H?” The wide-mouth, old-style lightningclosure jar isn’t rare, being known in clear and aqua, in both ground- and smooth-lip styles, in quart and half-gallon sizes, according to Susan Sieling’s ©️1979 EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT AUSTRALIAN FRUIT JARS. But since the jar doesn’t have any fancy monograms or animals, such as the CHICAGO or UNICORN jars, some collectors were curious about just what it was. Was it a product jar or a canning jar? Getting background information about foreign jars can be difficult, and that includes the Australian jars, although there has been a fair amount published about them and their New Zealand cousins. There was a story in Australia around that time that I’d heard from two sources that suggested that the SNH jars may have been used by the North Shore Hospital, in Sydney, Australia. One Australian eBay seller from New South Wales in January 2001, who was offering an “NSH Preserv-
ing Jar,” explained that it’s “A very hard to find jar. I believe it stands for ‘North Shore Hospital.’” This theory was short on details, however. What would the jar have been used for? Did the hospital actually can fruits and vegetables to feed to its patients? And, unless we read it in an uppy-downy fashion, why would the initials on the jar appear to read SNH, rather than NSH? I was fascinated with this story the first time I heard it, but no corroboration of any type had been forthcoming, and I was beginning to suspect that this was just one of those jar myths that’s easier to repeat than to try to solve. So, I contacted an official of the Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, who had no knowledge of the jars, but she commented that the hospital’s official name was Royal North Shore Hospital, which would then have been abbreviated as “RNSH” rather than “NSH.” She promised to pass my inquiry on to others at the hospital, but I received no further communication. With no other leads to follow, questions about the S N H jar languished until the discovery of a Lasseter’s ad in the March 23, 1916 edition of the SYDNEY (Australia) MORNING HERALD (Figure A). The ad offered, under the heading of “Glass Preserving Jars, White Glass, Superior Quality,” Lightning Jars, Mason Jars, Signal Jars, and “S. N. H. JARS, wide mouth, spring top” in both quart and half-gallon sizes. A previous 1909 Lassetter’s catalog had offered the Australian AMERICAN (eagle & flag) FRUIT JAR but no S. N. H. jars. And where did the periods after the letters come from, since none are found on the jars themselves? PHOTO 1: Australian S N H jar filled with fruit. FIGURE A: Lassetter's 1916 ad fro S.N.H. JARS. FIGURE B: Lassetter's ad circa 1900.
December 2021
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Fruit Jar Rambles Extra By Tom Caniff — Photos by Deena Caniff
With roots back to 1850, F Lassetter & Co., one of the largest ironmongers in Sydney, sold everything over the years from steam engines, agricultural machinery and tools, to builders’ hardware, light fittings, kitchen ranges, fireplace grates and cutlery. By the end of the 19th century, Lassetter’s had become a true universal provider with the addition firstly of glassware, crockery and furniture departments, and then after 1894, of drapery, millinery, tailoring and groceries. The back cover of a circa-1900 Lassetter catalog (Figure B) gives an idea of the extent of their buildings at that time. By 1910 the company claimed to employ nearly 1000 workers. Lassetter’s apparently owned the rights to one or more of their preserving jars, such as the “FRISCO” FRUIT JAR (Photo 2), which displays Lassetter’s (Crown figure) A1 TRADE MARK above the F L CO monogram. But there’s no indication that the S N H jars were Lassetter’s exclusively, and a further search discovered an earlier ad in the Jan. 23, 1914 TAMWORTH DAILY OBSERVER for “S. N. H. Jars” in quart and 2-quart sizes offered by P. G. Smith & Co., Ltd., a firm with outlets in London, Sydney, and Tamworth (Figure C). And so, while we have two sellers and a 1914-1916 time period, we still don’t know what the S N H initials stand for.
KERN’S FINE FOODS In August 2021, while browsing the eBay jar listings on the internet, I came across an auction listing for the two clear KERN’S FINE FOODS jars (Photo 3), complete with original labels, jars that I had neither seen nor heard of in over 40 years of collecting fruit and product jars. PHOTO 2: Lassetter's FRISCO A1 TRADE MARK (F L C O monogram) FRUIT JAR. FIGURE C: 1914 ad for S.N.H. Jars.
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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector
Now, I’ve still never seen one of these somewhat-oval, tapered jars, other than in photos, but they appear to be embossed on both the front and reverse shoulders, KERN’S FINE FOODS, with a D- number on the base that I’ve not been able to read clearly or identify. The jars are of the style known as Design Patent jars for the DES. PAT. lettering and number often found on their bases; their design description would take in their shape and the side designs shown in Photo 4. Various Design Patent jars were quite popular in the 1930s and early 1940s. The bead-neck jars take regular-size metal screw caps. The two jars offered on eBay have different Kern’s labels. The jar on the left has a wedge-shaped, black-and-silver foil label that reads “Kern’s Crystal Brand Pure Concord Grape Jelly Net Weight 2 Lbs. Packed By Kern Food Products, Inc. Los Angeles, Calif.” The righthand jar has a multicolored label lettered “Kern’s Pure Strawberry Preserves Net Weight 2 Lbs. Delicious Wholesome Kern Food Prod., Inc. Los Angeles.” In March 1991, an obituary for Charles Kern, chief executive officer of Kern Industries, stated in the LOS ANGELES TIMES that Charles’ father, “a German immigrant, bought California Vinegar Co. in Los Angeles in 1923. Nine years later the company was incorporated and its name changed to Kern Foods Inc.” In March 1933, the VAN NUYS NEWS, Van Nuys, California, carried an ad by the Van Nuys Model Market offering “Kern’s Jams Assorted 2 lb. 6 oz. jars” for 22¢ each. In the early 1950s, Charles E. Kern encouraged and oversaw the company’s expansion, making it a major manufacturer of tomato products, jams, jellies, and fruit drinks. In August 1955, the FOOD PACKER reported that Kern Food
Fruit Jar Rambles Extra By Tom Caniff — Photos by Deena Caniff
Products, Inc., 6453 Bandini Blvd., Los Angeles 22, had changed its name to Kern Foods, Inc., helping to date our two jars. In June 1986, Kern Foods was said to have plants throughout California.
r And that’s it, boys and girls. I tried retiring the “Fruit Jar Rambles” a couple years back, but I just couldn’t quite let go, which resulted in the more recent “Fruit Jar Rambles Extra” columns, but age and health have finally convinced me that after 32 years of writing “jar stuff” it’s definitely time. Thanks for reading and responding to my columns. May you all continue enjoying jars for years to come. God bless!
PHOTO 3 (above): Two jars shoulder-embossed Kern's Fine Foods. PHOTO 4 (right): Side design on Kern's jar.
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WANTED
Greer #s of the mint state #1265 United States Syrup #1685 United States Syrup #1383 Dr. Perkins’ Syrup #5 Arthurs Renovating Syrup #778 Halls / Palingenesia / Or Regenerator
Also non Greer bottles of the mint state Dr. C.W. Robacks Scandinavien Blood Purifier Cincinnati, O, IP
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John Keating P.O. Box 13255 Olympia, WA 98508 360-628-9576 johnkeating473@yahoo.com
WANTED: Clarke’s Vegetable Sherry Wine Bitters, Sharon, Mass. All bottle sizes & variants…pontil/smooth base. Also, ANY ephemera..newspaper ads, invoices, letterhead, etc.
THANK YOU. Charlie Martin Jr. 781-248-8620, or cemartinjr@comcast.net
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For Sale d FOR SALE: 1. 1.7/8 tall clear dose glass, fine condition, circa 1901-10. Embossed in capitols in outlined oval: Steuben Sanitarium Hornell, N.Y. Based embossed: W. T. Co. AL U.S.A. Rare find, $125 2. 2.3/8" tall, brown glazed mini-jug, white base signed in black: Gordy's pottery Greenville Georgia. Original old flush cork and two like red tags twinetied to handle reading: Dat good ole GA. corn bottled in Georgia. Perfect condition, age evident. $75. Note: lowest prices quoted include first class shipping and recipientrequired signature. Photos available. DAN, 973-934-3770. 1/22
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FELLOW COLLECTORS/DEALERS: Please, if at all possible, include a name and phone number with your advertisements. Not everyone has a computer, and an address does help. Thank you for your consideration. 12/21 FOR SALE: "Georgia Straight Side Script CocaCola Bottles, The Complete 72 City Collection of Jeff Weinberg, A Pictorial Identification Guide." The book consists of 35 years of diligent and focused bottle collecting. 152 pages with over 750 full color photographs, it offers well-researched information on all 72 known Georgia cities that used script Coca-Cola bottles between 1902 and 1915 and features pictures of nearly every bottle variant made by 8 different glass makers during that time period. Also offered are scarcity and value tiers,
bottle hunting anecdotes, and many original achievements. Only 300 copies were printed with the first 100 signed and numbered. Makes a great Christmas gift! To order, send F&F Paypal pmt to oldhouse156@yahoo.com or mail to JEFF WEINBERG, 156 Boulevard, Athens, GA 30601. The cost is $49.95 + $6.00 shipping. JEFF WEINBERG. 12/21 FOR SALE: Citrine The Ripley Company, New York, 4 7/8 in, $75. Teal Shuptrine Druggist, Savannah, GA 3oz, $300. Teal J.B. Schroeder Druggist, Raton, New Mexico, 4 5/8 in, $1200. Green The Campbell Drug Co, The Central Druggist, Fostoria, Ohio 3oz, $75. Cobalt George Dart Pharmacist Tuxedo Park, NY, 5 1/4 in, $60. Each plus postage. BILL SIMON, 719-239-1923, leave message or text. 12/21
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FOR SALE: 1. Warner's Safe Kidney and Liver Cure, Rochester, N.Y.,, amber, 9 1/4", $25 2. Warner's Safe Rheumatic Cure, amber/orange,, 9 1/4", $100 3. Warner's Safe Cure, Melbourne, Aus., London, England, Rochester, N.Y., USA, Toronto, Canada, Rochester, N.Y., USA, beautiful yellow, 9 1/2", $200 4. Bourbon Whiskey Bitters, 9 1/4", cherry puce, 2 imperfections on lip, beautiful in sunlight, $300 5. Cathedral Pickle, 9 1/2", aqua, $125 6. Warner's Safe Cure, red/amber, 9 1/2", $125. GRACE DESHOTELS, Phone: 337783-7391. 2/22
Shows, Shops & Services d ATTENTION COLLECTORS (or the curious) - Don't miss the 54th ANNUAL GOLDEN GATE HISTORICAL BOTTLE SOCIETY'S BOTTLES, ANTIQUES AND COLLECTIBLES SHOW AND SALE at the Contra Costa Event Park (Sunset Hall) in Antioch CA. Friday, 4/22: noon to 5pm ($10) and Saturday, 4/23: 9am to 3pm (free). You'll find bottles, collectibles and "go-withs." For more info, contact GARY ANTONE at 925-373-6758 or packrat49er@netscape. net. 3/22 Bottles, Planters Peanut, Glass of the Depression Era, Lots of Antiques. 50 WEST ANTIQUES, 540-686-0291, 2480 Northwestern Pike, Winchester, VA 22603. 12/21 BOTTLE SHOW QUALITY ALL THE TIME! A large selection of Saratoga and other mineral waters, and the best selection of medicines, bitters, sodas, inks you will find in an antique shop. Come see us (CMK booth) at our new location a mile north of the National Bottle Museum: STONE SOUP ANTIQUES GALLERY, 2144 Doubleday Ave., Ballston Spa, NY 12020. 2/22
Wanted d WANTED: Hobbleskirt embossed Coca-Cola bottles: 1915's, 1923's, D-Patent's 6oz's and 6 1/2 oz's. Collector will buy or trade. JIM GEORGES, georges77@twcny.rr.com or 315-662-7729. 7/21 WANTED: PHILADELPHIA STRAPSIDED or Seamed Whiskey Flasks. I collect and catalog these and also have an interest in Thomas H. Dillon (TD) Philadelphia mineral water bottles. Please contact me if you have any in your collection or wish to sell. ART MIRON, Email: jestar484@verizon.net, 215-248-4612. 6/22 WANTED: Better Albany N.Y. bottles and flasks, L.Q.C. Wisharts in rare colors / all variants. Guilderland, N.Y. Stoneware. DON KELLY, dmebottles@aol.com, Phone: 518365-3783. 12/21 WANTED: OWL DRUG bottles, tins, boxes, paper, anything from the Owl Drug Company. MARC LUTSKO, Email: letsgo@montanasky.net, 406-293-6771, Box 97 Libby, MT 59923. 1/22 WANTED: Harley bottles of West Chester, Pa. and Philadelphia, Pa. The West Chester bottles (3) display either J. Harley, James Harley or E.M. Harley. The Phila. Bottles (3) display Edwd. Harley, Schul (Schuylkill) 4th & Market St., Philada or E. Harley, 802 Market St. or E. Harley, West Market St. These bottling business operated in the late 1840s through the early 1880s. BOB HARLEY, rwh220@Yahoo.com, Phone: 215-721-1107. 12/21 WANTED: U.S.A. Hospital Dept. and any pre-1866 embossed food bottles, mustards, early Baltimore, Wheeling, D.C., Alexandria sodas, beers (stoneware or glass) damage free. BRUCE, cwaddic@yahoo.com, Phone: 703-307-7792. 12/21 WANTED: Colored Illinois and Missouri Sodas. Also Colored Fruit Jars. Top $$$ Paid. Call, text or email. STEVE KEHRER, kehrer00@gmail.com, 618-410-4142. 3/23
WANTED: EMBOSSED CURES WANTED: Including these pontils: Avery's, Benson's, Bernard's, Brown's, Bull's, Burt's, Cannon's, Flander's, Frambe's Geoghegan's, Hamilton's, Jacob's, Lay's, McAdoo's, McElroy's, Parham's, Rhodes' Prov. R.I., Rohrer's, Rudolph's, Star-in's, Stone's, Toledo, Woodman's. ALSO BIMALS: Anchor, Bavarian Bitters, Beesting, Bixler's, Bliss, Boot's Indigestion, Bowanee, Bower's, Bradford's, Bromo Mineral, Bronson's, Bull's (Baltimore), Carey's CholiCura, Clement's Certain (green), Collins' Opium (aqua), Cowan's Certain, Davis Indian, Detchon's Infallible, Edelweiss, Electrofluid, Ewer's Arcanum, Forest Pine (unpontiled), Francisco's, Frog Pond 8", Green's King's Cure, Large Handyside's (chocolate amber), Helmer's, Hilleman's, Hinderman's, Holden's (green), Hungarian, Indian Mixture, JBF, Kauffman Phthisis, Keeley's (opium, neurotine, solution), Large Kellum's, Kid-Nee-Kure, Lenape's, Lindley's, Long's Malaria, Loryea (green), Marsden, McConnon Cough, Amber McLean's (8"), Miniotti's (clear), Morning Glory, Murphy K & L. Pageapfel's, Park's (clear), Peck's, Pennock's, Peterman's (green), Rattail, large River Swamp, Scott's (bird), Streetman's, Tremaine's, Vosburgh, Wadsworth (goat), Warner's K & L Rochester (green, aqua, clear), Wildwest, Wilkinson's, Wilson Footrot, Winan's (no Indian), York Corn Cure. Looking for many others, especially embossed with label, contents, box. Also would like data on unlisted cures for future Cure Book. JOHN WOLF, ohcures@yahoo.com, 937-2751617, 1186 Latchwood Ave., Dayton, OH 45405. 2/22 WANTED: OREGON Pre-Prohibition Shot Glasses, Advertising Crockery for Liquor, Mercantile and Druggists. Oregon Dose Glasses and Colored Medicine Bottles. Eastern Oregon Hutchinson Sodas, Mini Jugs & Advertising Items. Dr. Vanderpool Medicines & Cures. Dufur, The Dalles, Oregon, C.J. Stubling and Umatilla House items. JIM DENNIS, 541-467-2760. 12/21 December 2021
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WANTED: Any signage or milk bottle go-withs; “lids”, tin cans, porcelain signage, etc, that has the name Maxbauer, having to do with the Maxbauer Meat Market and Maxbauer Dairy in Traverse City, Michigan. I have plenty of Milk bottles, but more interested in the other go-withs. Contact LIZ MAXBAUER at Liz@mcnamaraortho. com or call 734-645-5585. 12/21
WANTED: Spark's / Kidney & Liver / Cure / Trade Mark / (smiling man logo) / Perfect Health / Camden N.J. JOHN SAVASTIO, johnsavastio@yahoo.com, 518-424-6571. 12/21
WANTED: Want to buy your signs - tin, paper, wood, reverse glass. 1850-1950. Any American Products. Great Graphics. KIM & MARY KOKLES, kckmjk@aol.com, 972240-1987. 12/21
WANTED: Blob Sodas from Central Illinois. Especially Peoria, Galesburg. Also Peoria Blob Beers and Peoria Bitters. Top prices paid! 309645-6452. 1/22
WANTED: Barber bottles and shaving paper vases. Especially looking for Whitall Tatum & Company bottles. ED & KATHY GRAY, bottleguy1@gmail.com 12/21 WANTED: Someone reliable, to radiate clear bottles for me, on a regular basis. For my personal collection only, not re-sale. Fair prices paid for this service. Leave complete message. hawkeye751@outlook.com, 415518-4124. 3/22 WANTED: Deadwood, Lead, Spearfish, S.D. bottles of all kinds. Also better ACL, painted label sodas, esp. Western and rarer Nevada bottles & Western blob sodas too. ebay: chipsbottles facebook: Nevada Bottles relics history. JAMES CAMPIGLIA, jameschips@ vastbb.net, 805-689-0125, Deadwood, SD. 12/21 WANTED: Findlay, Ohio Hancock County N.W. Ohio Milk Bottle and Memorabilia THOMAS W. BROWN, 419-422-7388. 12/21 WANTED: Halls Bitters (H-10, Regular embossing). Need chocolate, blood redamber and any other unusual color. Also, Halls Bitters (H-9, horizontal embossing), all colors. Perfect specimen ONLY! All emails answered. hawkeye751@outlook.com 1/22 WANTED: Schroeders Bitters. 8 1/2" - 12"+, no small bottles. Need (S-68), 9" size, Louisville and Cincinnati. (S-74.5) Schroeders // Stomach // Bitters, square amber (S-78L) J.H. Schroeder / 28 Wall Street / Louisville, square green and amber. Also, unusually colored specimens. Perfect specimens ONLY! All emails answered. hawkeye751@outlook.com 1/22
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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector
WANTED: Any Lowell Mass. Labeled Bottles that I do not have. TOM PASKIEWICZ, tom342@comcast.net, 978-337-9919, 20 Talbot Ave, North Billerica MA 01862-1415. 1/22
WANTED: Looking for a Chew's Laxative Bitters, Bargenat NJ. GLENN VOGEL, olgve@hotmail.com, 732-539-8116. 1/22 WANTED: Southern Pontiled Medicines, rare & interesting embossed. Rare and Extremely Rare Pontiled Meds. MICHAEL MORGAN, mmorgandive@gmail.com, 941220-9123. 2/21 WANTED: Waite Farm Baldwinville, MASS Milk Bottle Early Tin Top. LINDA HIETALA, jlhietala@comcast.net, 978-6321976. 1/22 WANTED: Bottles, Jugs, Advertising or anything for John A Scott & Co. or Pleasant Valley Distillery from Findlay or Toledo, OH or New Liberty or Twin Creek, Owen County, Kentucky. JOE FREY, odants@ bright.net, 419-348-7736, 1144 Twp Rd. 136 McComb, OH 45858. 12/21 WANTED: NYC; Brooklyn and Long Island flasks. Stoneware from Huntington; Green Port. Long Island merchant and script jugs. Milk bottles from Sayville, Bayport, Oakdale. MARK R. SMITH, Libottle@optonline.net, 631-589-9027. 12/21 WANTED: Antique Toy Marbles. BOB, RHGEIS@me.com, 410-299-2800. 2/22 WANTED: CABINS such as: GVII 2 Harrison Tippecanoe Cabin P132 Prairie Plantation Bitters W160 Woodgates Bitters M42 Martins Bermuda Bitters C698 Pottery Ink C675 Cabin Ink L62 Lediard 1863 OK Plantation (no lettering) Wiggs Bros. Cabin
Roehlling & Schultz Cabin George Ohr Pottery Cabin Bennington Pottery Cabin "The Log Cabin" Portland, OR. BOB TERRY, llterryualusa@yahoo.com, 303-569-2502. 11/22 WANTED: Looking for older bottles from Charlotte NC for my collection. BOB MORGAN, BMORGAN0921@gmail.com 2/22 WANTED: Emaus PA Bottles and Advertising, Jugs, etc. MIKE FEGLEY, Grizz.Fegley@ gmail.com 1/22 WANTED: RC, Nehi, Upper Ten, Chero Cola, Georgia bottles, Cola advertising, bottle caps, labels, bottle collections, coolers, crates, clocks and signs. ROSCOE GOOGE, r.googe46@gmail.com, 770-335-4861. 1/22 WANTED: CT Strapside Flasks in colors. A Green High Rock Mineral Water. Any bottles or stoneware marked Harry Dick Danbury CT. BILL, neninerfan@yahoo.com, Phone: 203-314-4765. 1/22 WANTED: Case Gins, American, Pre-1880. Embossed, Labeled, or Sealed. ALEX, actiques@aol.com 2/22 WANTED: Always looking for rare or unusual Dr. Kilmer items - Bottles, paper and ephemera. Bring Uncle Sylvester back home. JOHN GOLLEY, bygolley@msn.com, Phone: 315-652-8435. 2/22 WANTED: Looking for rare and unusual medicinal tonics. Would like to find a P.C. Musser's Alt Tonic - Tall Aqua Med. Call or email. MARTY, roadrunner@centurylink.net, 574-575-5297. 1/22 WANTED: Goebel Crock Beer Detroit, MI; Veazey & Forbes, Wheeling Fruit Jar; Bradner, Fallour & Fauts Wheeling Jar; Hirsch Bros Clear Fruit Jar. TOM CHICKERY, 740-296-9430. 1/22 WANTED: Any Litchfield ILL Bottles or Items. Also Madison County Bottles in Illinois, Edwardsville, Alton, Collinsville, etc. BRAD SANDERS, 618-402-4420. 1/22
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WANTED: KC-1 COBALT quilted Poison, base embossed USPHS sizes 1, oz. (3 1/4" x 1 1/4"), 2 oz. (3 3/4" x 1 1/2"), 12 oz. (6 7/8" x 2 5/8") and 1/2 gallon (11 1/4" x 4 1/2") with or without poison stopper. KC-1 TEAL quilted Poison base embossed USPHS and plain base size 4 oz. (5" x 1 7/8"). JOAN CABANISS, jjcab@b2xonline.com, 540-2974498 leave message. 2/22 WANTED: Exposition Brewing Co. Delray (Detroit) Mich Beer, Blob Tops 12 oz Amber or Aqua or Quart Size Amber - American Brewing Co. Delray (Detroit) Mich, Blob Tops 12 oz Amber, Aqua or Clear or Quart Size Amber. Also Geo. H. Schmitt Delray (Detroit) Hutchinsons, Quarts Blob Tops or Crowntops - Geo. H Schmitt Delray (Detroit) Seltzer Water Clear. RICK MYERS, 313-742-8668. 1/22 WANTED: Looking for Tarrytown, NY and Kensico, NY. Bottles and Stoneware to buy or trade. Please contact me. 914-469-0791. 1/22 WANTED: Green Mountain Life Boat Wards Blood Purifier - Almon's Compound Syrup - Compound Blood Root Syrup Townsleys Bed Bug Eradicator - Dr. Sias Wild Cherry Cough Syrup. DRUGGISTS: Boyton - Haskell - Orcott - A.C. or Edson Randall Charles Sias - G.A. Storer. *DR. KEACH'S AMERICAN LINIMENT or C.R. KEACH STONEWARE BEER*. DENNIS DANIELS, 802-748-2274, 448 Pleasant St., St. Johnsbury, VT 05819. 1/22 WANTED: HOFFHEIMER BROS BAVARIAN Bitters Squares, Pre-pro, Cincinnati, OH or any adverts or other items with Hoffmeimer Bros. Will pay top dollar. MARCIA HOFFHEIMER, MHOFFheimer@gmail.com, Phone: 513418-1322 text only. 2/22 WANTED: Taller Farley's Ink (vertical embossing) in good condition. Text or call me if you have colored, pontilled New England inks to sell. Thanks! DAN SHELDON, 339440-0383. 2/22
WANTED: Pennsylvania ACL Soda Bottles,. 7 oz, 8 oz or 9 oz. BILL RUMP, cobaltblue14@hotmail.com, 814-289-6566. 1/22 WANTED: Dug Bottles - Saratogas - Slug Plate Sodas from Quabbin Reservoir. Any Sodas Milks or Meds from Ashburnham Mass. Also Decorated Crocks. Collect Winchendon & Westminster Mass. too! 978-790-3891. 1/22 WANTED: D.T. Sweeny Key West FLA, amber. Will pay $250. ANTHONY, 305296-3698. 1/22 WANTED: Always looking for Wistarburg and early south Jersey glass to buy and sell or trade. JOHN WAGNER JR, decemberjwagner@yahoo.com, Phone: 609-385-8212. 2/22 WANTED: All early bottle forms from York County Pennsylvania and surrounding areas. LOUIE JORDAN, 717-862-1040. 2/22
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December 2021
25
Show CALENDAR DECEMBER 4
JANUARY 23
FEBRUARY 13
TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA
BAYPORT, NEW YORK
COLUMBUS, OHIO
The Wabash Valley Antique Bottle & Pottery Club 23 Annual Show, (9AM to 2PM), at the Vigo County Fairgrounds, 133 Fairgrounds Drive, Terre Haute. Info: MARTY PLASCAK, 7210 E. Gross Dr., Terre Haute, IN 47802. Email: mplascak@ma.rr.com
The Long Island Antique Bottle Association is pleased to announce their Annual Show & Sale, Sunday, January 23, (10 AM to 3 PM), at the Girl Scouts of Suffolk County Juliette Low Friendship Center, Lakeview Avenue, Bayport, NY, donation $3, Children 16 & under FREE. Info: MARK SMITH, 10 Holmes Court, Sayville, NY 11782. PH: 631.589.9027; Email: libottle@optonline.net
The Central Ohio Antique Bottle Club's 51st Annual Show & Sale, (Sunday, 9 AM to 2 PM; early buyers 7:00 AM - 9 AM, $20), at the Doubletree Inn, 175 Hutchinson Ave., Columbus (I-270 & Rt. 23). Adm. $3. Info: ROJER MOODY, PH: 740.703.4913, Email: rtmoody@juno.com; For contracts: BRAD FUNK, PH: 614.264.7846, Email: bradfunk@yahoo.com
FEBRUARY 5
FEBRUARY 26
DeFUNIAK SPRINGS, FLORIDA
GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN
The Emerald Coast Bottle Collectors Inc., 20th Annual Antique Bottle & Collectibles Show & Sale, (8 AM to 2 PM), at the DeFuniak Springs Community Center, 361 N. 10th Street, DeFuniak Springs, Florida 32433. Free Adm, Free Appraisals! Info: RICHARD KRAMERICH, PO Box 241, Pensacola, Florida 32591. Email: shards@ bellsouth.net, Ph. or text: 850.435.5425.
The West Michigan Antique Bottle Club presents its 30th Annual Show & Sale, (10 AM to 2 PM), at the Fonger American Legion Post, 2327 Wilson, S.W., Grand Rapids, MI. Info: STEVE DEBOODE, 616667-0214; email: thebottleguy@comcast. net, or: ROGER DENSLOW, 616-4479156; email: rogerdcoger@gmail.com
JANUARY 9, 2022 TAUNTON, MASSACHUSETTS The Little Rhody Bottle Club Annual Show & Sale, (9:00 AM to 3 PM, early buyers 8:00 AM, $15), at the Holiday Inn, 700 Myles Standish Blvd., Taunton, MA (off Exit 9, Rt. 495). Adm. $3. Info: BILL or LINDA ROSE, Email: sierramadre@comcast.net PH: 508.880.4929. JANUARY 15 MUNCIE, INDIANA The Midwest Antique Fruit Jar and Bottle Club Annual Show & Sale (9 AM to 2 PM), at the Horizon Convention Center, 401 S. High St., Muncie, IN. 47305. Info: COLLEEN & JERRY DIXON, PH: 765.748.3117, Email: ckdixon7618@att. net, or: DAVE RITTENHOUSE, 1008 S. 900 W, Farmland, IN 47340. PH: 765.625.0561. JANUARY 22 JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI The Mississippi Antique Bottle, Advertising & Collectibles Show, (Sat. 9AM to 4PM; Friday, early adm. 12PM to 7PM, $25), at the Fairgrounds Trade Mart Building, 1207 Mississippi St., Jackson, MS. Info: CHERYL COMANS, PH: 601.218.3505; Email: cherylcomans@gmail.com
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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector
MARCH 20
FEBRUARY 6
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI
WAUKESHA, WISCONSIN
The St. Louis Antique Bottle Collectors Assoc. is pleased to present their 52nd Annual Show & Sale, (9 AM to 2 PM), at Orlando Gardens, 4300 Hoffmeister (off Union Road), St. Louis. Adm. $3, children free. Info: PAT JETT, 71 Outlook Drive, Hillsboro, MO 63050; PH: 314.570.6917; email: patsy_jett@yahoo.com
The 49th Annual Milwaukee Antique Bottle & Advertising Show, (9 AM to 3 PM; early buyers 8 AM, $20), at the Waukesha County Expo Center, 1000 Northville Road, Waukesha, WI. Directions: I-94 exit 294 (Hwy J), then south to Northview Road. Adm. $6. 140 Tables, the largest antique bottle and ad show in Wisconsin. Info: mabacshow@ yahoo.com. FEBRUARY 13 MANVILLE, NEW JERSEY New Jersey Antique Bottle Club (NJABC), 26th Annual Show & Sale, (9 AM to 2 PM) at the V.F.W. of Manville, New Jersey, 600 Washington Ave, Manville, NJ 08835. Admission $3, no early buyers. Info: KEVIN KYLE, 230 Cedarville Rd, East Windsor, NJ 08520. PH. 609.209.4034, Email: bottlediggerkev@aol.com or, JOHN LAWREY, 908.813.2334.
APRIL 3 BALTIMORE, MARYLAND NEW LOCATION – NEW DATE! The Baltimore Antique Bottle Club's Annual Show & Sale, (9 AM to 3 PM), at the Howard County Fairgrounds, 2210 Fairgrounds Rd, West Friendship, MD (at Exit 80, Interstate 70). Info: Show Chairman RICK LEASE, 410-458-9405 or email: finksburg21@comcast.net For contracts, call: ANDY AGNEW, 410-527-1707 or email: medbotls@comcast.net. Website: baltimorebottleclub.org
Show CALENDAR APRIL 3
JULY 28 - AUGUST 1
HUTCHINSON, KANSAS
RENO, NEVADA
15th Annual Kansas Antique Bottle & Postcard Show & Sale, (9 AM to 3 PM), at the Kansas State Fairgrounds (Sunflower South Bldg), 2000 N. Poplar St, Hutchinson, KS. Info: MIKE McJUNKIN, PH: 620.728.8304, email: scarleits@cox.net, or, MARK LAW, PH: 785.224.4836, email: kansasbottles@gmail.com. Sponsored by the Kansas Territory Bottle & Post Card Club.
FOHBC 2022 National Antique Bottle Convention & Expo, Grand Sierra Resort & Casino. Information: RICHARD SIRI, email: rtsiri@sbcglobal.net, or FERDINAND MEYER V, email: fmeyer@fmgdesign.com. FOHBC National Convention – Western Region.
APRIL 23 COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA The South Carolina Antique Bottle Club's 49th Annual Show & Sale, (9 AM to 4:00 PM; dealer only set-up 7 AM to 9 AM), at the Jamil Shrine Temple, 206 Jamil Road, Columbia, SC. Entry: Donation at the door requested. Info: MARTY VOLLMER, PH 803.629.8553, email: martyvollmer@aol. com, or ART GOSE, PH: 803.840.1539, email: scbottlehunters@gmail.com APRIL 23 KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN The Kalamazoo Antique Bottle Club’s 41st Annual Show & Sale, (10 AM to 3 PM, early buyers 8 AM), at the Kalamazoo County Fairgrounds, 2900 Lake St., Kalamazoo, MI. Info: JOHN PASTOR, P.O. Box 227, New Hudson, MI 48165, PH: 248.486.0530, Email: jpastor@americanglassgallery.com, or: MARK McNEE, PH: 269.343.8393. APRIL 24 MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA Dunkard Valley Antique Bottle / WV Stoneware Show & Sale, (9 AM to 2 PM; Early buyers 7:30 AM, $25), at the Mon County Extension Services & 4H Center, 270 Mylan Park Lane, Morgantown, WV 26501. Both inside and outside vendor spaces available! Adm. $2, 16 and under FREE! Info: DON KELLEY, PH: 724.998.2734, email: bonzeyekelley@gmail.com.
Publisher’s Note: Antique Bottle & Glass Collector is looking for great digging stories! Do you have an interesting digging (or diving), story that you would like to share with your fellow readers? Let us know, as we would love to include recent finds and funny stories in one of our upcoming issues. And don’t forget about the Antique Bottle & Glass Collector Writer’s Contest: you may also win a great bottle! Send articles (and don’t forget to include plenty of good images) to: Antique Bottle & Glass Collector Attn: Editor P.O. Box 227 New Hudson, MI 48165 Phone: 248.486.0530 Email: jpastor@americanglassgallery.com
December 2021
27
Everything Old Is New Again Alfred Hitchcock and a Well-Traveled Book
Part 1 You are something special if you can guess where this one’s going! By Bob Strickhart
T
o make the appropriate connections, I really need to set the stage. Yes, I’m the Bitters Columnist. It would follow then that the focus should be on bitters bottles specifically, and yet a good portion of this article is devoted to historical American flasks. You could, however, easily substitute bitters for flasks in this story. It wouldn’t affect the end result as it is more about the act of collecting, rather than the bottles we collect.
So, if it makes you feel better, just replace “Corn For The World” with “Drakes Plantation Bitters.” I’ve wanted to put this article together for a long time, but I wasn’t too sure how to present it. The nudge that put me in front of the keyboard came from a conversation I had at our club’s show (New Jersey Antique Bottle Club) in May with longtime bottle collector Barry Hogan. By the way, this was the first time we had our show in May: we were forced to cancel our February show due to Covid. The show was nicely attended, we had a few more than 100 tables and best of all, it’s an outside show. The weather cooperated for the most part and Kevin Kyle, our show chairman, with the help of his super-organized and lovely wife Sharon, did a great job, and should be commended for allowing us to hold our show on
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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector
his family farm in East Windsor, N.J. I think this show is going to grow and be a truly great annual event as Covid becomes less of a concern and our number of fine dealers continues to grow. Be sure to look for it next year. OK, back to the story. I’m not sure how we came around to it, but somewhere along the way, Barry mentions an old book that is one of my all-time favorites. The book is titled Antiquamania. Written by Kenneth L. Roberts, it was published by Doubleday, Doran & Co. of Garden City, N.Y., almost a hundred years ago in 1928. Barry related that he attended the opening of the newly added bottle room of my long-time friend and mentor Tom McCandless many years ago, when Tom handed him his copy of this book. Barry, in typical Barry fashion, related how he found a comfortable place on the rug and proceeded to read the book, all 200-plus pages of it, as people sort of “stepped over” him in Tom’s new bottle room. That he completed the book in one, let us say “sitting,” is totally understandable as it is an intoxicating read you just can’t put down. I fully understood Barry’s fascination, as it was pretty much the same for me when
Tom handed me the same copy that Barry read some years later. I, too, read it in one sitting, although it wasn’t on Tom’s carpet, and I have actually re-read it several times, not something I usually do. I loved the book so much that I went through a book finder and eventually procured my own copy. According to the inside cover page of the copy that I eventually purchased was evidence that this book was once the property of James Thompson and it was a gift from Edgar Hoffman in 1943. Some of the old-time collectors might recognize the name Edgar Hoffman, as he apparently was a well-known bottle collector in the 1940s era. There’s that thing called provenance again. Ah, that bottle family! The book is a collection explaining, illustrating and “elucidating the difficulties in the path of the antique dealer and collector, and presenting various methods of meeting and overcoming them” as seen through the eyes of Prof. Milton Kilgallen. When you read this book, and I sincerely hope you get the chance to enjoy it if you haven’t already done so, you can’t help but think that there is nothing, and I mean nothing, new under the sun. Even though it was written in 1928, it is clear that everything old is indeed new again. The stories written nearly 100 years ago are as pertinent today as they were then.
Barry laughed out loud when we both agreed on one particular chapter as being particularly memorable. The chapter is simply titled “The Bottle Mine” and here’s where we can bring Mr. Hitchcock into our discussion. Alfred Hitchcock is certainly known for his great suspenseful movies even though they are now decades old. They are that good! I was quite young, but I do remember seeing Psycho in the movie theaters when it first came out, and The Birds left so much of an impression on my sister that she felt a tad uncomfortable around a flock of pigeons in the park after seeing that movie. If your memory is good, or you like reruns of older TV shows on the Me TV channel, you will remember one of my all-time favorite shows on the tube back in the 1960s. It was simply called “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.” Each episode started with a silhouette of the rather rotund Hitchcock eventually being replaced by his actual self, all to the macabre music titled Funeral March of a Marionette, a short classical piece by Charles Gounod. Then, Alfred would look at the camera and say “Good Evening.” With his typical dry English humor, he would then lay out the twisted story you were about to see while taking a swipe at his much hated but essential commercial advertisers. At the end of the episode, you would once again see Mr. Hitchcock, summing up the story, and giving a bit of his tongue-in-cheek humor “till next week.” Hitchcock could easily have authored “The Bottle Mine.” It has his oddly twisted fingerprints all over it. But I’ll let you be the judge of that. For all of you readers now comes a treat. A bit of Kenneth L. Roberts as he explains the dilemma some bottle collectors encounter, edited and condensed for space and convenience.
r
“The Bottle Mine” “Antique collectors develop strange and sometimes unpleasant traits. Certain forms of antique collecting, furthermore, seem to bring out these traits with unusual virulence. The collecting of curly maple frequently makes a collector wholly unreasonable and irresponsible. The collecting of Currier & Ives prints occasionally brings out his stubbornness and miserly traits. The collecting of pewter is apt to accentuate his indecision and vacillation. The collecting of early pine is likely to develop his intolerance and conceit; while the collecting of fine Chippendale furniture is more apt to bring out his boastfulness and arrogance. “Worst of all, however, in the development of hidden and unsuspected traits is the collecting of early American glass and bottles. Such collecting, in many cases, works as insidiously on the character of the collector as did the hellish liquors that were so often contained in the bottles.
look at an amethyst or blue whiskey flask of unknown origin or unusual design; and from the prices that he occasionally paid for such flasks, one might have thought that they were going to yield a return of 25% a year for the remainder of his days. “In his home life, he was gentle and kindly; when he embarked on the trail of a rare flask he became as hard-boiled and as cunning as a gunman under the influence of opiates. “If a friend or an acquaintance attempted to vie with him in the purchase of a desirable flask, Leet became almost ferocious in his attitude. He never resorted to kicking or biting at such moments, so far as was known, but he had no hesitation in treading heavily on the tender portion of a foot or of thrusting himself rudely in front of other people.
“Why it should be so, I do not know. The fact remains that one can never tell about the bottle specialist. He may be normal as any other collector; and then again, beneath an impassive and seemingly harmless exterior, there may lurk a relentlessness of purpose and a cruelty that would shock and horrify a Chicago Detective sergeant. “Whitney Leet was one of America’s greatest bottle specialists. His knowledge of glass was so extensive that he refused to purchase any of the glass known as Stiegel unless he could get it at five-andten cent store prices, in as much as he knew there are nineteen glass factories in existence able to make a grade of glass that Baron Stiegel could not have told from his own products. “In the matter of bottles, however, Leet made no effort to control himself at any time. He frequently traveled halfway across the continent to December 2021
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“I would, however, have suspected him of no greater infraction against good taste and decency if Leet himself had not called me to him early in the spring of 1928 and told me the harrowing tale of Bill Swiggert and the Bottle Mine.
As a matter of precaution, however, he carried with him an amethyst Corn For The World flask, so that it could be exhibited as a sample in any section where the need of investigating the flask situation should arise.
“It seems that the late autumn of 1927 had found Leet nervously exhausted from the intensive hunt for early American flasks in which he had indulged during the preceding summer and spring. Instead of hunting leisurely through the countryside, as he had been accustomed to do in his early days of flask hunting, he had been obliged to compete with such energetic newcomers in the field of battle collecting as Joseph Hegresheimer and Edwin Le Fevre, whose squirrel-like activities had forced him to use high-pressure methods of the most exhausting nature in order to keep abreast of them, to say nothing of occasionally putting himself a jump or two in advance of them.
“It was late on a hot December night that his car coasted down the hill slopes of the mining town of Douglas. Parched by his dusty ride, Leet forbore even to stop at the hotel to secure a room, but pressed on another half mile and crossed the border into Agua Prieta to revel in the dry martinis and the brimming beakers of beer that, for Americans, surround even the most tawdry and dirty of the Mexican border towns with an atmosphere of romance and Old World quaintness.
“Haggard and worn by his strenuous toil, Leet determined to banish all thoughts of flasks and bottles from his mind for several months, and to travel to California through the soft warmth of the great Southwest, where the burning rays of the seldom-obscured sun scorched the poisons of fatigue from Eastern bones and brains; and where antiques, in the true sense of the word, are unknown. “Occasionally, in the West and Southwest, Leet knew, one encountered a so-called antique shop. Its stock, Leet further learned, invariably consisted of the least desirable types of Empire furniture; while post-empire black walnut chairs and sofas, with bunches of grapes carved promiscuously on their frames, were assiduously sought by the so-called antique collectors who lived in those sections. “Consequently, he embarked on his trip secure in the knowledge that he would be tempted to indulge in none of the exhausting hunts for antiques that had made life in more effete sections of America so strenuous and debilitating.
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“The Boston Bar and Café, which Leet entered, was entertaining a group of Douglas businessmen, who had laid down their bridge hands in the Elks club for a moment, according to their usual after-dinner custom, and hastened over to Agua Prieta for their second drink of the evening. Shortly after Leet’s entrance they hastened back to their bridge games in the Elks club. Leet found himself alone before the bar, except for a single morose individual in flannel shirt and overalls, who gazed gloomily at a bottle of Mexican rye whiskey and occasionally helped himself to a drink from it.”
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At this point, once again enters Sir Alfred Hitchcock. He looks sternly into the camera and says: “Sadly our publishers have decided that enough paper has been exhausted for this evening’s installment. You will have to return next month for our rather thrilling finish of our tale. Until then, Good Night.”
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Early map of Glass Lake with the factory village in the lower right.
The Rensselaer Glassworks A multifaceted — and important — piece of New York history By Phil Bernnard
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his glasshouse was located in what is now known as Sand Lake, N.Y., located on Rouses Lake, which today is called Glass Lake. The actual date is disputed. Some say 1788 and some say 1804. Town records indicate the 1804 date. This was when a lease was applied for by a Francis Bloodgood, Elisha Jenkins, Ambrose Spencer, James Kane, John Woodworth, Dudley Walsh, William James, Giles Porter, Ira Porter (all of Albany County) and Matthew Hildreth of Johnstown, N.Y.
It is of interest to note that none of these people had any practical glassmaking experience, so things went awry quickly.
In 1806, the lease was changed between the Van Rensselaers and Thomas Tillotson, Elkanah Watson, Elisha Jenkins and George Pearson as tenants in common and in consideration of $750. It is interesting to note that in Rensselaer County, the Van Rensselaers never sold any land. They only leased it. Again, this group of owners were local businessmen; they were not involved in glassmaking. Before going any further, this unique history is difficult to separate out from other glasshouse histories. In point of fact, one must include the first Albany Glassworks (1788-1815), the Durhamville Glassworks (1843-92) and the Berkshire
Glassworks (1860s-1930s). These all had commonalities which tied them together either through common ownership or manpower usage. More on that later. The Albany Glassworks was thought to be established in 1785. At this time, Guilderland was known as Sloansville. The founding Dutch partners were Leonard De Neaufville, Ferdinand Walfahrt (manager) and John Hofke, (business manager). It should be noted that none of them had any experience in this field, and they soon ran into financial difficulty. The most important issue was location. No direct transport, no local access to raw materials, no steady supply of fuel. They December 2021
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soon had to petition the State Assembly for a loan and were granted $1,500. The company reorganized in 1792 under new ownership. The name changed to McCallum and MacGregor & Co. and then again in 1795 under Thomas Mather & Co. Under this new ownership, they expanded their board of directors to include most of the Dutch landed gentry in Albany County. These included Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, Elkanah Watson, Samuel Mather, John Sande, Abraham Ten Eyck, Frederich DeZeng, Douw Fonda, Walter Cockran and Killian Van Rensselaer. They incorporated under the name Hamilton Manufacturing Society on March 30, 1797. With all this new financial backing, they were still lacking in experience of how to run a glasshouse. It was not until 1802 when Jeremiah Van Rensselaer took over that a glassman was hired. They hired Lawrence Schoolcraft, who was originally from Bennington (Vermont) Glassworks. They were shut down by creditors that same year. He was the plant manager from a family who had multigenerational experience in the field in Europe as well as design experience. He came in and reorganized and redesigned the furnaces in order to increase efficiency. At this particular time, a great debt hung over the glasshouse. The New York State legislature wanted its loan repaid. But instead of money they wanted window glass. They also had to deal with intense competition from Europe without the benefit of tariff protection. This, combined with material shortages, labor and fuel shortages, forced the works to close. By 1800, John Van Rensselaer had control of the Land Board. He again petitioned to lease the factory from the manufacturing society, which his brother controlled. Neither of them had any glass experience, only some financial. This was not enough to convince the board. John was asked to provide financial security. He refused, causing negotiations to cease. This rift was never repaired, not to mention that the
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TOP: Drawing of the Village of Sand Lake showing the glassworks and worker's homes. ABOVE: Sketch of the Durhamville Glass Works that the Fox brothers purchased because they could not expand at the Rensselaer Company site. The Durhamville Glass Works went on to become one of the largest window glass factories in the country.
Hamilton Manufacturing Board found out that he secretly was taking over the new glasshouse in Sand Lake. The meeting got testy and vulgar, but it was found out that several members of that board wanted to start in a new location. It was at this point that the original Albany Glassworks faded into obscurity.
Between 1800-15 there was a depression, a flooding of the glass market with European goods and another war with England that caused the fires to be put out. But through all that, the factory was able to put out some good quality flasks and window glass, but in limited quantity. So exit Albany Glassworks and enter Rensselaer Glassworks.
area) but it happened again in 1816 when they lost both furnaces. Only one was replaced. It’s also interesting to note that even though they had the fire equipment, it was never used and when they rebuilt, it was done the same way. Again, another story was that when the White House was burned by the British during the War of 1912, the glass to repair the windows came from Rensselaer Glassworks. A nice story but no corroborating evidence has ever been recovered.
Rensselaer Glass Stock Certificate, Registered March 22, 1806.
There has been debate over when this works actually began. The town sprung up first and then the factory, so I like to use the 1806 date. That is when land records coincide with production. The original lease was 1802 and the buildings were put up first. This was basically a company town built for the factory workers. In that time the land was leased, cleared and buildings erected. The plant itself was simply made, constructed of wood with clay furnaces and wooden chimney (a very dangerous combination). Not the best of ideas when one is working with 1,500 degrees. It did not take long to damage the factory. They had two major fires by 1816. Rensselaer Glassworks had a bright future. It had an abundant source of fuel, good access to raw materials, a good supply of workers and a good system of transport. They were within eight miles of
the Hudson River and shipping to major cities. The only issue was sand quality, but they found a good source in the Berkshire Mountains and were able to build a road to transport it. There were also stories of a man from the factory who went to Europe to recruit glassblowers from Scotland and Ireland. He would dress as a pied piper of sorts because recruiting glassworkers from Europe was still considered a crime, as England was still trying to protect its trades. As nice as these stories are, they can’t be substantiated by records. So by 1813, the factory suffers its first fire. Up until then, the issues were financial; this one was physical. They did have two furnaces, one for crown glass, one for cylinder glass. They lost the cylinder glass furnace and it took almost one and a half years to rebuild. They went and purchased fire equipment (the first of its kind in the
When the factory was up and running again in 1819, it was experiencing other problems. The company was sold at tax sales or by ownership. Up to that time, many of the owners had no experience in the field and got in financial difficulty early. This, in combination with current economic events, like depressions, economic panics or stiff competition from Europe, caused the business to be sold at least twice for financial hardship. It was not until 1836 that ownership got their act together. The new owners were Stadler and Rouch and Co. The “and Co” were the Fox Brothers (Albert and Samuel). They ended up taking over in 1838 and began to finally show a profit. The Fox Brothers still had the raw material problem, but they found the source of sand in Lanesborough. The expense was great, but the quality was worth it. Besides making of window glass, there have been bottles found locally for local merchants that were made in Sand Lake. Alas, there were only two found: D. Evans Camomille Pill Bottle and a bottle for liquor from the same doctor. As far as I know, there is no photo of the liquor. If someone has it, I’d love to get a photo for myself or for the National Bottle Museum. The Pill Bottles were located in Glass Lake in the 1960s by a local historian who has since passed. He submitted a report to his high school which was passed on to the Sand Lake town historian where he found a gross case of these bottles in the water near the shoreline of the factory site (Don Carpentier, 1969). December 2021
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So fast forward to 1852, Christmas Day. There is a new batch of ingredients in the kilns. The kilns are being brought up to temperature and the workers are enjoying Christmas Eve merriment, probably a little too much. They fall asleep, the kilns overheat and catch the chimneys on fire (the wooden chimneys). So they ignore the fire, and the kilns catch fire. The result was a very large explosion. There were stories of glass icicles all over the village. The damage was so extensive that it was decided not to rebuild. The workers were moved to Durhamville and all salvageable equipment was sold to Berkshire Glass Works, along with one of the Fox brothers going along as superintendent. So, in Durhamville, with the new equipment, glass output increased along with quality. They continued production with some minor setbacks (a small fire in the 1870s and again in 1885). They ended up merging with U.S. Plate Glass, which was their major competition. The result was shuttering the plant in 1891.
TOP: Home of the last owner of Rensselaer Glassworks, Albert R. Fox. ABOVE: Photo of D. Evans Camomille Pills bottle thought to be made around 1820 at the factory for a doctor in Schodack, New York. There was only one gross ever found. Below the bottle is a glass 'icicle' from the explosion of the furnace in 1852.
There is also a story of employees moving to Durhamville via the Erie Canal, where they packed their food for the trip in canning jars made for the trip. Again, there is no proof, but it does lend credence to the idea that more than window glass and whimseys were made there. So when the Fox family bought the glassworks, they began to make changes. They reorganized and re-engineered the factory by hiring someone to redo the kilns and smokestacks so that they were less prone
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to fire. The fortunes of the company finally began to change. The quality improved, the sales improved. In 1843, the Fox brothers purchased Durhamville, a factory that was only two years old and had all modern equipment, most of all not wood. This was formally the DeWitt Stevens factory and considered the largest of its kind in the country. Samuel Fox moved half the workers there, so with two factories they could really supply the entire country with window glass.
Getting back to Berkshire Glass Works, they continued on, developing a very unique product. Through a formula developed by them, they were able to make a glass of extreme purity, unable to be matched by anyone else. Many companies tried to buy the formula or the company without success. It is also rumored that they did make other items but it’s only speculation. But with their situation and protection of their proprietary technology, they were able to survive until the Depression in the 20th century. In closing, Rensselaer Glass Works was filled with mishaps. Three fires, two tax lien sales plus four or five ownership changes over a half century would put anyone off this type of business. But extreme perseverance was there in an uncanny way. There were many good products and whimseys that came from there, locking it into the integral part of Rensselaer County history.
RENSSELAER GLASS WORKS TIMELINE This is a linear history of the glassworks. 1788: Leoanrd de Neufville, Jan Heefke, Ferdinand Walfarhert apply for a lease of 5,000 acres from the Van Rensselaers to begin building the Glass Works. It should be noted here that they were also involved with Albany Glass Works. Nothing was done as far as I can tell. 1795: The company changes hands. It is now called MacGregor & Co. The new owners are Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, Elkanah Watson, Robert MacGregor, Thomas Mather and Samuel Mather. April 1795: The company changes hands again. New owners are Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, John Saunder, Abraham Ten Eyck, Elkanah Watson, Frederic A. de Zeng, K.K. Van Rensselaer, Douw Fonda (ancestor of Henry and founder of Fonda, N.Y.) Walter Cochron, Samuel Mather. This was the Hamilton Manufacturing Society. There were principle investors in both glass works. February 1806: Albany and Glass Lake split when the state legislature voted to incorporate Rensselaer Glass Works stockholders and not Albany. It is also interesting that some of the stockholders were secretly funding one glasshouse and not the other. This began the demise of the first Albany Glass Works. The fires were extinguished by 1815. 1818: The RGW was renamed under new owners Crandall, Fox & Co. (This Fox is Albert and Samuel’s father.) 1825: Becomes Knowlson & Schamassa and Co. 1826: Knowlson sells factory at a sheriff’s tax lien sale. 1830: John B. Schamassa & Co. This is when glassblowers were brought in from New Jersey. There were end-of-day piececs that were unique in their style now at the
Historical Society, unfortunately without much information.
Antique Bottle & Glass Collector is looking for great digging stories! Do you have an interesting digging (or diving), story that you would like to share with your fellow readers? Let us know, as we would love to include recent finds and funny stories in one of our upcoming issues. And don’t forget about the Antique Bottle & Glass Collector Writer’s Contest: you may also win a great bottle!
1835: Factory burned down for the second time. Only one furnace was repaired.
Send articles (and don’t forget to include plenty of good images) to:
1837: Stadler and Rouch & Co.
Antique Bottle & Glass Collector Attn: Editor P.O. Box 227 New Hudson, MI 48165 Phone: 248.486.0530 Email: jpastor@americanglassgallery.com
A copy of the first financial report and a petition for a loan from the State of New York.
1838: Albert and Samuel Fox buy the factory, and begin to turn a profit. 1843: The Fox Bros. purchase the DeWitt Stevens glass factory in Durhamville, N.Y. (Oneida County) 1852: In December, a massive fire and explosion rips through the village as the kilns catch fire. Glass icicles were found everywhere in the town. It was decided not to rebuild the factory.
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Jarring Comments
from Tom Caniff Tom, at 80, takes the lid off and looks back on a lifetime of interesting jars and old friends Compiled by Ralph Finch
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n the middle of a cold January day, I got a warm message from friend, jar expert and AB&GC magazine columnist Tom Caniff of Steubenville, Ohio. So, since Tom and I are getting older, I thought that now might be a good time to ask him a few questions. His first few answers were:
barely talked to at bottle shows. Now that we don’t even see them, I find myself wondering how they are and, in some cases, if they’re still alive. I can’t blame all of this on Covid though, some of it’s due to health problems, and an unfortunate declining interest since we’re no longer actively collecting.
“I’m afraid that the virus is getting to a lot of folks, leading them to be less careful, and I’m afraid that many, especially us old fogies, may well pay a stiff price for their foolishness.
“We’re still doing as well as can be expected though.”
“As far as I know, I’ve reached an age, almost 80, that none of my earlier relatives achieved, but although I’m grateful for what I’ve had, I don’t want to go down the tubes because of doing something stupid. “I’m at the end of my rope with the jar column, I’m afraid, but it’s been a long run and there’s not much left that I’d like to cover. I’ve done this mainly to satisfy myself and now it’s getting to be too much like work, having covered so many topics that I’d wanted to clarify, for myself if not for others. “I, too, find myself missing old friends and acquaintances, some of whom I
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And we had more questions, to which Tom, using his unique, humorous style, generously replied. “Questions? I’m too old to remember answers, and if I do, the answers are probably wrong. “Quiz 1 – First jar? I already had a grouping of ‘old’ fruit jars that we’d liberated from abandoned farmhouses when I bought my first ‘good’ jar after several weeks of soul searching (and yes, I did finally find my soul and still have it today, although in somewhat worn condition). I shelled out $15 for a stained quart aqua LEADER jar with no lid nor clamp. Although I remember it kindly, it’s now long gone. Not sure if I got my money back or not.
A photo of Tom hangs above his Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors Hall of Fame Award from August 8, 2008.
“Quiz 2 – First column? The ‘Label Space’ first appeared in the March 1992, issue of BOTTLES & EXTRAS, published by *Scott Grandstaff and Kitty Roach, of Happy Camp, California. My first
printed article was, I believe, on the J. Ellwood Lee Gauze Jars in the October 1978 Federation Letter. Over the past 42 years I’ve written more than 500 columns, newsletters and articles. “Quiz 3 – Sainthood? In putting up with me for 47 years, I suspect that Deena’s closer to sainthood than I’ll ever be, God love her. “And, remember, keep away from people, some of them are carriers and most of them are nuts, one way or another.” How many shows have you been to over the last century? None for the first 53 years, until 1974; since then, probably close to a couple hundred, starting out with one or two a year, peaking at 17 for several years, and then gradually declining to two a year for the last several years (until Covid), as age and health dictated. What’s your fave show? Mansfield, Ohio.
In his latest composite photo, Tom shows Deena with the "kids" (Mr. Bird, Katrina Koala, Charles T. Chicken, Dipsy and Doodle Duckling, Squeekmore Mousely, Wartimer T. Frog, Mr. Bandit, Quackers N. Milik, and Kermit T. Frog, watching the beginning of a Randolph Scott western on TV. "I’m supervising on the left, dutifully wearing my mask, like the Lone Ranger," Tom says jokingly.
What’s your fave pet? Right now, Spot Marie LeBlanc, our four-year-old cat. (Editor’s note: Tom is famous for a house filled with pets, including cats, turtles and a snake.)
department? 28 years. (Note: Tom joined the department in 1962, and retired as the Fire Chief.)
lenges they faced would be awesome. It didn’t take long of them to agree with me. –– Ralph
P.S. What exactly is a “fave”? You kids and your slang. –– Tom
PS: Does anyone know if Scott and Kitty are still around?
What are some of your favorite memories? Learning as much as I did about fruit jars from Dick Roller, when we first started collecting. The research he did was awesome in a time before computers and the internet.
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What’s the most unusual jar you have ever come across? I’ve seen a lot of great jars, but the most unusual? I give up. What’s the most unusual ANYTHING you ever came across? Someone who lives in Michigan. (Editor’s note: Ha, ha, ha, lol.) What else have you collected? Christmas lights. What are the favorite jar people you’ve met over the years? Don and Glenny Burkett, Dick Roller, and Jerry McCann How many years were you with the fire
Tom also collects stuffed … stuff. He calls them “children.” He explained: “Here’s my latest composite photo, showing the kids (Deena, Mr. Bird, Katrina Koala, Charles T. Chicken, Dipsy and Doodle Duckling, Squeekmore Mousely, Wartimer T. Frog, Mr. Bandit, Quackers N. Milik, and Kermit T. Frog), watching the beginning of a Randolph Scott western on TV. I’m supervising on the left, dutifully wearing my mask, like the Lone Ranger. (Tonight they stay up all night for cowboys.)”
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FYI* When Scott and Kitty announced their first issue, I wrote them — since I had already done that magazine thing myself — and warned them that the chal-
Publisher’s note: We would like to thank Tom for his tremendous contribution of articles to AB&GC over the past 12 years, and beyond (in earlier publications and other literary endeavors). Tom’s enormous wealth of knowledge is respected throughout the hobby. We wish Tom and Deena all the best in their retirement (Deena was instrumental in helping Tom with images for his articles). A well deserved thank you to both Tom and Deena on behalf of AB&GC.
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The Votes Have Been Tallied! Alan Blakeman’s auction garnered 100 percent ‘yeas’ Grumpy women and ugly babies made history — and great inks By Ralph Finch
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lan Blakeman’s great Sept. 11 auction in England took me back to my childhood, and to political movements old and new.
Voting, here and around the world, now as in past centuries, is something so serious, so profound, that people have given their lives for that right. (And now, many politicians are trying to take that right away.) Votes for women, and women’s rights in general — and strong women, too — have long been a big part of my life, from childhood to now. I was born April 21, 1940. But after Dec. 7, 1941, following the attack on Pearl Harbor and with my father in the Navy, my mother — then divorced from my father — left me in the capable hands of my grandparents, and joined the military herself (as a WAC). For a while, she worked in the Pentagon and also was assigned to bases in the south. After WWII, in a society that left few opportunities for single mothers, I remained with my grandmother, a woman who had already raised three daughters plus a son who died at age 21. Grandmother had been married three times, had one husband die young, and divorced the second. Born in Wales in 1896, at around the age of 12 she came to America. Much later, after college and after being hired by the Detroit News, I became for several years the only male journalist assigned to what was then simply called “the women’s department,” and my as-
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sociation, and respect for strong women, grew. I was there as the feminist movement slowly swelled, and “the girls” could no longer be subservient, or silent, and demanded to be heard. And respected. (I will always remember when a female co-worker answered the phone and, after a brief discussion, corrected the male caller by firmly saying: “I am NOT your honey.”) Now, move ahead a few decades, to the Alan Blakeman collection. The Finches sat at the breakfast table, opened Janet’s computer, and joined the excitement of people gathering in the village of Barnsley for Alan to begin. He introduced people in the hall, and even gave a shout-out to people who had joined the auction via the internet. I told him later it was almost like being there, sitting with morning coffee (not tea) and having toast (but not with baked beans). Of the hundreds of incredible, often historic and museum-quality items I would have loved to own, there was only one I knew I had to acquire. There were several similar items of a particular ink, and while I would be bidding on several, I knew I would acquire at least one! And I did. Lot 175 was described as: “VOTES FOR WOMEN INKWELL. 3.1 ins tall, salt glaze with various coloured highlights. Stoneware model of a very well detailed grumpy woman with folded arms, blue glazed apron below impressed VOTES/ FOR WOMEN.
Decorative border around bottom edge. Impressed Doulton base mark … Wired on hinge to rear. No damages.” It sold for 1,100 British pounds (a hefty fee, $1,511 in U.S. funds) plus the 15 percent buyer’s premium, plus shipping. John Ault, the European glass expert from Landsend, England, commented on the ink and on the image of my grandmother (attached): “What a fantastic family link/ ink, you must feel very proud, a great photo. Well done on your purchase. Not much to add, other than the harridan is rarer than the baby, and both were designed by Leslie Harradine. Here are a few words from a museum website:” “One of the most popular additions to the collection is the Royal Doulton inkwell titled Votes for Women. The virago also amused the late Diana, Princess of Wales, when she visited the Sir Henry Doulton Museum in 1984. “The grumpy old woman and her ugly baby date from 1908 when the Women’s National Anti-Suffrage League was founded in Britain. Its aims were to oppose women being granted the vote during a resurgence of support for the suffragettes. The suffrage movement was spearheaded by the Women’s Social and Political Union, which founded its own newspaper, Votes for Women. “The humorous Lambeth stoneware inkwells lampooned two particularly unattractive females and put them to work!
The harridan’s folded arms lean back to form a pen rest and reveal an inkwell in her skirts. Her baby has the same function. They were obviously popular and made in different color glazes, both with and without the Votes for Women slogan. In the early 1900s, the suffragette’s battle lines were drawn with militant campaigns by determined women such as Emmeline Pankhurst attracting national attention. Their ‘Deeds, not Words’ protests included hunger strikes, smashing shop windows, and arson attacks against empty properties.” Alan Blakeman added this about the homely, but strong, inks: “Not a great deal to tell on the Virago. I once had a row of eighteen different variations on the window ledge at the old Strafford Avenue house. That was in the days before iPhones and, unfortunately, I never took a photo of them, so lost that golden one-chance opportunity. Drat!
attached photo, taken back in her village when she was around ten, she campaigned for women to have the right to vote. Women’s suffrage in the United Kingdom was a movement to fight for women’s right to vote that succeeded through two laws in 1918 and 1928. Years ago Janet and I returned to Grandmother’s village, walked the streets and across the stone bridge that my grandmother told me about. It was built in 1450! And, population today? Around 554 people. The village is where a Celtic Christian community founded a monastery in the late sixth century, and developed around the site over subsequent centuries.
r To vote yea or no, email rfinch@twmi. rr.com
“I was hard up at the time and collecting feverishly so I elected to keep just three, which were duly offered in my one-day sale. “One of the nicest things about conducting my own lifetime gathering dispersal was sitting on the rostrum and, afterwards, in the knowledge of who so many items had gone to; in most cases lifelong friends. Ralph and Janet will look at their little Doulton Lambeth Virago ink and think of me, not that I am a female or even as gruff looking. I have a permanent Cheshire cat grin! “Here is a copy of pages from Colin Robert’s latest book on Doulton inks. My three were also immortalized in my Inks book published in 1996.”
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And, back to England’s voting history: “In 1918, women with property over the age of 30 were enfranchised and finally in 1928 women over the age of 21 got the vote on equal terms with men.”
ABOVE: From Blakeman’s auction, Lot 175, a stoneware model of a very well detailed grumpy woman with folded arms, and a blue-glazed apron below which is impressed VOTES FOR WOMEN. LEFT: My grandmother, holding the banner front and center, and her nine militant, trouble-maker pals. They just didn’t know their places. (Where is a woman’s place? In the house … or the Senate. Sorry, it’s an old feminist joke.)
Attached with this report should be a photo of my grandmother. In the December 2021
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By John Panella
NEW YORK FINDS: Bottle Hunting in the Big Apple Part 2
At the beginning, a New York City success story RUSHTON & ASPINWALL CHEMISTS An interesting progression about the early days of the New York apothecary Rushton & Aspinwall were the leading druggists of their time in New York City. In 1827, William L. Rushton opened a drugstore at 81 William St., which was previously the dry goods store of Reuben and Henry M. Sikes. James S. Aspinwall does not appear listed prior to the partnership. Rushton and Aspinwall joined forces in the late 1820s at the 81 William Street location. In 1833 they opened a second location at 110 Broadway. It is important to note that they moved their William Street store from 81 to 86 William St. in 1835, and in 1836 they added a third location at 10 Astor House. Rushton & Aspinwall were a business that sold drugs and medicines to wholesale and retail businesses, including several nostrums known by names of their own creation or adoption. In 1832, the partners started a joint operation. In 1843, William Hegeman, who had originally been in Rushton’s employment, became a partner in place of Aspinwall. This identifies the time frame from which embossed Rushton & Aspinwall bottles were produced. After Rushton & Aspinwall dissolved, it seems Mr. Aspinwall kept on at the
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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector
wholesale store on William Street, and Mr. Rushton took in a Mr. Clark who had formerly been a partner in the firm of Clark & Saxton, on Broadway. Shortly after, Rushton died. In 1855, as the result of Rushton’s death, the name of the company was changed to Hedgeman, Clark & Co. The notice of the name change appeared in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Jan. 25,1855. The notice mentioned three Broadway locations: 165, 273 and 511 Broadway. Later advertisements published in the fall of that year indicated a fourth location at 756 Broadway. Their wholesale depot was located at 165 Broadway while the other three locations were retail outfits. As the readers can see, these associations and partner changes created one huge drug and patent medicine seller as time progressed. By now, bottles with various embossing were found all over the country and the world, as sales of their export market were also expanding. These businesses not only sold drugs and patent medicines but were compounding new medicines all along the way. Product line was expanding, and success was certain. Still, the most heavily advertised item in their inventory under the Hedgeman name was their “Celebrated Genuine Cod Liver Oil.” This advertisement appeared in the Dec. 3, 1856, edition of the Brooklyn Times Union and mentioned nine years experience, which would date the product back to the Rushton & Aspinwall days.
Beginning in 1859, Clark was dropped from the company name, now referred to as Hegeman & Co. in both directory listings and advertisements. Right around this time the company started advertising several Hedgeman-named products. Rushton and Aspinwall, as well as Clark, no longer appeared on Hedgeman articles and thus came the end of the era. NOW SOME LOCAL FINDS The following material was gathered primarily online via Facebook groups, posts, messages with fellow collectors, auction listings and reports. All pictures and advertising are identified as to source, and digging stories from individual collectors sharing their experiences via public forums. All the bottles of this early Rushton & Aspinwall and related spin-off firms are crude, interesting, historical New York City artifacts and each and every one is quite interesting. I must give credit to my local New York digging community as well as all collectors worldwide who locate these gems. New York City bottle history is one huge topic of discussion. Hopefully our readers will find some inspiration and knowledge about this very early segment and the joy and appreciation the owners of these pieces express when they locate them. It is not easy locating these bottles, so those that have found them will certainly love this column. — John Panella
By John Panella
PHOTOS (clockwise from upper left): Early NYC druggist stoneware jars from James Aspinwall and Thomas Maxwell. Close-up of James Aspinwall Druggist jar. Close-up of stoneware jar: "Thomas Maxwell / Successors To / James S. Aspinwall / Druggists & Chemists / 80 So. William St. NY." Two different, rare, Rushton & Aspinwall medicine bottles.
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By John Panella
PHOTOS (this page, clockwise from top left): Early James Aspinwall letterhead dated 1862 detailing supplies ordered (bought of James Aspinwall); Advertisement for Rushton, Clark & Co, Chemists & Druggists; Green Rushton & Aspinwall bottle featured in the FOHBC Virtual Museum. PHOTOS (following page, clockwise from top left): Rare Rushton & Aspinwall soda bottle; Beautiful Rushton & Aspinwall bottle with large flanged mouth; Hegeman & Company, a successor of Rushton & Aspinwall, famous for their cod liver oil and other products. (Note; this was the first bottle the author, John Panella, dug in Brooklyn, N.Y., around 1980. He sold the bottle at the 26th St. and 8th Ave. N.Y.C. Flea Market. Tim Strong, who owned the bottle, returned it to John as a gift.); Rushton & Aspinwall soda with a beautiful iridescent patina discovered by Eddie Cunningham in an eighteen foot deep New Orleans privy.; Later Rushton Clark & Co. bottle.
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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector
By John Panella
December 2021
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