Vol. 16 No. 2
Spring 2005
The official publication of the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors
Bottles and Extras
Connecticut Glass Page 32
www.FOHBC.com
Wanted: Colored Hutchinsons Buy or Trade Highest Prices Paid
California • Eastern Cider Co. (Amber) • Paul Jeenicke, San Jose (Emerald Green) Colorado • C.A. Montag, Buena Vista (Amber & Green) Connecticut • Perkins Root Beer, Bristol (Amber) • W.H. McEnroe, New Britain (Amber) • Moriarity & Carbross, Waterbury (Amber) Georgia • Augusta Brewing Co., Augusta (Amber) Illinois • Independent Bottling Works, Chicago (Green) • Miller & Kluetsch, Chicago (Amber) • Chicago Consolidation Bottling Co., Chicago (Amber) • Peoria Seltzer Water (Cobalt) • Chas. Singer, Peoria (Amber) • Lohrberg Bros, Red Bud (Green) Indiana • K&C (Cobalt) • C.W. Arnold, South Bend (Cobalt) • Wyeth & Wyeth, Terre Haute (Amber) Kansas • H.E. Dean, Great Bend (Amber) Kentucky • The City Bottling Works, Louisville (Cobalt) • Geo. Stang, Louisville (Cobalt) Michigan • M Jos De Guise, Detroit (Amber) • Michigan Bottling Works J.W. Koch, Detroit (Amber) • Quackenbush Bros., Grand Rapids (Green) • C.O.D. Bottling Works, Jackson (Cobalt) • Property of Sprudel Water Co., Mt. Clements (Amber) • The Twin City Bottling Works, Chas. Klein, Prop. (Cobalt) Minnesota • Spa Bottling Co., St. Paul (Cobalt) Nebraska • Pomy & Segelke, Omaha (Amber) New Jersey • N. Masington, Camden (Amber)
New York • F.H. Berghoefer, Binghamton (Amber) • F.A. Jennings, Hudson (Cobalt) • Manor Bottling Works, New York (Lime Yellow) • Sand Altamont, NY (Cobalt) • Thompson & Stebbins, Rochester (Amber) • D.J. Whelan, Troy (Cobalt) Ohio • A. Dalin Ashtabula, Harbor (Amber & Cobalt) • Sandusky Bottling Works (Blue) • J.I. Marsh, Portsmouth (Amber) • Jos X Laube, Akron (Amber & Cobalt) • M.J. Tyrer, Newark (Apple Green) • The Consolidated Bottling Co., Lima (Cobalt) • Lake Erie Bottling Works, Toledo (Amber & Cobalt) • Miller Becker & Co., Cleveland (Olive Green) • Voelker Bros., Cleveland (Cornflower & Cobalt) Oklahoma • O.K. City Bottling Works, C.G. Frost (Amber) Pennsylvania • Jno. J. Bahl., Allentown (Green) • Goudie Mol & Co., Allentown (Green) • P.H. Reasbeck, Braddock (E. Green) • Johnson & Bros., Delta (Green) • J.C. Buffum & Co. City Bottling House, Pittsburgh (Cobalt) • Royal Bottling House, J Ungler, Pittsburgh (Amber) • J.W. Reis Ginger Ale, Laurel Street, Pottsville (Cobalt) • Ridgeway Bottling Works, R. Power (Cobalt) • F.J. Brennan, Shenandoah (Yellow) • Ashland Bottling Works, Ashland (Amber) • Johnson & Bros., Delta (Amber) • Phil Fisher, Pittsburgh (Citron) • Eagle Bottling Works, York (Amber) • Seeters Vighy & Carbonated Beverages, L. Cohen & Sons Pittsburgh (Amber & Citron) • Laffey & Harrigan, Johnstown (Cobalt) • Turchi Bros., Philadelphia (Citron) • J.F. Deegan, Pottsville (Various colors) South Carolina • Claussen Bottling Works, Charleston (Amber) Texas • Kennedy Bottling Works, Kennedy (Amber) Wisconsin • Lemon Beer, Noonan & Irmiger, Manitowoc (Amber) • Jos. Wolf, Milwaukee (Amber & Cobalt)
R.J. BROWN 901 SOUTH FOREST DRIVE TAMPA, FL 33609 (813) 870-2551 RBROWN4134@AOL.COM
The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors
Bottles and Extras
Vol. 16 No. 2
Spring 2005
No. 162
Table of Contents Bottle Buzz................................................2 Recent Finds............................................5 FOHBC Officer Listing 2004-2006...........6 President’s Message...................................7 A World of Pleasure awaits you at the 2005 National Bottle Show in Michigan! Liz Maxbauer...............................9 Regional News Reports............................12
More News on “Connecticut Glass” Rick Ciralli................................32 Let’s Talk About Ink: Indelible Ink Ed & Lucy Faulkner.......................34 Prohibition, Distillers and Brands Bret Heinemann.............................36 Random Shots: Barbara Edmonson, 19122004 Robin Preston................................40
Keeping the tradition ALIVE in Arizona! Charles E. Blake........................17
Louisville Glass Factories of the 19th Century - Part 1 David Whitten................................45
Collectible Bottles of the Future, Say 2055 and Beyond Bill Baab...................................18
“Keeping Your Powder Dry”...In A Glass Powder Horn? Cecil Munsey.................................50
Koca-Nola - Head’s Up on Charles David Head Charles David Head..................21
Perfection, Another Glasshouse In A Glass Town Barry L. Bernas..............................56
The Dating Game: The Ihmsen Glass Company Bill Lockhart, David Whitten, Bill Lindsey, Jay Hawkins & Carol Serr.........................................26
Dr. Michael Smith’s Veterinary Collectibles Roundtable: Dr. J. N. Norwood, V.S. Dr. Michael Smith..........................64
The Life and Loves of S. T. Suit: A JugFillers Story Jack Sullivan.............................66 The 3-Star Nurser Charles S. Harris......................70 Bottles Make Me Sick: Stendhal’s Syndrome Cecil Munsey............................72 Display and Advertising Rates and Membership Information........75 Classified Ads.........................................76 FOHBC Show-Biz Show Calendar Listings............81
WHO DO I CONTACT ABOUT THE MAGAZINE? To ADVERTISE, SUBSCRIBE or RENEW a subscription, see PAGE 75 for DETAILS. To SUBMIT A STORY, send a letter to the Editor or have comments and concerns, Contact: Kathy Hopson-Sathe, B&E Editor, 1966 King Springs Road, Johnson City, TN 37601 Phone: (423) 737-6710 or E-mail: kathy@thesodafizz.com BOTTLES AND EXTRAS (ISSN 1050-5598) is published quarterly (4 Issues per year) by the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, Inc. (a nonprofit IRS C3 educational organization) at 1021 W. Oakland Avenue, #109, Johnson City, TN 37604, (423) 282-5533; Website: http://www.fohbc.com. Periodicals Postage Paid at Johnson City, TN 37601. Pub #005062. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Bottles and Extras, FOHBC, 1021 W. Oakland Ave, #109, Johnson City, TN 37601. Phone: 423-913-1378. The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, Inc. assumes no responsibility for products and services advertised in this publication. The names: Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, Inc., and Bottles and Extras, are registered ® names of the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, Inc., and no use of either, other than as references, may be used without expressed written consent from the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, Inc. Certain material contained in this publication is copyrighted by, and remains the sole property of, the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, Inc., while others remain property of the submitting authors. Detailed information concerning a particular article may be obtained from the Editor. Printed by Central Plains Book Mfg. Co., Winfield, Kansas 67156.
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Bottle Buzz
News, Notes, Letters, etc.
Send Buzz Notes to: Kathy Hopson, E-mail: kathy@thesodafizz.com or write: Buzz Notes, 1966 King Springs Road, Johnson City TN 37601
Dear Editor, I was just writing to let you know how much I enjoy the Federation magazine when it comes out. Your magazine is full of a lot of good information. This is my third year being in the Federation and I should have been in years ago. I have been interested in bottles since the late 1960s. Your magazine is worth keeping around for a reference book...I enjoy all of your articles from coast to coast on bottles, glass houses and other memorabilia. Keep up the good work and I will be a life time member. I’m just sorry that I have missed out on a lot of good years not being in the Federation. Thanks again, Dennis Green From H. James Maxwell, Kansas City Antique Bottle and Breweriana Show: “I am sorry to say that we will not have a show this year. After nine years, I am having to give it up due to poor dealer attendance. Too many dealers say they are selling everything on eBay.” Response, from John Pastor: “It is sad. eBay is NOT the cure-all or end-all for selling bottles. Shows are much, much more than simply a venue to sell bottles. They offer an opportunity to socialize, learn, buy, sell, and talk about bottles. In my humble opinion, the eBay train has leveled off, but it has taken its toll on some of the smaller and more ‘faraway’ shows. However, there is often a silver lining and in this case, one could argue that eBay has exposed the hobby to more people and perhaps encouraged a few new collectors to join the hobby.” Your opinion? Please do send your comments to Bottle Buzz. From Howard Dean, Westernville, N.Y.: Thank you very much for you letter and the certificate of appreciation!... This past 16 months has been very hard
ones for Lillian and I as she has been very ill...I was unable to take part in the FOHBC activities as I like to, but things are looking better and I am going to try and get an article for you - hopefully... Sincerely, Howard
Bottles and Extras The thanks goes to all my authors and those who contribute their time and efforts to making the pages of this magazine full of information. I appreciate each and every one of you! I know that everyone missed Howard at the EXPO, but we are happy to hear that thing are getting better and we all are looking forward to seeing him active in the hobby again. Below is a letter received from one of our members and forwarded to us in regards to a gift of a “card stopper” bottle. We are happy to welcome James McElroy into the hobby of bottle collecting:
Bottles and Extras From Marg Iwen, Madison, Wis.: “I am pleased to tell you that I am almost finished with the research stage of the Federal document. I have one more letter to get out to a man (who) is very knowledgeable about jars, and possibly bottles as well. Since this information would be of greater interest to your readers than the tableware issues, I would very much like to have his opinion on markings of Federal fruit jars. “One man thinks they were marked with a ‘triangle,’ but I cannot find evidence of that. Further, I found an old writing from a man who says that he developed the Federal ‘Sheild’ trademark and urged use of it on fruit jars. To further complicate this issue, Federal shifteed to block molds rather early in its lifespan, which means that they could not have marked jars made in this style mold, as these molds do not allow for excisions or incisions on the vertical surfaces. Once I hear from the Ohio expert, I will be able to include this in a historical summary for you.” Sara B. Benson of Ozello (Florida) passed away October 31, 2004. She and her husband, Carl, were very active in the Mid-State Antique Bottle Collectors Association and had remained avid antique bottle collectors even after the club became defunct. Sara also enjoyed collecting miniature pottery cats. Her passing was shared with us by fellow collectors J. Carl Sturm and Michael Shea. Mrs. Annette Howell, wife of Ralph “Sonny” Howell passed away Sunday, November 7, 2004. Annette was a devoted and knowledgeable collector of Southern pottery, a member of our magazine family. While she was not a bottle collector herself, she was tolerant and supportive of Sonny’s lust for the hobby. Many collectors would make it a point to ask about Annette at the shows he would attend as Annette was bed and wheelchair bound after an automobile accident twelve years ago, leaving her with a closed head injury. The hobby has lost a dear friend and we extend our heart felt sympathy to the family and friends. Sonny Howell
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From L to R: Bruce Pynn, Ralph Van Brocklin, Norman Lewis Norman’s many friends in the bottle hobby will be sadden to hear that he passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack at his home in Coventry, England on February 7, 2005. Norm leaves behind his long-time partner Jane (Latham), five daughters and five grandchildren. Norm’s death leaves a large void in the bottle-collecting world, as he touched and enriched the lives of so many who knew him with his friendliness, his humor, his caring and compassion for others and for his honesty in the hobby. Norm loved the bottle hobby and the countless friends that he made internationally since his first trip to the U.S. for a show in the 1970’s with long-time friends Jim and Joyce Rogers. As a collector of poison bottles and as one of the bottle world’s most recognized and respected international dealers, he pursued these interests with great passion and energy. He was highly respected by both customers and competitors alike. In the U.K., he will be remembered as a loyal supporter of the hobby, local clubs and shows, and in the U.S., he will be remembered as a principal source who “bridged the pond” to infuse quality and quantity English glass and stoneware collectibles into the U.S. market. The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors extends its deepest condolences to Jane and Norm’s family, and his future presence will be greatly missed here in the U.S. Rick Baldwin The Speed Art Museum, 2035 S. Third St., Louisville, Kent., received a gift of 601 American historical flasks from Louisvillian Robinson S. Brown, Jr. The flasks, produced by American glass factories between 1815 and the 1890s, were grouped in 15 categories. The Brown collection encompasses historical (presidents, railroads, etc.), decorative (scrolls, sunbursts, etc.), organizations (Masons), and locales (Pike’s Peak, Baltimore Monument, etc.). Some flasks in the collection were produced locally at either the Louisville Glassworks or the Kentucky Glassworks. Brown had been an avid collector for more than 50 years. In addition to figured flasks, he was also interested in paintings, early cut glass and coins. A Louisville native, Brown began working summers for Brown-Forman during college. After graduating, he worked full-time at the Louisville-based beverage firm in advertsing and sales until 1982, when he
retired as chairman of the board. The Robinson S. Brown Collection will have its premiere showing in the Speed’s Focus Gallery from February 15 to August 7, 2005. Founded in 1927, The Speed Art Museum has over 13,000 pieces in its collection spanning 6,000 years, ranging from ancient Egyptian to comtemporary art. The Museum has distinguished collections of paintings, art, tapestries and sculpture. The Speed Art Museum is located at 2035 South Third Street, Louisville, Kentucky. Other features of the museum include a hands-on Art Learning Center for families, a cafe and gift shop. Gallery hours are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 10:30 AM to 4:00 PM; Thursday 10:30 AM to 8:00 PM; Saturday 10:30 AM to 5:00 PM and Sunday 12:00 to 5:00 PM. The museum is closed on Mondays. For information, call (502) 634-2700 or visit the website: www.speedmuseum.org.
4 From Bill McQuesten, central France: I enjoyed the article on LeRoy N. (Jack) McQuesten [“Yukon Jack: Part I,” Bottles and Extras, Summer, Vol. 15. No. 3..] He was, indeed, our most famous McQuesten. William McQuesten, my namesake, was my great, great, great, great grandfather and apparently came from the colonies around the same time as William Munsey. Very interesting to find out something about “Jack” that I had no idea about. William McQuesten mcquesten@wanadoo.fr From Montgomery Pollack: I own a motion picture prop house in Los Angeles, Calif. We are working on the new Brian DePalma film called “The Black Dahlia”. In the script there is a scene where the police bust into a motel room and scattered about are “Muscatel Short Dogs”. I found out that ‘short dogs’ refer to drinking cheap wine out of a paper bag or the size of the bottle. It is my job to find bottles that will work for 1947 Muscatel short dogs. Needless to say I am having a time trying to find such a bottle let alone find multiples. Can you shed any light on the subject? Do you know of anyone who may have a cheap wine bottle form the 40s and do you happen to know if it was cheap wine at the time would it have a screw top? Any information would be helpful. Thank you so much for your time, Monty Monty@hpr.com Monty, I believe the wine bottles you are looking for are green, amber, or clear glass and are cylindrical in shape, and yes, they would have a screw cap. A brand I remember, from my childhood days of gathering bottles for their deposit, is ROMA. A place you might try is eBay. They will be hard to find because that type of bottle is not particularly collectible. I will send your E-mail and my response to the Executive Board of the Federation of Historical Bottle collectors. They might be able to help in some way. And I will send a copy to Steve Ketcham who has often sold period bottles to folks in Hollywood to be used in movies. He might have an idea. My final thought is that if you could find one example you could duplicate
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Spring 2005
From the Wire Services Eugene, Ore.: It turns out there’s quite a collector’s market for 100-year-old threadless glass insulators. One that was purchased for peanuts at a garage sale, netted $10,313 on eBay recently. Phil Unrine and Jeanie Quimby came up with two insulators at a garage sale, one ceramic, one glass, for $5 for the pair. Quimby thought she could make a buck – posting the glass model with a starting
price of $5.99. Just a few hours later, she checked to see how it was doing – and found 10 urgent messages from collectors telling her that the glass insulator dated to the 1890s, was extraordinarily rare and listed in price guides at up to $10,000. “ I about freaked out,” said Quimby. “I couldn’t talk.” The winning bid of $10,313 came from a collector in Helena, Montana.
New York: A pair of paintings from the famed series depicting dogs playing poker
fetched nearly $600,000 at auction Tuesday, February 15th. The two works, “A Bold Bluff” (pictured) and “Waterloo,” were among sixteen paintings that artist Cassius Marcellus Coolidge was commissioned to create for a Minnesota-based advertising company in 1903. Of the sixteen, nine are of dogs playing poker. The two works that sold for $590,000 capture moments in a poker game played by five dogs.
Durham, N.C.: When Albert Sack buys furniture, he doesn’t skimp. The antique’s dealer just spent $7.5 million on a mahogany tea table - the second highest price ever paid for a piece of American furniture. “As long as it is great, there is no
price too great for a masterpiece,” Sack said of his purchase at a January 22nd auction at New York’s Sothenby’s auction house. The table is one of only four of its kind made by the noted 18th century craftsman John Goddard of Newport, R.I.
London, England: Nestled in cellars tunneled deep into a Crimean mountainside, they survived revolution, war and decades of communism. Hundreds of very old bottles of wine selected for the pleasure of Czar Nicholas II (1868-1913) and preserved on the orders of Josef Stalin were auctioned recently by Sotheby’s in London – the
latest in a slew of Russian collectibles being snapped up at ever-rising prices. Several dozen Russian and European collectors gathered at Sotheby’s showroom to place bids totalling more than $17M on the pontil-scarred bottles, some more than 150 years old, from the imperial Massandra winery near Yalta on Ukraine’s Black Sea Coast.
the label and put labels on current bottle of the shape I mentioned above. (I will look around for current bottle of the right shape and color. If I find one I will e-mail you the information etc.) Dr. Cecil Munsey cecilmunsey@cox.net Hi Cecil, I am at a loss to help this fellow, but I can see that we must adjust our paradigm a bit when it comes to our definition of “old
bottle.” I say this because, in addition to this circa 1940 film, another film set in this era is currently being filmed in New Orleans. I helped gather circa 19451955 liquor, soda and beer bottles, as well as appropriate labels, for this one, a remake of “All the King’s Men.” It was a fun and profitable challenge, though. Thanks for sharing this with me. Steve Ketcham s.ketcham@unique-software.com
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Recent Finds One of the most interesting of the “maverick” mini jugs is the “TARANTULA JUICE” mini jug featuring a large stenciled tarantula and made available by the prorietorship of Swope and Mangold. For many years this miniature jug was felt to be from Utah. I am not clear where that particular designation originated. In the process of a “Google” search I chanced across a listing for Swope and Mangold and the following was noted: “On account of the scarcity of wheel-barrows, there were just two entires in the wheel-barrow race, Loonie and Kettle. The latter won, his prize a pair of fine pants from Hermann’s. Loonie was given, for coming in second, a box of fine cigars from Swope and Mangold’s.” (From the Dallas Daily Times Herald of July 8, 1892 article ‘The Picnic and Ball Given By The Irish-Americans Club Yesterday.’)” A review of the Texas section of the Dun and Bradstreet confirmed this firm as being in Dallas in 1889 in the business of Wines, Liquors, Saloon and Cigars.
CONTEMPORARIES St. Peterʼs English Ale from Suffolk, England
Lovely bottle, eh? Its modeled on a flask made by Thomas Gerrard of Gibbstown, N.J., circa 1770. This tidbit was gleaned off the St. Peter’s label and the four-bottle cardboard container, which are packed with data. Even the brewery’s address makes an info-heavy paragraph: “St. Peter’s Hall, St. Peter S. Elham, Bungay, Suffolk, NR35 INQ, England, United Kingdom. As a bottle collector and history buff, I love this stuff. Reading further, I spy a mini-review of the beer itself. This is a “full-bodied ale with distinctive fruity caramel notes.” I found the review accurate. Most people drink bottled beer, not beer bottles BUT as a bottle collector, I sometimes buy the bottle and then drink the beer. Cecil Munsey cecilmunsey@cox.net
Wonder what collectors will be adding to their shelves 100 years from now? See feature article by Bill Baab beginning on page 18 to see what other’s opinions are.
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Federation of Historicial Bottle Collectors
Business & News The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors is a non-profit organization for collectors of historical bottles and related collectible items. Our primary goal is educational as it relates to the history and manufacture of historical bottles and related artifacts.
FOHBC Officers 2004-2006 President : John Pastor, 7288 Thorncrest Dr. SE, Ada, MI 49301; Phone: (616) 285-7604; E-mail: JPastor2000@msn.com First Vice-President : Gene Bradberry, P.O. Box 341062, Memphis, TN 38184; Phone: (901) 372-8428; E-mail: genebsa@midsouth.rr.com Second Vice-President : Cecil Munsey, 13541 Willow Run Road, Poway, CA 92064-1733; Phone: (858) 487-7036; E-mail: cecilmunsey@cox.net Secretary : Ed Provine, 401 Fawn Lake Dr., Millington, TN 38053; Phone: (901) 876-3296; E-mail: ed.provine@thyssenkruppelevator.com Treasurer : Alan DeMaison, 6583 Berkshire Dr., Mentor, OH 44060; Phone: (440) 255-3880; E-mail: violinbottle@aol.com Historian : Richard Watson, 10 S.Wendover Rd., Medford, NJ 08055; Phone: (856) 983-1364; E-mail: rewatson@bellatlantic.net Editor : Kathy Hopson-Sathe, 1966 King Springs Rd., Johnson City, TN 37601; Phone: (423) 737-6710; E-mail: kathy@thesodafizz.com Merchandising Director : Kent Williams, 1835 Oak Terr., Newcastle, CA 95658; Phone: (916) 663-1265; E-mail: kent@altarfire.com Membership Director : Fred Holabird, 701 Gold Run Ct., Reno, NV 89511; Phone: (775) 851-0837; E-mail: fred@holabird.com Conventions Director : Wayne Lowry, 401 Johnston Ct., Raymore, MO 64083; Phone: (816) 318-0161; E-mail: JarDoctor@aol.com
Business Manager / Subscriptions: June Lowry, 401 Johnston Ct., Raymore, MO 64083; Phone: (816) 318-0160; E-mail: osubuckeyes71@aol.com Director-At-Large : Ralph VanBrocklin, 1021W. Oakland Ave., Suite 109, Johnson City, TN 37604; Home (423) 913-1378; Office: (423) 282-5533; E-mail: thegenuine@comcast.net Director-At-Large : Sheldon Baugh, 252 W. Valley Dr., Russelville, KY 42276; Phone: (270) 726-2712; Fax: (270) 726-7618; E-mail: shel6943@bellsouth.net Director-At-Large: Carl Sturm, 88 Sweetbriar Branch, Longwood, FL 32750-2783; Phone: (407) 332-7689; E-mail: glassmancarl@sprintmail.com Midwest Region Director : Rick Baldwin, 1931 Thorpe Cir., Brunswick, OH 44212-4261; Phone: (330) 225-3576; E-mail: rsbaldwin@worldnet.att.net Northeast Region Director : Larry Fox, 5478 Route 21, Canandaigua, NY 14424; Phone: (585) 394-8958; E-mail: brerfox@frontiernet.net Southern Region Director : Reggie Lynch, P.O. Box 13736, Durham, NC 27709; Phone: (919) 789-4545; E-mail: rlynch@antiquebottles.com Western Region Director : Bob Ferraro, 515 Northridge Dr., Boulder City, NV 89005; Phone: (702) 293-3114; E-mail: mayorferraro@aol.com Public Relations Director : Mike Polak, PO Box 303258, Long Beach, CA 90853; Phone: (562) 438-9209; E-mail: bottleking@earthlink.net
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Federation of Historic Bottle Collectors
President’s Message Spring 2005 As they say, “Timing is everything”. By the time this Spring Issue of Bottles and Extras arrives at your doorstep, along with the tulips and apple blossoms, another busy show season will be kicking into high gear. I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate a few of the many benefits that Federation Affiliated Member Clubs enjoy, and to encourage those clubs to take full advantage of these benefits. If your local club is not a Federation Affiliated Club, why not talk to your club officers and consider joining. Some of the many benefits for Federation Affiliated Clubs include: A free quarterpage display ad in the Federation Newsletter preceding your show; One complimentary Individual Membership for your club to use as an honorarium, door prize or raffle item; a free Federation ribbon for Most Educational Display at your show; discounted display advertising rates in Bottles and Extras; a library of slide programs available for a nominal usage fee for use at club meetings and activities. And, in the very near future, we hope to add another valuable benefit to this growing list. The board is in the process of exploring the feasibility of offering liability insurance for your club’s activities at very reasonable rates. We hope to make this a reality in the very near future and will have more to report on this in the next issue. On a more individual basis, we have all seen how one vote, one person, can make a difference in a free and democratic society. And, it can certainly make a difference in helping to foster the growth of this organization and our hobby. You, as an individual, do have the power to help strengthen the organization and to make a difference! The Federation is in the process of looking for an Advertising Manager to act as a liaison for individuals and clubs wishing to place ads and to coordinate accounts. This individual would work
closely with our editor and need not have any prior experience. Although this position would not necessarily require a great deal of your time, it is an important position and one that would be of great assistance to the organization. Please don’t hesitate to give me a call if you or someone you know may be interested. There are many other ways in which you can make a difference and to exercise the “power of one person”. I would invite you to share your knowledge and expertise by writing an article for Bottles and Extras (or perhaps a memorable dig or an interesting discovery), or by showing off a portion of your collection and sharing your knowledge through a display at your local show or perhaps at the National Show in Grand Rapids. One of the primary goals of the Federation is to foster the educational aspect of the hobby. In fact, the mission of the Federation as stated in the organization’s bylaws is “…to encourage growth and public awareness of the bottle hobby and to enhance the enjoyment of such through collecting, dealing and educational endeavors and to promote fair and ethical conduct within the bottle hobby.” I am pleased to announce that at the 2005 National Bottle Show in Grand Rapids, Michigan August 13 & 14, plans have been made to incorporate a minimum of thirty to forty educational exhibits encompassing a wide variety of collecting disciplines. One of the featured displays that I anticipate will garner a great deal of interest and should also be very enlightening, will be one of “Fakes & Reproductions”. Unfortunately, while these are a reality of our hobby, they are by no means new to the scene. “Antique Fakes & Reproductions” was the title of an important book by Ruth Webb Lee (original copyright 1938), with chapters on blown glass, historical flasks, and pattern glass reproductions.
President : John R. Pastor 7288 Thorncrest Dr. SE Ada, MI 49301 Phone: (616) 285-7604 E-mail: jpastor2000@msn.com
If you are interested in contributing a display for the 2005 National Show in Grand Rapids, please contact Jeff Scharnowske, 989.725.3880, or E-mail: scharno@shianet.org. Jeff, as well as all of the 2005 show committee members, has been working hard to ensure that this year’s National will be an enjoyable and memorable event for all. Also, be sure to catch in this issue, an article by Liz Maxbauer on Grand Rapids, Michigan, my current resident city and host venue to this year’s National Bottle Show. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those folks who have, and who continue to contribute articles to the Federation. We have enjoyed a tremendous outpouring of support and contributions via “the written pen.” However, those needs are continual and ever present. In this and in past issues, we have had many wonderful and informative articles that have been written by talented members. Many more articles are waiting to be written by other knowledgeable contributors; we would love to hear from YOU! In the meantime, I hope that you’ll enjoy this issue. The 2005 National Show packet can be requested from me by phone or mail - or downloaded from our Website at: http://www.fohbc.com/ FOHBC_ShowCalendar.html Packet includes: Directions to DeVos Place; Schedule of Events; Rules & General Information for Sales Tables, Displays & Early Buyers; Hotel, Banquet & Reservation form; Auction & Seminar Information; Sales Table & Banquet Reservation form; and Early Admission & Display Application.
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The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors is proud to present a Live, Unreserved, Public Auction of fine Early Bottles, Flasks Jars and Stoneware to be held in conjunction with the 2005 National Show
Amway Grand Plaza Hotel Grand Rapids, Michigan Saturday, August 13, 2005
We are currently seeking quality consignments for this auction! To discuss the possibility of consigning an item or group of items, or for more information regarding this sale, please contact: John R. Pastor, 7288 Thorncrest Dr. SE, Ada, MI 49301 Phone: (616) 285-7604; E-mail: jpastor2000@msn.com
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A World of Pleasure awaits you at the 2005 National Bottle Show in Michigan! by Liz Maxbauer
At a recent bottle show I was talking to a fellow bottle collector, sharing the excitement of the upcoming 2005 National show in Grand Rapids, Michigan (August 13-14). A northeasterner, the collector had never been to Grand Rapids and said, “Tell me about Michigan.” As I went on, he expressed his surprise and was impressed with all that Michigan has to offer. Later, I began to wonder if others would also benefit from this information. As a native “Michigander,” please allow me to give you a narrative tour of my beautiful home state. Whether you are looking for cultural events, the performing arts, world-class golf, a variety of museums, quaint coastal villages, amusement parks and outdoor recreation, Michigan has it all. I would encourage you to bring your family and extend your visit to take advantage of all that Michigan has to offer. There is not a better place to start our Michigan tour than with Grand Rapids, where you will find the comfort and friendliness of a small town combined with the amenities of a big city. Once known as the furniture capital of the world, Grand Rapids has recently experienced a $500 million dollar renaissance in new cultural, recreational, meeting and sports facilities. Our host hotel and convention center, outstanding restaurants, museums and entertainment are all within walking distance of this safe and clean downtown area. Grand Rapids, Michigan’s second largest city, is located in southwest Michigan, approximately 30 miles from Lake Michigan on Michigan’s “West Coast.” It is easily accessible from interstate 96 and U.S. 131, and only 184 miles from Chicago and 426 miles from
Pittsburgh. Grand Rapids is serviced by the Gerald R. Ford International Airport, which serves two million passengers annually. This airport is the second-busiest commercial airport in Michigan and is an easy 20 minutes from the convention center, DeVos Place. And what a gorgeous convention center it is! DeVos Place, recently finished last December, 2004 is huge (on 13 acres, having one million square feet) yet it is easy to navigate. From the wave-shaped roof to interior water motifs, the convention center symbolizes the beauty of this great-lakes state, visually welcoming visitors to its downtown riverfront location. The natural light from the wall of floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the river will be a big bonus to bottle collectors in our convention hall. The convention center’s proximity to museums, theaters, concert halls and outdoor sculptures makes it a natural destination for bottle collectors who want to bring the whole family. It also has a 75foot high, glass enclosed “Grand Gallery,” which is a climate controlled five block enclosed skywalk that connects Monroe Avenue to the Riverfront, Van Andel Arena and the Amway Grand Plaza, our host Hotel. The Amway Grand Plaza, a four-star, four-diamond historic hotel, is the epitome of elegance. From there, I encourage you to take a walking tour around the city to fully appreciate its beauty. Once you start
looking, you’ll see artwork almost everywhere, including “La Grande Vitesse,”, a soaring red metal sculpture by Alexander Calder at Calder Plaza where there will be a festival called “Soul of the City” accompanied with music and food. You can enjoy the sculptures along the river walk, visit the many art galleries, window shop, or sit a spell at Rosa Parks Circle to people watch or perhaps listen to the free music concerts offered at the amphitheatre there most summer weekends. You could enjoy a progressive dinner, stopping at a few of the more than 60 restaurants within walking distance. All but 10% of these restaurants are unique (not chain restaurants), where you will find a vast array of cuisine including bistros, Irish pubs, steak and seafood houses, ethnic specialty restaurants, bakeries and more. Our host hotel also houses Michigan’s only AAA-Five Diamond Restaurant (The 1913 Room). There are also many options for fun in this thriving entertainment district. There are also five excellent museums within walking distance. The Public Museum of Grand Rapids will be hosting a major traveling exhibit from July 2nd to October 31 th entitled: “Cherished Possessions: A New England Legacy,” featuring 175 artifacts reflecting family
Exterior of DeVos Place, Grand Rapids.
DeVos Place meeting rooms.
Grand Gallery at the DeVos Place.
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Bottles and Extras
Spring 2005
Farmer’s Market
stories of life in New England. It also has world-class exhibits on history, nature and cultural heritage. Also, don’t miss the Gerald R. Ford Museum “America’s most entertaining presidential museum, the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids Children’s Museum and Planetarium or the Voight House Victorian Museum. A short drive away, you could also visit the John Ball Zoo, featuring over 1000 animals in a 110 acre park. Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park is approximately ten minutes away and features 125 acres of the most comprehensive outdoor sculpture collection in the Midwest (sculptors such as Rodin, Moore and Lipchitz), as well and indoor and outdoor gardens, waterfalls and nature trails. If golf is your passion (besides bottle collecting), see why Michigan has earned its reputation as “America’s Summer Golf Capital.” The entire area boasts premier championship golf courses and professional sports. Grand Rapids is also home to the West Michigan Whitecaps – a Class-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. The weekend of August 12 th , they will be playing Wisconsin. Come see the fireworks! Michigan is a water-lovers paradise. We have 11,000 miles of inland lakes and more coastline mileage than any other state except Alaska. In the neighboring coastal communities of Saugatuck or Grand Haven 30 miles to the west, you could take could take a sunset cruise, or pilot a boat yourself and cruise past the lighthouses which dot the coastline. You could also rent a Jet Ski, kayak, or reel in “the big one” on a charter fishing trip. For landlubbers, other options include a scenic off-road sand dunes ride or just relax and dig your toes into one of the many miles of sandy beaches. From Grand Rapids, 42 miles northwest is Muskegon, the home of “Michigan’s Adventure” an amusement and water park with over 50 rides and water slides. These
The Frederik Meijer Gardens
Golf
quaint coastal communities have an abundance of restaurants and art galleries for your enjoyment. Finally, there could be no better way to cap off your day on the west coast than to watch a beautiful Michigan sunset on the water, truly a sight to behold. Michigan, being a peninsula, has a “microclimate” which is ideal for growing grapes. The coastal areas are dotted with many local wineries, from South Haven to Traverse City, which have free wine tasting rooms for an enjoyable day filled with tasting excursions. Several national and international award-winning wines have been made here in Michigan. Traveling to the east, you will find a multitude of attractions to choose from, including a memorable visit to the historical Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, the excitement of cheering on the Detroit Tigers, or visiting the local casinos. No trip to Michigan would be complete without a visit to the northern part of the state. In the upper part of the Lower Peninsula, known as a vacationer ’s paradise, you’ll find miles of beaches where the water is a crystal clear Caribbean blue. I would suggest a visit to my hometown of
Traverse City and the Leelanau peninsula, voted by Travel magazine as one of the best travel destinations in the world. You will find sand dunes, wineries and gently rolling landscapes nestled in this magnificent natural setting. Golf magazine also ranked it 12 out of its top 50 golf destinations. The beauty continues as you continue north to the cities of Charlevoix and Petoskey. A most unique destination would be Mackinaw Island, the setting of the movie “Somewhere in Time.” After a speedy boat ride to the island, it will seem like you have traveled back in time to a Victorian village where motorized transportation is not allowed. You could visit historic Fort Mackinac, take a horse and buggy tour or bike around the island. As you can tell, I could go on and on, but space does not allow. The National Bottle show promises to be very exciting and will alone be worth the trip. Many people are hard at work planning a memorable event. Speaking from personal experience, with John’s attention to detail, the show will run like a finely tuned machine. Don’t miss it! I hope to see you here!
Fishing at Grand Havens
Bottles and Extras
Spring 2005
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Bottles and Extras
Spring 2005 bitters and miscellaneous other categories were offered for sale. The bidding was spirited and every one in attendance had a great time. In February when the frozen earth is reluctant to give up its treasures and shows are not happening, a bottle auction is a welcome event. ESBCA has held many an annual auction. It is the oldest bottle club in the states. GVBCA Rochester, N.Y. now meets in the lodge at Brighton Town Park. It is an Adirondack style lodge with a fireplace on each end. There is a deck on the front where one can set and watch the waterfowl on the pond. It has a full kitchen, comfort stations for both men and women and plenty of seating space. Last month a cake was provided which said GVBCA Enjoying Old Friends and Making New Ones. A presentation was given on the art of carving carousel horses and restoring merry gorounds. Meetings are at 7:00 PM the second Wednesday of each month. Tailgating starts at 5:30 PM. Meetings are open to any one wishing to have a good time and learn about new things.
Northeast Regional News Larry Fox 5478 Route 21 Canandaigua, NY 14424 (585) 394-8958 brerfox@frontiernet.net
The Potomac Bottle Collectors serving the National Capital has an amazing monthly newsletter and it is available at members.aol.com/Potomacbtl/bottle2.html. The first time I accessed this site I did it by punching “Potomac Pontil” into my Google. I am so glad I did. There is five years of The Potomac Pontil available. The Pontil is a very well written newsletter and is full of well-researched articles well worth the time to read. February 2005 “WHATEVER HAPPENED TO MARYLAND RYE WHISKEY” by Jack Sullivan. This article is well researched and very well written. I urge everyone to look at this web site. This type of publication does not happen without a tremendous amount of time and effort. After looking at this site, please take a minute and email the editor and let him know you appreciate their effort. The Richmond Area Bottle Collectors Association were to enjoy a talk on candy containers at their February meeting. Mentioned in The Digger [club newsletter] was not only many are a cross collectible but also most are very small and take up less space so you can collect more of them. I like that reasoning. The program will be by Mr. Bruce Copal. ESBCA Syracuse, N.Y. held their annual club auction Feb. 2, 2005. As always it was an evening of fun and friends. Ginger beers, milks, mineral waters, fruit jars,
Editorial by Larry The following is my take on articles written by different club presidents to their members and appearing in club newsletters. The consensus is pretty much the same. The older members are relinquishing their influence on the clubs and their various activities. This leaves a burden on clubs because younger members do not seem to have the desire and or the ability to carry on these traditions, which for so many years have been looked after by older members. Personally, I feel things need to be made simpler, less complicated and certainly less
Midwest Regional News
Joe Terry
P.O. Box 243 Bowling Green, Ohio 43402 (419) 686-0032 jiterry@wcnet.org Midwest members, I sympathize! As I am doing this report the snow is yet again falling here in Ohio. This season limits bottle hunting to the three “B’s”; basements, belfries and barns. I myself cannot wait to see the ground thaw. Until,
keep your spirits up.
JT
Antique Bottle Club of Northern Illinois – There are some minor troubles in Northern Illinois. The club’s show date for this year corresponds with the show in Mansfield, Ohio put on by the OBC. ABCNI has decided to reschedule theirs for April 23, 2005 at the McHenry, Illinois VFW hall. The club had a nice round of interesting bottles at the December meeting, but January’s meeting was cancelled due to the weather. That seems to be a reoccurring
demanding. A club newsletter takes a lot of work. Someone has to contribute. There are clubs that have an abundance of serious collectors who are good writers and researchers and they regularly contribute well-written articles for all to enjoy. There are also small clubs, which simply do not have the talent pool or the larger membership from which to extract quality articles for continuous publications. Many newsletters are composed of articles written in the past and already published many times. The average club meets ten times a year and has a monthly newsletter. This means someone is responsible for ten newsletters a year. I know of one N.Y. State club whose newsletter expense exceeds the annual membership fee. I write the Northeast news for this publication eight times a year. Four for the magazine and four for the newsletter. I have often been asked why certain clubs seem to get more recognition than others - the answer is the content of many newsletters offers me nothing to publish. Take a look at your club’s newsletter this month and ask yourself “what is in here that should be shared with other collectors?” In order to encourage new people to join our collecting obsession, we need an avenue of communication. Frankly, the average newsletter does not meet these criteria. This is why I feel we are so very fortunate to have Kathy Hopson putting together Bottles and Extras. This is our avenue for attracting new people to bottle collecting. Our continued support of Kathy and the Federation will be mainstay, and the future, of bottle collecting. Larry Fox Northeast Director and Editor theme this time of year. Findlay Antique Bottle Club – The members of the FABC having been trying to take the winter weather in stride. Meetings are well attended despite the adverse conditions. The newsletter, Whittle Marks, has changed its format, so that the Show and Tell have been posted on the web. Photos of various members and their finds can be seen after each month’s meeting by visiting www.fabclub.freeyellow.com and following the links. Iowa Antique Bottleers – We have some
Bottles and Extras news from Mike Burggraaf. The newsletter had a reprint from an article from the December 20, 1974 IAB newsletter. It concerns the Bertrand steamship, a former riverboat that sunk. Over the years the river had changed course and eventually the boat was found and excavated. The original story was submitted by “Doc” George Herron. The boat was loaded with all kinds of bottles, of special interest were the bitters. Metropolitan Detroit Antique Bottle Club – The January The Slug Plate reports that the club’s annual bottle show went off without a hitch, but that attendance was not what was expected. This was despite the fact that the show was well advertised. Cost of production was not met by receipts, and the show ended slightly in the red. The club also reported on happenings on eBay of Detroit and Michigan related items. Nice selection of photos accompanied the listings. Midwest Antique Fruit Jar and Bottle Club – While the snow has not diminished meeting attendance, it has been instrumental in canceling one of the club’s shows. This report from Norman; The mailman’s slogan: neither rain, nor sleet nor snow will stop the mail. At one time we thought that was the slogan for the MAFL&B winter show. We have lots of snows, miserably cold temperatures, etc. However, “fruit jar nuts” as we have been called didn’t let that stop them. Tons of ice and no power did not stop our January 9, 2005 show. On Wednesday, January 5 Old Man Winter blasted several counties in Northern Indiana with a disastrous ice storm. Thousands were without power for days, some even weeks. We learned about it from the TV news and radio. Thursday afternoon we received a phone call from the Roberts Hotel in Muncie, our show headquarters, telling us just how bad it was. 95% of Muncie was without power. For some unknown reason the hotel did have power and Muncie area people were clamoring for rooms. The hotel personnel asked if we could contact “our people” who had reservations and ask them to give up their rooms. Now to explain. Our show is a one day event –Sunday. However, some of our dealers arrive at the hotel on Thursday and set up their jars in their rooms and wheel and deal until the show on Sunday. It is estimated that sometimes more sales are
Spring 2005 made from the rooms than on the Sunday show. Several of the dealers, those from a distance, were already in their rooms. Norman, show chairman, and club vicepresident Dave Rittenhouse discussed the situation and came to the conclusion that the only possible solution was to cancel the show. The convention center, where the show is held, had no power and it wasn’t restored until Monday. Hotel personnel and Dave and his wife Kay contacted those who had reservations and explained why the show was canceled. Jean Harbron and her husband Tom put the notice on the club website and Joe Coulston contacted people by email. We drove to Muncie on Friday morning and the area looked like a tornado had gone through, except that everything was covered with sheets of glistening ice. There were no lights in the houses, businesses were closed, and there were no working traffic lights. Some streets were impassible because of downed trees and limbs. Beautiful but disastrous. The hotel was filled with families, children carrying blankets and sleeping bags. The hotel itself had been recently sold, and was undergoing refurbishing. Some rooms were out of service due to this fact. Hotel personnel unable to go home stayed in these rooms, sleeping on the floor. It was a disturbing situation and an inconvenience for many, but one we mortals had no control over. To look at the other side of the coin, we had had many shows, two a year adds up, and this is the first time we have had to cancel a show. Plans are already being made to have a “super” show on July 10. We hope to see you there. Promise…no ice storm. Minnesota’s First Antique Bottle Club – Minnesota is in the mood for love, with the front page emblazoned with an old Valentine’s Day illustration. Meeting talk centered on the upcoming show and sale on April 10, 2005. The show will be held at the Day’s Inn, 1901 Killebrew Drive, Bloomington, Minn.
13 Show and tell had some interesting items, including a stop on glass whimsy pipes and other items, such as glass chains. Tim Wolter did a short story on Dr. Mempe’s Herb Stomach Bitters. John Theilen was the sole U.S.A. agent for the European Bitters. Mr. Theilen hailed from Oshkosh. The back page showed a nice heart shaped clear glass scent bottle. Ohio Bottle Club - The Ohio Bottle Club (OBC) started the New Year right with its annual Christmas dinner, which was enjoyed by all who attended. The club is currently compiling its 2005 calendar of monthly meeting programs, which are always well-received by the 60-80 members who regularly attend the monthly meetings held in Wadsworth, Ohio. The club’s monthly newsletter, The Ohio Swirl, has consistently achieved the distinction of being one of the best composed and formatted newsletters in the hobby, and Editor Terri Grove encourages all members to submit at least one article annually. New to the club in 2005 will be the formalization of a Board of Directors. Recognized in the OBC Constitution, this body of active club members will assist with the club’s management and functionality, as needed. The OBC’s Doc Ford Award for 2004 was presented to Doris Ford in recognition of sustained dedication and contributions to the club and bottle hobby. Doris has been active in the club since 1973. On a sad note, club member Carolyn Durich recently passed away. Carolyn and her family have been regular meeting attendees for years. Finally, the OBC reminds all collectors that its famous Mansfield Show & Swap will be held early this year - on April 2930, 2005 at the Richland County Fairgrounds in Mansfield. Come participate in one of the largest sustained bottle shows in the country coupled with the best buffet supper that you’ll find at any show!
Southern Regional News
Bill Baab 2352 Devere Street Augusta, GA 30904 (706) 736-8097 riverswamper@comcast.net
Janie Raper, Raleigh (N.C.) Bottle Club secretary and editor of its Bottle Talk newsletter, featured Pepsi-Cola guru and club member Donnie Medlin in her March newsletter. Medlin, who may have the world’s finest collection of PepsiCola bottles and extras, brought
14 four cases of flavored drink bottles produced by the Pepsi-Cola Company. Medlin said Pepsi would try to do stuff that other drink bottlers would not think of doing. That’s one reason they are successful — they take more risks. It’s interesting to note that Coca-Cola owns 60 percent of 7-Up stock and Pepsi owns 40 percent, but Pepsi sells more, Medlin said. Among the variety of Pepsi flavor bottles Medlin showed were “Frans,” “Slaughter,” “Big Six,” “Wilson’s,” “Sunnybrook” with embossed peanuts, paper-labeled “Tulips,” “Whale” bottles from Winston-Salem in three different colors, “Orange Julip,” “Big Frosty” and “Jefferson Club.” Applied color label bottles included “Pilots” from the Durham plant, “Fayo,” “Mission,” “Goody” with a boy’s head, “Frosty,” “Belfast,” “Virginia Dare” and “Tom Thumb.” Janie downloaded seven color photos to complement the newsletter. She featured Skinny Medlin in February’s Member Spotlight column and Robert Holloman in the March issue and added six color photos in the February issue. The Member Spotlight column is invaluable to new club members who may be wondering, “Who are these guys?” Roberta Knight, editor of The Bottling Works newsletter of the Tennessee Valley Traders & Collectors, featured Victorian trade cards in her January issue. Trade cards are among the “extras” that go with collections of antique bottles. Roberta has been collecting the cards for about five years. The cards date from the 1870s to the early 1900s, although some advertising cards date to the 1700s. Trade cards were given away at stores, sent out in the mail, handed out to passers-by on sidewalks and given away in packages of products. Trade cards advertises medicines, sewing machines, household goods, stoves and many other items. Victorian trade cards began to decline in popularity in the early part of the 20th century. Reasons included other forms of advertising had taken over, including ads in newspapers and magazines. The die-cut Heinz pickle card is one of the favorites of Roberta, who also listed a glossary of trade card terms. Bill Marks, co-editor with wife Sally of the Diggers Dispatch newsletter of the M-T Bottle Collectors Association Inc., of DeLand, Fla., is becoming known as a “photo bug.” He downloaded 12 photos in the
Spring 2005 February issue. All were taken at the January St. Petersburg, Fla., show attended by many of the DeLand club’s members. Bill Marks was the lone show and tell participant at the club’s January meeting, displaying colorful orange crate labels from Ocala, DeLeon Springs and Crescent City, Fla. Also noted in the newsletter was the sales (via eBay) of the Florida Brewing Co., Hutchinson with embossed alligator for $355. Mary Quesada-Harden, editor of the Antique Bottle Collectors of North Florida newsletter, apparently had time on her hands before working up the January-February edition. “A Matter of Time: Collecting Antique Pocket Watches,” was the newsletter feature. Johnnie Fletcher, president of the Oklahoma Territory Bottle & Relic Club and editor of its Oklahoma Territory News, quoted the following from the newsletter of the Iowa Antique Bottleers (shades of Katie Foglesong!): A visit to a small town antique store uncovered a Dr. Bell’s / Golden Tonic / Bitters in the shape of a dinner bell. After the purchase, the buyers drove to another small town to continue their bottle search. Lo and behold, they found a second Dr. Bell’s in another antique store! “Bitters Bottles,” a book by W.C. Ham and Carlyn Ring, terms the bottle as “extremely rare,” while Fletcher found a $4,500 price tag for the bottle in an older bitters book. Whew! As usual, Fletcher provided his readers with a pair of digging stories, one by him and the other by digging buddy Ed Stewart. Fletcher’s story tells of a dig that took place in Springer, N.M. Stewart’s story took place in Clyde, Kan. Net results of the New Mexico dig included a probe-holed (oops!) Warner’s Safe Cure, a cobalt cone ink, an Indian pot, a Henry Krick Co., and a Santa Fe soda crowntop soda water. Stewart was joined by Fletcher, Kenny Burbrink, Wendell Sack and Richard Carr. They found a Mexican Mustang Liniment, a cracked P. McDonald Druggist from Clyde (previously unknown), a Clay Center (Kan.) Bottling Works crowntop, a Warner’s Safe Kidney & Liver Cure, and 49 machine-made Ridenour Grocery Co., Kansas City, Mo. bottles. They contained vanilla extract and made good gifts to property owners. Other finds included a Layton Neilson Druggists from Concordia, Kan., a green Piso’s Cure, a case gin, a One Minute Cough
Bottles and Extras Cure, two black glass ales, and a crude Dr. Lewis Turner from St. Louis. Marty Vollmer, president of the South Carolina Bottle Club, followed a dump truck loaded with rich, black dirt excavated from behind a Columbia building. Lucky he did. He came up with a Saratoga-shaped, black glass bottle embossed ARTESIAN WATER / CHARLESTON, S.C. / W. MCWHITE. It was previously unknown. This editor also edits Probe & Plunder for his Horse Creek Bottle Club. During the December meeting, he gave a talk on E. (for Edward) Sheehan, an Augusta soda water manufacturer who also was John Ryan’s manager. Sheehan was named manager of Ryan’s Augusta branch in 1876. Four years later, Sheehan went out on his own and celebrated the fact by having his bottles dated 1880 – at least, that’s the theory since those are the only dated Sheehan bottles. His dated cobalt soda is the rarest, with emerald and teal green bottles next in the scarcity line. Various shades of amber and aqua bottles also exist. Reggie Lynch finally caught up with 2004 by putting out a 3-in-1 edition of his Southeast Bottle Club sheet (actually, 22 sheets!) for October,.November and December. In it, he features Eric Warren of Lexington, S.C., a member of the South Carolina Bottle Club and Horse Creek Bottle Club. Warren had a job that definitely has its ups and downs. He services elevators, but he hit a new bottle collecting high during a recent job. While in the attic of an 1890s building, he came across a batch of South Carolina Dispensary bottles. Eleven monogram bottles — eight half-pints and three pints, seven with labels. You really need to read the story because it’s a hoot. Just go to Reggie’s web site at www. antiquebottles.com/southeast/ Oct04.html. Reggie also included a chapter containing helpful hints on how to avoid viruses (the computer kind) and recommends some software. He reported doings at last October’s Savannah, Ga., show as well as the Greensboro show and downloaded a bunch of pictures to go with them. Speaking of pictures, he also downloaded 42 more including some from the Raleigh Bottle Club show and tell session. All in all, it’s a great newsletter.
Bottles and Extras
Spring 2005 birth, to Paramount. It was near the corners of Garfield and Alondra, in a neighborhood that was once filled with dairy farms. Behind the houses on our street, was a large abandoned cow field, where all us kids would play Knights, Army, look at dirty magazines, and stuff of that nature. Me and my pack of friends lived on the south end of the street, and a group of other misfits lived on the north end. We would meet in the middle of the street and plan out a “war.” Then we would head to our garages, which served as headquarters, where we would draw out maps of strategically placed foxholes and trenches to be dug. Then we would disperse into the field through my backyard. The weeds were taller than we were, so we could move about freely, and dig our holes without being seen by the opposing Army. My friend Danny and I decided to team up, and dig our foxhole. We were not into it a half an hour, when we hit bones! Large bones, femurs and fangs. In looking at our finds, our young imaginations came up with the scenario that this is where a Saber-Toothed Tiger had his last meal of a caveman, explaining the large femurs. We called off the war, and decided to play Archaeologists. Digging down for about four more feet, and pulling out way too many teeth for one tiger, we hit glass. We were pretty puzzled at this time, because we didn’t think cavemen drank whiskey. So this ruled out the Ice Age period. Mr. Smith, a neighbor of ours, walked to the back of his property, and looking over his fence, yelled, “What the hell are you kids doing?” We showed him our finds, and he said, “well, that makes sense. Back in the twenties, that was the neighborhood cesspool” (trash pit). He also told us that sick cows were pushed into the pit, which explained the bones and “fangs” (which later turned out to be tips of cow horns and clipped bull horns which was a procedure used on feed lots, to control the weight of the animal). Even though our find ended up not to be of the prehistoric age, we were still really excited with the bottles that we were finding. We bottomed out at about twelve feet. Danny’s dad was calling for him, and we got that “Uh-oh” feeling, and popped our heads out. He ran over and said: “No way, too dangerous. It’s getting filled.”
Western Regional News
Scott Grandstaff Box 409 Happy Camp, CA 96039 (530) 493-2032 scottg@snowcrest.net
It’s February. Guess you knew that? Around here there always at least a few days when the dreary cold and gray let up in Feb. Kitty looks forward to it all winter. It’s a little break before the creeping wet comes back with a vengeance. We just had that break It was spectacular. OK, the mornings were foggy and heavily frost-laden but those golden afternoons. It was beautiful. Made you want to jump out there and get some flowers going. I looked at the vegetable garden plot and thought about painting and building projects and all the things I was waiting for winter to be over to get into. Well, I just can’t believe it. Have you figured out what I did yet? I completely left out our award-winning L.A. bottle club last time. Just spaced totally. Why they oughta take a rope… Sorry, guys. I’ll catch up this time. And bigtime. LAHBC, The Whittlemark Hey, a new shepherd in town. Dave Garcia has stepped up and taken the reins for the club. Way to go, Dave. And much thanks to Val Whippert for a term well served. Speaking of Dave, I just can’t resist sending this tender tale of innocent days along. I loved it, hope you do too. It’s going to gobble up a lot of column inches of text, though so the rest of the report is postponed till next time. My First Dig By David Garcia Club Member Since 2003 I told Tom that I had a funny story about my first dig. And since I always see in the newsletter that we need articles, I thought that this would fill some space. Here goes. I was ten years old when I moved from Norwalk, Calif., the town of my
15 He made us clean out his garage, and we filled the hole with old motorcycle parts. All in all, we probably got about two hundred bottles, maybe more. The stuff closer to the surface was screw tops and post-prohibition whiskies. When we were twelve feet down, we were finding much older (turn of the century) bottles, embossed pharmacies is all I can really remember. There were a couple of keepers that I have to this day, like a square amber that says “MOHAWK” on two panels. Another was a cylinder fifth. It looked like the kind of bottle that a cowboy would drink whiskey from, in the old western movies. Being that Father’s Day was approaching, and my dad liked whiskey, I decided to keep it, wash it, and have my mom buy some whiskey to fill it with. We corked it and put a ribbon on it. A couple of years ago, my dad was moving, and he gave this bottle back to me, worthless by our standards, but I could never let it go. Ever since that childhood dig, I couldn’t wait to get into another hole and find more bottles. I sure am glad that I found this hobby, and this club, so that I can hang out with other wierdos like me. OK, on with the show. Golden Gate HBS, The Corker Plans for the April 22 show are cooking along. Don’t fail to get hold of Gary or Rick if you have any questions and if you need a table, get on the stick! Buffalo Brewing Company By Gary Antone (Gaaaaary, this is a really nice piece of work). The great Buffalo Brewery was started in 1888 with the first public tasting in 1890. The beer came in kegs in 5-, 10- and 15-gallon sizes (where are they now???) as well as the undoubtedly familiar glass bottles. They put out at least 4 kinds of beer. Buffalo was so big and so well liked it was distributed all over the west as far away as Alaska. Prohibition threw a major wrench into the gears of course, but they held on with soda and near beer, returning with a vengeance when repeal finally came. They survived the war
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but rolled the big doors shut for the last time around 1949. I can’t imagine why though. Oregon BCA, The Stumptown Report Garage Sale Find Becomes Gift A couple had bought a couple of random insulators at a yard sale for 5 bucks. Having taken a class on eBay selling, they got a few pix and loaded up the auction, $5.99 no reserve. Said Quimby, the seller: “I checked my email at 8:00 to find ten urgent messages from eBay patrons about it. There were 22 bids already posted and the price had hit $5,100 in 4 hours. I just about freaked out. I couldn’t even talk.” In the last moments (Remember folks, in a timed auction like eBay, the last minute -IS- the auction, all else is merely preview) the price rocketed to over $10,000 where it closed at $10,313. It was a CD 180.5, aka: The Fluid Insulator. Many had never even seen pictures of it. It was so rare as be practically a rumor. Stewart Kammerman Stu has a new book on paperweights! Our Master of Milk has gone in a new direction and just released; yikes, Bill, you forgot to give me the title! Look for it here next time, folks! Ebay Oregon bottles Quart, Big Chief (picture of the chief
himself) Roseburg, Oregon…One thousand, eight hundred fifty dollars and 65 cents!!!!! Wow. I’m flabberghasted, ladies and gentlemen. ABC of Colorado, The Dump Diggers Gazette Hey, Don Hunt has stepped up as new newsletter Editor. Way to go, Don. Club service is such an admirable thing and newsletter editor pretty much tops the list most times. Somebody seems to have bringing a camera to club meetings and getting shots of show and tell bottles brought in by members to share. Did you read that part?? A camera! Sure is nice to actually see. I read an article on the Tivoli-Union brewery and I think it’s by Don Hunt??? (beer seems to be popular this time around, huh?) with art! Glen Preble brought in a great collection of bottles and assorted go-withs for the occasion. There might even be a part two next time. They started this one in 1866 so for western standards this is ancient. The motto was “A beer that is a beer” around 1900. Glad they cleared that up. Here I was thinking it might have been “a beer that is Worchestershire sauce!”) San Diego AB&CC, The Bottleneck Another new newsletter editor. Mike Bryant has stepped in. Good on ya, Mike!
Bottles and Extras Spotlight on Cecil Munsey! Mike, this is great. We’ve been friends for nigh onto 20 years now and you ferreted out stuff I didn’t know about our friends Cecil and Dolores. Apprentice auto mechanic? Hod carrier? Tuna Cannery? Cool. And to think I missed my shot at getting you to adjust my valves last time you were in town! Geeze. (I’ve had some choice jobs myself over the years.) The dress shops and liquor store and video game shop I knew. Dolores, gracious, elegant and longsuffering, married Cec in 65. That’s a loooooog time, you poor thing. (heh heh) Nobody can say our Cecil hasn’t come through for us collectors, nobody. Hall of Fame inductee, author of The Illustrated Guide to Bottle Collecting 1970, Ditto Coca-Cola 1972, and 1974’s Disneyana…. all classic textbooks still in use and treasured. All in, he’s got ten book titles to his credit already and if you think he’s slowing down?? Fuggetaboutit! Oops, guess I better go. I’ll report more next time and please don’t kill me. It doesn’t mean I don’t love ya. I ‘ve got more news to report, but I’m pigging out on the available space I’m afraid, since this is already longer than usual. See ya next newsletter! Yours, Scott
Many English bottles are still a superb value for the money. Try to get a deep green American sauce bottle loaded with bubbles and whittle for anything like the price of British Nursing bottles that are just as good, often half the price with twice as cute embossing. American pontilled cologne bottles are generally undervalued. Medicines, flasks or sodas from the same era can go up to ten times higher in a heartbeat. From L to R: The Toothsome Tit Bit nurse sits beside the green Fletcher’s sauce bottle. The last threesome are pontiled scent bottles from my collection.
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Keeping the tradition ALIVE in Arizona!!! by Charles E. Blake
Every aspect of human life has foundations from which we thrive in creativity and ingenuity. We take for granted our freedom from which we spring board from for new opportunities, staples of our being. This is a natural process and overall leads to a better existence for all. In the bottle collecting community, our foundation is that old gathering place for all collectors to come share experiences - those digging stories, wild auctions, or flea market finds - that place is the antique bottle show and sale. With the entrance of the electronic era, this tradition is waning. We are becoming computer chair potatoes, forsaking that tradition which enriched our collecting hearts. We must conserve our rich collecting heritage. Continue to gather and educate one another on those collecting days of bygone eras. I remember in my early teens attending my very first bottle show and sale. I was a scrappy bottle digger only having limited success in my ventures into the Arizona high country. Every time I 1 approached a table filled with bottles of fascinating colors and shapes, I was first awestruck not only by their beauty and antiquity,
but then most importantly, I was entertained by the unbelievable stories of uncovering these vast treasures. I distinctly remember one older gentleman telling of bottle hunting in California. He had dug over 1,000 bottles from a dump along an eroding river bank. He would sometimes just show up after a heavy rain and pick up hundreds of bottles, including bitters and cures, which were my favorites back then, freshly uncovered in the mud. These are the type of collecting memories which have enriched my collecting interests and are what I believe are so vital in keeping the antique collecting atmosphere stable. My club, The Phoenix Antiques, Bottles and Collectibles Club, is getting ready to host its show in October. I am elated that we are able to present this event and that we are keeping the tradition alive in Arizona. I hope everyone can attend. Come share your stories and help us preserve this important aspect of our collecting community! Here are a few pictures of my bottle collecting past. Come see me at the show and I will be happy to share the stories behind them.
Photos: 1. Daughter, Carolyn. 2.Ghost town, McCabe, Arizona. 3. Charles and Julie Blake. 4. Chuck Blake, digging an outhouse. 5. Son, Ryan. 6. Chuck Blake, metal detecting. 7. 2003 display of cobalt bottles.
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Charles E. Blake 4702 W. Lavey Road Glendale, AZ 85306 (602) 938-7277
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Bottles and Extras
Spring 2005
Collectible Bottles of the Future Say 2055, and Beyond By Bill Baab
Supply and demand dictate values of collectibles and it’s no different in the world of collecting antique bottles. Such an equation has boosted values (and prices) of many bottles beyond the financial means of most of us. In the beginning, it was black glass and sealed bottles, followed by historic flasks and early sodas. Next came bitters and patent medicines. As we moved toward the 21st century, the Hutchinson bottle – particularly “picture” and colored Hutchinsons – came into demand, followed by the crown top as well as the milk bottle. Bottles that could be purchased for well below $50 during the 1970s and ‘80s suddenly rose in value to $100 and more. While some historic flasks today sell for under three figures, most have taken off to unaffordable heights. Many bitters bottles are out of sight, to say nothing of 1840s sodas and pontiled and colored medicines,
including cures. For those of us with outstanding collections, we are delighted by it all, the dollar signs whirling about in our minds as we look to the days of our ancient ages when the whole works most likely will be auctioned. Even so, what does the future hold for collectors of antique bottles? Will there be enough to go around 25 or 35 or 40 years from now? Will they be affordable? Have you ever really thought about what kind of bottles your grandchildren and even great grandchildren may be collecting 50 years from now? I checked out the shelves of a local retail liquor outlet in Augusta, Georgia, and found many bottles and go-withs I deemed to have value as future collectibles. Empty, of course. You can do the same in your hometown. While there were some figurals
involved, the labeled variety seemed to hold the most promise. Let’s check out a few items: First, there’s a statue of Jack Daniel, the Lynchburg, Tennessee entrepreneur, whose sour mash No. 7 whiskey has delighted uncounted imbibers of Jack and ginger (ale) in remarkably tall glasses. Jack is all decked out for the Fourth of July. It’s a great go-with to accompany holiday packages from the distillery, such as a wooden case with glass front, back and sides offering a huge, glass-stoppered bottle full of “Jack Daniel’s Gold Medal Old No. 7.” The statue also would go well with earlier bottles and stoneware from the distillery. I have not been able to determine who designed the images on the outside of the tall, frosted Grey Goose Vodka bottles, but he or she is indeed an artist. Snowy mountain vistas, ice-blue lakes and, of course, geese direct the eyes to this French import. Roosters, silhouetted trees and even shapely legs are to be found on other labels. The rooster named Rex Goliath weighs 47 pounds and occupies most of the Pinot Noir label in brilliant colors. The Black Oak with its tree stark against a sunrise (or
Digging in 2004 dumps, or You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do By Bill Baab A few veteran collectors of antique bottles were asked to supply their views on what will make bottle collectors happy 100 years from when this story was written in 2004. TOM LINES, Birmingham, Ala., former Southern Region FOHBC director: “All nations on the earth united to conquer the galaxy we are in and by 2100, the last known solar system was conquered. It was known as the “Fohbc” (pronounced fo-beck). “There were nine planets in the Fohbc system. . .Flaskus, Bitterus, Inkus, Whiskius, Sodaman (with three moons Blob, Hutch and Crown), Jarus, Pontilus, the smallest planet Notmintus and the most prestigious planet Minterian. “Wars were constant. Each planet sought dominance over its sister planets, each insisting its ethnic purity was more important. For years, the lowly planet Notmintus had dominated the galaxy. Notmintus’ drive was to embrace all types of containers, old and new, perfect and flawed, clear or colored, rare of common,
big or small. “All of the other planets were barely populated at this point. However, disgruntled inhabitants slowly began moving to other planets of their choice, each observing strict adherence to their personal desires. As populations grew on each of these separate planets, their global focus narrowed even more. All shared the view that their sister planets were not as good as they were. “The movement reached its crescendo in 2100 when the planet of Averagejoey was overthrown by a few dissidents and renamed Minterian, then reorganized as a very exclusive planet for only the choicest inhabitants. Residents not measuring up were relocated to the two moons encircling Minterian, named Nearminterian and Cleanedtominterian. “The affluence of the Minterians was astounding, with all of the best from each of the other planets invited to come to Minterian at great expense. “The cost of living spiraled out of control until all on Minterian realized they couldn’t continue with their 500% annual inflation
rate. The other eight planets had fallen in stature to near Third World conditions. “Then a few leaders from Fohbc’s council suggested interplanetary peace talks needed to be held. Finally, in 2103, a peace agreement was drafted and signed by each inhabitant of each planet. The key points of the agreement are summarized: 1. All containers were deemed significant and important. 2. Color made little difference. 3. Size made no difference. 4. Shape made no difference. 5. Condition made little to no difference. 6. Age was of little concern compared to intrinsic beauty. 7. Each inhabitant encouraged one another. 8. Relationships were treasured more than containers. “The coalition of planetary systems that had been conquering other galaxies became known as the AuctionHelpLeague, AuHell for short. Now in 2103, AuHell broke loose again and conquered Fohbc. At first, Fohbc didn’t know what
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sunset) is yet another brand of the same liquor, while the legs are walking out of the Barefoot Cellars. Seagram’s imported Canadian Hunter labels sport a hunter with huskies in two poses with two pairs of dogs whose fur is of different hues. The head of a magnificent buck dominates a tall bottle of tequila. A Chardonnay called Toasted Head comes in three sizes of bottles in a cardboard carrying case and the outline of a great bear is on the label as well as the carton. A buccaneer theme is carried out on the labels of Puerto Rico’s Capt. Morgan’s Parrot Bay rum, complete with parrot. Tropical vistas and sailing ships occupy other rum labels. A frosty Van Gogh gin bottle purports to show an artistic view of a Venice-like canal (or it could be in Holland from which the stuff is imported). The bottle’s Citadelle Gin neighbor carries out a spectacular blueand-white theme. Sometimes there’s even stoneware. Evan Williams Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky put out its Masters Distiller’s Select Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey
in a “Commemorative Earthstone Jug” before Christmas 2004. It came in a nicelooking box and with an extra cork. The colorful store displays remind me of a childhood story in which a little boy was so enamored by colorful canned goods labels that he talked his family into buying those he particularly liked. Soon the cans started overflowing the available space and the distraught parents, not wishing to discourage the boy, wondered what to do. A visiting uncle solved the problem by introducing the child to stamp collecting. Bottle collectors are a different breed. They know labeled bottles have value, unlike canned goods. They also know what happens when labeled containers are buried in landfills. The bottles stay mostly intact, but paper labels disintegrate over time. So perhaps now is the time to think ahead 50 years and, to be on the safe side, head to the liquor store of your choice and begin buying mint bottles. If they come in cardboard boxes or wooden crates, so much the better. Boxes with super graphics are sometimes are worth more than the bottles. If you don’t drink, pour the contents down the drain, or leave them in the bottles.
If you do drink, do so moderately, but never when you’re driving to and from the liquor store or bottle club meetings. If you buy enough stuff, the liquor store owner will soon see you as a valued customer and put up special bottles just for you. You need not tell him how you’re disposing of the contents, although he may begin to wonder about your tastes. Store the bottles and artifacts in a safe dry place and insert a codicil into your will, leaving the collection (with instructions) to your next of kin who shows potential of becoming a collector. If you’re 20 years of age or under, with luck you may survive to cash in the collection when you turn 70. Even supposing that 50-year-old liquor bottles might not be the next collectibles, then leave them in your will to another 20year-old friend or relative to store for another 50 years. By golly, that stuff ought to be worth something in 100 years, shouldn’t it? (With thanks to Summerville Ace package store in Augusta, Georgia).
happened, but the residents of Fohbc had such pure hearts and good intentions, they quickly gained control over AuHell. In 2104, the coalition was renamed ‘The Federation.’ “The motto was ‘A Bottle in Every Pot.’ Peace spread throughout the known universe. Scientists discover that Hicks’ Capudine actually does cure the common cold. “Utopia has been achieved.”
horribly dented and faded aluminum can. “Can you imagine bottle collectors digging through our landfills, through the zillions of un-decomposed Styrofoam Big Mac boxes and the shredded remains of Pampers to that deeply buried Glad bag containing that elusive plastic Coke bottle with Shrek’s image on it? Then they’ll take it to the next bottle club meeting as a “new find.” (It will be interesting to note how they date their trash layers by then.) “Of course, our local liquor store (in Johnson City, Tenn. — I haven’t been in one in Hot Springs, Ark., where I live yet) has “collectible” decanters for some of the whiskey and brandy brands. Some are quite beautiful, if expensive. I suppose someone by the year 2104 will find a display shelf for them and be proud to have them. “Hopefully, some of the things that will be more than 200 years old by then will still be around for someone to see and enjoy as a ‘super-dooper antique bottle.’ And someone will still care about what they are and their histories (with a library of Bottles & Extras to go with them). Of course, there are jugs, shot glasses and other assorted stuff at souvenir shops, the dollar store piggy banks, the holiday
glasses that fast food joints give out at Christmas for 99-cents with the purchase of a value meal, not to mention all that pretty stuff at Cracker Barrel... “After all, the things we collect now are the everyday things our ancestors threw away. I don’t think the history of collecting will be as rich as it is on what we are collecting now. Will 2104 collectors be saying: ‘Oh, look, they used to drink Coke from a bottle instead of just popping a Coke pill when they want one!’”
KATHY HOPSON-SATHE, editor of the FOHBC magazine, Bottles & Extras, and other publications: “Probably we won’t even be keeping things in bottles by then. Everything will come as some freeze-dried thing in some high tech plastic wrapper. Or we’ll visit some shop for our once-a-week pill we take for all our nutritional needs. Computer chips will be implanted into our brains (by Microsoft!). And all the things now that we see as so “modern” will be obsolete to the average 2104er. “If history follows and they are collecting items from 100 years ago, that leaves the pathetic plastic things that convenience stores are filled with, or some
CECIL MUNSEY, pioneer collector and author and second vice-president of the FOHBC: “I have already seen changes in what bottle collectors collect. A decade ago, collectors of applied color label (ACL) bottles came into their own. Next, the specialty bottles were gathered (I recently paid $50 for a late 1930s, all-embossed Kool-Aid bottle). “In the future, I still expect the post Prohibition whiskey bottles (the ones embossed FEDERAL LAW FORBIDS THE RE-SALE OR RE-USE OF THIS BOTTLE) to catch on. I first called
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Bottles and Extras
The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors Membership Benefits Individual Membership Open to any individual that has an interest in bottles, flasks, jars or related items, some of the benefits of membership are: • A full year subscription to our quarterly 84-page publication Bottles and Extras, which contains specialty articles, regular columns, classified advertising, show reports, reports pertaining to our clubs and a listing of bottle shows nationwide. • Quarterly newsletters detailing news of the Federation and the hobby. • Free advertising of “For Sale” items in Bottles and Extras (a trial period of 1 year duration, beginning with the Summer (July) 2003 issue. Restrictions apply - ads may be up to 100 words, items must be of $25.00 or greater value, and free advertisements are limited to the first 100 received, based upon date mailed.) • One free ad of 60 words each year for use for items “Wanted”, trade offers, etc. • Advice on publishing your book / manuscript, and a forum for your articles. • The opportunity to obtain “Early Admission” to the annual Federation shows. • Access to the informational FOHBC Slide Show Presentations. • Individuals holding full membership may additionally request Associate membership for their spouses and children up to age 18. The costs for this is $5 per individual.
Affiliated Club Membership Available to any club, association or organization which has ten or more members and has an interest in bottles, flasks, jars, or related items, some of the benefits of affiliated membership are: • A full-year subscription to the quarterly magazines and newsletters, plus... • A 50% reduction in the cost of display advertising in the magazine and the newsletter. - In addition to this, there is a free ¼-page advertisement in the newsletter and free posting of the ad on the Federation website, www.fohbc.com, as a part of the advertising package when you advertise your show in the magazine. • One complimentary individual membership per year is provided to Affiliated Clubs for their use as an honorarium, raffle item, door prize, etc. • The Federation will post links from our website into your clubs website free of charge and will assist with creation of a web page for you, as our webmaster’s time allows. You supply the photos and general text and we will do our best to get you up and running! • A show ribbon for Most Educational Display at your show. • Access to the informational FOHBC Slide Show Presentations. • Each year, the Federation elects members to the Honor Roll and Hall of Fame to recognize their individual contribution to the hobby of bottle collecting. Our clubs are encouraged to sponsor individuals for these honors.
attention to those bottles in my 1970 book, ‘The Illustrated Guide to Collecting Bottles.’ “In more distant futures, I expect to see the popular ceramic bottles of the 1960s and 1970s re-emerge as fairly popular bottles to collect. Some interest in Avon bottles also will re-emerge. “I am almost positive the ACL bottles of the 1990s and this century will become collectible. These are the bottles that can be bought off store shelves today. One can drink the contents and save the potentially valuable bottle. Bottle collecting has never been this good before. “Way into the future, I suspect that plastic bottles will become a big collectible category. In general, any container made in the future will have collector value.” RON FOWLER, longtime collector (44 years) who is compiling a voluminous Hutchinson book: “My earliest collecting activities date to when I was but five years old and collecting (of all things!) soda bottle caps. I’d go over to the service station next door and they’d let me have all the crown caps
from their chest cooler. I was ‘rich’ with the hundreds of caps I accumulated. Alas, if only I’d kept them! It was almost ten more years before I discovered bottle collecting and then zeroed in on soda bottles in particular. “The one consistent thread in my more than 44 years of collecting bottles has been nostalgia. The bulk of my collection (I quit counting at 2,000 bottles) of Oregon and Washington soda bottles are ones that remind me of times gone by, whether during my own childhood oir simply remembering the fun of acquiring the bottle. “Without question, collectors 100 years from now will collect bottles that produce that same warm, enjoyable, nostalgic link to their own pasts. It’s hard for me to imagine some collector affectionately caressing a plastic bottle, but it WILL happen. “The other thought I had was to ask myself which bottles I’d put into a footlocker and stash away for the next 100 years. As much as I love soda bottles, I’d choose to stuff the footlocker full of the wide variety of beautiful ACL beers that are for sale in most areas of the country. They’re
colorful, typically have beautiful graphics, and often include specific geographical references. “Collectors in 2104 will probably wonder why collectors in 2004 weren’t smart enough to salt a bunch of these babies away!” RALPH VAN BROCKLIN, Johnson City, Tenn., longtime collector and immediate past president of FOHBC: “As long as bottle collecting continues to exist, there will always be the desire to add items of color and beauty of form to the shelf. “The historical flasks, bitters and early Eastern whiskeys will remain at the fore of the collectors’ desire. The further we get from the pontiled era, the more fascination pontiled items will entertain. “As a method of manufacture and pertaining to a certain period in collecting, the ACL sodas will continue to kindle interest. “Plain looking bottles with minimal embossing will tank and the throw-aways will ultimately be re-thrown away.”
Bottles and Extras
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Headʼs up on Charles David Head I was born and raised in rural Marion County in South Pittsburg, Tenn. Between my childhood and teenage years, I always had a collection of something: old coins, postage stamps or Indian relics. At age 15, I got hooked in the antique bottle collecting hobby when I found a cork-stoppered iodine bottle while walking across a pasture. Back then as now, when I changed my collecting field, I’d always delve into the historical side since I’ve always had a keen interest in history. Many of those people who shared their knowledge to help me have passed on, but I’ll never forget their kindness and useful advice. In June of 1982, I dug my first Koca Nola bottle in South Pittsburg. It was from the Keen Bottling Company. However, it was 17 years later that I became a serious Koca Nola collector when my good friend and mentor, Tom Lines of Birmingham, Ala., sold me my first Koca Nola Hutchinson — from the Florida Koca Nola Bottling Company. Since then, I’ve been “diggin’” into the Koca Nola Company’s past and collecting its bottles and go-withs. They have become my top priority, even though I collect other bottles. I have been fortunate to put together a rather nice collection of Koca Nola items, but I’m always looking to add to it. I have been planning a book (tentatively called A Head’s Up on Koca Nola). If readers are aware of other Koca Nola bottles not listed with this article, or know the history of any of the franchises, I’ll be grateful if they’d contact me at the address listed. Any contributions they make to the material in my book will be acknowledged. I’d also enjoy corresponding with other Koca Nola collectors so we can share information, or even start a Koca Nola Bottling Club.
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Charles D. Head and his teenaged daughter, Jessica.
Koca Nola Bottlersʼ Checklist (with year(s) of operation) (As Of November 2004)
Koca-Nola advertisement from the National Bottler's Gazette, Feb. 1909.
1. J. Esposito, Philadelphia, Pa., 1905-1912. 2. Koca Nola Bottling Co. of Kentucky, Somerset. 3. Pensacola Bottling Works, Pensacola, Fla., 1907. 4. Florida Koca Nola Bottling Co., Jacksonville, 1905-1910. 5. Koca Nola Bottling Works, Montgomery, Ala., 1905-1910. 6. Farmers’ Ice & Oil Co., Camden, Ala., 1907-1908. 7. Keen Bottling Co., New River and Pittsburg, Tenn., 1906-1907. 8. Koca Nola Bottling Works, Gallatin, Tenn. 9. The Holston Bottling Co., Bristol, Tenn., and Virginia, 1907-1908. 10. Koca Nola Bottling Works, Mt. Airy, N.C. 11. New London Bottling Works, New London, N.C. 12. Koca Nola Bottling Works, Fairfax, S.C. 13. Ashburn Bottling Works, Ashburn, Ga. 14. B.I. Taylor & Co., Bagley, Ga. 15. Donaldsonville Bottling Works, Donaldsonville, Ga. 16. Dixie Carbonating Co., Augusta, Ga., 1905-1910. 17. Macon Bottling Works, Macon, Ga., 1905-1910. 18. Koca Nola Bottling Works, Rome, Ga. 19. Koca Nola Co., Atlanta, Ga. Thomas F. Austin, 1905-1913.
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Bottles and Extras
Koca Nola value guide CODE: ABM (automatic bottle machine). BIMAL (blown in mold, applied lip (or top).
NOLA / REGISTERED PHILA., PA. ABM amber crown top. Scarce. Value $30 to $110.
KN1: J. ESPOSITO / KOCA NOLA / 312 & 314 WASHINGTON AVE. / PHILADA. aqua Hutchinson circa 1905. Rare. Value $150 to $300.
KN6: “JE” monogram on base. KOCA NOLA / REGISTERED PHILA., PA. ABM amber crown top. Scarce. Value $30 to $110.
KN2: J. ESPOSITO / KOCA NOLA / 312 & 314 WASHINGTON AVE. / PHILADA. citron Hutchinson circa 1906. Very rare. Value $1,200 to $3,000.
KN7: “JE” monogram on base. KOCA NOLA / THIS BOTTLE NEVER SOLD. ABM aqua crown top. Scarce. Value $20 to $50.
KN3: “JE” monogram on shoulder. J. ESPOSITO / KOCA NOLA / 7 FLUID OZ. / PHILA., PA. Bimal oval slug plate, teal crown top. Rare. Value $50 to $75.
KN8: J. ESPOSITO / KOCA NOLA (in script) / 312 & 314 WASHINGTON AVE. / PHILA., PA. / REGISTERED 7-1/2 FLUID OZ. ABM clear crown top. Rare. Value $40 to $65.
KN4: “JE” monogram on shoulder. 7 FLUID OZ. / KOCA NOLA / REGISTERED / PHILA., PA. Bimal aqua crown top. Scarce. Value $30 to $50. KN5: “JE” monogram on shoulder. KOCA
KN14: KOCA NOLA BOTTLING CO. OF KENTUCKY / KOCA NOLA / SOMERSET, KY. BIMAL round slug plate amber crown top. Very rare. Value $85 to $150.
KN17: PENSACOLA BOTTLING WORKS / KOCA NOLA (in script) / PENSACOLA, FLA. BIMAL round slug plate teal crown top. Scarce. Value $80 to $125. KN20: FLORIDA BOTTLING CO. / KOCA NOLA. Round slug plate, mug base, aqua Hutchinson. Scarce. Value $150 to $300. KN21: FLORIDA BOTTLING CO. / KOCA NOLA. BIMAL round slug plate aqua crown top. Scarce. Value $40 to $65. KN22: FLORIDA BOTTLING CO. / KOCA NOLA (in script). BIMAL round slug plate clear crown top. May be one of a kind. Rare: Value $60 to $125. KN24: FARMERS’ ICE AND OIL CO. / KOCA NOLA (in script) / CAMDEN, ALA. BIMAL oval slug plate, clear crown top. May be one of a kind. Very rare. Value $$125 to $175.
From Left to Right: KN2: Example of the rare citron-colored Hutchinson Koca-Nola from the J. Esposito Company in Philadelphia. KN17: The Pensacola Bottling Works crown top. KN20: The scarce Hutchinson used by the Florida Koca-Nola Bottling Co. KN21: Aqua example of the Florida Koca-Nola Bottling Co. crown top.
Bottles and Extras KN25: MONTGOMERY BOTTLING WORKS / KOCA NOLA (in script) / MONTGOMERY, ALA. BIMAL round slug plate clear crown top. Very rare: $80 to $125. KN28: KEEN BOTTLING COMPANY / KOCA NOLA (in script) / NEW RIVER AND / SOUTH PITTSBURG, TENN. BIMAL round slug plate amber crown top. Very rare. Value $300 to $400. KN29: KOCA NOLA BOTTLING CO. / KOCA NOLA (in script) / GALLATIN, TENN. BIMAL oval slug plate amber crown top. Very rare. Value $125 to $175. KN31: KOCA NOLA (in script, no company or town). BIMAL round slug plate clear and aqua crown tops. Common. Value $20 to $40. KN34: KOCA NOLA BOTTLING WORKS / KOCA NOLA (in script). MT. AIRY, N.C. BIMAL round slug plate clear crown top. Very rare. Value $100 to $150. KN35: NEW LONDON BOTTLING WORKS / KOCA NOLA (in script) / NEW LONDON, N.C. BIMAL round slug plate clear crown top. May be one of a kind. Value $125 to $175. KN38: KOCA NOLA (in script) / FAIRFAX, S.C. BIMAL round slug plate
Spring 2005 clear crown top. May be one of a kind. Value $125 to $175. KN41: ASHBURN BOTTLING WORKS / KOCA NOLA (in script) / ASHBURN, GA. BIMAL round slug plate clear and amber crown tops. Rare. Value $75 to $125. KN42: B.I. TAYLOR & CO. / KOCA NOLA (in script) / BAGLEY, GA. BIMAL round slug plate clear crown top. Very rare. Value $125 to $175. KN43: DONALDSONVILLE BOTTLING WORKS / KACONOLA / DONALDSONVILLE, GA. BIMAL round slug plate clear crown top. Very rare. Value $125 to $175. KN47: MACON BOTTLING WORKS / KOCA NOLA (in script) / MACON, GA. Round slug plate, mug base, clear Hutchinson. Rare. Value $500 to $650. KN48: MACON BOTTLING WORKS / KOCA NOLA (in script) / MACON, GA. BIMAL round slug plate clear crown top. Scarce. Value $30 to $60. KN51: KOCA NOLA BOTTLING WORKS / KOCA NOLA (in script) / Rome, Ga. (small letters). BIMAL round slug plate clear crown top. Common. Value $30 to $60.
23 KN52: KOCA NOLA BOTTLING WORKS / KOCA NOLA (in script) / ROME, GA. (large letters). BIMAL round slug plate clear crown top. Comma. Value $30 to $60. KN55: KOCA NOLA CO. / KOCA NOLA (in script) / ATLANTA, GA. Round slug plate, mug base, clear Hutchinson. Very rare. Value $550 to $650. KN56: KOCA NOLA CO. / KOCA NOLA (in script) / ATLANTA, GA. BIMAL round slug plate clear crown top. Common. Value $20 to $40. KN57: KOCA NOLA CO. / KOCA NOLA (in script) / ATLANTA, GA. BIMAL round slug plate clear crown top (tall variant of KN56). Scarce. Value $30 to $60. KN58: KOCA NOLA CO. / KOCA NOLA (in script) / ATLANTA. GA. BIMAL round slug plate aqua crown top. Common. Value $20 to $40. KN59: KOCA NOLA CO. / KOCA NOLA (in script, extended K & N) / ATLANTA, GA. BIMAL round slug plate aqua crown top. Common. Value $20 to $40. KN62: KOCA NOLA CO. / KOCA NOLA / ATLANTA, GA. Embossed 1-gallon syrup jug in either clear glass or ceramics. Not authenticated. Value $150 to $300.
From Left to Right: KN22: Clear example of Florida Koca-Nola Bottling Co. KN25: Close-up of the Koca-Nola Bottling Works bottle from Montgomery, Ala. KN28: Close-up of embossing on amber New River and South Pittsburg, Tenn. bottle. KN47: Clear Macon Bottling Works Hutchinson, another scarse Georgia Koca-Nola.
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KN71: KOCA NOLA CALENDAR. Very rare. Value (in fine condition or better) $1,200 to $2,000. KN72: BOTTLE LABEL. Common. DELICIOUS / DOPELESS / KOCA NOLA / THE GREAT TONIC DRINK. (Beware of reproductions). Value (if genuine and in fine or better condition) $30 to $60. KN73: COMPLIMENTS OF THE KOCA NOLA CO., ATLANTA, GA. WOODEN THERMOMETER. Very rare. Value $1,000 to $1,500. KN74: COMPLIMENTS OF THE KOCA NOLA CO., ATLANTA, GA. CELLULOID WATCH FOB. Very rare. Value in fine or better condition $600 to $750. KN75: COMPLIEMENTS OF THE KOCA NOLA CO., ATLANTA, GA. CELLULOID MATCH SAFE. Very rare. Value in fine or better condition $600 to $750. KN76: COMPLIMENTS OF THE KOCA NOLA CO., ATLANTA, GA. LADIES’ POWDER BOX. May be one of a kind. Value $700 to $850. MISCELLANEOUS PAPER ITEMS (letterheads, billheads, advertisements). Value $5 to $50.
KN76: Shown closed and open.
KN72
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Referemces: The Augusta Chronicle, Augusta, Ga., April 27, 1905, and Oct. 28, 1907. Unpublished research by Bill Baab, Augusta, Ga. Woodruff & Coca-Cola prosecuting copycat competition: http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/ ~slaterj/dissertation5.htm (Dr. Jan Slater) Letter from Austin to Turner Drug Store in Wilkesboro, N.C.: http://www.lib.unc.edu/ mss/inv/m/misc. (Southern Business Letters (Unit 72). Research by Irene Baker, Scott County Historical Society, P.O. Box 7, Huntsville, Tenn. 37756. Research by Ron Fowler, Seattle History Co., 4518 35th Ave., N.E., Seattle, Wash. 98105. Georgia Early Embossed Crown Top Soda Bottles by Carl Barnett and Ken Nease. Research by Robert Hookey, South Pittsburg Historical Society, 412 Elm Ave., South Pittsburg, Tenn., 37380. Research by Reggie Lynch, P.O. Box 13736, Durham, N.C., 27709. “Matches, Match Safes and the History and Relics of Koca Nola,” by Cecil Munsey in the January 1992 issue of the Federation Glass Works journal. National Bottlers’ Gazette, Feb. 5, 1909, and Aug. 5, 1909. South Pittsburg Hustler, May 17, 1907, and June 3, 1982. The Bristol Herald-Courier, April 6, 1907. NOTE: A special thanks goes to those who contributed their expertise in helping me write this article, especially Bill Baab for editing the article; Robert Hookey for the many photos he took on my behalf; Carl Barnett of Douglas, Ga.., and Ken Nease of Claxton, Ga., for use of photos and material from their book, and bottle collecting pioneer Dr. Cecil Munsey for granting permission to use excerpts from his Glass Works story listed above. This article would not have been possible without his early Koca Nola research and feature story. Charles D. Head 23549-001 D-2, Jesup FCI 2680 Highway 301 South Jesup, GA 31599 Photos on right: Top: Koca Nola mirror; bottom: Koca Nola matchsafe, closed.
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The Dating Game
by Bill Lockhart, David Whitten, Bill Lindsey. Jay Hawkins and Carol Serr © Bill Lockhart 2004 The Ihmsen Glass Company The Ihmsen family history is very complex. Through three generations, the Ihmsens were involved in glass production in the U. S. from 1795 to 1900. Although several researchers have reported on the Ihmsen glass factories, each has confused the various lineages at some point. The earliest two sources (Knittle 1927:337-338; Van Rensselaer 1969:180; 185-186; 191) offered factual tidbits but never tied their information into comprehensive accounts. McKearin and McKearin (1941:590; 593) separated the companies into two groups but confused what factories belonged to which groups. McKearin and Wilson (1978:118-119; 152-154) addressed the William Ihmsen plant separately but tied the other businesses together. May Jones (1968:15) provided a pretty good synopsis of the company compiled almost entirely from the McKearin books, although she, too, confused many of the factories and companies. Toulouse (1971:261-264) attempted to form a comprehensive account and divided the factories into three major groups. One of the main problems involved in trying to sort out the businesses is that most companies during the 19th century had one name for their factories and another for the operating company or owner. Thus, we have the Birmingham glass works owned by Ensell, Wendt & Co. in 1810, by Ihmsen, Wendt & Co. in 1811, and by Belzhoover, Wendt & Co. in 1812. In some cases, earlier researchers only referred to “the green glass factory” with no company name or to a factory name but no company or to a company but no factory name. If this is not confusing enough, early sources did not include addresses, so the factories cannot be pinpointed by that method. We have attempted to combine the assembled accounts with information from a local document and Pittsburgh city directories provided by Jay Hawkins. By looking at the relationships between company names, factory names (or descriptions), products made, and sources,
we have formed a new chronology that we hope makes sense. It is certain that Christian Ihmsen succeeded his father in business. His brother, William, seems to have mostly opted out of the family business and opened his own. Christian’s sons, Charles T. and William followed their father into the firm. Bob Bowers provided us with genealogical information on the Ihmsen family. Charles Ihmsen was born about 1769 in Steinbach, Westphalia, Germany. His wife, Phillipine Katrine Ney, also German, was born February 11, 1770. The couple had six sons, Jacob Charles, Thomas Oswald, Christian, Adam, Henry, and Martin; two daughters, Catherine and Mary; and a William, Phillipina’s son by an earlier marriage. Charles apparently adopted William and introduced him to the glass business when he grew up. The senior Ihmsen died on September 8, 1828. According to Bowers, Christian was the real entrepreneur of the family. Christian was born on May 22, 1804, in Frederick, Maryland. He married Eleanor O’Connor, and the couple had five sons, Charles T., William, Frederick Lorenz, Michael O’Connor, and Christian T.; and four daughters, Ann Elena, Phillipina A., Amelia, and Eleanor. Christian died on December 11, 1862. His half-brother, William, was also a success in the glass business. William was born about 1794 at Frederick, Maryland. He married Mary Augusta Morrison, but the couple had no children. He died December 11, 1836, only about 42 years of age. The remaining second-generation children seem to have opted out of the glass business. The third generation of Ihmsens were mostly descendants of Christian. Two of his sons, Charles T. and William, followed him directly into the glass business. Christian was not very impressed with his two sons (and their records show they were not inspired businessmen). According to Bowers, Christian’s will gave the sons control of the glass making operation for a
Bottles and Extras period of only five years, suggesting that he knew how incapable his sons were. William Ihmsen (likely named after his uncle) was born in 1831 at Birmingham, Pennsylvania. He married Johanna Crouse, and the couple had two children, neither of whom entered into the glass business. William died in September 1875. Charles T. Ihmsen was born in 1828, also in Birmingham. Charles married Maria G. Mulvaney, and they produced two children whom also chose non-glass-related professions. Charles died on May 29, 1870. A final, third-generation brother was also quite successful in the glass field. Christian T. Ihmsen, Jr., was born in October, 1845 at East Birmingham. He married Stella Horner, and the couple only had a single child, Simpson Horner. Christian, Jr., died on December 2, 1901. Dominick O’Connor Ihmsen was the son of Thomas Oswald Ihmsen, brother of Charles T. and William. Born on August 19, 1836, at Birmingham, Dominick was by far the most successful glass maker of the third generation of Ihmsens. Dominick married Mary Adelaide Mitchell, and the couple had six sons, Herbert Lawrence, Thomas Oswald, Dominick O’Connor, Henry Phillips, William Pollard, and Paulinus Dionysius; and four daughters, Mary Adelaide, Adelaide Virginia, Blanche Josephine, and Anna M. Dominick died on March 25, 1903. In all likelihood, the two groups of companies listed by Toulouse (1971:261264) as Charles Ihmsen & Co. and Christian Ihmsen & Sons are an understandably-confused rendition of the same set of companies. He was correct, however, in separating the Ihmsen Glass Co. as a separate entity. Similarly, McKearin and McKearin (1941:590, 593) tried to separate the wrong companies. McKearin and Wilson’s attempt to treat the entire group of companies as a single entity (with the exception of William Ihmsen’s Williamsport companies and Cunningham & Ihmsen) was also faulty. We have finally reduced the complex set of ofteninterrelated companies to five: 1) Charles Ihmsen’s short-lived Baltimore Glass House; 2) Charles Ihmsen’s original Birmingham (Pittsburgh) companies (eventually becoming C. Ihmsen & Co, Ihmsen & Sons, then Ihmsen & Co.); 3) the Ihmsen Glass Co.; 4) the Williamsport Glass Works factories; and 5) Cunningham & Ihmsen.
Bottles and Extras Ihmsen Company Histories Charles Ihmsen’s Baltimore Glass House According to McKearin and McKearin (1949:44), Charles Ihmsen “is credited with building Baltimore’s first glasshouse” in 1795. In 1803, however, the firm declared bankruptcy, and Ihmsen moved to Pittsburgh, where he worked as a glass blower. Christian Ihmsen & Sons1 In 1810, the firm of Ensell, Wendt & Co. built the Birmingham Glass Works to manufacture windows. They soon added a second factory to make green (aqua) glass bottles and vials, but the exact date for the second factory is unclear. Both factories apparently went under the name of the Birmingham Glass Works. About 1811, the owning firm was renamed Ihmsen, Wendt & Co., probably to reflect Charles Ihmsen’s increasingly-important role in production. The firm was renamed Beltzhoover, Wendt & Co. around 1812 and was again reorganized as Sutton, Wendt & Co. sometime before 1822. Charles Ihmsen died in 1828, and his son, Christian, inherited his interest in the two glass factories at Birmingham. Charles Ihmsen may have established an independent window glass factory in Birmingham about 1814, although McKearin and McKearin may have been referring to the alreadyestablished Birmingham Glass Works. About 1837, 2 a number of changes occurred. First, the operating firm was reorganized as Whitehead, Ihmsen & Phillips. Apparently, Ihmsen and his backers needed additional funding to expand. The new firm built the Pennsylvania Flint Glass Works to make cut, plain, engraved, and pressed tableware and the Pennsylvania Black Glass Works for bottles, both in Birmingham. Van Rensselaer (1969:186) noted that the firm “conducted four large factories” (i.e., the two older Birmingham Glass Works plants and the two new ones). At this point, things become confused. It appears probable that a split occurred sometime between 1836 and 1841. By 1841, C. Ihmsen & Co. 3 completely controlled the Birmingham Glass Works plants. Even though the McKearins stated that C. Ihmsen & Co. stopped making window glass in 1840, the firm continued to advertise window glass until at least 1870. About 1855, Christian brought his sons, Charles T. and William, into the
Spring 2005 company, and the firm became known as Ihmsen & Sons. After Christian’s death in 1862, his sons continued to operate the Birmingham Glass Works. By 1885, the brothers renamed the company Ihmsen & Co. The last listing for the group was in 1895. Meanwhile, Whitehead, Ihmsen & Phillips continued to run the Pittsburgh Flint Glass Works and Pittsburgh Black Glass Works. The firm was reorganized sometime prior to 1846 as Young, Ihmsen & Puckett.4 The last recorded listing for the group was in 1867. McKearin and Wilson (1978:153) speculated that “the firm may have failed during the long depression from 1873 to 1879.” Ihmsen Glass Co. Another third-generation brother, Christian T. Ihmsen, Jr., started a glass factory in Pittsburgh.5 The company first appeared in the 1878 city directory (Hawkins information) as Ihmsen Glass Co., Limited. It was located at the “foot” of 14th St. (soon listed as 14th & Neville). The company manufactured vials and bottles. By at least 1883 (probably earlier), Ihmsen made “flint prescription” bottles as well. The firm also added window glass to its product list no later than 1884. Although the word, Limited, was dropped from the directory listings in 1897, that may reflect the way the company was listed rather than an actual change. The company last appeared in 1900 (city directories; McKearin & Wilson 1978:153; Toulouse 1971:263). Williamsport Glass Works Another of Charles Ihmsen’s sons, William Ihmsen (not to be confused with Christian’s son, William, partner of Charles T. in C. Ihmsen & Sons), started a completely separate glass company at Williamsport (about 14 miles south of Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River).6 The Williamsport Glass Co. began about 1820. William leased a second glass factory in the same area in 1846 (Knittle 1927:337; McKearin & Wilson 1978:118-119). Innes (1976:33), however, noted that William leased a factory in Williamsport “around 1826.” McKearin & Wilson (1978:118) stated that “by 1831, [William] had formed a copartnership with his brother Christian in still another glassworks” which they speculated was the one at Williamsport. Although Christian was no longer mentioned, William Ihmsen took on
27 William McCully as a partner in 1833. Upon Ihmsen’s death in 1840, McCully assumed control of the plant which remained in business until about 1886 (McKearin & Wilson 1978:119; Toulouse 1971:352, 541). Cunninghams & Ihmsen Another Pittsburgh firm, this plant originated as Cunningham & Duncan and was renamed Cunninghams & Ihmsen in 1865, when Dominick Ihmsen joined Wilson Cunningham as a partner. When Wilson’s son, Dominec, joined the firm in 1879, Ihmsen retired, and the father/son team renamed the business Cunninghams & Co. (Toulouse 1971:119, 132). Bottles and Marks W. IHMSEN, S (1820-1840) McKearin and McKearin (1941:504) discussed a flask with an embossed eagle on the front with W.IHMSEN, S “above the eagle in a semi-circle.” Toulouse dated this mark to the Williamsport Glass Works era (1820-1834). Flasks of this type were generally made between the early 1810s and the civil war. Knittle (1927:337) also noted that W. Ihmsens “appears on certain bottles.” McKearin & Wilson (1978:119, 491, 506, 559) claimed that only a single bottle style was marked W. IHMSEN, S (although they sometimes used an apostrophe and otherwise used a comma) and was probably made in the 1820s. The authors provided a good biographical sketch of William Ihmsen (McKearin & Wilson 1978:118-119). Innes (1976:33, 211) used the apostrophe in the mark but also showed it with no punctuation except a period after W. and no “S.” Despite Toulouse’s date range, the flask may have been made during the entire tenure of the Willimsport Glass Works – 1820-1840. C. IHMSEN GLASS MANUFACTURER (ca. late 1830s-early 1870s) Another mark from the same period was illustrated by Jones (1966:7; 1968:15) and Wilson (1980:118). The bottle base was embossed C. IHMSEN GLASS MANUFACTURER in a circle around the edge. These words were embossed in one of the early plate molds. Patented in England in 1821, the Ricketts mold was the first known to have used a separate plate around the outer edges of the base (Jones & Sullivan 1989:48-49). The Ihmsen bottle
28 used the same style of embossed baseplate mold. Although Jones and Sullivan cited an 1867 patent as the “official” stating date for plate mold use in the United States, the style used by Ihmsen could certainly predate that year. The mark was probably used by Ihmsen beginning sometime between ca. 18361840 and possibly lasting until the 1870s by which time virtually all manufacturers were using embossed marks in post-bottom molds.
Figure 1 – Ihmsen Mark on a RickettsType Mold (Wilson 1980:118)
Figure 2 – Ihmsen Mark on a Fruit Jar (Creswick 1995:87) C. IHMSEN & SONS (1855-1885) An interesting variation of the circular mark was C. IHMSEN & SONS (downward arch from the top)/GLASS MANUFACTURERS (upwardly arched from the bottom) with what appears to be a stylized “I” and a cluster of grapes embossed in the center of the base. Jones (1968:15) showed the base, although it was absent from her earlier publications. Jones provided no other information about this mark.
Spring 2005 C. Ihmsen & Sons was first in the city directory in 1855 and was apparently used until 1885 when the name was simplified to Ihmsen & Co. However, this identification also creates a slight problem. Since this basal marking so closely resembles the one discussed immediately above, it is strange that they would be used by two different companies – even ones operated by the same family. C. Ihmsen & Son also made fruit jars. These were marked C.IHMSEN & SON PITTSBURGH, PA. or C.IHMSEN & SONS PITTSBURGH, PA. Dating of these marks is currently uncertain. Creswick (1995:87) showed two variations of a groove ring wax sealer, both with SON (singular). She dated the jars 1860-1862 but did not explain her reasons. Roller (1983:162) listed another wax sealer with almost identical embossing, but this time the plural, SONS, was used. Figured flasks were also made by C. Ihmsen & Sons and had C I & Sons embossed as part of the figurals on the sides of the bottles (McKearin & Wilson 1978:153, 490, 650-651). Other flasks were marked C. IHMSEN & Co/ PITTSBURGH PA, also on the sides (McKearin & Wilson 1978:499, 640). These, too, would have been dated between 1855 and 1885. C & I (1865-1879) According to Toulouse (1971:132), this mark was used by Cunningham & Ihmsen from 1865 to 1879. The mark was noted by Wilson (1981:114) among the beer bottles at Fort Union and appears in large letters on bases of beer bottles (Wilson 1981:114) embossed horizontally across the center. Herskovitz (1978:8) also noted five examples found at Fort Bowie (18621894) and Feldhaus (1986:11) listed an example (C & I 1202) embossed on a beer bottle base. The mark also appears on the heels of Hutchinson-finished soda bottles. Innes (1976:218) noted that the mark was used on at least one flask. The full name, both as CUNNINGHAM & IHMSEN and CUNNINGHAMS & IHMSEN, was also used on fruit jars, always accompanied by PITTSBURGH, PA set in a circular pattern around the edges of the base (Creswick 1995:39; Roller 83:99). Roller (1983:99) also noted that metal lids for the fruit jars were embossed C & I. The full name was embossed on at least one style of flask. In addition to these marks, David Whitten observed a C & I Co mark embossed above
Bottles and Extras
Figure 3 – Cunninghams & Ihmsen Flask (Bill Lindsey)
Figure 4 – Cunninghams & Ihmsen Mark on Fruit Jar (eBay)
Figure 5 – C & I Mark on Bottle Base (David Whitten)
Figure 6 – C & I Mark on Flask (McKearin & Wilson 1978:585)
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the heel on an early blobtop soda bottle at a recent bottle show. He estimates the bottle was made ca. 1865. I G Co (possibly 1897-1900) Although most bottles with the I G Co mark wear the logo on the heel, a few have the mark embossed on the base. Toulouse (1971:261) maintained that I G Co was used by the Ihmsen Glass Co., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, “circa 1870 to 1895.” He continued, “The use of the ‘I G Co’ trademark is rare and found on some unmistakably Pittsburgh bottles” (Toulouse 1971:263). Unfortunately, he did not indicate what made the bottles “unmistakably Pittsburgh.” Wilson (1981:117-118) showed eight variations of the I G Co mark including the mark alone and several different single letters or (in one case) a numeral, all on bottle bases. Like Toulouse (see above), he suggested that mark belonged to Ihmsen Glass Co., but he did not discuss why. From his descriptions, these marks were probably all found on export-style beer bottle bases. May Jones, in her last bottle newsletter (1968:17) noted that the McKearins [Helen and George] gave “one date as definite for the I. G. CO. with window glass. You follow that reference through and find it can be used - anytime - and reasonably so. UP TO 1895 at least. Bottles too.” Unfortunately, in her rambling style, she referred to the date the McKearins gave for the termination of Ihmsen Glass Co. rather than any date connected to the mark. Even that date is too early; the company was in business until at least 1900 (see above). It is possible that bottles with the I G Co mark on the bases are from the Ihmsen Glass Co. The vast majority of bottles with an I G Co mark (which we have identified as being from the Illinois Glass Co. – see Lockhart et al. 2005) bear the embossing on the heel. Later marks known to be used by Ihmsen (see below) also have basemarks rather than heelmarks. These I G Co basemarks (if, indeed, they were used by Ihmsen) can probably be dated from 1878 (the inception of the company) to 1900 (the last listing for Ihmsen Glass Co.), although the marks may only reflect the time period from 1897 to 1900 when the “Limited” was dropped from the company name in the city directories. A more likely explanation is that the use of the mark by Ihmsen Glass Co. can be identified by the accompaniment of either letters below the mark or a number above
Figure 7 (L) – Wine Bottle – ca. 1870s (MeKearin & McKearin 1941:425) Figure 8 (R) – Wine Bottle – mid-1800s (Noël Hume 1970:63-68) the mark. Wilson (1981:118) showed the I G Co L mark (see below – certainly used by Ihmsen) with a 6 above the mark (or a Maltese cross in one case) and usually single, capital letters below the mark. The I G Co marks (no “L”) shown on the same page all have single, capital letters below the mark. The use of letters or a single number does not fit any pattern seen on clearly-identified Illinois Glass Co. bottles. Therefore, it is likely that these additional letters or numbers, along with the I G Co mark, identify the Ihmsen Glass Co. In all verifiable contexts (on beer bottles7) we have found so far, the I G Co basemark has a lower-case “o” as the final
Figure 9 – Export-Style Beer Bottle (Bill Lockhart)
29 letter, although punctuation may be present, partial, or absent. All bottles were also made with post-bottom molds, although that may be a product of age rather than a specific company. Heelmarked bottles (almost certainly from Illinois Glass Co.) may have either post-bottom or cup-bottom characteristics. We have found I G Co basemarks on at least three types of bottles: food (one example), soft drink (Hutchinsonfinished bottle - one example), and exportstyle beer bottles (numerous examples). To further complicate the issue, Herskivitz (1978:8) also listed three examples of beer bottle bases marked with IGCO. The underlined, superscript “O” is not reported by any other source, and we have never actually seen an example. Herskovitz did not record any accompanying letters or numbers, so this mark was probably used by the Illinois Glass Co. instead of Ihmsen. Because many of the bottles bearing the I G Co mark on the base show the characteristics of export-style beer bottles, a brief discussion of beer bottle history is appropriate here. Anheuser Busch was successful in part because of a willingness to innovate. One of the company’s most important innovations was the adaptation of the pasteurization process to beer in 1872 or 1873 (Hernon & Ganey 1991:30-31; Wilson 1981:1). Plavchan (1969:70), however, claimed 1872, citing a letter written by Adolphus Busch to W. C. Merry, September 3, 1894. Once beer was pasteurized, it could be stored and shipped in bottles for a long time and a great distance. This meant that the local brewery with its reliance on keg-contained, draught beer was to become less important. Of more interest to bottle daters, this marks the beginning of available, nation-wide bottled beer. Export-style bottles were the classic quart beer bottles (actually measuring a surprisingly-consistent 26 ounces) used in the American West, although several other styles were used throughout the country. The base was flat (or slightly concave), and the bottle had vertical sides and rounded shoulders topped by a swelled neck (claimed to be a way to deal with foam). Finishes varied but were all originally made in two parts (a “collar” above a “ring”) designed to take a cork stopper. A singlepart finish was designed for the “Lightning” fastener. The export-style bottle was the most common glass beer container in the Western U.S. from at least the 1880s and
30 is still used today in 12-ounce returnable bottles. These bottles were usually amber in color, although some were made in aquamarine, various shades of green, a light blue, or occasionally were colorless (some of which have turned purple with exposure to the sun). The earliest ones were produced in post-bottomed, two-piece hinged molds or by the turn-mold process. Later bottles were made in cup-bottomed molds. Export-style beer bottles appear to have descended from wine bottles. George and Helen McKearin (1941:423-425) traced the evolution of wine or spirit bottles from about 1650 to about 1865-1875. Their final style is remarkably similar to the exportstyle beer bottle even to the two-part “brandy” finish (although the swelled neck is absent). Ivor Noël Hume (1970:63-68) presented a similar study based on bottles excavated at Williamsburg, Virginia. His study extended from 1652 to 1834 and did not include date ranges as did the McKearins. His final bottles, however, again showed a close resemblance to the export-style container (again including the finish) but had a higher kick-up, and most lacked the swelling of the neck. A single example even had a slightly swelled neck. Only two final alterations were necessary to produce the first beer bottles: the removal of the kick-up to form a flatter base and the addition of the swelled neck. Reasons for the changes are currently unknown. Kick-ups allow a bottle to look much larger than its actual capacity. Breweries may have feared that beer drinkers would have figured that out. I G C (1872-1894) Herskovitz (1978:8) noted six examples of this mark on beer bottles from Fort Bowie. The excavated portion of the fort was officially open from 1862 to 1894, although beer bottles were only transported for long distances from the factories beginning in 1872. Thus, 1872 to 1894 are the only dates currently known for this mark. He reported accompanying letters/ number of B, H, and 3+. In addition, a bottle for sale on the internet was embossed I G C on the back heel (according to the seller). This latter may be a case where the “o” in I G Co was very lightly embossed and difficult to see. Herskovitz (1978:8) also recorded an I G O mark accompanied by the numeral 1. This is likely a misstrike by the engraver or a misidentification by Heskovitz
Spring 2005 (probably the former). If it were an engraver’s error, it would fit into the same pattern as the I G C mark. Neither of the two marks, however, fit into the same pattern as the ones known from the Illinois Glass Co. All known Illinois Glass I G Co marks either had nothing else embossed with the logo or had a two- to three-digit number beside the mark (when found on heels). None had letters, single-digit numbers, or a plus sign (+) or cross. These marks fit the pattern of other marks used by the Ihmsen Glass Co. (see above and below). I G Co L (1878-1897 – possibly as late as 1900) Wilson (1981:118) also showed four beer bottle bases with the I G Co L mark, a logo also observed by two of our research group, David Whitten and Bill Lindsey, and by Jay Hawkins of Pittsburgh. Thes I G Co L marks in Wilson were accompanied by either a numeral 6 or a Maltese cross above the mark and a letter (I, D, or K) or nothing below the mark. The mark appears in two variations, one with large letters and one with smaller letters. In both cases, the mark is embossed horizontally across the bases of beer bottles and other container types. The I G Co L mark also appears without either accompanying letters or numbers. Wilson and Wilson (1969:41) showed four examples of the mark on DR. J. HOSTETTER’S STOMACH BITTERS bottle bases, although they made no attempt to attribute the mark to any maker. The Wilsons (1969:34) noted that S. McKee made the first embossed Hostetter’s bottles in 1859, so containers produced by other makers should be dated after that time. Fike (1987:36) also noted that Hostetter’s bottles were made by Ihmsen but did not directly address the marks. Ayres et al (1980:19) noted that the Ihmsen Glass Co. was succeeded by the Ihmsen Glass Co., Ltd. in 1886 and that the firm “apparently ended in 1899.” Their source, McKearin & Wilson (1978:153), however, noted that the limited partnership was in place “by 1886,” so the change could have taken place slightly earlier. Hawkins’ research in the Pittsburgh city directories, however, shows that the company was “Limited” during its entire existence from 1878 to 1900. The illustrations in Ayres et al. show I G Co (no periods), I G Co L, and I G Co. L (note punctuation) on bottle bases but not on heels. This confirms the use of the IGCo mark by Ihmsen and explains the
Bottles and Extras
Figure 10 – Small IGCoL Mark – Beer Bottle (Ayres et al. 1980)
Figure 11 – Large IGCoL Mark – Beer Bottle (Ayres et al. 1980)
Figure 12 – Large IGCoL Mark – Beer Bottle (Jay Hawkins)
Figure 13 – IGCoL Mark on Hostetters Stomach Bitters Bottle (Bill Lindsey)
Bottles and Extras L. Thus, the probable date range for the I G Co L mark is ca. 1878 to 1900 (although the use of the “L” may have stopped in 1897 when the “Limited” was dropped from the city directory listings). Herskovitz (1978:8) reported four examples (I.G.CO.L.) accompanied by numbers (11-13). Feldhaus (1986:23, 38, 42) listed a bottle made for the St. Paul Bottling Co. (Minnesota) marked with I G CO L and the number 15 as well as two more examples with no accompanying numbers or letters. The bottler was in business from 1887 to 1889. Wilson (1981:118) showed four examples with letters (D, I, and K) as well as one with no accompanying marks. Clint (1976:127) illustrated a single example of the mark on a beer or soda bottle from Denver, Colorado. The mark was accompanied by no numbers or letters and was embossed on the base of an aqua bottle with an applied blob finish. Discussion and Conclusions It is clear that the Ihmsen family had a long and complex history in glass production. The similarity in names (e.g., Christian Ihmsen and Charles Ihmsen) can often confuse identification of firms by the embossing on bottle bases. Generally, however, we have been able, through the process of elimination, to identify the specific users of each mark (see above). The major controversy within the Ayres, James E., William Liesenbien, Lee Fratt, and Linda Eure 1980 “Beer Bottles from the Tucson Urban Renewal Project, Tucson, AZ.” Unpublished manuscript, Arizona State Museum Archives, RG5, Sg3, Series 2, Subseries 1, Folder 220. Clint, David K 1976 Colorado Historical Bottles & Etc., 1859-1915. Antique Bottle Collectors of Colorado, Inc., Boulder. Creswick, Alice 1995 The Fruit Jar Works, Vol. I, Listing Jars Made Circa 1820 to 1920’s. Douglas M. Leybourne, N. Muskegon, Michigan. Feldhaus, Ron 1986 The Bottles, Breweriana and Advertising Jugs of Minnesota 1850-1920: Volume 1: Beer, Soda, Household. North Star Historical Bottle Collectors Association, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Fike, Richard E. 1965 Handbook for the Bottle-ologist. Privately printed, Ogden, Utah. Hernon, Peter and Terry Ganey
Spring 2005 research group has been over the question of whether or not the Ihmsen Glass Co. used the I G Co mark. There is no question that the I G Co mark was used profusely by the Illinois Glass Co. Suggestions by various collectors for identifying the Ihmsen use of the mark have been: 1) location on the base (Illinois Glass Co. used the heel); 2) the use (or lack) of punctuation, and; 3) the capital or lower case “O.” The location of the mark is most likely a product of a trend that began in the late 1870s, where soft drink (and some beer) bottlers had the company name, owner’s initials, or logo embossed on the base. Frequently, the manufacturer’s mark was moved to the heel to avoid confusion. The Illinois Glass Co. undoubtedly used heelmarks, although we have found no evidence that Ihmsen placed any marks in that location. However, it is likely that the placement of the mark had more to do with policy within the company than between the two companies. The use of punctuation includes I G Co, I. G. Co., I G Co., I. G Co, and other combinations. These variations appear on both heelmarks and basemarks. They were probably added or ignored at the whim of the individual engravers who made the molds. The use of a capital or lower case “o” appears on heelmarks, but only the lower-case “o” is found on beer bottle basemarks (at least one capital “O” was embossed on a flask). Again, these were References 1991 Under the Influence: The Unauthorized Story of the Anheuser-Busch Dynasty. Simon & Schuster, New York. Herskovitz, Robert M. 1978 Fort Bowie Material Culture. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Innes, Lowell 1976 Pittsburgh Glass, 1797-1891: A History and Guide for Collectors. Houghton Mifflin, Boston. Jones, May 1968 The Bottle Trail, Volume 9. Nara Vista, New Mexico. Jones, Olive and Catherine Sullivan 1989 The Parks Canada Glass Glossary for the Description of Containers, Tableware, Flat Glass, and Closures. Parks Canada, Ottawa. Lockhart, Bill, Bill Lindsey, David Whitten, and Carol Serr 2005 “The Dating Game: Illinois Glass Co.” Bottles and Extras 16(1). Knittle, Rhea Mansfield
31 likely the idiosyncracies of the individual mold makers, although the basemark variation seems to be consistent. The only identifying feature that may distinguish the two companies on basemarks is the presence of letters, numbers, and/or crosses. The Maltese cross is distinctly associated with the I G Co L mark as are the number 6 above the logo and single, capital letters below the mark. None of these additional marks are associated with the Illinois Glass Co. It is thus probable that these accompanying letters, numbers, or crosses on the bases of bottles marked I G Co identify the Ihmsen Glass Co. Acknowledgements The group would like to acknowledge a debt of gratitude to Jay Hawkins of Pittsburgh. Jay is a local collector who freely shared his research in the city directories as well as his personal knowledge about bottles made in Pittsburgh. His help made this article much more complete and a great deal more interesting. A debt of gratitude is owed to genealogy researcher, Bob Bowers, for providing us with a genealogy of the Ihmsen family. Thanks also to Douglas M. Leybourne, Jr., for granting us permission to use illustrations from The Fruit Jar Works by Alice M. Creswick.
1934 Early American Glass. AppletonCentury, New York. McKearin, Helen and George McKearin 1941 American Glass. Crown Publishers, New York. 1949 Two Hundred Years of American Blown Glass. Bonanza Books, New York. McKearin, Helen, and Kenneth M. Wilson 1978 American Bottles & Flasks and Their Ancestry. Crown Publishers, New York. Noël Hume, Ivor 1961 “The Glass Wine Bottle in Colonial Virginia.” Journal of Glass Studies 3:90117. Plavchan, Ronald J. 1969 “A History of Anheuser-Busch, 18521933.” Doctoral dissertation, St. Louis University. Roller, Dick 1983 Standard Fruit Jar Reference. Privately published.
Continued on Page 39
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More News on “Connecticut Glass” The first in a series of exclusive articles for Bottles and Extras by Rick Ciralli c/o RCGLASS Back in May of 2002, the announcement was official, we were starting a book project on Connecticut glass from five (5) of the known glasshouses being Pitkin, Coventry, Willington, Westford and the New London, Conn. areas. The forward to this massive project will be authored by the one and only Norman Heckler Sr. with numerous contributions by other established collectors, dealers and enthusiasts in our great hobby. Announcements made in many bottle-club newsletters as well as other hobby related publications led to many inquiries and tons of correspondence. Let’s update our FOHBC members with a few of the highlights thus far starting with the Pitkin Glassworks site and period ruins located in Manchester, Conn. Professional excavations at the site [Figures 2-4] have continued with many important and exciting shards being discovered on May 9th, 2003. They included a rare sunburst GVIII-6, a GII-58 eagle/ cornucopia ½ pint, a GII-57 J.P.F. pint as well as pieces of a J.P.F. inkwell and of all things…A Lafayette flask with the embossed C-T. Later that next week, on May 14th, 2003, Connecticut glass history was made when a tiny 1.8" miniature flattened chestnut was excavated in mint condition. It was perched under two (2) bricks arched above it. It was like the glass gods were waiting for us! It can be seen on display at the Old Manchester Museum in Manchester, CT as well as on our website www.pitkinglassworks.org. I was also elected President of the Pitkin Glass Works Inc., and am very excited about the future of our mission there. This is a very special unique place here in Connecticut as well as New England. You have got to see it! Moving onto some Coventry Glass, I have seen and handled many examples of the utilitarian wares, numerous flask molds & inkwells. Many new pieces have surfaced and been photographed that include some extreme rarities. Here is a special whimsy, a GII-18D blown three mold inkwell with ringed base
expanded into an open salt with (3) applied feet. The piece has (2) pontil scars, inside and outside! It was excavated near the site years ago by a local resident and museum member. It’s unique and one-of-a-kind! [Figures 5-6] Also pictured is a rare Globular decanter with an applied pourspout and threaded neck. [Figure 7] The Coventry, Connecticut historic glass district there is alive with our group of extremely dedicated members of the Museum of Connecticut Glass, a non-profit organization. We meet in the old brick John Turner House on Rt. 44 for monthly meetings. John Turner was the chief glassblower of the Coventry glassworks.We also have the barn across the road where we have had numerous activities that include shard displays, appraisal days, lectures, speakers and presentations. We are having our First t Annual Inaugural Bottle and Tailgate show on the museum’s grounds there on May 21st, 2005 with over 100 dealers expected and all proceeds planned to benefit the Museums restoration fund. This is an important event for the museums mission and also our hobby. For more information, please contact the show chairman, Jan Rutushny at phone: (860) 428-4585 or by E-mail: janratushny@aol.com. The Museum is seeking new members from all over the country. For more info, please visit our website at www.museumofctglass.org or www.glassmuseum.org.
Figure 5
Figure 4
There’s lots of great information and pictures of early glass and bottles. It’s a great web-site!! So as you can see, there are some great things happening with the CONNECTICUT GLASS book project as well as other matters and ventures taking place. Up next will be another article on what’s happening in Willington and Westford with information also coming from the New London area. I welcome all correspondence so please contact me when you can. Rick Ciralli c/o RCGLASS FOHBC Member Toll-free (866) 332-6538 Email: rciralli@eqcorp.com
Figure 6
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33 Figure 1: A fine grouping of some Connecticut glass that includes inkwells, snuffs, utilities, off-hand pieces and various flasks.
Figure 2 Figure 7
Figure 3
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Fig. 5
Fig. 4
Let’s Talk About Ink with Ed & Lucy Faulkner
Indelible Ink For most of the 19th century and into the 20th, many different types of ink were produced. One of these was indelible ink, often called durable ink. Indelible ink was used to mark fabrics such as laundry or anything that needed a permanent marking that would not wash out or smear. Advertisements noted that it would take much less time to mark items with durable ink than by needlework. Another advantage of marking with ink, as opposed to needlework, was that it could not be picked out of the fabric.
Fig. 2
There were many recipes for indelible ink, all of which called for silver nitrate to be dissolved in a liquid. Early bottles of indelible ink recommended that the writing surface be stretched over a book or other object before writing, then (after writing) dried in the sun for a day, or pressed with a hot iron. By 1900, big companies such as Carter’s and others sold kits with a pen and small hoop for stretching the cloth before
Fig. 6
Fig 3
Fig. 7
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35
Fig. 8 Fig. 10
Fig. 9 writing. This was improved ink and only called for drying with no heat needed. Included in this article are pictures of some of the bottles and kits that are or have been in our collection. An olive green pontiled umbrella, label only, by Thom. Hollis of Boston is shown in Figure 1. The olive and amber cylinders [Figures 2 and 3] are also pontiled and are from Holden and Winslow. These two are approximately five inches tall and label only. A lot of the small bottles are often called sample bottles, but in reality, probably held indelible ink. Included here are the FK [Figure 4] (pontil), Hover [Figure 5] and Harrison (BIM) [Figure 6], and later Sanford’s and Carter’s which are marked indelible [Figures 7, 8 and 9]. The Carter’s is also know in a cobalt color. These bottles are about 1.5" to 2" tall. Francis Kidder, Wm. Kidder, James Kidder, and others listed in Covill’s book used small rectangular shaped bottles and these were embossed with their name and indelible ink [Figure 10]. Most of these are pontiled although some smooth base are known. Perhaps the best known indelible ink maker is Payson’s [Figures 11 and 12]. This was either their only product, or main product, as all advertising I have found is for this type of ink. Their trade card says the company has been known to the trade since 1835. A. L. Williston of
Fig. 11 Fig. 12
Northhampton, Massachusetts was the successor to J. Payson Williston who was the sole proprietor and manufacturer of Payson’s ink. The ad is from 1888. Figure 13 is a 20th century ink kit by Old Colony, later known by the Rexall name and Figure 14 is a flyer with directions from Hermen’s American Indelible Ink, a circa 1840’s company. There are a large number of these small bottles to be found. We have seen many with only a label so it would be impossible to know they contained ink if the label did not remain. Other tiny ones we had < Fig. 13
Fig. 14 >
included Swearingen’s, Hoyt’s, Whiting, and Stafford’s. Probably everyone reading this can name some I have not listed. The 20th century ones such as the “kits” don’t seem to be as collectible. Most collectors prefer the older ones. However, all of them add interest to an ink collection. References: Pen, Ink, & Evidence, Joe Nickell, 1990. American Bottles & Flasks & Their Ancestry, McKearin & Wilson, 1978.
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Prohibition, Distillers and Brands by Bret Heinemann
Prohibition terminated the liquor industry in the United States on January 26, 1920 until it was repealed. The bottles used to identify specific brands of whiskey, wine or some other liquor were no longer needed and ended up in the trash. Gone were liquor, distillers, beers, brewers, wines, winemakers, and even some medicines. Gone was that evil demon rum, too. Wouldn’t it be great? No longer could any evil beverage destroy anyone’s life. Sure, now all of those “weak” individuals would now be able to lead productive wholesome lives. Talents that had been used by the distillers, retail stores, wholesale merchants, and especially those saloons would be freed. Now free, talented people would no longer suffer enslavement to evils and vice. Men, women, and children would now be safe from terror. There was freedom to work in the cities and on the farms, to play or even just to take a family walk. Well, that was the dream anyway. Unfortunately, everyone didn’t have it, and still others would turn it into a nightmare in the 1920s and early 1930s. It would be nightmare since there would be enough people ignoring the law to create an atmosphere in which crime, violence and other vices would flourish - BUT that’s another story. The bottles of these distillers and merchants wouldn’t be gone forever, though. Collectors in later generations would eventually begin to gather them all up. Each bottle has its value (not just in dollars and cents), and its own story to tell. Whether the bottle is quite common or rare, the bottles are all that remain of once prominent brands and merchants. Bottles that are collected for their trademarks, the company they represent, color, design, crudeness, by shape and size.
The temperance movement began in Ohio in the early 1870s with a campaign to shut down the saloons there, a campaign that was only temporarily successful. In 1873, a group in Chicago founded the Women’s Christian Temperance Union under the leadership of Anne Wittenmeyer. The WCTU was one of the major forces behind the temperance crusade. In 1879 Frances Willard became the leader of the WCTU, and she changed it from a Midwestern prayer group into a national militant organization. Willard also enlarged the scope of the organization to include a plan to reform all of the social evils in society. The WCTU would grow and have 160,000 members by 1890 and 245,000 by 1911.1 The attitude of many distillers and merchants was to support national laws to stabilize their industry and to protect themselves from more severe local laws. Those were the Sunday laws, designs of buildings, and even outright prohibitions. They would even try, though unsuccessfully, to get Congress to regulate the industry.2 The excise taxes paid to the Treasury Department were the most significant regulation of the era, which ended on January 16, 1920; and here are some of brands and merchants from that era now passed.
PROHIBITION The passage of Prohibition was the result of the belief that most of the ills in society could be cured if liquor was no longer available. Men who spent their time in saloons were seen as a threat to both women and the sanctity of the home. Saloons were regarded as a threat to men’s jobs; and the men who frequented saloons were viewed as more likely to abuse or abandon their wives and children.
AAA Whiskey Luke Marish distributed AAA Whiskey prior to 1895. The trademark for AAA whiskey was registered on April 9, 1872 to the New York firm of Martin R. Cook and Jacques A. Bernheimer.3 Atlas Atlas Bourbon of the Mohns
and Kaltenbach Company was located at 29 Market Street. John Bach and Herman Meese were the wholesale liquor dealers in San Francisco from 1880 to 1901.4 Hollywood In 1864, Eugene, Richard, and Terence Hollywood were operating separate businesses until 1876 when they combined and became Hollywood Brothers.5 Eagle Glen Eagle Glen Whiskey was located at 29 Market Street. The United States agents for Eagle Glen Whiskey, produced by the Wilson Distilling Company, were Werle and Wiloh.6
Moore.
Jesse Moore Understanding the West Coast distributors for Jesse Moore Whiskey is best done by examining Henry Browne Hunt, Elias Chielovich, and George H.
Henry Browne Hunt (born in Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania in 1836) traveled to San Francisco in 1849 with his uncle, who started a business there and spent a couple of years learning about this business. Henry then went back to the East to finish his education only to return to San Francisco in 1854 with his mother. Two years later, he moved to Oroville, where he became involved in the mining business, made money and lost it. Henry changed careers, returning to the retail business, and was elected as the Treasurer of Butte County. He next tried moving to Sacramento and worked as a salesman for the wholesale liquor business of Power and Company. In 1867 he moved to San Francisco and become a clerk for the firm of Edward Martin. Five years later, he traveled to Downieville to his fiances’ parent’s house to marry her there. Back in San Francisco, he went to work for Elias Chielovich in the wholesale liquor business.7
Bottles and Extras Elias Chielovich, in partnership with Walter Hoge and Jesse Moore, sold Jesse Moore, Musser Bourbon, Mattingly Bourbon, Nelson Bourbon, and Durham Whiskey. After 1875, Durham Whiskey became Chielovich’s primary brand. Many of the Durham bottles have a double base, which allows the bottle to stand in the traditional upright position or on its side. The side position was useful on riverboats, ships and trains. One of Chielovich’s business strategies seems to have been aimed at the river traffic. Elias Chielovich became the owner of a bowling alley in the late 1880s. It is not clear whether Elias Chielovich also had a saloon or not. 8 In 1875, George H. Moore (son of Jesse Moore) sent Cornelius Deweese, Jr. west to improve the western sales for the Jesse Moore brand. In response, Deweese formed a partnership with the Moore-Hunt Company’s owners, George Moore and Henry Hunt, to promote and distribute Jesse Moore Whiskey in the West. In 1888, Deweese sold out his interests to Thomas Kirkpatrick, who became the president of the company by 1895. Two years later, the company became consolidated as the Jesse Moore Hunt Company. In addition to San Francisco, the company conducted business in Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Louisville, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, New York, and San Diego. The other brands they sold included AA and B & C.9 In 1871 legal problems developed when a Jesse Moore shipment of whiskey arrived at their San Francisco agent in barrels which resembled those of J. H. Cutter. Although the barrels were clearly marked with the Jesse Moore trademark, a lawsuit resulted between the Anson Hotaling Company, seeking $15,000 in damages from Jesse Moore. The lawsuit eventually ended up in the United States Supreme Court, where the court ruled that a products package, if it were so unique as to be identified with a product exclusively, could be considered part of the company’s trademark.10 Although, this would be the only time anyone would attempt to copy the Cutter barrel, trademark infringement would always be a problem between companies. For example, in the case of the California Fig Syrup Company vs. Frederick Stearn and Company, the court ruled that any business had the right to seek an injunction against another company for using a marketing technique or symbol, not eligible
Spring 2005 for trademark protection, to mislead the public into believing the product was the same as the other company.11 J. H. Cutter Anson Parsons Hotaling and his company became western agents for J. H. Cutter Whiskey in 1862. The owner’s of J. H. Cutter at this time were Charles P. Moorman and Milton J. Hardy. These two had purchased the company from John H. Cutter on either July 2, 1860 - five days before his death - or shortly thereafter. Charles Moorman had been a partner of John H. Cutter since 1858; and Milton Hardy had been a partner since 1859. Hardy was also the J. H. Cutter wholesale distributor for Boston and would eventually handle the legal and management of the business from New York, beginning in the 1870s. Charles Moorman was involved in the distilling operations until the 1870s. After 1879, Moorman had the sole rights to the J. H. Cutter name.12 In 1867, Anson Hotaling (1830-1899) had a wholesale wine and liquor business in San Francisco at the corner of Jackson Street and Johnson Alley. In 1873, Hotaling opened an office in Portland, Oregon; and in 1877, began operations in Australia. He sold the Portland business in 1894.13 Henry R. Sherwood and William R. Sherwood started a wholesale food and liquor distributing business in San Francisco around 1886 at 212214 Market Street. In a few years, their business grew to include warehouses located at 15 and 17 Pine Street; and by 1905, they bought the Hotaling families interest in the J. H. Cutter Company. In 1905, Charles Moorman
Hotaling Whiskey Warehouse
37 retired and sold his share of the J. H. Cutter to W. C. Wheeler and Alex Semple.14 W. A. Gaines W. A. Gaines and Company of Frankfurt, Kentucky was distributed in the West by the Livingston Company. Initially, Louis Livingston was in the grocery business in San Francisco. In 1864, however, he began to sell wholesale liquor as well.15 In 1867 Louis Livingston formed a partnership with Isaac Levy; and by 1876, Abram P. Williams and Joesph May had bought a portion of the business. In 1869, Livingston (while keeping his share of the business) left Levy, Williams, and May to operate it. He then returned to his native Germany, leaving Edward May to eventually own the entire business. Jacob Wertheimer was a partner in the business for a while. May died in 1906 and his widow, Margaret C. May, continued to operate the business. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake later destroyed the Davis Street warehouse, and so it was moved to Seventeenth Street. Another location of the business was 220 and 222 California Street. Besides San Francisco, the company in time also conducted business in Covington, Kentucky. The Livingson Company along with the Sunnybrook and Willow Creek distilleries had a partnership or business arrangement in 1911-1917, but in 1917, the company ceased operations. The brands Livingston sold included Old Sunny Brook, Pride of Kentucky, and Livingston Blackberry Brandy.16 James Pepper The James E. Pepper Distillery, in Lexington, Kentucky, may have been established as early as 1780. Commercially, however, the James Pepper production occured after 1840; since the 1840s are the earliest years that the brand was sold nationally. The brand is listed in the Cincinnati business directories from 1877 to 1918. The San Francisco wholesale liquor business of Carroll and Carroll was the agent, starting circa 1888-1902. In 1882, Richard L. Carroll and George L. Carroll formed a partnership with John Abrahms. Five years later, the Carrolls bought out Abrahm. In 1898-1902, the Carroll’s sold the business to their managers, Donald McDonald and William Cohn. The business became known as McDonald and
38 Cohn in 1903, and continued to operate until 1911.17 Old Judge Before 1900 there were several agents for the Old Judge brand in the West. Newmark and Gruenberg were agents for Old Judge in the 1880s, and after 1900, the Samual B. Rothenberg Company then distributed Old Judge exclusively. Newmark and Gruenberg began as minor partners in the Kane and O’Leary Company. In 1849, Michael Kane (who had immigrated from Ireland with his parents in 1830) arrived in Hangtown, California and then moved back East. After sometime in the East he returned to California. Kane was a United States mail agent, customs inspector, a government storekeeper, and a United States Appraiser before he eventually became a liquor salesman for Wand and Company.18 In 1860, William Hunter operated a saloon on the corner of Third and Folsom Streets in San Francisco; and in 1861, he went into the wholesale liquor business at 612 Front Street. In 1862, Wand and Hunter became partners. In 1871, Hunter sold his interests to Michael Kane, and in 1874, Wand sold his interests to Fergus O’Leary. The business moved to a larger building in 1881 and Kane’s brother, Charles C. Kane, became a silent partner. Kane, O’Leary, and Company sold the Garfield brand of whiskey.19 Kane and O’Leary were located at 221- 223 Bush Street in San Francisco. Michael Kane retired in 1882 and moved to Alameda. The business was taken over by his junior partners, Myer J. Newmark and Max Gruenberg. Eventually, Max Gruenberg bought out Newmark.20 S. B. Rothenberg In 1887, Sara Rothenberg opened a wholesale liquor business at 864 Broadway in Oakland, and her son, Samual B. Rothenberg, began running the business that same year. One year later, Samual Rothenberg purchased the Gruenberg Company at 525 Front Street, and moved his Oakland
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business to 117 Battery Street in San Francisco. Samual Rothenberg’s son, Henry Rothenberg, became involved in the business around 1907-1910, and Sanford Rothenberg became involved by 1913.21 In 1902 the name of the company was changed to The Rothenberg Company. Louis Rothenberg became the president around 1907. In 1916, the company was sold to the Rosenberg Company. In addition to Old Judge, the Rothenberg Company sold Berliner Magan Bitters, Quaker Club, Old Rye, McBrayer’s, Cedar Brook, Asparagus Gin and Cedar Brook Handmade Sourmesh (from Anderson County, Kentucky). Samual’s brother, Mendleson, opened his own wholesale liquor business in 1895 at 432 Kearney Street in San Francisco where he sold the Miller’s Game Cock brand of whiskey.22
manufacturer of cordials and syrups, which John Renz had been associated with since the 1850s. In 1875, he opened a wholesale and retail liquor business at 315 Commercial Street in San Francisco, but was out of business by 1896. The products he sold included Renz’s Blackberry Brandy and Bonanza Bourbon.25
FROM VINEYARDS AND ELSEWHERE Although most merchants would sell both liquor and wine, there were some that dealt more exclusively in one type or another. Featured below are some examples of dealers who dealt more exclusively with wine, brandy, bitters, and medicated beverages.
Nabob In 1877, George Simmonds arrived in San Francisco, but it was in Boston that he got his start in the liquor business. He opened an office on Montgomery Street (not far from Market Street) and sold medicated barley and whiskey products throughout the West. The product became quite popular and was well distributed.28
Schesinger By 1879, Adolph Schesinger had a vineyard in Fresno, California. Noah Bender, who had worked as an agent for LaGranda Laundry in 1885, formed a partnership with him in 1890. They also opened and maintained an office in San Francisco until 1895. They sold wines and brandies.26 St. Georges Vineyard Malter was the owner and operator of the St. Georges Vineyard near Fresno, California. The firm also had an office in San Francisco. St. Georges was distributed by the Lash’s Bitters Company until the earthquake of 1906. In 1907, a bottle was produced for that year’s product.27
De Turk Isaac De Turk owned a vineyard in Santa Rosa from 1870 through 1896, when he sold it to C. M. Mann, who had been his salesman and manager in San Francisco.23 Gundlach In the 1850s, J. Gundlach planted a vineyard in Sonoma that he grew to become a large wholesale dealer of wine, brandy and whiskey. These brands included Defiance and Banner whiskey. In 1897 his sonin-law, Charles Bundschu, became a partner in the firm.24 Renz John Renz produced bitters when he was doing business with the Charles Langley Company of San Francisco. Charles Langley was a
Southery & Chernery In 1870, Richard Chernery and Joseph Southery formed a partnership in San Francisco. In 1874, Chernery became a silent partner and concentrated on mining investments. The brands they sold included Dr. Bennett’s Wild Cherry Bitters. In 1879, Southery bought out Chernery, and turned the business exclusively over to medicines, including Dr Abernathy’s Green Ginger Brandy.29
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Turner In 1853, the Turner Brothers (James, Malcom. Archibald, Thomas, and Robert) opened a branch in San Francisco, but their main office was in New York. They produced alcohol based medicines, syrups, ginger wine, wormwood bitters, stomach bitters, cordials, and absynthe. The McMillan and Kester Company bought their San Francisco business in 1865.30 Endnotes
Nancy Woloch, Women and the American Esperience, (New York: McGraw-Hili Inc., 1994) 287-288. 2 David Stauber, “Attitude of the Distillers and Wholesale Liquor Dealers on the Regulation of the Liquor Traffic,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political Science and Social Science, 32 (November, 1908), 539. 3 John L. Thomas, Whiskey Bottles of the Old West, (Bend: Maverick Publications, 1977) 57. William Wilson and Betty Wilson, Spirit Bottles of the Old West, (Wolfe City: Henington Publishing Company, 1968) 112. 4 Wilson, Spirit Bottles of the Old West 29. 5 Wilson, Spirit Bottles of the Old West, 84. 6 Wilson, Spirit Bottles of the Old West, 63. 7 Wilson, Spirit Bottles of the Old West, 87. Thomas, Whiskey Bottles of the Old West, 29. 8 Thomas, Whiskey Bottles of the Old West, 29. Wilson, Spirit Bottles of the Old West, 87. 1
Bret Heinemann P.O. Box 291 Atascadero, CA 93423
39 Continued from Page 31. Toulouse, Julian Harrison 1971 Bottle Makers and Their Marks. Thomas Nelson, New York. Wilson, Bill and Betty Wilson 1969 Western Bitters. Old Time Bottle Publishing Co., Salem, Oregon. Wilson, Rex 1981 Bottles on the Western Frontier. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Endnotes 1 Because this information is a compilation of all the above-mentioned sources, I have not attempted to cite each researcher individually in this section. 2 The 1836 date was chosen by the various researchers because 1837 is the first listing in the city directories (Hawkins). However, Hawkins found a previously-unknown 1888 document that claimed the year was 1838. Thus, 1837 becomes an acceptable compromise. 3 Hawkins’ 1888 document stated that the name did not officially become C. Ihmsen & Co. until 1855. The name may have been used informally at an earlier date, or the document’s author may have already confused the business with the Ihmsen Glass Co. 4 Innes (1976:36) claimed that the Birmingham (Pittsburgh) Flint Glass Co. was operated by Ihmsen & Ulam beginning sometime after 1850 and that the factory closed in 1860. 5 McKearin and McKearin (1941:590) claimed that the Ihmsen Glass Co. began in 1855. Although McKearin and Wilson (1978:153) and Toulouse (1971:262) parroted that date, it is not corroborated by any other source. Pittsburgh directories were in print at least as early as 1837, yet the first mention of the Ihmsen Glass Co. is in 1878, a much more likely date for the start of the company. Christian T. Ihmsen, Jr. would have been 10 years old in 1855. By 1878, he would have been 33. 6 The name was changed to Monongahela City in 1837 and today is called Monogahela. 7 At least one flask is embossed I G CO (capital “O”) on the base, so the lower-case “o” may only be consistent on beer bottles (Bill Lindsey collection).
Bill Lockhart 1313 14th Street, Apt. 21 Alamogordo, NM 88310 (505) 439-8158 bottlebill@tularosa.net
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BARBARA EDMONSON 1912 - 2004 I still vividly recall finding my first prepro shot glass. It was delicate and pristine and the label intricate, with a monogram, grain stalks and the distillers name “Detrick” emblazoned across the face. I now know Detrick glasses to be very common and that’s taken away much of the pride in what would otherwise be considered a prized find. But my first acquisition did set me wondering about who made pre-pro glasses and why. Back in the days before the term “research” became equated with typing a phrase into a Google search box, finding answers to such questions was difficult. I spent much time in libraries and in conversation with dealers at bottle shows, all to no avail. Ultimately, it was Vic Kroll, a dealer in brewerania, who provided an answer by kindly sending me a flyer advertising a new book and price guide entitled Historic Shot Glasses: The Pre-Prohibition Era, written by Barbara Edmonson. [Figure 1] It’s difficult to adequately express in words the impact that this “guide” and its successor had — and continues to have — on those of us who collect old shot glasses. As a friend recently wrote me, “did she know how many people hung/hang on her every word?” Sadly, Barbara Edmonson died in November last year, shortly after reaching her 92 nd birthday and after a lifetime of career and personal achievements. Those of us who appreciate old glasses lost a great friend. I’d like to use this edition of Random Shots to celebrate her accomplishments and legacy. Barbara Edmonson was born Barbara Ann Turner on October 15, 1912 in Kansas City, Missouri. She was the eldest of three children. Prohibition was enacted when she was seven but even so, she recalled frequent lunchtime visits to speak-easies with her father while her mother was back home brewing beer in the kitchen! I was also
amazed to learn that as a teenager, Barb became one of the region’s first female pilots. After graduating high school, she moved on to college, but quickly tired of it and returned home. She then joined her father at his sporting goods store in the city, working as a traveling sales rep. When the U.S. was dragged into the Second World War, Barb joined the Foreign Economic Administration and was sent to Turkey.
Bottles and Extras The FEA was a government body established in 1943 to oversee wartime imports/exports, foreign aid, and various other activities such as economic warfare. When her service with the FEA was over, Barb returned home and found herself a position working with young children. She became interested in child psychology as a result and then began a long period of academic training, securing first a B.A., then an M.A., and finally a Ph.D. She also married Milton B. Edmonson during this time (1951), though the couple divorced 12 years later. Barb’s fascination for shot glasses surfaced while living in Columbus, Ohio. After gaining her Ph.D., she joined the faculty of Ohio State University as an Associate Professor teaching Psychology. In her free time, she would scour flea markets for interesting collectibles that she would then resell at antique shows. Paul Van Vactor remembers first meeting her Figure 1
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when setting up a table next to hers at a show in Ann Arbor, Michigan, sometime in the late 60s or early 70s. She had a special affection for pre-prohibition glasses, partly because of the quaint names of the brands that they advertised and perhaps also because they reminded her of her childhood years in Missouri. The pre-pro glass collecting community is small and disjointed even now, but in the early days a glass collector must have felt very isolated and alone. Little had been written about the glasses. An article on pre-pro shots in a 1979 edition of a collector’s magazine laments “the paucity of information about advertising glasses” and that “dealers assure us that they know of no book on this fascinating hobby.” The same questions about the origins of the glasses that had frustrated me when I first started collecting nagged at Barb also. The resources available to her were sparse, but she soon discovered the work of Bob Snyder, founder of the Snyder Whiskey Research Institute, who had single-mindedly catalogued and tracked down the origins of many thousands of pre-prohibition brand names and their owners. Bob had written many articles on the subject for Old Bottle Magazine. He also published a collection of letterheads and advertising material in his book, Whiskey Paper [Figure 2], which features many of the brand names etched on the glasses. In corresponding with him, Barb began to realize that she had the beginnings of some form of shot-glass guide within her grasp. Further research led her to books on antique bottles by Bill and Betty Wilson and by John Thomas. Both catalogued bottles without a mention of shot glasses, but their text was rich with valuable information on the history of the old distillers and wholesalers whose products filled the bottles and who gave away the old advertising shot glasses. With the encouragement of family and friends, Barb now started collecting and cataloguing in earnest. Back in those early years, pre-pro shots could be obtained for a dollar or less, much to the chagrin of the modern-day collector who seldom gets change from a ten-dollar bill. Ohio and its surrounding states provided rich hunting grounds for shot collectors and she quickly amassed a collection of over 1,000. She recorded the inscriptions using conventions that the bottle collectors would be familiar with, noting also their dimensions, the thickness of the glass wall, the shape, and the labeling medium. She also copied the pictures and
Figure 3: The front cover of Historic Shot Glasses featured a photo of glasses in Barb’s collection, while the back showed some of the drawings that accompanied glass descriptions in the text.
41 Figure 2
inscriptions on many of the glasses. When I sat down with a glass in front of me and tried to replicate one of her drawings, the results proved laughable, so I assumed she must have traced them. “No”, she replied, “I never tried to trace an image from a glass. I always made free hand sketches of the inscriptions, and measured the glasses. I just figured that a less than perfect sketch, as long as the distillery name and address was fully shown, would allow identification.” It was the charm of these sketches as much as anything that made the eventual guide book so endearing. Paul Van Vactor put her in contact with other collectors around the country whom she then enlisted to help catalogue, measure, and draw. Eventually, she had compiled and indexed just short of 1500 glass descriptions which, with introductory material added, amounted to a 224-page price guide. Historic Shot Glasses was published in April 1985 by Figure 4 Maverick Publications [Figure 3], retailing for $12.95, although it could be pre-ordered from Barb at a one-dollar discount. Maverick was also responsible for publishing Old Bottle Magazine, and a full cover mockup of the book graced its April
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issue and announced its availability to the collecting community. [Figure 4] About this time, Barb moved to Chico, California to be with her sister. She was selling copies of the book from her home by mail order, at bottle and antique shows, and through smaller book stores who would order half a dozen or so at a time. The book was a tremendous success and sales were brisk; by year’s end she had sold the majority of the initial printing of 500 copies. Her fame in the local collecting community caught the eye of a local newspaper, the Sacramento Bee, which ran an article on her and her shot glasses. [Figure 5]
history of the glasses. The research started when Bob Snyder sold her his collection of photocopies of city directories from around the country. Bob had amassed these through many years of communicating with reference librarians in his quest to hunt down the owners of pre-prohibition whiskey brand names. Many of the copies were little more than lace work after Bob had clipped ads from the pages, but they still showed the street addresses and years of operation of all the major distillers, rectifiers, and wholesalers and hence could be used as a means of dating the shot glasses. Barb supplemented this with hours of painstaking work. She took to the road as time and finances allowed, traveling from one side of the country to the other in search of information and collections to catalogue. Her travels took in Ken Schwartz’ collection of western glasses and Paul Van Vactor’s Kentucky shots. Paul kindly allowed me to photograph his collection during a visit to Louisville two years ago, and he recalled the “Daylight Special” glass shown here [Figure 6] as being Barb’s favorite. Figure 6
Bottles and Extras and their vast resources. Barb described many long hours spent in the basement, tracking down information on glass manufacturers and on the history of various liquor companies. She also recalled trying to wrestle New York City directories off their shelves, only to be defeated by their size and weight. It’s difficult to know what drove her. She was primarily a collector who was as passionate about the delicate nature and fine detail of the etching on the old glasses as any individual, past or present. But the time and effort she put into cataloguing and fleshing out their background must have satisfied a greater intellectual need. “Who but some nutty old lady or man would do this, spend all this time for no money?” she quipped to the reporter from the Sacramento Bee. Old Advertising Spirits Glasses was a remarkable work and it too sold quickly. I was delighted to see the familiar request for information on unlisted glasses pasted inside the cover, because it meant she was already planning a sequel. I immediately dispatched photographs of unlisted glasses from my own collection. [Figure 8] Figure 8
Figure 5 Not about to rest on her laurels, Barb was already planning Book Two. I was amused that my copy of Historic Shot Glasses, when it arrived, had a plea for help unceremoniously gummed into the frontispiece. “To Purchasers of HISTORIC SHOTGLASSES: THE PREPROHIBITION ERA”, it read. “Descriptions (measurements & drawings of inscriptions) of additional glasses for a possible second volume would be welcomed. Several collectors have allowed me to measure and draw their collections, and if you are interested and have, say, 5 to 10 that are not included in this edition, let me know so I can keep you in mind for a possible visit to your part of the country.” Book Two appeared in 1988 with the title: Old Advertising Spirits Glasses. The format was almost identical to Historic Shot Glasses with descriptions, measurements and drawings, but this latest volume included the results of a considerable amount of research into the origins and
She also visited Barb and Roger Roy in Ohio. Barb Roy turned out to be as talented in reproducing the glass inscriptions as Barb Edmonson, and the two of them fastidiously cataloged and measured and drew over the course of the next few days. [Figures 7] Out east, she stayed with Sheila Sears who then lived in the Baltimore suburbs. Sheila had a collection of several hundred pre-pro shots and she recalls setting Barb up at a card table and then watching as she sketched her way through the entire collection. She visited other Maryland collectors while in the area, but the proximity to Washington DC meant that she also had access to the Library of Congress
Book Three was to have focused on glasses from eastern states, but ultimately it was not to be so. Barb’s sister Janet died in 1988, the same year that Old Advertising Spirits Glasses was published. Janet Turner was a talented artist whose works can be found in museums around the world. She had accumulated a massive collection of rare prints and Barb now redirected all of her considerable energies toward finding a
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permanent home for her sister’s legacy. There was also the issue of how a third book could be financed and distributed. The nineties saw Barnes & Noble and Borders grow into national chains that crushed the smaller vendors who had helped sell Barb’s first two books. She was also living on a limited income and the costs of creating a new book from scratch were prohibitive. As a compromise, she re-issued Historic Shot Glasses with six new pages of listings added as an addendum. She also updated the glass values. She did this by gluing new price ranges over the old: on p. 70 of the revised addition, you can see where one of these scraps of paper escaped her attention and settled unnoticed over the drawing of a glass inscription! The revised edition of Historic Shot Glasses was published in 1992 when she was 80 years old. [Figure 9] After the revised edition was published, Barb disposed of her research materials and sold all but a few of her glasses via mailings to the collectors who had bought her books. She then settled into researching the history of the Turner family (her ancestors) with all thoughts of pre-pro shot glasses put aside. Eventually her advancing years caught up with her, even though with a wink she placed the blame for her failing health on her fondness for martinis. Ultimately the end came quickly and she died on November 1, 2004. Her ashes were scattered at sea following a service held in
Figure 9: The 1992 edition of Historic Shot Glasses. One of the new price-range labels that she used to update values escaped Barb’s attention and glued itself over a drawing illustrating a Four Roses shot glass (below).
< Figures 7: Barb Edmonson with Roger and Barbara Roy at their home in Ohio (top) and a sampling of the drawings (middle) and photos (bottom) they produced for the second book.
44 Bidwell Park, Chico. Her friend Susan Murphy related that “It was a beautiful, sunny day in the Park for her celebration of life.” Her passing left a tangible hole in the fabric of the pre-pro community. Everyone who knew her commented on what a nice person she was and how they’ll miss her, but her loss also left its mark on collectors who’d never met her or talked with her. Perhaps it’s because so many present-day collectors grew up, at least in terms of the hobby, thumbing through her two books and dreaming of the same intricate scenes displayed on their own collection of sparkling treasures. But perhaps also, as one collector wrote to her, “the books are special because of all the wonderful drawings and for the comments that are scattered throughout. I suppose that they are infused with your personality, which transforms them into something more than simple reference works”. Whatever the reason, she’ll be greatly missed. But the story doesn’t quite end there. Since Barb had never actually announced that she’d given up on a third book, I’d assumed that it was still very much a work in progress. I wrote to her sometime around 1998 to volunteer new listings and ask if there was anything that I could do to help her along with the project because I, like many other collectors, was eagerly awaiting its publication. I was surprised and saddened to hear that she’d abandoned the idea. I was also alarmed to discover that she’d sent all her research material to – well, she couldn’t remember exactly. But she was very excited by the prospect of collaborating on a new project and made suggestions about how the glass database that we have online at www.pre-pro.com might be turned into a glossy showcase for the old glasses. She also transferred copyright of all three of her books so that they could be reprinted with updated prices
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Spring 2005 and so that some or all of the previouslypublished material could be used in compiling Book Three. The latter option now seemed unlikely given the loss of the old city directories because it meant that newly discovered glasses could not be researched. But by a remarkable stroke of luck, I happened to strike up a conversation with Jack Sullivan at the Potomac Bottle Club’s annual show in 2002. Jack is well known to readers of Bottles and Extras for his many authoritative articles on the history of liquor jugs. He had been aided in his research by two large boxes full of photocopies that he had purchased some years ago from Barb Edmonson and, even more remarkably, she had also sent him several pages of unlisted glass descriptions that comprised all of her preliminary work on Book Three. Is a third book warranted in this age of the Internet and online databases? Wouldn’t it be better to compile an electronic guidebook that can be distributed on a CD ROM and updated constantly? That’s a question the collecting community has mulled over for some time now. My personal feeling is that hardcopy wins out over pixels every time, because there’s just no substitute for paging through a book. But in the absence of Barb, producing a third book is a far and lofty goal. During the past year or so, Barb sensed a growing need to get her affairs in order and to clear out her shelves and closets. Some time in January 2004, a box bearing her return address arrived on the doorstep. At the bottom was a stack of yellowed Cincinnati city directory photocopies that she’d discovered among some forgotten papers. On top, carefully wrapped, were five shot glasses. One was cow-horn souvenir from Scotland. Another was a rare, gilded Shriner commemorative. There was also a tonic glass from Siegelman of New York and a port glass from Des Pres of Chicago. The fifth was an unknown
glass that she attributed to master etcher George Truog, explaining that she’d originally obtained it from Paul Van Vactor. “Am sure I was the only one interested in it as it was not a brand shotglass” she commented. It’s now one of my most treasured glasses – and not only because it represented one of the last in her oncesubstantial collection. In text and pictures it spells out the message: KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE MOON. [Figure 10] I like to think it’s a parting message from a dear friend and fellow collector. I’m very grateful to Howard Currier, Susan Murphy, Sheila Sears, Jack Sullivan, and Paul Van Vactor for their help in compiling this article. Special thanks are due to Barb and Roger Roy for sharing their family memories and photos. For more information on any of the books mentioned here, please contact Robin Preston, 245 N 15 th St., MS #488, Philadelphia, PA 19102. e-mail: oldwhiskey@pre-pro.com. Robin is an enthusiastic collector of pre-pro shot glasses and maintains the collector’s website, www.pre-pro.com.
Fig. 10
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Louisville Glass Factories of the 19th Century - Part 1 by David Whitten
The history of the Louisville glass industry has been a somewhat overlooked subject, never before having been researched in any considerable depth. There were at least seven glass factories that operated in Louisville during the period from 1850 to 1901. Six of them were principally bottle houses, and one produced plate and window glass. In this article I will try to piece together some of the basic info I've been able to uncover on each of these operations. However, I'll be the first to admit that the following summary of the subject is far from complete. Attempts to find information are difficult since much of the most accurate material can only be found by laboriously searching through early newspapers recorded on microfilm, a search which might be compared to looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. Earlier research attempts include three articles published in MAGAZINE ANTIQUES. They include an article on the Kentucky Glass Works written by glass historian Harry Hall White which appeared in the February 1926 issue (pgs. 85-88); a brief article entitled "Early Kentucky Glass" by Jane Keller Caldwell in the November 1947 issue; and another titled "Nineteenth Century Kentucky Glass" by Henry Charles Edelen which was published in the April 1974 issue (pgs. 825-829). The White article was almost entirely concerned with the first documented factory in Louisville (the Kentucky Glass Works) and he did not discuss later firms. Caldwell's article contains little additional info of real substance, and although a selection of glass items are pictured which she purports to be from Louisville (and most of them probably are), she nevertheless gives no indication as to exactly how she arrived at that conclusion. The Edelen article includes some info on later companies, and illustrates a variety of items made by several Louisville firms, but includes incorrect data concerning some of the manufacturer mark attributions. Subsequent researchers/authors (including Rhea Mansfield Knittle, Helen McKearin and Julian Toulouse) have rehashed (for the most part) information found in White's MA article. A brief chapter
in Early American Bottles and Flasks by Stephen Van Rennselaer, a reference published around the same time as White's article (1926), includes portions which are obvious re-phrasings of some of White's paragraphs, so whether or not Rennselaer conducted any original research seems open to question. Before delving into the Louisville factories, I should also note that there were two glass factories located in the city of New Albany, Indiana, just across the Ohio River from Louisville. They included the New Albany Glass Works, in business from approximately 1866 to 1872, and the Star Glass Works, in business from 1869 to 1880. The New Albany Glass Works, a bottle house, was first formed under the firm name "J.B.Ford & Company", with John B. Ford the principal investor. Later changes in ownership resulted in the company becoming known for a brief time as "Montgomery, Ford & Company". By 1867 the factory was being called the New Albany Glass Works, and in approximately 1872 the operation had ceased and the buildings were sold to W.C.DePauw to become part of the Star Glass Works, located immediately upriver. An amber ale-type bottle exists with "NEW ALBANY GLASS WORKS" embossed in a circle on the base. This bottle seems to be very scarce, as I have only seen one example. (Perhaps more will come out of the woodwork after this appears in print!) Star Glass Works (or Company) was formed in 1869 by John B. Ford (yes, the same entrepreneur who had started NAGW, above) and W. C. DePauw for the purpose of manufacturing rough and polished plate glass, window glass, and fruit jars. Ford successfully produced the first plate glass in the United States here at New Albany in 1870, since until that time virtually all plate
Base mark of the Star Glass Works, New Albany, Indiana.
45 glass used in the U.S. had been imported from Europe, chiefly from France and England. Although W.C.DePauw was partowner early in the history of Star, by 1872 he had become president of the company. Sometime before 1880 the Star Glass Company became known as W. C. DePauw Glass Company (DePauw's American Plate Glass Works), and operated under that name until June of 1893, when the Panic of 1893 took it's toll and the plant was shut down. Subsequent sporadic attempts during the next two or three years to revive the works failed, and the property (along with another DePauw plant at Alexandria, Indiana) was finally sold by the receiver to the Union Trust Company of Indianapolis in May of 1898. Star Glass is most widely known to collectors for their wax sealer fruit jars lettered "STAR GLASS CO./NEW ALBANY, IND." across the front. Other bottles, including strap-side flasks and ales, are known from the local area that are marked with a boldly embossed five-point star on the base, and these can be safely attributed to Star. Besides producing tremendous quantities of plate and window glass, "Mason's Patent" fruit jars were made here in large numbers, and the later examples (after c.1880) are marked with the typical "NOV 30th 1858" patent date on the front, but in addition carry the embossed lettering "W.C.D." on the base. They are found in several sizes and in a range of attractive colors. Many of the glassblowers involved in the Louisville factories were also involved at various times with those in New Albany, and some of the products from both sides of the river, such as the wax sealer jars, show strong similarities in appearance. Another factory known as the Ford Plate Glass Works (1877-1880), renamed Jeffersonville Plate Glass Works (1880c.1884), operated on the riverfront in nearby Jeffersonville, Indiana, but no bottles or jars were produced there. The former location of that glassworks is now occupied by Jeffboat, Inc., a barge and towboat-building firm, a subsidiary of American Commercial Lines. These Indiana factories deserve in-depth articles devoted to each of them --- but since my main focus in on Louisville firms, perhaps another researcher can tackle that task and shed more light on them in the future! Concerning the very earliest instance of glass manufacture in Louisville, a
46 glasshouse said to be operating in Louisville was briefly mentioned in Cramer Zadok's travelogue The Navigator, circa 1814, but there are no other sources I have found to date which definitely corroborate the existence of such an operation. Although I believe it is likely that it did exist, it was presumably short-lived and probably would have been a producer of the typical "black glass" bottles made for local distribution. It is also slightly possible that it could have been a glass-cutting operation that imported glass "blanks" from Pittsburgh or European sources. (There was a glass-cutting firm that existed in Louisville for many years beginning in the 1840s, and the glass used originated from Pittsburgh). Below, I have listed each factory according to the actual site where it was located in Louisville. Several of these factories operated under more than one firm name, so I feel it can be more clearly understood if I list each site (Site #1 thru Site #7) by it's actual physical location. SITE No. 1: SE Corner of Franklin & Clay Streets (variously listed as Clay & Washington, 119 Clay, etc). Kentucky Glass Works (1850-c.1855) Louisville Glass Works (c.1855-1873) The first instance of glass manufacturing that we have concrete evidence of began in Louisville in 1850 with the formation of the Kentucky Glass Works, which in later years (at least by 1855) had become more commonly known as the Louisville Glass Works. A group of glassblowers including John Stanger, William Doyle, Joseph Ramsey, Jr., Leopold Gottlieb, John Zell, Israel Patterson and several others were involved with this operation when it first opened. The Census of 1850 records a total of 50 workers employed, 21 of them glassblowers. The original firm name was "Taylor, Stanger, Ramsey & Company", as listed in an ad which first appeared in the August 12, 1850 issue of The Louisville Morning Courier. This partnership lasted but for a short time, as on November 28th of the same year a notice appeared which indicated the company had been reorganized under the name "Douglass & Taylor," with James Taylor (an Englishman) and businessman George L. Douglass now the principal partners in the business. However, Stanger and most of the other glassblowers continued to be employed there
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as before. The factory was casually known probably made here in the early 1850s. The blob soda marked "J.W. GARRISON/ as the "Douglass Glass Works" for a brief period of time in the early 1850s, and is BULLET STREET/ LOUISVILLE" is a listed under that name in the 1851 possible product of the Kentucky Glass Works, likely dating from the 1850s. Louisville city directory. This particular firm is NOT the source However, those bottles may also date from of bottles and jars marked "KY.G.W" and somewhat later, after the plant became known "KY.G.W.Co.," contrary to a common as the Louisville Glass Works. misconception popularized by Julian Toulouse in his classic reference book Bottle John Stanger John H. Stanger was born in New Jersey Makers and their Marks (1971). Those marks appear on bottles that date generally in about 1814. He was almost certainly a from the 1880s, not the 1850s, and bottles grandson of one of the original seven which bear those marks were made by a later glassblowing Stanger brothers who emigrated factory, the Kentucky Glass Works from Dornhagen, Germany to the U.S. with Company (to be covered in Part 3), which their parents and a sister in 1768. As mentioned earlier, he was one of the was located about two miles to the south of the site of the original Kentucky Glass principal proprietors when the Kentucky Glass Works first started in operation, and his Works. The Kentucky Glass Works of the 1850- name would re-appear often during the 1855 period did not mark any wares with following 30+ years of Louisville glass their glasshouse name or initials. Very little manufacturing history. (His father was is known concerning which bottles found probably either Lewis Stanger, or John in collections were actually made there in Stanger, both of the Glassboro, New Jersey the earliest years. One type which does area who were second-generation likely date from the early period is the bottle glassblowers of the emigrant Stanger clan. I've with the lettering "KENTUCKY" vertically been unable to positively confirm this embossed on the side, similar in shape to genealogy, however.) John Stanger was the most important the imported London Mustard bottles. There are two known versions of this bottle, one person involved in the glass business of 19th of which carries the spelling century Louisville. After moving from New Jersey to Pennsylvania, he married Hannah "KENTUCKEY". The mold was Pearson in the Pittsburgh area in about later altered to correct the spelling 1838, and presumably worked in various and this alteration can be seen on glassblowing positions in that city close scrutiny. throughout most of the 1840s. An 1848 Some of the earliest pontiled Pittsburgh city directory listing versions of the "John J. Smith" includes an entry for a company bottle likely date from this called "Simpson, Leake & era as well. Any preStanger" (or Stenger) in 1850 versions of that which John Stanger may bottle would have been one of the probably have persons involved. been made by a He and his Pittsburgh family moved to glasshouse, Louisville in 1849 or however, as the early 1850. At p r o d u c t Louisville, he seemed (Smith's Tonic to have held the Syrup) was position of unofficial being advertised chief glassblower, and as early as the was to remain involved 1840s. with the Kentucky/ Several of the Louisville Glass Works unmarked eagle sporadically throughout flasks, (GII-23 several proprietor name through GII-26), as changes and firm well as the similarly reorganizations, serving as plant shaped "FARLEY & TAYLOR/RICHMOND GII-26 double eagle flask foreman there as late as 1869 KY" flask (GII-27) were from Louisville Glass Works. and 1870.
Bottles and Extras By 1871, John Stanger had left the Louisville Glass Works to become superintendent of the window glass department of the Star Glass Company (Works) in New Albany, Indiana. He was employed at Star from about 1871 until 1877, and then started up a new operation in Louisville called Southern Glass Company. (to be discussed in Part 2). After leaving Southern in 1879, he went on to become superintendent of the newly formed Kentucky Glass Works Company, located on 4th & 'C' Streets, beginning in the summer of 1879. That stint lasted for only a few months until he "retired" on December 9, 1879. After his retirement from the KY.G.W.CO. he moved back to New Albany and again held the position of superintendent at DePauw's American Plate Glass Company (formerly Star Glass) for a period of time in the early 1880s, apparently until about 1884. John and his wife, Hannah, had seven children, three boys and four girls. They included John, Jr., Rebecca, Joseph M. (Markel), Jane, Eliza (or Lida), Buenavista, and Thomas. All three sons were intimately involved in the business and both John Jr. and Markel eventually served as either foremen or superintendents in later glass factories. John Stanger, Sr. passed away on November 3, 1887 in New Albany, Indiana where he had made his home in the later years of his life. His wife had preceded him in death on May 8, 1886. Stanger's funeral was held on Saturday, November 5, 1887 at his home on Dewey Street, and burial took place at Fairview Cemetery in New Albany. Firm Names Over the years a succession of business firms operated the Kentucky Glass Works/ Louisville Glass Works, and below is a list of the ones that I am aware of. There might have been other, short-lived proprietor reorganizations that are not recorded here, but the major ownership/management changes are chronicled as follows: 1. Taylor, Stanger, Ramsey & Company (1850). This lasted only a few months. 2. Douglass & Taylor (1850-c.1855). Listed as the "Douglass Glass Works" in 1851 city directory. 3. Douglass, Rutherford & Company (18551856) 4. Stanger, Doyle & Co. (c.1856) 5. Krack, Stanger & Co. (1856-c.1864) 6. J.A.Krack & Co. (c.1864- Feb 1, 1866) 7. Krack & Reed (Feb.1, 1866- 1869)
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1859 Louisville Glass Works - Krack, Stanger & Co. envelope.
8. Krack, Reed & Co. (1869-1871) 9. L.S. Reed & Brother (1871-c.1873)
GII-33 Louisville Glass Works amber ribbed eagle flask (above) with close-up of mark (below).
Dr. John. A. Krack, who owned a local pharmacy from 1852 to 1857, purchased an interest in the glassworks in 1856 and continued as a part-owner until at least 1871. He had initially become involved in the glassworks in order to help supply bottles for his druggist business. Tidbits of information on the Louisville Glass Works occur here and there in various publications of the time period, but are not numerous or easily found. For instance, as noted in a publication entitled Report of Exhibition Committee of Kentucky Mechanics Institute published in 1856, page 13-14, the Louisville Glass Works (at that time under the firm name "Stanger, Doyle & Co.") exhibited bottles ranging from a huge carboy that held 20 gallons, to a vial that held a mere 1/2 dram. Quoting: "We consider the specimens of glass, exhibited by Stanger, Doyle, & Co., as worthy of a premium, but they were entered too late." An ad appeared for Krack & Reed on Aug.4, 1866 in the LOUISVILLE INDUSTRIAL & COMMERCIAL GAZETTE advertising fruit jars: "We are manufacturing 3 different styles of Glass fruit jars - viz: Screw Top; Tin Top; Cork Top. Orders Solicited - Krack & Reed, 41 Bullitt St, Lou." This would indicate (respectively) the “MASON’S / PATENT / NOV. 30TH 1858" jars; the wax sealer jars; and a third, more unusual type similar to the “Kline Patent” jars. No 1858 patent or wax sealer jars are known to exist which have been positively identified as products of the Louisville Glass Works, so most likely those produced
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to is not stated). 40 workers, including 20 blowers and 20 other hands were employed, with a 7-pot furnace. Items reportedly produced include versions of the Pike's Peak flasks, the Clasped Hands/Shield flasks, the "Not for Joe" flasks with the picture of a girl on a bicycle in amber glass, "log cabin bitters bottles" with "1862" blown in the glass" (presumably St. Drakes Bitters bottles), and several others. Since some of these flasks (especially the Pike's Peaks) are found in “Thos. A. Hurley” tonic bottle - probable product of the Louisville Glass Works, circa 1865 dozens of mold variants, it would be difficult or impossible to know at this late date which were unmarked, or marked with just a mold number or letter on exact molds were used at Louisville. An exception may be the the base. "Not for Joe" flasks. There are only three known variants, and one An early type of fruit jar exists (with an iron pontiled base) is marked with "A.& D.H.C.," a Pittsburgh glasshouse. The other which has been found with the "LOUISVILLE/KY./GLASS two are unidentified and are certainly likely to be products of the WORKS" embossing on the face. Presumably this jar dates from Louisville Glass Works. approximately the 1855 to 1870 period and is the type referred to Although Toulouse (1971:323) states that the Louisville Glass in their ad as a "cork top." Works used the marks "L.G.CO." and "L.G.W.", I believe this is An article published in the LOUISVILLE INDUSTRIAL & incorrect. Nineteenth century-era bottles marked with an "L.G.CO." COMMERCIAL GAZETTE issue of February 3, 1866 stated that on the base are somewhat later products and most, if not all, of 35 hands were employed at that time. It was also reported that the those bottles were produced by either the Lindell Glass Company, sand for making the glass was being obtained from nearby St. Louis, Mo. (c.1875-c.1880s) or Lyndeboro Glass Company, Elizabethtown in Hardin County, Kentucky. South Lyndeboro, N.H. (1866-1886). Contrary to Toulouse's At that same time the Louisville Glass Works was involved assertion, the Louisville Glass Works never used the term in filling a large order of pressed glass telegraph "Company" in their name as far as I have been able to insulators for the Southwestern Telegraph Company. determine. The most commonly found bottles with the The identification of exactly what type(s) of insulators L.G.CO. marking are generic amber blob-top beer bottles those were is not known at this time, but I suspect they which probably contained beer produced in St. Louis. Those would most likely be one of the threadless types, are almost certainly Lindell products. Flasks with a similar including either the CD 731 ("Compromise" marking (but usually arranged in a circle on the base) type popular in the 1865-1870 period) or the are frequently found in the east, especially in the CD 738. Southwestern Telegraph owned lines states of N.H., Vt., and Mass., and these have that extended throughout portions of Ky., long been attributed to Lyndeboro by area Tenn., Ala., Miss. and La., so there are, no collectors. doubt, insulators now in collectors' hands Toulouse also lists another mark, which are as-yet-unattributed products of "LKYGW", which I believe to be a fantasy this factory. mark. If any collectors have actually seen This is the site where several types an item with this mark, I would be very of flasks embossed "LOUISVILLE KY / interested in documenting it. GLASS WORKS" were produced, including The Louisville Glass Works was closed the popular "scroll" or "violin flasks", permanently by 1873, evidently as a result of the "double eagles" and the "ribbed flasks". the recession of that year, and never reA considerable range of colors are found opened. In 1874 a plate glass works opened which indicates they were made in some elsewhere in the city with a similar name abundance, and over fairly long stretches of (Louisville Plate Glass Works - discussed time. later). Earlier researchers have misunderstood According to an article published in that factory to be a continuation of the the COMMONER & GLASSWORKER issue Louisville Glass Works. It was not, and made of May 30, 1903 (discovered by Hemingray no bottles or jars that I am aware of. Glass Company researcher Bob Stahr, The site of the original Kentucky Glass who kindly copied it for me), the Louisville Works factory has been razed three or four Glass Works produced a wide variety of times since the 1870s and is now occupied popular flasks and other bottles of the with industrial buildings of a much later period during which it was in business. vintage. The actual site of the factory is GII-36 Louisville Glass Works ribbed Information for the article seems to rely eagle flask marked “LOUISVILLE almost directly across the street, and slightly on testimony supplied by an elderly glassblower KY/GLASS WORKS”, dating from south of, the newly created Louisville once employed at the Louisville Glass Works the c.1855-1870 period. Photo courtesy "Extreme Park" (built in 2001) which is used (although the exact period of time being referred of Jeff Noordsy. by skateboarding enthusiasts.
Bottles and Extras
GIX-9 Louisville Glass Works scroll flask.
SITE No. 2: 576 & 577 Fulton Street (between Wayne & Adams, across from Towhead Island) Falls City Glass Works (1864-1865) (aka Stanger & Doyle & Co.) An ad in the Louisville DAILY DEMOCRAT first appeared December 19, 1864, and was repeated several times in the ensuing weeks: "Falls City Glass Works -- Stanger & Doyle & Co. -- Manufacturers of Coal Oil Lamp Chimneys; White Prescription Vials, etc; -- Also Window Glass & Flasks. -- Factory on Fulton St, above Adams, opposite Island. Louisville, KY" NOTE: This was NOT the same factory as "Stanger, Doyle & Co." of 1856 which was merely one of the firm names of the Louisville Glass Works located on Clay & Franklin Streets. And although the name is similar, do not confuse this earlier factory with the Falls City Glass Company (discussed later), a firm which operated in the period of 1884 to 1892. This was a separate enterprise that was listed CONCURRENTLY with the Krack, Stanger & Co. factory listing in the 1865 Louisville City Directory. Apparently glassblowers John Stanger & Charles Doyle disengaged themselves from the Louisville Glass Works (then known as Krack, Stanger & Co) for a short time and tried to succeed on their own at another factory location.
Spring 2005 Apparently the experiment did not prosper! (Although John Stanger seems to have ceased to remain involved, by late 1864, in the "official" capacity as a co-proprietor of the Louisville Glass Works, and the name "Stanger" was removed from the company name around that time, Stanger did not part ways permanently with Krack as is incorrectly asserted by Harry Hall White in his article on Kentucky glass, but continued to be involved sporadically with Krack and the Louisville Glass Works throughout this period of time, at least up until about 1870). No information is available on possible marks used by this firm, if any. It is quite probable that no glassware was marked. No traces of the buildings which once stood at this location are now in evidence. This general area (once known as "The Point") was especially hard-hit during the Ohio River flood of 1937. Eventually, much of the area was abandoned and some of the streets obliterated, with no evidence of their existence now visible to the casual observer. In the next issue, Part 2 will cover the Louisville Plate Glass Works, Southern Glass Works/Company and the Louisville Glass Works Company. Acknowledgements I would like to thank Hemingray Glass Co. researcher/historian Bob Stahr for generously sharing articles he found in early issues of the glass trade periodicals COMMONER & GLASSWORKER, NATIONAL GLASS BUDGET, and CHINA, GLASS & LAMPS. His assistance is very kindly appreciated. Also, thanks to Greg Spurgeon and Jeff Noordsy for permission to use some of their photos. For more comprehensive, detailed information on Louisville Glass Works flasks and their variants, I would heartily recommend consulting American Bottles & Flasks and their Ancestry by Helen McKearin and Kenneth M. Wilson (Crown Publishers, Inc., 1978). Several references I found to be useful that are not already mentioned within the text would include The Glass Industry of New Albany by Gerald O. Haffner (1983); Louisville’s Early Medicine Bottles by Gene Blasi (1992); Indiana Glass Factory Notes by Dick Roller (1992), and Louisville Breweries: A History of the Brewing Industry in Louisville, Kentucky, New Albany and Jeffersonville, Indiana by Peter R. Guetig and Conrad D.Selle (1995). Some information has been gleaned
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Unmarked Louisville Glass Works half-pint ribbed whiskey flask, circa 1855-1865. This example is 6 inches in height, and bears an iron pontil mark on the base.
from various issues of Louisville newspapers, as well as Caron’s Louisville City Directories, U.S. Census data and other sources. David Whitten, of Clarksville, Indiana, collects antique glass insulators as well as bottles, with a special interest in Louisvillemade products. He is also interested in the field of manufacturer’s marks found on American bottles as well as on other types of glassware. Contact him at drw90459@iglou.com. Very scarce Louisville Glass Works jar, circa 1860s, with iron pontil mark on base. This jar was probably fitted with a cork closure. Listed in the fruit jar Redbook as jar #1543-1.
(Line drawing by Howard Creswick. Used with permission from Douglas M. Leybourne, Jr.)
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“Keep Your Powder Dry” …In A Glass Powder Horn? Copyright © 2003
by Cecil Munsey
with inspiration and help from
Scott Grandstaff & Kitty Roach
Founders (1990) of Bottles and Extras Magazine The title of this article alludes to gunpowder that soldiers, with black powder weapons, had to keep dry in order to be ready to fight when required – in other words, to be prepared! In this case, the reader should be prepared to learn about historic powder horns, especially those of mouth-blown glass such as featured in Figure 1. As you probably know, glass horn-shaped containers for gunpowder are the exception rather than the rule but they do exist. The rule is powder horns made from animal horn. That is where this article begins. Horn To lay a little groundwork for the promised short history of glass powder horns, readers are reminded that animal horns have served many useful purposes for thousands of years. As far back as 18,000 B.C. early man apparently busied himself carving [scrimshawing] ivory (teeth and tusks) and horns (claws and nails) presumably after he had chased, captured and eaten the host animal. Later on in the course of man’s development he used antlers as knives, arrowheads as pick axes. And jewelry makers, somewhere along the line, discovered that by heating horn from cattle and sheep, it could be moulded. It was also discovered that horn could be de-laminated and, having done that, the thin layers of horn were found to be “clearish,” at least clear enough to almost see through. So the pieces were used to make the “glass” for lanterns (or more properly “lant-horns”). Thin layers of horn were also used for filling holes in the sides of houses – not exactly double-glazing but better than cold air. It is a fact that the invention of mass-production techniques for window glass almost scuttled the professional horners’ business in “horn Glass” back in the 16th century. An alert tourist can see some small panes of original horn glass that can still be found inside the Guildhall in London.
Romans used horn for trading. Roman writings refer to horn drinking vessels being quite commonplace. A little later on, it is recorded that 9th century horners made chalices for churches and according to the booklet of the Worshipful Company of Horners, horns were used in medical practice including, interestingly enough, the administration of enemas. Certainly horn working has had its ups and downs over the centuries much like any other kind of business. Hundreds of items were made from horn, including all manner of small tools such as combs, dippers, scoops, message horns, blowing horns, small cups, book pages, walking sticks, shoe lifts (or more properly shoe horns), window panes, lantern panes, spoons, knife handles, sword and dagger handles, snuff bottles, tobacco jars, ink wells, even listening horns for the almost-deaf and, the focus of this article, powder horns. Horns were excellent containers because they could be made air and watertight. Such horn vessels were made to hold salt, rum, shot, gunpowder and a variety of other things. According to writer, Jim Dresslar (see bibliography) in an article about “Engraved Powder Horn As An Art Form”: “By the middle of the 18 th Century, soldiers began personalizing powder horn by engraving their name followed by ‘his horn,’ the date, and a peculiar rhyme such as: ‘Steal not this horn for fear of shame, for on it lies the owner’s name.’” Carved or decorated powder horns in particular became a beautiful art form. They served as a close companion to the musket, fowler, Kentucky rifle, or pistol. Horns carried the black powder propellant necessary
to load and fire the firearm. A powder horn is tough, lightweight and spark proof. As already indicated, if made correctly it is both airtight and watertight. During the mid-18th century every man who owned a firearm owned a powder horn. It could be plain or fancy. A fancy horn would show one’s status in life – it might even be made of glass as will be discussed in a later section of this study. Many horns were engraved (scrimshawed) to commemorate an event in one’s life. Many horns were made and decorated while soldiers were in winter camp. The artwork ran from crude to intricate, from folk art to professional art. The earliest dated American powder horn is sculptured and engraved [Figure 2 – Colonial Williamsburg Collection]. It is dated 1726 and engraved “JORGES FORT” and is believed to be Fort George at the mouth of the James River in Virginia. The horn is decorated with engraved animals, Indians, canoes, flowers, hunters and fish. Figure 3
The James Halstead Powder Horn [Figure 3] tells us about the owner, during a period in his life, his mission and other events. Halstead was in the Virginia Militia. He engraved his powder horn, with foliage, rivers, forts, and the towns in New York State, while serving in the French and Indian War in 1756. It is also inscribed, “WITH MUSKET TRUE, SAVAGES I SLEW 1756.” Figure 4 is a scrimshawed powder horn dated 1789, decorated with such designs as a male lion, bear, deer, hunting dog, mountain lion, wolf, flowers and foliage. The inscription reads: “JOHN WILEY – His powder Horn in The year of 1789 made by Job Touusley.” The horn was
Figure 2
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Figure 1
Figure 4
Figure 10
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 13
Figure 7
Figure 14 Figure 8
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made in the Pennsylvania or Virginia region, as suggested by the overall design. The early decades of the 19th century were a time of the expansion of American Protestantism. Many of those spreading the word were an educated and cultured clergy who attempted to service numerous congregations throughout a particular region. These men were dubbed “circuit riders” because they rode on horseback throughout an established geographical region, which was called a “circuit.” The powder horn featured here as Figure 5 was for a pistol Francis Asbury, one of the first Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, carried during his circuit travels. Research verifies that the date inscribed on the horn, May 1, 1790, signifies Asbury’s first visit to Kentucky. In early America, equally as important as the weapon itself were the ammunition and accessories. Captain Meriwether Lewis’ original requisition of 1803 called for 15 rifles along with 15 powder horns, 500 rifle flints, 125 musket flints, 200 pounds of gunpowder, and 420 pounds of lead. The cylindrical canisters of gunpowder they carried on the expedition were each constructed of 8 pounds of lead, and each was filled with 4 pounds of gunpowder. Each canister was then sealed to make it watertight. After the four pounds of powder had been transferred to powder horns,
< Figure 15
Figure 16 >
Figure 17 ^
Figure 19 >
Figure 18
Bottles and Extras the remaining 8 pounds of lead of the canister was melted and molded into musket and rifle balls. Packing the gunpowder in the lead containers had been Lewis’ idea. By storing the powder in the lead canisters, space was saved, and the gunpowder supply kept dry. Lewis’ journal entry on February 1, 1806 reads: “…perifectly [sic] as dry as when first put in the canesters [sic], altho ‘the whole of it from various accdedents [sic] has been for hours under the water…had it not have been for that happy expedient which I devised of securing the powder by means of the lead, we should not have had a single charge of powder at this time. Three of the canesters [sic] which had been accedentally [sic] bruized [sic] and cracked, one which was carelessly stoped [sic], and a fifth that had been penetrated with a nail, were a little damaged; these we gave to the men to make dry; however exclusive of those five we have an abundant stock to last us back….” It was further explained that since the canisters were too heavy for a hunter to take hunting, some of the powder was placed in another container, – the powder horn which was made from cow horn, or sometimes bison (buffalo) horn. The horn was either attached to a hunting bag or on a strap over the shoulder. Horn was not the only material used to make powder horns. Other products were used as well. Wood, metal and glass were used but sparingly, as will be discussed.
Wood and Metal As indicated, occasionally powder horns were made of wood as shown in Figure 6. Because of the difficulty in hand-tooling wood compared to working with animal horn, most powder horns were fashioned out of horn not wood. Occasionally powder horns were made of various metals (Figures 7 & 8). The biggest problem was that some metals oxidize (rust). Pioneers used metal powder flasks (Figure 9) to contain gunpowder in the same way they used powder horns. Metal powder flasks are a large focus of those interested in black-powder weaponry and are widely collected. There seems to have been less soldierengraved powder horns in the War of 1812, and by the Civil War, they were few and far between having been replaced by the
Spring 2005 metal powder horn (flask). Brass was the favored metal container for powder; it does not rust or create sparks as most other metals do. Less danger of igniting the black powder would explain the many flasks extant today. Such brass powder containers came in various sizes. The smallest were used to charge (load) pistols (Figure 10). [ Occasionally one comes across a powder flask made of glass. One such specimen is shown here as Figure 14. This example is mold-blown and features an embossed quail in some bushes. The embossed images are faint but close inspection shows them clearly. The container is slightly purple indicating the presence of manganese in the glass. Manganese was used to decolorize in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Exposure to the ultra-violet rays of the sun would turn such decolorized glass varying shades of purple.] QUESTIONS #1: The important questions to be asked about glass are (a) whether or not glass powder horns were ever made commercially in quantity for actual use in the field or (b) were they used as decorative novelty pieces – glasshouse “whimsies”? As will be shown, the answers are not clear and may not be until more in-depth research is conducted. QUESTION #2: Another logical question about glass powder horns is one regarding the safety of carrying black powder in a glass container.
53 Glass According to the McKearins (see bibliography), “…bottles in the form of a powder horn seem to have been another expression of individual technique seldom found today.” An example of such a glass powder horn is shown in Figure 11. This rare example was probably made either at the Pitkin Glass Works [1783-1830] or at Coventry [1813-1848], both in Connecticut. “The ribbed design, like that of many half pint Pitkin flasks, was obtained in a pintsize mold used in patterning the flasks.” Still another rare glass powder horn is shown here as Figure 12. Again, according to the McKearins: “Another exceedingly rare example…is of dark olive-amber (black glass) with superimposed and tooled decoration of the lily-pad type. The bottle was undoubtedly blown in a New York State glass house, and judging from the locality in which it was found was probably made either at the Mount Vernon Glass Works, or at Oscar Granger’s glass house known as the Saratoga ‘Mountain’ near Mount Pleasant” [1840s]. Writer Jane Shadel Spillman (see 1983 book reference in the bibliography) offers further proof that glass powder horns, while not common, were actually used more than current collector-historians thought: “Although glass seems an unlikely container for as vital a substance as gunpowder, the use of glass powderhorns is well documented in several paintings from the 1840-60 period in New York [italics and bold
Figure 11
Figure 12
54 added]. They show hunters with glass powder horns hung over their shoulders on leather straps. It seems likely that glass horns were used in New England, Pennsylvania and on the Western Frontier.” Personal correspondence (January 2, 2004 – see bibliography), retracts the above claim: “I think that I misspoke when I said in the Knopf book that there were ‘several’ paintings showing hunters with glass powder horns, because the only one I’ve ever found is the one you mentioned [Millard Powers Fillmore painting by Nelson Cook – see below].” ( Spillman further speculates in her 1983 book that in some cases a leather covering might have been used to protect the fragile glass but she maintains that no examples are known to have survived. It is likely that Ms. Spillman was correct – although water canteens from WWI were definitely covered in thick leather with a bottle-green glass insert.) Thanks to Michael Ryan of the Toledo Museum of Art, we know of a full-length (79" x 56") portrait of Millard Powers Fillmore (President Millard Fillmore’s son) painted by artist Nelson Cook circa 1855 (Figures 18-19) was found. The portrait is described, in part, by its owners, the Genesee Country Village and Museum in Mumford, New York, as: “An early instance of an American depicted as a sportsman, versus a ‘pioneer’ [mountain man]: Standing, Fillmore wears a green and gray plaid jacket, white shirt and tie, black pants, holds a straw hat, and leans on a double-barreled percussion cap shotgun; his powder horn is of a glass made in western New York, [italics and bold added] and he has a leather holder for two different kinds of shot; a dog lies beside him….” In the Glass Club Bulletin, No. 40, 1956 (see bibliography) it is stated that: “Powder horns were first made in the Pittsburg area in clear or green glass for practical purposes. Later, looping of colors was used, often red, white and blue. These horns, when not in use, were often hung on the wall as decoration. By setting the horns on a base, a mantle ornament was produced, thus demonstrating how an object of every day use [all italics and bold added] became an item of decoration.” Joseph G. Bilby, highly regarded expert
Spring 2005 and author of books on firearms (see bibliography) wrote in answer to a question about the possibility of mass produced glass powder horns: “I cannot ever recall a case of coming across a reference to a glass powder container used in the field. Actually, by the time of the French & Indian War, and certainly the Revolution, all regular forces in the field were equipped with cartridge boxes and used paper cartridges for loading and firing muskets. Horns remained in use among militiamen, who also used them for civilian hunting with their personal arms, or military riflemen, who had arms that were non-standard in caliber and charge weight.” “By the early 19th century horns were pretty much totally absent from the military scene, save for some used to prime artillery, which is why, as you note, there are few engraved horns from the war of 1812 era and none from the Civil War. Although copper powder flasks were still widely used for sporting arms in 1861, all military guns were loaded by the use of paper cartridges.” “I think you might find that nay glass powder flasks might have been used by civilian target shooters in settled areas, like New York and New England, in the 1820-1870 period.” ANSWER #1: There seems to be no known evidence that glass powder horns were mass produced for commercial purposes. However, there is evidence that glass powder horns were produced as a result of special orders or as glasshouse whimsies. In 1926 according to Mary Herrod Northend (see bibliography), no outline of the glass industry as carried on in our country would be complete without mention of the miscellaneous pieces. She was not referring to the worthless odds and ends found in all glasshouses. She was referring to many of the pieces that were the result of individual initiative. “It was common practice in the old glasshouses to allow the workers to use up the metal [glass] that was left over after the regular work for the day or the week was completed…It is certain that many of the little novelties that ornament our cabinets and writing desks owe their existence to this state of affairs. Some of them were made as
Bottles and Extras special orders and sold for small sums by ambitious workers who wanted to earn a little money ‘on the side.’ Some were made for family use in the worker’s own home; and some no doubt came into being merely through the urge to create that animates every one who has the smallest gift in any of the arts.” “Among the novelties that add variety to a miscellaneous collection of old glass are novelties in the form of darners, rolling pins, small hats designed for the holding of tapers, door stops in the form of turtles, dogs, cats, paper weights, powder horns [all italics and bold added], candy canes, chains of glass, witch balls….” Personal correspondence from glass expert Jane Shadel Spillman (January 2, 2004 – see bibliography), speaks very specifically to the question of whether or not there ever was commercial production of glass powder horns: “I’ve never seen powder horns in any glass factory catalog and I’ve examined a lot of those so I think that they were definitely not production items, but were individually made, perhaps to order.” According writer Dale Murschell (see bibliography for two references), “The flat glass pocket horns of the 18th century were probably used to carry powder. There are also indications of 19th century use of glass powder horns. Supposedly, Jared Spencer had a glass powder flask made in Manchester, Connecticut. There also exists a picture of a horseman with a glass horn hanging around his neck. [This has not yet been verified by the author of this article – the search continues.] As the 19 th century progressed, there were additional aqua horns made in South Jersey and amber horns made in New England. Most of these were rather plain, while others had some outside decoration like threads, chains or seven lily pad designs. The fact that some of these regular size glass powder horns, with minimal decoration, were actually used is evident from the black powder stains still remaining inside some examples. [Under scoring added.]” ANSWER #2: Are glass powder horns dangerous? Black-powder aficionado, Robert Merada (see bibliography), speaking of leather-covered glass flasks, speculates “…the glass and fur most likely can
Bottles and Extras develop static electricity. This might ignite the powder. Or glass working as a magnifying glass could also ignite the powder.” He also wonders if the reason that there are only a relatively few glass horns known to exist today has to do with them exploding and injuring the person carrying a glass container of powder. In a pamphlet warning about the misuse of black powder there is this discussion about static electricity: “Remember that it only takes a spark to set off either black powder or Pyrodes (a synthetic version of black powder). That even means static electricity. Care must be taken when transferring powder from one container to another as steel and iron and even plastic and glass can cause sparks and set off the powder. The amount of powder in the average powder horn is more than equal to that of a hand grenade.” Thanks to Eric Bye I was made aware of an article on the Internet entitled, “Can a static spark set off black powder?” (see bibliography). The treatise is replete with photographs of each of the five steps in an experiment to ignite black powder and other carbon-containing propellants, with static electricity, failed. The anonymous experimenter’s explanation of why the sparks wouldn’t set off the powder: “The answer comes from the fact that black powder, and other carboncontaining propellants, are fair conductors of electricity. When material conducts well, it takes a lot more current to heat it up. This is why the lamp wire stays cool and the filament in your light bulb get white hot. The same current passes through both, but because the light filament has a much higher resistance to the passage of electric current, most of the heat ends up there rather than in the wire. In the experiment, the air has a very high resistance, while the powder conducts fairly well. The passage of the spark heats the air white-hot, but the powder stays cool. A very high-current spark (like lightning!) would, of course, heat everything and cause ignition, but this would take much more current than could be provided from a static-like source.” Implying actual experience in using a glass powder horn, Scott Grandstaff’s research (see bibliography) indicates: “In the case of the small glass priming
Spring 2005 horns (Figure 1) the straps were very short, nestling the horn very high and close to the body – under the arm. The small horns were for the priming powder (finely ground) used in the pan of a flintlock rifle or pistol. While the pan used the finely ground priming powder, the main charge of not-sofinely-ground gunpowder was poured down the barrel.” Conclusion Powder horns of glass were made. Powder horns of glass were used. Powder horns of glass were used to contain black powder. And powder horns of glass were used as decorative items. They were made well beyond the 19th century, where they were a necessary adjunct to weapons that used black powder. 20th century glass powder horns were mostly of decorative glass and were used for decorations of one sort or another. One such horn made of fine crystal by Baccarat is shown here as Figure 13. This is almost certainly a decorative item. Another interesting 20 th century specimen of a glass horn can be seen as Figure 15. It utilizes a screw lid that fits over a ground-off mouth. Perhaps the most unusual feature of the item is that the smaller horn portion has a pressed-glass pattern with a hexagonal knob at the end. To make the point that powder horns were made of glass well into the 20 th century, it is worth noting that the famous Avon Perfume Company manufactured two powder horns to contain their perfume. Figure 16 was issued in 1966 as a Viking powder horn. Another by the perfume manufacturer was made in 1967 [Figure 17]. They named it “Western Choice” and as can be seen, the two horn bottles were made to fit into a leather stand that looked like the top of a cow’s head with horns. The Avon horn bottles are of poor quality and have little interest in today’s collector marketplace. Their mention here is only to show that glass powder horns are still in style. Finally, it should be noted that 18 th century authentic early glass powder horns, such as those featured in this study as Figure 18, are quite rare, unusual and when found can be priced in the hundreds of dollars.
55 Bibliography
Books: Blake, Joyce E. & Murschell, Dale. GLASSHOUSE WHIMSIES – An Enhanced Reference. Buffalo, New York: Keller Bros. & Miller, 1989. Innes, Lowell. Pittsburgh Glass 1797-1891. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1976. McKearin, George S. and McKearin, Helen. American Glass. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1941. Munsey, Cecil. The Illustrated Guide to COLLECTING BOTTLES. New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1970. Munsey, Cecil & Holmberg, Millicent. Western Collector’s Handbook and Price Guide to AVON Bottles. San Francisco: Western World Publishers, 1969. Northend, Mary Harrod. American Glass. New York, Tudor Publishing Co., 1926. Spillman, Jane Shadel. The Knopf Collectors Guides to American Antiques. Glass, Volume 2, 1983. Periodicals: Dresslar, Jim. “Engraved Powder Horns As An Art Form,” Muzzle Blasts – Official Publication of the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Assn., Vol. 53, No. 8, April 1992. Eller, Dr. E. R. “Pittsburgh Area Glass Powderhorns,” The Glass Club Bulletin, Number 40, June 1956. Guthman, William. “Powder Horns of the French & Indian War 1755-1763,” Antiques Magazine. August 1978. Heinlin, L. E. “Building A Powder Horn,” Muzzle Blasts – Official Publication of the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Assn., Vol. XLVIII, No. 8, April 1987. Murschell, Dale. “Powder Horns of Glass,” Whimsical Notions – Official Publication of The Whimsey Club, Volume 13, Number 2, May 2001. Correspondence from: Bilby, Joseph G. Author of a number of books on firearms and military history, Newark, New Jersey Bye, Eric A. Editor of Muzzle Blasts – Official Publication of the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Assn., Friendship, Indiana, November 18, 2003 Grandstaff, Scott – co-founder of Bottles & Extras Magazine, Happy Camp, California, October 25, 2003. Kovel, Terry – co-author of books on antiques and collectibles, Beechwood, Ohio, January 19, 2004.
Continued on Page 63.
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Spring 2005
Perfection, Another Glasshouse In A Glass Town By Barry L. Bernas
Overview The Perfection Glass Company was an active business in Washington, Pennsylvania for about three years. Formed as a “stock company” in June 1903, it folded five months later. Revived quickly thereafter, its new owners continued with an extensive line of separating tableware and packing containers. A new style of fruit jar was even introduced. Plagued by insufficient capacity for glass-making and product storage problems, operations were discontinued at the factory for Perfection Glass in the waning months of 1906. In name only, the firm hung on for another two years before it quietly slid into history. Little known to most collectors of early twentieth century pressed and blown glass, this corporation was just another concern in a town known far and wide for its glass-making prowess. Roots The lineage for the Perfection Glass Company travels backwards on two separate but related paths. On the jobber side, it calls the Perfection Manufacturing Company of Washington; the Perfection Bottle Company of Washington and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; and the Perfection Water Bottle Company of New York City all close relatives. For glass producers in its past, the Sterling Glass Company, Novelty Glass Works and the Blair Glass Company are direct ancestors as well.
Stockholder John Slater A. M. Brown Jonathan Allison B. F. Roberts W. B. Fenn John W. Donnan G. W. Roberts A. G. Happer
Figure 1 Shares Director Five Yes Five Yes Five Yes Five Yes Five Yes Five No Five No Five No
Officer Treasurer
Location The headquarters and plant for the Perfection Glass Company were located in the First Ward of the Borough of Washington. These rented facilities were situated on several plats of land between the intersections of West Strawberry Alley, South Franklin and West Maiden Streets. A glasshouse had been operating on the premise since 1893.1 Company Formed and Incorporated Eight people invested in the initial Perfection Glass Company. Six were businessmen from Washington. The other two weren’t native to the Borough but were officers in both the Perfection Manufacturing and Sterling Glass Companies of that location.2 Five of these individuals became Perfection’s first set of directors. Figure 1 shows the original stockholders for this firm. Of note, only the two non-Washingtonians, William B. Fenn and Benjamin F. Roberts, had any glass manufacturing experience and it was limited at best.
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On June 18th, 1903, the chosen directors stepped before a notary public in Washington and filed an application to incorporate their endeavor. Twenty-one days later the governor of Pennsylvania approved their request. With that action, the Perfection Glass Company was chartered as a corporation within the Commonwealth.3 Observation This organization was established to underwrite expansion of the glass production capability at the plant of the former Sterling Glass Company. Yet the new corporation was capitalized at only $10,000. In addition to this paltry sum, there was another troubling aspect to the Company’s start-up. Of the one hundred shares of stock available at founding only forty were purchased by the eight investors. The result of both actions saw the Perfection Glass Company with perhaps $4,000 in liquid capital of which a mere $1,000 was available right away for corporate business.4 No matter how you look at it, this amount wasn’t much money to upgrade a factory. In my opinion, both issues may have put the fledgling concern on shaky ground from the beginning. The small number of shares purchased by the founders didn’t express much confidence in their undertaking. Likewise, the placing of only the required sum in the hands of Alex M. Brown didn’t provide sufficient financial resources to achieve the purpose for establishing the firm in the first place. When looking at these two actions from afar, the initial message sent by the incorporators wasn’t very positive. First Order of Business Normally, the initiatory work of officers from any new glass company would be focused on construction of a plant. For Perfection leaders, this wasn’t the case. A factory already existed. Hands there were making products for sale. Orders had been obtained and shipments were being forwarded. In a nutshell, operations were already well founded and were proceeding in a satisfactory fashion. What the first order of business was for Perfection officials isn’t known to me. However, if I was in their shoes, I’d have centered my attention on completing consolidation of functions then being performed by employees at the Sterling Glass and Perfection Manufacturing Companies. Once this was achieved, the united Perfection Glass Company would be firmly entrenched. With Corporation ephemera in limited supply, I used the issuance of a promotion from the Perfection Glass Company as
Fig. 2
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the indicator of when combined operations were accomplished. This happened almost two months to the day after the firm’s directors filed their incorporation request. The first Perfection Glass advertisement appeared in the August 15th, 1903 edition of The Saturday Evening Post. Figure 2 shows this announcement. Another Issue - More Capacity The next issue facing corporate leaders would prove to be less easy to resolve. The two prior concerns absorbed by Perfection Glass had developed and had been marketing a popular product line of separating tableware. The continuing demand for these items exceeded the glass-making capacity of the former Sterling works. Expansion of this capability was needed if orders were going to be filled on-time by Perfection hands in the future. One option Company directors were exploring was to moveout of Washington to another municipality. Moundsville, West Virginia was a site under consideration. Perfection leaders wanted five acres of land donated to them along with a loan of $75,000 to erect a factory. Town leaders in Moundsville couldn’t reach an agreement on these terms.5 When the relocation deal turned sour, Perfection managers sought to build another plant close to the Washington area. About fifteen miles northeast of Washington in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, a $250,000 production facility was envisioned. The Bridgeville Real Estate Company even gave Perfection officials a tract of land as an enticement to continue with their plans.6 However, these didn’t materialize either. Observation Two Any Perfection Glass upgrade or relocation required money. Clearly, the firm’s investors weren’t going to provide the necessary funds or they would have done so from the beginning. Either other entrepreneurs or mortgage loans would be needed to complete any plan. In my way of looking at this situation, more debt at this point wasn’t a good idea. The specter of overextension was beginning to rear its ugly head. Corporation Products Even with a production limitation, an advertising campaign was kicked-off in August 1903 by Perfection managers. Four of the major magazines of that day would eventually carry their promotions.7 Figure 3 contains an illustration from one of these
Figure 3: The Munsey, November 1903.
57
periodicals. Also, the glass-trade weekly, Crockery and Glass Journal ran at least four Perfection Glass ads over a several month period. In addition, two batches of catalogs were printed in September and October 1903.8 Titled an Evolution of Table Glassware, these depicted all of the articles Perfection hands were capable of manufacturing. Two different pieces of Company letterhead from the same era depict examples of products as well. A sample can be seen in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Courtesy Richard Roller’s files at Ball State University
It is interesting to note a packer’s jar appeared in the Perfection Glass brochure and on the firm’s letterhead. It seems odd to me that Company officers would be advertising articles for the dining room table along with a pedestrian item intended for use by packers of prepared foods. The swath of utility between both makes it hard to explain why each was being turned out by Corporation employees. Observation Three Besides this strange circumstance, I’d like to make another observation. At this point in time, the Hazel-Atlas Glass Company of Wheeling, West Virginia had three factories within the Borough of Washington turning out fruit jars and glass containers for commercial products. Also, a major tableware manufacturer, the Duncan & Miller Glass Company, was in production within the town’s limits. The line of wares being made by Perfection employees were in direct competition with those produced by these much larger firms. Regardless of the popularity of Corporation products, the head-to-head maneuvering between these concerns couldn’t have been a good thing for a new business. William Beach Fenn At the beginning, Mr. Fenn was a prominent player in the amalgamated Perfection Glass Company. For one thing, his patents were the basis for the early success of this Corporation as they had been for others in the past. But with notoriety came the problem of expanding the new firm’s production facilities to meet increased consumer demand. Upgrades or new sites required money. William B. Fenn played another key role here by spearheading Company efforts to acquire the financing. By doing so, he may have gotten in over his head. A stranger to debt he wasn’t. Around the time Perfection Glass was formed, William B. Fenn bought out the interest of his former partner, Russell Uhl; who was then the president of the Perfection Manufacturing Company. The total obligation to Mr. Uhl was It isn’t known whether Mr. Fenn took the same $17,500.9 approach with the owners of the Sterling Glass Company. Even though there was no public notification of this happening, I think we have a pretty good indicator it did. The tell-tale sign was the
58 non-involvement of the four former Sterling Glass owners in the establishment of Perfection Glass. My guess is they were bought out by William B. Fenn as well. If the second situation occurred as I’ve theorized, it is easy to interpret what was going on. William B. Fenn secured control of the Sterling Glass and Perfection Manufacturing Companies in order to put both to work under his auspices as the new Perfection Glass Company. This would not only solidify his position of control; it would also facilitate growth under his direction. On top of these payback commitments, Mr. Fenn had incurred $49,600 indebtedness for 496 shares of stock in the Republic Glass Manufacturing Company in September 1902. Also, he reportedly paid $40,000 for the Washington-based works of the Phoenix Glass Company in April 1903. Now in late September, he was involved in a $250,000 arrangement in Bridgeville. Besides these entanglements, William B. Fenn had several short-term loans coming due to the tune of $27,000.10 Even with this superficial overview, it is clear to me Mr. Fenn was over-stretched if not overextended financially. As the central figure for Perfection Glass, it was his responsibility to move the Corporation forward. I guess he was doing it the best way he could at the moment. Regardless of the visible signs of prosperity, the unrevealed truths about the solvency of the nascent Perfection Glass Company were yet to be made public. These all came to a head in late October 1903. But before this happened, the firm suffered a serious setback. The alert for this problem started to sound when several bills from prior Perfection concerns went unpaid. Faced with mounting debt, Mr. Fenn took a course of action to resolve this issue. He withdrew $2,650.45 from his personal accounts and had $5,000 worth of Perfection Glass goods packed up and shipped to New York. Unannounced, he departed Washington sometime after October 26th, leaving the co-owners of the Perfection Glass Company to face the coming problems by themselves.11 Wage Dispute - Workers Walkout Right after Mr. Fenn fled, sixty of his employees filed suit in Washington civil court for wages due them. Two weeks worth of pay or about $2,500 was to have been handed out on Saturday, October 24th but that day came and went without any recompense. According to the workers, they
Spring 2005 were then told pay day would take place on October 27 th . When no money was forthcoming from Perfection managers that morning, the workers walked off the job at noon and hired a lawyer to represent their interests in the matter. The plant was closed down shortly thereafter.12 With the linchpin for Company operations gone and available money to cover corporate expenses in short supply, the Perfection Glass Company was placed in the hands of the local constable and scheduled for sale. About three weeks later, one of the Borough’s newspapers reported this event as follows. “FIRES TO BE RE-KINDLED AT PERFECTION PLANT - Creditors Who Purchased the Fenn Interests May Resume Work at an Early Date. At the sale of the interest of W. B. Fenn in the equipment and ware, finished and unfinished, of the Perfection Manufacturing company by Constable G. V. Clutter $3,597.95 was realized. The sale was made on labor claims filed by employees of the concern and the amount of the sale paid 78 per cent of the claims. The balance was made up by the purchasers of the Fenn interests who are two of his largest creditors. The sale included part of the machinery of the plant, some of the lehrs, molds, office fixtures, finished and unfinished ware. Among the molds sold were those for making a fruit jar invented by Mr. Fenn for which a patent is pending. The jar is said by the trade to be one of the best ever got out. Mr. Fenn has been out of town for several weeks. It is understood that the plant will be started in full in a few weeks under control of the persons who made the purchase.”13 Conclusion One It looks like some of my earlier observations about the five month old Perfection Glass Company were correct. For one thing, people owed money by the Company cared more about this concern than the founders did for their start-up investment. When funds were needed to cover problems within the firm, the original shareholders weren’t the providers. Their support for this endeavor was sub-par. For another, William B. Fenn became cash starved and financially over-extended in several lines of credit. His business philosophy of borrowing to cover immediate expenses while buying time to address upcoming bills got him further
Bottles and Extras behind with each transaction. A realistic long-term repayment scheme for these debts was non-existent. Considering his critical position at Perfection Glass and the lack of empathy from the stockholders, both factors eventually consumed him and in turn doomed the Corporation. Perfection Glass Reborn Ironically, the new owners of the Perfection Glass Company were members of the prominent Caldwell family of Washington. These same individuals had owned and managed the Sterling Glass Company a few short months ago. Charles S. Caldwell became the concern’s president while George L. Caldwell took over a familiar position as the Company’s treasurer. The only holdover from the failed Perfection organization was Benjamin F. Roberts. He transitioned to become secretary in the revamped Corporation. Under the same Commonwealth charter, Perfection leaders called back to work their employees. In the buildings on the plots of rented real estate in the Borough’s First Ward limited glass-making recommenced on December 2 nd , 1903. There were indications the factory closed once more before hands restarted melting and forming processes around December 18th. Still not ready for full-up manufacturing, this facility was shutdown again over the Christmas and New Year holiday period.14 Partial production resumed at Perfection’s plant on January 7 th, 1904. Outside of a gas leak under the furnace which caused an explosion and minor fire in early February, workers at this site slowly brought operations up to full speed over the succeeding weeks.15 Another Try to Increase Capacity Four months after they resurrected the Perfection Glass Company, the new leadership team decided it was time to address the capacity issue of their works. On this occasion, they agreed to install a multi-ton continuous tank. Here is how a reporter from Commoner and Glassworker explained this encouraging development. “A contract has been let by the Perfection Glass Co., Washington, Pa., for the erection of a 30-ton continuous tank for the manufacture of fruit jars.” “The Perfection Glass Mfg. Co., Washington, Pa., have a new fruit jar that is expected to outclass all others owing to its having a glass cap and not metal being used; only a rubber band to
Bottles and Extras help seal the glass screw cap. Manager Chas. N. Edmunds devised a new form of mold for pressing the caps, so that it can be produced almost as rapidly as a cap without the screw thread. A ratchet arrangement is attached to the mold for withdrawing the screw as soon as the cap is pressed. A patent has been applied for and the device may also be used on an insulator mold or for making any glass article requiring a thread. A shaker salt with a glass top and glass salt stirrer is another unique novelty requiring a specially designed mold. An all-glass separated decanter with screw and requiring no metal fitting, and also a pressed round holophane globe are a few of the other new things lately devised by H. W. Taudte, foreman of the mold shop, and Manager Edmunds, all of which should prove winners. The company propose erecting a continuous tank this summer at which several shops will be employed producing the new glass top jar for which some excellent orders have been secured, and Secretary B. F. Roberts says there is a market for all they can turn out. The pot furnace and a small continuous tank are at present being operated.”16 SIMPLEX MASON The fruit jar which Perfection hands were going to make was most likely the one embossed on the front with the word SIMPLEX in arched letters followed below by the term MASON in a straight line. Figure 5 has a picture of a pint example of this article.
Spring 2005 Shaped like a normal homecanning container of that era, the appeal of this vessel was its all-glass screw cap. This cover would eventually be patented by Russell Uhl, a former partner and loan provider to the absent William B. Fenn.17 Figure 5 has a depiction of this sealing device on top of the pint. Other Products The April entry in Commoner and Glassworker also indicated Perfection officers were going to continue making separating tableware items. However, there was a difference to be noted. For the new line, officials moved away from the coupling technique seen on prior products made to the patents granted to Mr. Fenn. Instead of a metal ring that screwed down onto a base with a threaded finish, the Corporation’s new tableware articles would join together by means of an all-glass method. Whether this process used a glass ring that was internally threaded or an internally threaded screw cap molded onto the bottom of the container’s top isn’t known. Either way, the adoption of this methodology certainly made a simple idea much more complex. Unfortunately, no mention was made of the SIMPLEX in a diamond packer jar with an all-glass cover in the Commoner and Glassworker report. Nevertheless, it seems this article was still being made from metal in the Company’s pot furnace. Map Company Documentation Planning for the upgrade continued as did glass-making at the Perfection works. The latter halted when the traditional “summer stop” was observed at the end of June 1904. During the break in operations, a representative from the Sanborn Map Company visited Washington to update their drawings of the Borough. The portion of his effort which deals with the Perfection Glass Company is shown in Figure 6.
Figure 5: Pint SIMPLEX MASON jar.
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Extended Break - Moosic Facility Used The restarting of metal-making by Perfection Glass hands should have taken
Figure 6 place during the first week in August. However, this didn’t happen. A writer from Crockery and Glass Journal provided the reason it didn’t. “The Perfection Manufacturing Co. will not start up their plant at Washington till October. They are putting in a new continuous tank. It will require about six days to place it in running order. They will commence operating the plant at Moosic, Pa., August 15 on their new Simplex jar. They are not pushing their Perfection ware at present – merely taking care of their old patrons. B. F. Roberts, the manager, is now on a six weeks’ trip, taking in big cities East and West, looking after the interests of their Simplex jar.”18 The enhancement to the Perfection Glass Company’s only plant in the Borough had finally commenced. Scheduled for about a three month period, the installation of a continuous tank would allow for a greater increase in production. In the meantime, another facility in Moosic, Pennsylvania would be used to continue the output of Perfection goods on a temporary basis. The Moosic connection was with the Republic Glass Manufacturing Company. It was an idle firm formed in September 1902 by John P. Elkin and William B. Fenn. This concern was to have made the Simplex in a diamond style of container along with the all-glass, May 3rd, 1904-patented screw cap for it. Unfortunately, outside of a shortperiod of production and limited operations as a substitute for the Perfection factory in Washington, the Republic Glass facility was never in full operation.19
60 It looks like the Moosic portion of the plan kicked-off as intended. Unfortunately, as October came and went, the other piece wasn’t completed. A three month project stretched into the next year and beyond. In February 1905, equipment previously shipped eastward to Moosic was uninstalled and sent back to Washington. With this step, the Republic Glass part of the vision was terminated and the site closed down. Eight months after the continuous tank installation began; glass-making was restarted in early April 1905 at the Washington works of the Perfection Glass Company.20 A worker for Crockery and Glass Journal captured the firm’s reopening in the following way. “The Perfection Glass Co., started their plant again the past week, and are {sic - is} now in regular operation. They are devoting themselves to a tableware line which embraces in various pieces their celebrated “separating” ware, and to their patented Simplex jar, which seems to have a big promise of popularity. They have a nine-pot furnace and have just completed an eighteen ton continuous tank. B. F. Roberts, the secretary and treasurer, is also general manager.”21 Observation Four Why the Moosic facility was used by Perfection officials while their main factory was being upgraded isn’t clear. Either John P. Elkin approached Company leaders with the option or he was somehow involved with the second Perfection Glass Company in a less-than public way. Business is Good With the upgrade completed and production moving toward a full state, the outlook for Company directors, officers and workers couldn’t help but be bright. A steady demand for factory goods promised renewed profits. By all accounts, Perfection Glass should begin to thrive once more. Early May 1905 brought a patent request for the screw cap to be used on the fruit jar embossed on the front with SIMPLEX (in arched letters) followed below it by MASON (in a straight line). The submitter was Russell Uhl. He assigned the eventual letters patent for it to the Perfection Glass Company.22 Observation Five I’m still puzzled as to why a merchant
Spring 2005 from Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania with no known inventive proclivities suddenly submitted a patent request for an all-glass screw cap made to fit on a Mason-type of jar. Even more troubling is the fact that he signed over the eventual rights to the Perfection Glass Company; a firm he wasn’t visibly associated with in any manner. Mr. Uhl was the former partner of William B. Fenn in several endeavors. While involved, he didn’t seem to take an active role in these concerns. Instead, he left the daily workings of them to his associate while he stayed in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, preferring to manage his own businesses there. Unfortunately, as a result of his involvement with Mr. Fenn, he lost much of the $17,500 he invested. Recouping some or all of this money must have occupied a portion of Russell Uhl’s time. The strange set of circumstances that led to his December 5th, 1905 patent must have had something to do with regaining his lost funds.23 Another Problem Arises Production at the renovated Perfection works continued unabated up through the middle of June 1905. At this point, another unanticipated problem developed. A columnist from Commoner and Glassworker described this situation in the below account. “When the Perfection Glass Mfg. Co., of Washington, PA., endeavored to operate their plant on night and day turn recently it was found that they did not have room to handle all the ware that was produced, and as the present site will not admit of enlargement of the factory the firm are contemplating the erection of another works near Washington for the purpose of producing their new Simplex jar on a more extensive scale. A regular Mason jar body is used with a patent screw glass cap...”24 The capacity issue was now replaced by a dilemma for the storage of pressed and blown goods. Since their rented grounds couldn’t be tapped for more space, another factory was envisioned to take some of the production responsibility off of the Perfection plant. The division of effort between both would enable more articles to be turned out and stored than was currently possible. If successful, it looked like Company officers had come up with a win-win situation.
Bottles and Extras Production Continues - Fruit Jar Output Stopped After the “summer stop” in July 1905, employees at the Perfection works quickly brought glass-making back to normal levels in August. A reporter from China, Glass and Lamps succinctly captured Corporate progress and management intentions when he wrote the following about a month later. “The Perfection Glass Co., of Washington, Pa., are {sic - is} operating two shifts on their tank and pot furnace, running nine shops on one turn and eight on the other. The company note {sic - notes} a heavy demand for their glass screw caps, which are made on special machines, and will probably give their entire tank capacity to the production of this line of ware, abandoning the manufacture of fruit jars until they can increase the capacity of the plant.”25 Perfection - Anchor Connection? In my opinion, the first step towards the elimination of the goods storage problem at Perfection Glass occurred in mid-October 1905. In a Borough roughly thirty-five miles east of Washington, the weekly newspaper in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania announced the formation of the Anchor Glass Company. This organization was to be one of several to build and operate manufacturing facilities on the Duncan Plan of Lots next to the town limits. The columnist who described this important event added the Anchor plant would be operating a day and night shift by January 1906, employing at least two hundred workers. Their labor would produce fruit jars, preserve bottles and packer’s ware from valuable patents owned by this organization.26 Curiously, one of the founders of Anchor Glass was Charles N. Edmonds. At this point in time, he was still the factory manager for the Perfection Glass Company in Washington.27 Beside this fact, he and his two partners, William L. Harvey of Mount Pleasant and John W. Ely of Washington, had no patents issued to them by the United States Patent Office. The ones referenced in The Mount Pleasant Journal columns most likely belonged to Perfection Glass and not Anchor.28 In all likelihood, these were for the Simplex in a diamond packing container seen in Figure 7 with its May 3rd, 1904-patented closure. The other was undoubtedly for the soon-to-be-
Bottles and Extras patented, all-glass sealer by Russell Uhl. It and the SIMPLEX (arched on one line) MASON (straight line below) marked fruit jar were also candidates for production at the new Anchor plant. By coincidence or more probably by design, Mr. Edmonds was soon to be replaced at Perfection. Here is how the glass-trade journal, Commoner and Glassworker, covered this development. “Rumored Changes at Washington It is reported that the Perfection Glass Co. at Washington, Pa., will be run under the general management of J. G. Quay, who formerly had charge of the Riverside Glass Co.’s tableware plant at Wellsburg, Pa. The capital stock of the Perfection company has been increased and new lines will be added which will greatly increase the output of the works.”29 The change of factory managers could have been just one facet of a more comprehensive strategy by Perfection officials to put their goods storage hurdle behind them. An employee of good standing with the Company, Mr. Edmonds may have agreed to leave it to establish another glass factory. The new one would be affiliated with Perfection Glass. In late November, the rumored change occurred in Perfection’s management group. As 1906 was dawning, the Company’s future was rosier than ever.
Figure 7
Spring 2005 Observation Six In the documents I’ve searched, there wasn’t any direct connection found between both the Perfection or Anchor concerns other than Charles N. Edmonds, the stated objective of Corporate officers to set-up a new factory and the undefined patents. Nevertheless, this circumstantial data certainly suggests the Duncan Plan industry was intended to be the associate facility to resolve the goods storage issue for Perfection Glass Company managers. Perfection and Hazel-Atlas Connection The Directory of the Glass Trade for 1906 carried the Perfection Glass Company as an operational concern. Charles S. Caldwell remained the president. B. F. Mevey was listed as the vice-president. With the departure of George L. Caldwell, Benjamin F. Roberts assumed both the secretary and treasurer positions in the Company. John G. Quay had succeeded Charles N. Edmonds as the plant manager. According to the Corporation’s entry, hands in the factory were pressing and blowing flint tableware, novelties, fruit and machine-made jars or bottles.30 Unfortunately, the scheduled opening of the Anchor Glass Company’s works in January 1906 didn’t occur. In fact, materials hadn’t even arrived for construction to start by the first weeks of the New Year. This circumstance likely caused Perfection leaders to scrap this portion of their plan. Instead, they made an arrangement with counterparts in the Hazel-Atlas Glass Company to take over production of the Simplex in a diamond embossed, packing jar and cap along with the Russell Uhlpatented, screw closure. This deal would allow the Perfection facility to be put toward a new line of tableware at full capacity.31 Another Part of the Overall Vision There was another less visible part of the scheme to increase the overall storage space for manufactured items within the Perfection Glass Company. This involved moving the firm’s current production facility out of Washington altogether. Among other things, this course of action was no doubt caused by a property lease that was about to expire in April 1907.32 Towards this end, Perfection officers entered into a contract with John P. Elkin on January 13th, 1906. By the terms of this agreement, Corporation leaders purchased the land in Moosic, Pennsylvania on which the works for the Republic Glass
61 Manufacturing Company and Standard Graphite Company resided. Their intent was to teardown the Standard plant and erect one of their own to make glass.33 This new concern would likely operate in conjunction with the adjacent but idle Republic Glass factory. Trademark Registration Sought As production continued at the Washington-based works of Perfection Glass, firm officials decided it was time to register the word SIMPLEX as a Company trademark. On April 4th, 1906, Charles S. Caldwell started the process by submitting the request.34 Observation Seven At first, Mr. Caldwell’s action didn’t make much sense to me. Why would he wait almost three years to register the term SIMPLEX? It wasn’t until I discovered the Hazel-Atlas arrangement that I began to understand his motive. When the popular SIMPLEX in a diamond-embossed packing container was being turned out solely by Perfection workers, there was no need for Company leaders to seek a trademark registration for the term used to describe their product. However, once another corporation started to manufacture and market it, the question of royalties could arise. Unless the rights to the name SIMPLEX were in the legal possession of Perfection officers, the payment of these on a long term basis could become a matter of contention. To head off any potential legal battles in the future, I’m convinced Mr. Caldwell took the belated step to secure the trademark rights for the word SIMPLEX shortly after the Hazel-Atlas deal was consummated. Production Continued - Pot Bursts While relocation preparations continued, production moved forward in the Borough factory of Perfection Glass. Just prior to the “summer stop” beginning, an impediment to continued operations occurred at the Company’s works. A Washington newspaper reported this event as follows. “POT BURST AT PERFECTION WORKS – A twenty-five ton pot at the Perfection glass works on South Franklin street burst at an early hour this morning and an alarm was turned in from box 12 at the corner of West Wheeling and South Franklin streets. The department was soon on the ground
62 and had a stream of water playing on the molten glass as nothing in the factory had ignited. The employes {sicemployees} had the factory hose out and a small stream playing on the glass when the department arrived which kept the fire from spreading to the surrounding wood work. The pot had been placed in the factory about six months go {sic-ago} and had been considered in good shape but shortly before 1 o’clock she let go, pouring the molten glass on the floor. These pots are made of pottery clay and are supposed to last during one fire, or one year. The bursting of the pot will lay off about 60 employes {sic - employees} at the present time. The factory would have closed down in two weeks for repairs. The loss will not amount to a great deal, only the injury to the pot, as all the glass can be used again.” 35 Repairs Take Longer Than Expected With repairs scheduled for the traditional break in operations, the Perfection workers should have been back to making glass by the first days of August 1906. Unfortunately, the reconstructive job took longer than expected. Here is how a trade journal reporter covered this development. “The Perfection Glass Co. here has an extra amount of repairs to make at the close of the last fire, and will not start until next week. Their furnace, tank and boiler all had to be overhauled. They are devoting considerable attention to their patent fruit jar, which is proving of great practical value. They will place an attractive new short line of tableware on the market this month. J. G. Quay is general manager, and is giving a good account of himself in the character of his productions and the operations of the factory. They will illustrate their new line in the JOURNAL as soon as ready for the market.”36
Spring 2005 The Directory of Glass Factories for 1907 carried the same listing for the Perfection Glass Company as the one seen in the 1906 edition.37 Normally, this fact would indicate the Corporation was open for business and making glass articles at its facility. But I don’t believe this was the case at all. Three other pieces of data point toward the firm’s plant being closed for good. The first was the Washington Directory for 1907-08. It didn’t have a listing for the Perfection Glass Company in it. Besides this piece of compelling information, Perfection wasn’t listed as an industry paying wages in the Borough during 1906. The final reference contained the most telling data of all. A January 16th, 1909 report in The Washington Observer stated the works for Perfection Glass hadn’t been open since sometime in 1906. 38 By my best estimate, the manufacturing side of the Perfection Glass Company discontinued operations around October 1906. From that time forward, Corporation leadership likely wrestled with the option of whether or not to relocate their home office and idle facility to Moosic. Nothing about Perfection in 1907 Outside of the Directory of Glass Factories entry and the completed registration for the Perfection trademark, there was no other mention of this organization throughout 1907. I assume the notion of moving to the northeastern part of the Commonwealth was still open and being debated by the remaining directors of the Corporation. Moosic Option Goes Up in Smoke! The American Glass Trade Directory for 1908 carried a listing for the Perfection Glass Company. The line item for this firm indicated it had a plant equipped with one furnace, nine pots, one continuous tank, and eight rings. C. S. Caldwell was carried as
Perfection Plant Discontinues Operations The August 9th, 1906 account was the last mention of the Perfection Glass factory I could find throughout the remainder of that year. Presumably, the plant was started back-up in the middle of August. However, no proof of that action could be located. In my estimation, the works never reopened. Company Active - Factory Closed
Figure 8
Bottles and Extras the president. B. F. Roberts continued to be the secretary-treasurer. Hands at the factory supposedly made flint tableware and novelties, fruit jars, packers and preserver’s ware along with ink and paperweights. Also, there was a mold shop on the factory grounds. The salient part of this entry was the asterisk before it. This marking device was placed in that position to caution the reader that Perfection’s factory wasn’t open and operating.39 And as seen earlier, it hadn’t been for over a year. By mid-January 1908, the envisioned move to Moosic suffered a grave blow. A Crockery and Glass Journal writer reported on this development in the below account. “The Republic Glass Co.’s plant at Moosic, Pa., which has been idle for some time, was recently destroyed by fire. Loss, $30,000. It was owned by the Perfection Glass Co., of Washington, Pa. “Weary Willies” used the building for sleeping quarters, and the fire is blamed on the “guests”.”40
Figure 9
The End Officers of the in-name-only Perfection Corporation now had to decide whether to continue to pursue their ultimate goal or dissolve the Company. Their answer came quickly. Figure 8 appeared in the February 29th and March 7th, 1908 editions of the National Glass Budget. The initial equipment sell-off was followed by a final round one year hence. After the roof of the firm’s factory collapsed,41 the remaining machinery in it was offered for sale in April 1909.42 See Figure 9. Once this gear was disposed of, the owners dissolved the organization. With this last act, the Perfection Glass Company took its rightful place as a brief chapter in the industrial history of Washington, Pennsylvania. BLB Endnotes 1 “Two Corners in Time,” Barry L. Bernas, Bottles and Extras, Winter 2005, pgs.66-71.
Bottles and Extras Complete Directory of Glass Factories and Potteries of the United States and Canada, Commoner Publishing Co., Box 555, Pittsburg, Pa., 1903, pg. 18 and R. L. Polk & Co.’s Washington Directory 19031904, R. L. Polk & Co., Publishers, Pittsburg, Penna., pg. 139 and 292. 3 Washington County Corporation Book 2, pgs. 289-291. 4 According to Pennsylvania law, ten percent of the capitalization figure ($10,000) had to be placed in the firm’s treasury at the time incorporation papers were filed. This would mean $1,000 in cash was given to Perfection’s treasurer, Alex M. Brown, for deposit. The $4,000 sum was the amount paid by the original investors for the forty shares of Perfection Glass Company stock when the firm was founded. 5 Commoner and Glassworker, August 1, 1903, pg. 1. 6 National Glass Budget, September 26, 1903, pg. 2 and Crockery and Glass Journal, October 8, 1903, pg. 35. 7 The magazines were: The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal, McClure’s Magazine and The Munsey. Advertisements may have appeared in other periodicals but I haven’t found any of these as of yet. 8 District Court of the United States, for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Docket No. 2339. 9 Ibid. 10 Ibid and Commoner and Glassworker, May 3, 1903, pg. 4. 11 District Court of the United States, for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Docket No. 2339. 12 The Washington Observer, October 29, 1903, pg. 1 and The Washington Reporter, October 29, 1903, pg. 1. 13 The Washington Observer, November 19, 1903, pg. 1. 14 The Washington Observer, December 3, 1903, pg. 1; National Glass Budget, December 5, 1903; Crockery and Glass Journal, December 10, 1903, pgs. 19-20; Commoner and Glassworker, December 12, 1903, pg. 1; Ibid, December 19, 1903, pgs. 1-7; and Glass Trade Directory for 1904, Commoner Publishing Co., Box 555, Pittsburg, Pa., pg. 22. 15 The Washington Reporter, January 6, 1904, pg. 1; Ibid, February 3, 1904, pg. 1; and Commoner and Glassworker, February 6, 1904, pg. 1. 16 Commoner and Glassworker, April 9, 1904, pg. 1. 17 United States Patent Office, application filed May 20, 1905, Serial No. 261,319, Patented December 5, 1905, No. 806,602. 18 Crockery and Glass Journal, August 11, 1904, pg. 28. 19 District Court of the United States, for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Docket 2339. 20 Commoner and Glassworker, February 25, 1905, pg. 1. 21 Crockery and Glass Journal, April 13, 1905, pg. 25. 22 United States Patent Office, application filed May 20, 1905, Serial No. 261,319, Patented December 5, 1905, No. 806,602. 23 Cataloging a Russell Uhl-Patented, Glass Screw Cap, Barry L. Bernas, Bottles and Extras, 2
Spring 2005 Spring 2004, pgs. 29-33. 24 Commoner and Glassworker, June 17, 1905, pg. 5. 25 China, Glass and Lamps, September 23, 1905, pg. 13. 26 The Mount Pleasant Journal, October 12, 1905 and Ibid, October 26, 1905. 27 Anchor Glass Company A Maker of Fruit Jars and Other Glass Products, Barry L. Bernas, The Guide To Collecting Fruit Jars Fruit Jar Annual 2002, Jerome J. McCann, 5003 W. Berwyn Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, pgs. 22-34 and The Anchor Glass Company, A Southwestern Pennsylvania Corporation, Barry L. Bernas, 239 Ridge Avenue, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, February 2003. pgs. xi-xii. 28 Charles N. Edmonds, J. W. Ely and William L. Harvey were the founders of the Anchor Glass Company. These men didn’t have any patents issued to them by the United States Patent and Trademark Office by 1905. 29 Commoner and Glassworker, November 11, 1905, pg. 2. 30 Directory of the Glass Trade 1906, Commoner Publishing Co., Box 555, Pittsburg, Pa., pg. 21. 31 The Anchor Glass Company A Southwestern Pennsylvania Corporation, Barry L. Bernas, 239 Ridge Avenue, Gettysburg, PA., 17325, February 2003, pgs. 20-21 and Cataloging Process for the Fenn-Designed, 1904 Patented, Screw Cap, Barry L. Bernas, The Guide To Collecting Fruit Jars, Fruit Jar Annual Volume 10-2005, Jerome J. McCann, 5003 W. Berwyn Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, pgs. 16-20. 32 The Washington Reporter, October 24, 1894, pg. 2. When the Blair Glass Company was sold, one of the terms of the receiver’s sale was the inclusion of a rental agreement which could be extended up to April 1, 1907. 33 Lackawanna County Deed Book, Volume 216, pgs. 280-281 and Crockery and Glass Journal, May 10, 1906, pg. 24. 34 United States Patent Office, Statement and Declaration, Application filed May 9, 1906, Serial No. 19,393. Registered Feb. 19, 1907, No. 60,759. 35 The Washington Observer, June 19, 1906, pg. 1. 36 Crockery and Glass Journal, August 9, 1906, pg. 25. 37 Complete Directory of Glass Factories in the United States and Canada 1907, compiled of the Commoner & Glassworker by H. W. Gauding and J. G. Kaufmann, McKenna Building, First Avenue and Ross Street, Pittsburg, Pa., pg. 22. 38 R. L. Polk & Co.’s Washington Directory 1907-08, R. L. Polk & Co. Publishers, Pittsburg, Penna. and The Washington Observer, January 28, 1907, pg. 14. 39 American Glass Trade Directory 1908, Commoner Publishing Company, Box 555, Pittsburg, Pa. pg. 25. 40 Crockery and Glass Journal, January 16, 1908, pg. 34. 41 The Washington Observer, January 16, 1909, pg. 1. 42 Commoner and Glassworker, April 10, 1909, pg. 16.
63 Continued from Page 55. Luther, Bruce – collector/historian via Scott Grandstaff, Happy Camp, California, circa 1986. Merada, Robert J. – black powder aficionado/ historian, St. Petersburg, Florida, October 20, 2003. Moller, Gary – National Bottle Museum, Ballston Spa, New York, November 20, 2003. Murschell, Dale – The Whimsey Club, Springfield, W. Virginia, December 3, 2003. Roberts, Jill – Curator of Genesee Country Village Museum, Mumford, New York, December 10, 2003. Ryan, Michael – Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, November 21, 2003. Spillman, Jane Shadel _ Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York, January 2, 2004. Taylor, Gay LeCleire – Museum of American Glass, Wheaton, New Jersey, December 1, 2003. Thoms, Sabrina – Registrar of Genesee Country Village Museum, Mumford, New York, November 25, 2003. Internet: Can a Static Spark Set off Black Powder? h t t p : / / w w w. c t m u z z l e l o a d e r s . c o m / mlexperiments/sparks.html The Horner – Maker of the American Powder Horn h t t p : / / w w w. t h e h o r n e r . c o m / h i s t o r y / 2madeonlocation.asp Job Touusley Powder Horn h t t p : / / w w w. p 4 a . c o o m / i t e m s u m m a r y / 134668.htm Millard Powers Fillmore, An American Sportsman (1845-1852) http://www.bellsouthpwp.net/n/e/nelsoncook/ portraits.html
Cecil Munsey 13541 Willow Run Road Poway, CA 92064-1733 (858) 487-7036 cecilmunsey@cox.net
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Dr. J. N. Norwood, V.S. In our spotlight this issue, I would like to bring to your attention a small, regional producer of Veterinary patent medicines. What history we are able to present here has been a joint effort between the Naugatuck, Connecticut, Historical Society and several Veterinary collectors. Joseph N. Norwood was born somewhere in Massachusetts in 1859. The identity of his parents is unknown. Joseph first showed up in the 1883 census of Naugatuck, Connecticut, a small town southwest of Hartford. He had a wife, Emma E. Norwood, listed in the census as a housewife, originally from New Hampshire, and a young son, Arthur. Arthur was born in Massachusetts in 1880. At the time of the 1883 census, Joseph was 24 years old, Emma was 23, and son Arthur was three. Joseph’s occupation at that time not listed. By 1891, he was in the Naugatuck Business Directory listed as boarding stable owner, horse dealer, and Veterinary
Surgeon. His address was 584 N. Main Street, Union City, Connecticut. This was in the section of Naugatuck with a Post Office. What, if any, qualifications he had to present himself as a Veterinary Surgeon is not known. Nothing is known of his educational background. One can assume that his work with horses in a stable, perhaps, amounted to on the job training. Whatever his qualifications, he presented himself as Dr. J. N. Norwood, V. S. As with most 19th Century producers of veterinary medicines, Dr. Norwood apparently worked at his home. The 1899 Directory listed his “Hospital and office at the rear of residence, with telephone connections.” Most likely he concocted his nostrums and embrocations in his barn. There was no evidence of a factory and the scarcity of surviving examples would seem to indicate a limited production. Certainly he did not have the production nor distribution of his contemporaries, such as Dr. Lesure or Dr. Daniels. He did, however, produce a complete line of products. Dr. Norwood sold the “standard” veterinary
This receipt dated 1911 shows that the company had relocated to Waterbury, Conn. No medicine packaging or bottles embossed with the Waterbury location are currently known. It is also interesting to note that the company was still selling "Cures" as late as 1911.
Bottles and Extras cures such as Gall and Colic Cures, Liniment for Man or Beast, Condition Powders in two sizes, and Veterinary Eye Wash. He also produced the more unusual Kidney Powders, Chills and Fever Drops, and Cough Mixture. In all, his line included ten veterinary patent medicines. Norwood may have had difficulty competing with the other veterinary medicine producers. This difficulty might be evidenced by a 1903 receipt from Norwood’s company. This document showed a large order of 66 assorted medicines being sent to Cook’s Falls, NY on consignment. It is my experience, in looking over similar receipts from other companies and researching veterinary companies, that consignment selling was rare. Most goods were payable on delivery. This may have been Dr. Norwood’s way of broadening his market. In 1900, his address was changed to 320 N. Main Street. This was thought to be just a postal numbering change. By 1905, he took out an ad in the Naugatuck Business Directory. He was listed as J. N. Norwood, Veterinary Surgeon and Manufacturer of Veterinary Medicines. In 1906, the name of the company was changed to The Dr. J. N. Norwood Company, Joseph N. Norwood, President. Joseph’s son, Arthur, seemed to follow after his father. While a teen in the 1890’s, he was also listed as a Veterinary Surgeon at the same address as his father. By 1900, his address was the U. S. Army. He was not listed after 1900. Dr. Norwood was last listed in the Naugatuck city directories in 1911. The company moved that same year to Waterbury, Connecticut. The only address listed was a postal box, #346 Waterbury, Connecticut. Paper credit memoranda exist indicating that the Dr. J. N. Norwood Company was in business and still selling on credit in 1913. To my knowledge, no ephemera exists with a date after 1913. Further research is needed in Waterbury to determine his fate. Any Dr. Norwood item would be a very good addition to a collection. Paper ephemera seems to be limited to company receipts and receipts of merchants who stocked his medicines. Booklets pitching his products seem to be limited to one 32 page price list. Norwood medicines exist in limited supply. Examples of all his products exist in various collections around the country. All have stark black and white labels and
Bottles and Extras
Spring 2005 boxes with a photograph of Dr. Norwood. The boxes are made of substantial cardboard and hold up very well to 90 plus years of abuse. The bottles come in two sizes, 4 7/8” tall (50 cent size) and 6 3/4” high ($1.00 size). The embossing is limited to the sides of the bottles. One side is embossed: DR. J.N. NORWOOD, the other side is NAUGATUCK, CONN.. Colic Cure bottles are 3 1/4” high and embossed either NO.1 or NO.2 / NORWOOD / VETERINARY / COLIC CURE. Medicine bottles with a Waterbury embossing or boxes with a Waterbury address are currently unknown.
65 I am not aware of any Norwood signs or cabinets in collections today. A large painted glass display case, possibly from Norwood’s home, is reported to exist. Attempts to track it’s existence through the Naugatuck Historical Society have been unsuccessful. Special thanks go to Dana Blackwell of the Naugatuck Historical for his help with this edition of Spotlight. If you have additional information on Dr. Norwood, please contact me at: Petvet@mindspring.com.
Left: Paper receipt dated 1903 and from Naugatuck, Conn. The company lists 10 different medicines. Three remedies, Condition Powders; Kidney Powders; and Chill and Fever Drops were produced in two sizes making a total of thirteen examples to complete a set of Dr. Norwood medicines. Only one style paper booklet is currently known from the Dr. Norwood company. The example illustrated is a price list of 32 pages and is 3 1/2" x 6". If any collectors have other paper ephemera from the company, please contact me. Right: Dr. Norwood Colic Cure package. Package contains two embossed bottles, each 3 1/2" tall. Bottles are embossed on one panel: NORWOOD / VETERINARY / COLIC / CURE. Additionally, one is embossed #1 and the other #2. Completing the package is a glass vial and glass dropper.
Far left: Embossed 6 3/4" tall bottle with paper label for Veterinary Chill & Fever Drops. Embossed on side panels: DR. J. N. NORWOOD // NAUGATUCK CONN. Left: Veterinary Eye Wash bottle, embossed 5" tall bottle with paper label. embossed on side panels: DR. J. N. NORWOOD // NAUGATUCK CONN. All Dr. Norwood medicines are considered fairly scarce. Only a very few veterinary patent medicine companies produced an animal eye wash.
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Bottles and Extras
THE LIFE AND LOVES OF S.T. SUIT: A JUG-FILLER'S STORY by Jack Sullivan
Special to Bottles and Extras Samuel Taylor Suit, who hobnobbed with presidents and founded a city that still bears his name, earned fame and prosperity by filling brown jugs with whiskey. But despite his many successes, he was haplessly unlucky in his love for three women. This is his story. Suit was born in Bladensburg, Prince George's County, Maryland, in 1830, the son of Fletcher Suit, an innkeeper. At 14 years old he left school to work as an errand boy in a dry goods store in Washington, D.C. He and his father are said to have clashed over the refusal of the elder to pay for his son's further education. Young Suit thereupon left home as a teenager and struck out for himself in the American Middle West. He settled first in Keokuk, Iowa and then moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where he found work at a distillery. Even at this early age he showed extraordinary business abilities and before long bought his own distillery, one that boasted the largest liquor warehouse in town. In Louisville, Suit found his first love, Sarah Ebenezer Williams, and married her when he was about 25 and she was still a teenager. She bore him one child and then at the age of 20, after only a few months as his wife, she died. Sarah's death appears to have affected Suit deeply and shortly after he migrated to New York City. There he became involved in securities markets, eventually obtaining a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. Despite his lack of education, his business acumen brought him to the notice of important people. One of them was Arthur Wilmarth, president
Figure 2: Aurelia Wilmarth Suit
of the Home Life Insurance Company of New York, a wealthy and important figure in the city. Through him, Suit met his second love, Wilmarthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s daughter Aurelia. Eleven years his junior, she was known more for the fineness of her needlework than of her looks, which pictures of her bear out. Whether his motivation was love or money or both, Suit married the wealthy Aurelia at Dr. Thompson's Church in New York in December 1859, and thereby took a giant step up the social ladder. Though this marriage officially lasted 20 years and produced one son in 1861, it apparently was contentious almost from the beginning and the couple spent long periods
Figure 3: Suit's promotion letter
Figure 1: The young S.T. Suit
Bottles and Extras
Figure 4: A Suit jug with impressed label apart. Suit apparently was in the Union Army for a time during the Civil War. He was called "Colonelâ&#x20AC;? thereafter but that title seems to have been nothing more than a Kentucky honorific. After the war, about 1867, Suit, wife Aurelia, and their son migrated back to Prince George's County. He now had the money to purchase large tracts of land throughout the area. Among them were 450 acres at the periphery of the District of Columbia. He built a mansion there and called the place, "Suit Land." A small community grew up around the estate. Today, Suitland, Maryland is a bustling community of more than 30,000, the site of a number of U.S. government agencies, and adjoins sprawling Andrews Air Force Base. In 1870, this Maryland entrepreneur opened a distillery near his home under the title, "S.T. Suit, Fruit Grower and Distiller." He produced rye whiskey and a range of brandies using apples, peaches and cherries from his own orchards. His letterheads and advertising also cited an earlier origin in Kentucky, with the date given as 1839 -- when the distiller himself would have been only nine years old. Suit may have been claiming the founding date for the distillery he bought in Louisville, a practice not uncommon in the
Spring 2005 whiskey business. Apparently because sales in the initial years were slow, Suit determined that selling his products by mail was the answer. But he needed a gimmick. In 1875, using his considerable political clout, he was able to get the chief health officer of the District of Columbia, Dr. P.T. Keene, to certify in that he had visited Colonel Suit's plantation distillery at Suitland to examine his various brands of liquor. Dr. Keene then provided the following testimonial: "For Medicinal Purposes, its reliability as to strength and purity make it very desirable. Physicians will appreciate how important it is to their success in the treatment of diseases, as well as to the patient, that the stimulants they prescribe should be of a standard and unvarying quality, which desideratum Col. Suit's liquors appear to fulfill." Armed with this ringing endorsement and an official looking certificate from the D.C. Board of Health, Suit initiated an advertising campaign. It featured chromolithographed trade cards and carefully crafted form letters. Shown here is an 1882 lithographed sales letter in Suit's handwriting to S. G. Patterson, "thinking you would like a few bottles for private and medicinal purposes." The distiller goes on to say he will sell and ship 12 bottles of various liquors, including six of "Old Rye Whiskey, Distilled 1869,â&#x20AC;? for $15. The same goods bought at retail, he says, would cost three times more. He ends by citing his "bill of health" from D.C. The letter ends with a
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Figure 5: A Suit stenciled jug. Photo courtesy of Dan Knode.
flourish: "I am respectfully, S. T. Suit." The mail order campaign paid off. Suit had been successful in obtaining his own fourth class post office and had installed a relative, George T. Suit, as postmaster. Compensation for the postmaster was dependent on the amount of business. According to federal records, in 1875 the Suitland postmaster earned just $17. But by
Figure 6: Multiple views of a a Suit jug.
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Figure 7: A Suit fancy decanter. 1879, the amount had jumped sharply to $705 and by 1882 was $1,091. According one report, the dramatic increase in postal revenues was largely due to the burgeoning mail order business for S.T. Suit's liquors, generated by his postal promotions. Suit sold his whiskey almost exclusively in stoneware jugs with a range of glazes and labels. Some had yellow-orange bodies with
Figure 8: The mature S.T. Suit.
lettering impressed into the glaze; others had black letters transferred by a roller onto a cylindrical body and then glazed over. But the Colonel's most distinctive containers were his brown jugs, in which the only the top portion of the stoneware, including the handle, was glazed with Albany slip. The slip then was painted on a stencil that held the label. The final effect is both distinctive (almost no one else used it) and crudely attractive. At auction today, Suit jugs command anywhere from $80 to $400. To a contemporary, critical eye, Suitâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s labels seem deceptive. For years they read: "Whiskey in this jug was distilled in 1869," indicating a considerably aged product. Later he would revise the message to: "Little Brown Jug...Whiskey in this jug was made in 1869 and jugged by me, 1879" (or "1880"). Given the almost two decades in which the distillery existed, it is inconceivable that all the whiskey sold was distilled in a single year. This Maryland entrepreneur was not adverse to cutting corners to make a dollar. Whatever the drinking public thought it was buying, S.T. Suit's whiskey and brandies proved popular. His brown jugs are said to have accompanied hard-drinking pioneers as they traveled west. He also distributed fancy glass decanters bearing the Suit name and whiskey. These items have shown up all over America indicating their widespread distribution through the mails. Suit continued to grow in wealth and prestige and began to look outside the whiskey trade for outlets for his business energies. In time the whiskey maker owned and operated the Spa Springs Hotel in Bladensburg, Maryland, and was acting president of the Anacostia Wharf & Docking
Figure 9: Rosa Pelham Suit.
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Figure 10: The castle today. Co., the Washington & Chesapeake Railroad, and the Washington City & Point Lookout Railroad. As a baron of industry, Suit constructed a mansion appropriate to his wealth and power. Patterned after an English manor house, the structure had a fashionable mansard roof and a multitude of rooms. Here is historian Morris Fradin's description of Suit's house and grounds: "The wine cellar was well stocked with products from his distillery nearby. A red sandstone archway from the same quarry that provided the stone for the White House and many other government structures graced the garden entrance. The graceful driveway to the Suit mansion wound through a private park dotted by sundials and birdbaths, where deer grazed and pheasants hid among exotic shrubbery and elaborate landscaping. The road curved past statuary imported from Italy and two artificial lakes kept stocked with fish; it passed outbuildings and carriage houses and stables for thoroughbred horses. These were cared for by an English coachman who even had a billiard table in his quarters!" Suitâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house and grounds were well appointed for entertaining. The Colonel had been the driving force for the construction of a new road through forestland to connect the District of Colombia with his Suitland, Maryland. The road conveniently ended at his estate. That made it easy for the Washington gentry to visit. Among them were President Ulysses S. Grant, soon-to-be President Rutherford B. Hayes, and Supreme Court Justice Samuel F. Miller. When a British High Commission came to Washington in 1871 to negotiate a Civil War claims settlement, the Englishmen and other dignitaries were entertained at Suitland with a ride to the hounds and a fancy ball at which the U.S. Marine Band played.
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Suit continued his business activities, but also became interested in politics and served one term in the Maryland Senate from 18731877. "Help me and I will help you.," was his campaign theme. According to reports, his influential friends also selected him for certain diplomatic appointments, including reputed ambassadorships in England. Our 14-year-old runaway had done well for himself. In 1876, however, while Suit was serving as a judge of agriculture at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, the Suitland mansion burned to the ground. The Colonel never rebuilt. One reason might have been the break-up of his second marriage. After years of conflict, Aurelia had left him about a year earlier, formally divorced him in 1879 and later remarried. Before the divorce became final, Suit had met and fallen in love for the third time. Her name was Rosa Pelham, the daughter of an Alabama congressman. She was 17. He was 42. All his life the Colonel had a soft spot for young people. He raised a special breed of white ponies on his estate to be given as gifts to the children of his friends. Contemporaries portrayed him as very sentimental and loving. He particularly loved Rosa. Because of the difference in their ages, the Alabama belle initially refused him. In 1883, after five years of Suit's pursuing her, the two met in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. When Rosa mentioned that she had always wanted to live in a castle, Suit pledged to build one for her if she would marry him. She agreed and three days later they were wed in Washington, D.C. In quick succession Rosa bore Suit three children.
Figure 11: An early picture postcard of the Castle and interior.
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At this time the Colonel was being drawn away from Suitland and his distillery by prospects for developing businesses at Berkeley Springs. For years the hot springs in that locale had drawn the rich and famous because of the reputed therapeutic qualities of the water. Three large hotels already graced the site but Suit envisaged even further development. His dream was to make Berkeley Springs a spa to rival any on the East Coast. Thus he chose that locale in 1885 to create for Rosa her promised castle. An eminent American architect, Snowden Ashford, was commissioned to build the 13-room structure to the designs of A.D. Mullett, noted as the designer of the State, War and Navy Building on 17th St. in Washington -- now the Executive Office Building. Mullett designed it to be one-half scale of Berkeley Castle in England, the place where King Edward II had been murdered in 1327. The structure cost $100,000 -- a whopping amount for those times -- and stood on Warm Springs Ridge, high above the town. Crews of workmen, making 8 cents an hour, toiled for more than three years to put the giant blocks of granite in place as the structure gradually took shape. The local press reported that Suit had intended to move his family into the castle during the late summer of 1888. But suddenly on Sept. 1 of that year he died at his residence at 228 New Jersey Ave., N.E., at the foot of Capitol Hill in Washington. His gravestone says he was 58, but his death certificate gave his age as "56 years, one month, and 18 days." Rosa, now a very wealthy 27-year-old widow, saw the castle finished and moved in with her three fatherless children, the youngest only one year old. She was an attractive woman, slender and blueeyed. With the trappings of royalty, she became a noted giver of lavish parties. Her socialite friends called her, perhaps with some sarcasm, "Queen Rosa." Although she had many suitors, Rosa never married again, reputedly because of a stipulation in Suit's will that if she did she would lose everything he had bequeathed her. That did not prevent this merry widow from spending nights with her men friends in the castle. One evening, following an argument with her, one of them fell -- or was pushed -- from the roof to his death. Legend says that as he fell he cursed the heiress and that he has haunted the castle ever since. Rosa herself eventually lost her money and her mind. In the 1920s she was evicted from the castle, went west with a son, and died there. Meanwhile, with no one to tend his whiskey business, S.T. Suit Distillery went out of business well before Prohibition. One date given for its demise is 1888. Samuel Taylor Suit himself is buried in St. Barnabas Church Cemetery in Oxon Hill, Maryland., not far from Suitland. The little brown jugs that gave him fame and fortune are found in collections nationwide. Suit's castle, still highly visible as one enters Berkeley Springs on U.S. 522, remains a tourist attraction -- a famously haunted one -- to this very day. Reference Notes: Some of the material contained here appeared in my earlier article in the Potomac Pontil, the newsletter of the Potomac Bottle Collectors. The quote from Historian Morris Fradin is from his "Mystery, History, and Romance of a West Virginia Castle," publication unknown, from the archives of the Prince George's Country, Maryland, Historical Society. Material linking postal revenues with Suit's liquor sales is based on an article by Diane DeBlois & Robert Dalton Harris called "Rural Maryland Entrepreneur." Again the publication, from the Historical Society, is not identified. Other material was found on a genealogical "Person Sheet" about S.T. Suit created on the Internet by Chris Dunmore, dated Dec. 2003.
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Bottles and Extras
The 3-Star Nurser
by Charles S. Harris, Ooltewah, TN 37363
When I first saw a photo of one of these 3-Star Nursers, I could have sworn that it was nothing more than an old Chemistry Flask that had been modified or just adapted for use as a baby feeding bottle like has been done with many different bottles. The good old adage of Necessity is the Mother of Invention was thought to have come into play here. Then when my wife and I saw our first 3-Star Nursers at one of the ACIF conventions we realized that our impression was badly mistaken. It was a beautiful bottle indeed and we knew that we needed one for our collection as a definite type variety. Have you ever had that feeling before — I just have to have one of those! Well, at our next two ACIF conventions we saw a couple for sale on banquet night, but the bidding numbers were too high to enable us to acquire one for our collection. So until the 2003 convention we were 3-Starless! Finally at the 2003 ACIF convention our luck changed and we had our first, the one with the 3 open stars in a weak seal on the front, scratched but now owned and treasured by us. During the following year things happened. A 3-Star Nurser showed up on each of two eBay auctions the same week. Primarily we were looking for a better nonscratched example. Also we were hoping to find one that would have the 3 stars in a horizontal line with “THREE STAR NURSER” spelled out around them, but both of them only had the 3 stars in a triangle inside a seal. On Tuesday night Teresa realized that she had forgotten to put in a bid — fifteen minutes after the auction was over. Boy, talking about a
forlorn face till I reminded her that there the 3 stars in the triangular pattern with was another one scheduled to come off the the single star either up or down (the next day. Peace was returned to the Harris seal probably rotates in the mold some family and a bid was immediately entered while in use). There are also some — the winning bid at that and for less than variations in the style of the stars, and in the weight and orientation of the stars. the first one had gone for. That 3-Star nurser resided in Canada. “BFG” stands for Beaver Flint Glass After correspondence I sent the seller a Company. We are still looking for one of check for the purchase. Now don’t ask me those. Other variations are <D> (Dominion) why I did what I did, but for some reason I wrote the check for $50.00 more than the and an unmarked variation. Two of the purchase price. Maybe it was premonition, ones that we received are the unmarked base a supernatural happening, or some such type — one just unmarked and the other thing — however you look at it, it was one with a mold number on it “956”. I nothing but stupid, but, none-the-less, I had then realized that the first one that we had acquired was also a Canadian one with only done it. A few days later the seller called me and a mold number “557”. These Canadian told me of my fauxpax. What did we want to do about it? On the other phone, taking matters into hand, Teresa asked him if he had any more good bottles. Yes, he did — two more 3-Star Nursers, a Pyrex (a rarity that we didn’t happen to have), and a couple more unmentionables and he wanted to get rid of them all. If we would we send him another $35.00, he would mail all of them to us. We bought them all. Hopefully, one of them was going to be one of the marked Canadian manufactured bottles, but no such luck even though these three came from Canada. The Canadian ones are marked “CANUCK 3 STAR BFGCO. T” on the base and they have the 3 stars in a triangular configuration in a seal on the front Tall and short varieties of the Canadian 3-Star Nursers with blank and numbered bases. side. The 1 1/8 inch seal has
Bottles and Extras
The American made THREE STAR NURSER with the three stars in the horizontal line in a seal. Also shown is the American bottom mark.
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bottles are 5 5/8 inches tall and are BIMAL. There is also an ABM variation that is 6 1/8 inches tall, with the additional height being in the longer neck. Don LaFonte, founder of the ACIF in 1973 confirmed that the three stars in the triangle is the Canadian version of the American patent with the 3 stars in a line and annotated. Evidently, we still did not have one of the American made ones. The American made ones are bottom marked “PAT.JUNE 19 1894 / W.T. & CO. / A / U.S.A.” They are a tapered oval shape and stand 5 5/8 inches tall, 3 ½ inches wide and 2 1/8 inches thick. The 3 stars are in a horizontal line with “THREE STAR NURSER” around the periphery of the 1¼ inch seal. All specimens (American and Canadian) have “Ounces” atop an 8-ounce scale with ½-ounce slashes on the back side. This short variety of the American bottle is also BIMAL. Recently I have heard that there have been some of the 3 stars in a triangle in a seal found that seem to be American made. The 3 stars are on the upper breast of the bottle instead of in the center of the front side. The bottom is also said to be pontiled, which seems unusual for a bottle that was not made until the 1890s. The bottle was advertised in the1897 and 1910 Whitall Tatum Company catalogues as “Oval with sloping sides. No shoulder and no corners, consequently easy to clean. Having a broad base, the bottle is not readily overturned.” No wonder that a straight on photo makes it look like a chemistry flask.
P.S.: We finally found one of the American made THREE STAR NURSERS at the National Bottle Show held in Memphis, Tenn., in August of 2004. It was in Barbara Higbee’s estate that her son, Mike, was selling off at the show. She is one of the old time baby bottle collectors. On that first day, his table strongly resembled a Shark Feeding Frenzy. Baby Bottle collectors were helping him unwrap bottles and immediately setting aside items that they wanted. Newspaper and bubble wrap were flying in all directions and hands and arms were reaching and grabbing anything available just as it reached the table — table manners were definitely not being observed. Even some of the oldtimers who have everything were having a ball in Baby Bottle Heaven.
Never Mace A Skunk II by Butch Holcombe and Charles S. Harris. Softbound. 218 pp. Illustrated by Glenn Watkins. Authorhouse, 1663 Liberty Drive, Suite 200, Bloomington, IN 47403. $22.50. Using metal detectors to discover and unearth Civil War and other relics has become a popular pastime next to probing for and unearthing antique bottles. Each trip to battlefield sites or privy holes is an adventure. Sometimes the unexpected happens, sometimes hilariously, sometimes not. Native Georgian Butch Holcombe and Tennessean Charles Harris are admittedly addicted to relic hunting. Not only have they formed outstanding collections, but also compiled a number of their adventures (or misadventures) into this book. The volume is a sequel to Holcombe’s “Never Mace a Skunk.”
A word of warning: Bottles are few in this book, which has to do with Civil War bayonets, buttons, belt buckles and other goodies. Oh, one chapter mentions broken U.S.A. Hospital bottles, but that’s about as close as it comes to what most readers of this magazine collect. Still, bottle diggers can relate to many of the problems encountered by this dynamic duo, such as poison ivy, dogs and irate landowners. Oh, did I mention electric fences and sewage overflows? If you’re in the mood for laughing at other peoples’ predicaments, or if you’re wondering what to give someone who has everything for his or her birthday, wedding anniversary or Christmas gift, then this book is for you. — BILL BAAB
Charles Harris 6808 Benwood Drive Ooltewah, TN 37363 relicnut@bellsouth.net
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BOTTLES MAKE ME SICK ( Stendhalʼs Syndrome ) by Cecil Munsey Copyright © 2004
The affliction The bed was somewhat uncomfortable. It was early; the sun was streaming in through the east window of the large enclosed sunporch. I yawned and gradually opened my eyes to face the brightness of the early morning sun. I found myself amidst a massive collage of colors. My wife and I had gone to bed in the dark the night before only slightly aware that we were going to be sleeping in our host’s bottle room. There were many shelves and hundreds of antique bottles of many colors filtering the rays of the powerful morning sun. I was speechless and experiencing dizzying disorientation. It was a startling and beautiful sight to behold. I had a small collection of colorful antique bottles at home in a window but this visual experience was more breathtaking than any similar experience I had ever had at home. I felt a little sick and was strangely panicked. It was the early 1960s; I had just graduated from college. My wife and I were invited to Boulder City, Nevada to visit an old high school acquaintance and his recent bride. Rurik Kallis was a fellow bottle collector who had been collecting bottles since he was 14-years old – we were all in our late twenties at the time of the visit. As a Psychology major in college I was very curious about the experience I had that morning. I was really affected by waking up surrounded on three sides by multiple shelves of sun-enhanced old bottles of many sizes, shapes and colors. The event had occurred in the time when library research consisted of searches of what seemed like yards of card catalogs, basements full of dusty old books and yellowed magazines. The gleaned material was recorded with a pencil on 3" x 5" cards. At the time I didn’t find my curiosity about the unusual event worth the research effort. That day and the dizzying experience, however, has stayed with me all these fortyplus years. My disorienting experience in Boulder City was vividly recalled again in 1970 during a conversation with the late Charlie Gardner of New London, Connecticut. He
described similar personal experiences he had in the early 1930s. He indicated that he had “insightful thunderbolts” [his words] which he suggested were epiphanies [illuminating discoveries]. He became so taken with glass bottles that he sold or traded his famous gun collection and began to seriously collect old bottles. His collection finally amounted to approximately 4,500 of the nation’s finest specimens of antique bottles. I always wanted to learn more about the psychology of and intense reaction to that morning in Boulder City, Nevada. My 1973 doctoral dissertation about the personality characteristics of collectors was a fascinating and intense effort. From that study I learned a lot about collectors and their personalities but still I had no handle to put on the mysterious experience I had in Boulder City and a similar one Charlie Gardner had in New England forty or more years before that. In the late 1980s, I had all but given up any hope of understanding the illuminating experience I had had so many years in the past – that is, until I found myself the house guest of Dick and Elma Watson at their suburban New Jersey home. Like many bottle collectors, they had a bottle room. Once again I found myself in a glassenclosed room full of bottles. Three sides of the room were all clear glass windows lined with shelves – the difference mostly was that these bottles were among the rarest in the land. Rurik’s bottles were mostly common bottles he had dug-up himself. Dick’s bottles were mostly bottles he had found or purchased or traded for over a 60-year period. Left alone in the bottle room while the Watsons completed preparing the noon meal, I had a familiar attack. I became speechless, dizzy and disorientated. The colors of the bottles were a powerful and beautiful vision that, like my first experience in Boulder City, I have never forgotten. This time was different in that I brought to the incident greatly increased knowledge about bottle rarity and monetary value. I am sure that influenced my reaction some. I was strangely panicked and felt a little sick just as I had so many
Bottles and Extras years before. After lunch, the three of us spent the afternoon in the bottle room where the sun slowly moved across the sky and across the bottles. As we talked I was almost mesmerized by the stained glass Tiffany-window-effect that was engulfing us. Later, we discussed the power of the bottles in the room. We all agreed that there was something almost mystical about the display. One thing I did file permanently in my memory was that Elma described how sometimes Dick would go to the bottle room by himself and sit for an hour or two just visually appreciating his collection. That only served to remind me of a similar activity I do with my bottles and a slight variation of the gazing activity Charlie Gardner described doing himself. [I imagine numerous collectors do similar things. It’s almost, I thought, like sort of making love to the relics one has gathered and saved for posterity.] More recently, on September 10, 2001, while touring Alaska my wife and I stayed at a wonderfully rustic lodge in Denali Park. I got up early and opened the drapes facing majestic Mount McKinley. I was startled at the unusually clear view of the mountain almost always shrouded in clouds. I not only had a perfect view of the reclusive mountain, the tallest in the U. S., but in what I later learned was “alpenglow” – a reddish glow seen near sunset or sunrise on the summits of mountains (see “visual postscript”). After I recovered my senses enough, I managed to rush outside to the meadow below our balcony and take a number of photographs of the mountain in
Figure 1
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the rare colors that define alpenglow. As the wondrous sight quickly faded I found myself weak in the knees, a bit dizzy, and strangely but nicely panicked. A few minutes later I was sitting on the balcony of our room looking at Mt. McKinley, in regular morning light with a cup of coffee in my hand. It gradually dawned on me that the, feelings I had just had were similar to those I had experienced at Rurik’s home many years before and years later at the Watson’s home. It had happened again. But this time the trigger had been nature not antique bottles. What could it be I wondered? Stendahl’s syndrome I found the secret to the mystery of my unusual reactions in a casual brush with one of the newspapers I regularly read. I was reading by the fire one Saturday morning and in a section called “News of the Weird” when I came across this small news item: “According to a December Miami Herald story, the condition of museum goers who grow faint or suffer anxiety attacks while viewing art (or viewing too much in a short time) has a name, Stendhal’s syndrome, that although rare, has been studied for almost 200 years.” There it was right there in that little oneparagraph sentence. With the name and the fact that it was a syndrome, I was easily able to do some in-depth research and finally understand what I had experienced periodically. I was able to learn that while rare, that it really had happened to me and does happen to others. According to my dictionary the phenomon is defined this way: “Stendhal’s syndrome (sten.DAWLZ sin.drum, drohm) n. Dizziness, panic, paranoia, or madness caused by viewing certain artistic or historical artifacts or by trying to see too many such artifacts in too short a time.” Other research revealed that in 1817, a young Frenchman named Marie-Henri Beyle (1783-1842) – better known to us as the French novelist Stendhal [Figure 1] – visited Florence and soon found himself overwhelmed by the city’s intensely rich legacy of art and history. When he visited Santa Croce (the cathedral where the likes of Machiavelli, Michelangelo, and Galileo are buried) and saw Giotto’s famous frescoes for the first time, he was overcome with emotion:
A visual postscript: Figure 2 – Mt. McKinley photographed in alpenglow on September 10, 2001.
Figure 3. – Just for bottle collectors, I share a recent search of eBay that coincidentally turned up evidence of a root beer named “Alpenglow.” The label indicates that the product was made for General Enterprise Co., San Francisco, California. “I was in a sort of ecstasy, from the idea of being in Florence, close to the great men whose tombs I had seen. Absorbed in the contemplation of sublime beauty … I reached the point where one encounters celestial sensations … Everything spoke so vividly to my soul. Ah, if I could only forget. I had palpitations of the heart, what in Berlin they call ‘nerves.’ Life
was drained from me. I walked with the fear of falling.” In the late 1970s, 160 years later, Dr. Graziella Magherini, at the time the chief of psychiatry at Florence’s Santa Maria Nuova Hospital, noticed that many of the tourists who visited Florence were overcome with anything from temporary panic attacks to bouts of outright madness that lasted several days. She remembered
74 that Stendhal had had similar symptoms, so she named the condition Sendhal’s syndrome. (When she first applied this name isn’t clear, but it may have been as early as 1979.) For decades, the malaise was known as the “tourist disease.” NOTE: A similar affliction is the Jerusalem syndrome (first used in 1987), which hits tourists who visit the holy city of Jerusalem and are overcome by the mental weight of its history and significance. Have you ever experienced Stendhal’s syndrome? Except for Charlie Gardner, I haven’t heard any bottle collectors describe incidents of Stendhal’s syndrome. It would be very interesting to discover if/how others who have experienced the group of signs and symptoms that occur together and characterize this particular abnormality. Readers are invited to communicate any incidents of which they know personally or otherwise. If I get any responses, perhaps I could report any confessions in a followup article. Substantiation and corroboration According to www.touristie.com, there were 106 cases of Stendhal’s syndrome studied in Florence in the 1980s. Most were women under 40 traveling alone. The site quotes Dr. Magherini as describing the syndrome’s causes as “…impressionable personality, the stress of the voyage and meeting with a city like Florence, haunted by the phantoms of giants.” I did track the syndrome on the Internet and found the following comments from people reporting they had experienced it: April 2, 2003: ‘Cobalt’ – “Always called this my ‘Art Headache’ and was amazed to find this actual term today in my WordSpy newsletter: Stehdahl’s Disease [sic]! As an artist, I always enjoyed going to the Art Institute of Chicago. But I had to monitor myself so I only stayed about two hours at a visit or I’d get an intense headache from the stimulation.” April 3, 2003: ‘Noddy24’ – “I’ve always called my syndrome of finite attention span and aching feet, ‘Cultural Overload.’ I don’t turn manic, just cranky. Being an English major, I refer to insights as ‘epiphanies’.” April 4, 2003: ‘JoanneDorel’ – “Yikes a
Spring 2005 fancy name for what I always called ‘Museum Fatigue’… May 21,2003: ‘Denise Gerson’ (associate director of the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami in Coral Gables) – “After an hour or two of concentrated looking, I really have to take a break and leave the environment to get something to drink.” July 2, 2003: ‘Portal Star’ – “Wow. It happened to me; I always thought I was, a freak or something.” July 3, 2003: ‘Walter Hinteler’ – “This term became very popular in Europe, after the film ‘Stendhal Syndrome’ was released in 1996. The thriller starred the director’s daughter, Asia, as a policewoman with the condition. It has been called ‘CulturalOverflow’ as well.” August 26, 2003: ‘TrackBack’ – “I think I have this – and I think it’s all because of Cirque du Soleil. I saw this show Saturday and I have never felt as happy as I was when I walked out of the big top. I felt like I was on fire by night’s end. But the next and the day later, I just felt empty.”
Bottles and Extras References: Phil Kukielski, “In Umbria, pottery becomes high art,” The Tallahassee Democrat, September 1, 2002. Evelyn McDonnell, “Art Attacks,” The Miami Herald, December 2, 2003. Cecil Munsey, “The Habit of Collecting: What, How and Why,” The San Diego Union, August 5, 1973. Cecil Munsey, “Personality Characteristics of Collectors,” a doctoral dissertation for U. S. International University – currently Alliant International University – February 1973. James O’Reilly, “Beautiful and unspoiled Indonesia can turn into a trial for travelers,” Chicago Tribune, September 7, 1986.
Cecil Munsey 13541 Willow Run Road Poway, CA 92064-1733 (858) 487-7036 cecilmunsey@cox.net
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Name ___________________________________________________ Associate Member Name(s) $5 additional each:_______ __________________ Street____________________________________Apt.#_____________ City _____________________________________________________ State _____________ Zip __________ Phone (_____)______________ Collecting Interests: _________________________________________ E-mail Address: ____________________________________________
CLASSIFIED ADS 10-cents a word 15-cents a bold word. $2.00 MINIMUM
Bottles & Extras
1/2 PAGE
1/4 PAGE
COL. 4”
COL. 3”
COL. 2”
COVER
$150.00
$80.00
$50.00
$20.00
$15.00
$10.00
$200.00
2 TIMES
$260.00
$150.00
$90.00
$35.00
$25.00
$15.00
$380.00
4 TIMES
$500.00
$280.00
$170.00
$65.00
$45.00
$25.00
$700.00
Next Stop Deadlines: November 15th for Winter Edition (Jan.-Mar. 2005) February 15th for Spring Editon (April-June 2005)
______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________
PLEASE PRINT ALL AD COPY
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Classified Ads FOR SALE For Sale: N.J. cobalt blue beer embossed Tiffany & Allen Spruce Beer Washington Market, Cor Fair & Washington Paterson N.J. (reverse) Please return bottle soon as empty. This bottle is approx. 8-inches tall, large squat style. It is extremely deep, deep cobalt, very mint condition. Will sell for $1200.00 or trade for figural bitters. Contact: BILL MITCHELL, 703 Linwood Ave., Stevens Point, WI 54481 or call (715) 341-6860 or (727) 319-2875 (FL). For Sale: Out of print and hard to find books & reference material on bottles and glass. 1. American Glass, George S. and Helen McKearin. Over 630 pages including line drawings and photographs. An outstanding and invaluable reference book. $30.00. 2. Two Hundred Years of American Blown Glass, Helen and George S. McKearin. 382 pages, 105 full-page plates. Another great reference work. $25.00. 3. Ink bottles and inkwells, William E. Covill Jr. 431 pages, currently the “bible” for students and collectors of ink bottles. $125.00. 4. Patent and Proprietary Medicine Bottles of the Nineteenth Century, Joseph K. Baldwin. 540 pages, a rare and very difficult book to find. $125.00. 5. The Glass Gaffers of New Jersey, (and their creations from 1739 to the present), c. 1971, Adeline Pepper. 330 pages, another very good reference book. $85.00. 6. Stiegel Glass, Frederick William Hunter, c.1950 (softcover). 270 pages, 169 illustrations including 16 in color. $20.00. 7. American Glass, Mary Harrod Northend, eight printing, June, 1944 (original copyright, 1926). 209 pages, many interesting illustrations. The pages and binding are in very good condition, the hardcover is generally faded with some wear. $10.00. All books are in good to very good condition with only reasonable and normal wear unless otherwise specified. In addition, we generally carry an inventory of many hard to find and out of print reference books on bottles. Please feel free to call with any special requests that you may have or items that you are searching for. Items will be shipped via regular 1 st class mail unless other arrangements have been made in advance. Shipping & insurance will be $7.50 for the first book, and $5.00 for each additional. Please send check or money order to: JOHN PASTOR, 7288 Thorncrest Dr. SE, Ada, MI 49301; Ph: (616) 285-7604.
Federation Goodies from the Past ~ Please Note: Prices include shipping ~ Commemorative Flasks - Fabulous Fakes! $8.50 ea.
1969 ABCA 10th “Success to the RR” Green; 1976 EXPO, St. Louis (Scroll) Blue, Amber, Olive, Aqua; 1988 EXPO, Las Vegas “Celebration of Am. Glass” Blue; 1994 FOHBC Nat’l, Cherry Hills, New Jersey; FOHBC 25th (free-blown date seal) Olive
EXPO & National Show Programs $5.30 ea. 1984 EXPO Souvenir Program, Montgomery, Alabama; 1988 EXPO Souvenir Program, Las Vegas, Nevada; 1994 National Souvenir Program, Cherry Hill, New Jersey 2001 National Auction Catalogs $4.30 ea. 1984 Update & Price Guide, C Ring & S Ray $3.30 ea. 116-pg. update to For Bitters Only by Carlyn Ring
FOHBC Decals $1.00 ea. Please specify INSIDE or OUTSIDE… FOHBC Pins & Buttons $3.00 ea. The Original Emblem, from the 1976 EXPO, St. Louis, Mo.; 1984 EXPO Button, Montgomery, Alabama (Very limited quantities); 1988 EXPO Pins, Las Vegas, Nevada T-Shirts, 1988 EXPO, Las Vegas 2 XL only! $10.50 ea. Back Issues: “Federation Journal” $13.30 ea. Spring 1974 (V2-1), Fall 1974 (V2-2) Spring 1975 (V3-1), Fall 1975 (V3-2) Back Issues: “Bottles & Extras” $5.30 ea. Only a few issues not available… Coffee Mugs (1992 EXPO) $7.50 ea.
Submit orders to: Federation Merchandise, c/o Kent Williams 1835 Oak Terrace, Newcastle, CA 95658
Special Offer - EXPO 2004 Souvenir Items EXPO T-Shirts picturing some of Memphisʼ finest bottles on the front and “Celebrating 50 Years of Rock and Roll” on the reverse are available. Beautiful! Sizes: L, XL and XXL EXPO Souvenir Program - This 72-page guide to the 2004 EXPO contains color photos of some of the finest bottles from the state of Tennessee, directory of EXPO dealers and collector ads, plus four articles about Tennessee Items and all the details regarding the show. Lovely! EXPO Auction Catalog - 78 lots pictured in full-color. Includes a listing of prices realized. Add this catalog to your reference library.
All three for $20.00 Postage Paid! To order, please contact: Ralph Van Brocklin 1021 W. Oakland Avenue, Suite #109 Johnson City, TN 37604 thegenuine@comcast.net
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Classified Ads BOOKS / PERIODICALS KETCHUP, PICKLES, SAUCES 19th Century Food in Glass 498 pages of pictures & research of glass containers the early food industry utilized.
Smyth Bound - $25.00 to: MARK WEST PUBLISHERS PO BOX 1914 SANDPOINT, ID 83864 FOR SALE: CD-rom on Dr. Hatchett’s Drug Store Museum of Lumpkin, Georgia. Descriptions of hundreds of pharmaceutical bottles, patent medicines, etc. – dating from late 19th to mid-20th century. Indexed by product and by manufacturer. Cost - $12. Available from Stewart County Historical Commission, P.O. Box 818, Lumpkin, GA 31515 or contact: ALLEN VEGOTSKY, 2215 Greencrest Dr., Atlanta, GA 303462629; PH: (770) 270-1034; E-mail: a.Vegotsky@att.net.
FOR SALE: GINGER BEER & ROOT BEER HERITAGE, 400 pages, all Photos are in full-color. $30.00 + $4.00 S/H. Contact: DON YATES, 8300 River Corners Road, Homerville, OH 44235; Phone: (330) 625-1025.
FOR SALE: A limited number of 2002 and 2003 Federation Auction catalogues with prices-realized lists are available at $5.00 each plus $2.00 postage. Full color and beautifully photographed they make a handy reference! Contact JOHN PASTOR, 7288 Thorncrest Drive SE, Ada, MI 49301; Phone: (616) 285-7604 or RALPH VAN BROCKLIN, 1021 W Oakland Avenue, #109, Johnson City, TN 37604; Phone: (423) 913-1378. FOR SALE: PEPSI-COLA BOTTLES & MORE: COLLECTOR’S GUIDE, VOL. 2 with prices. All Color! $35.00 + $3.95 Shipping. All new! Over 1500 bottles - 169 pages. Vol. 2 does not contain bottles shown in Vol. 1. Contact: James Ayers, RJM Enterprises, 5186 Claudville Hwy., Claudville, VA 24076.
INSURANCE for Bottles
Your homeowners insurance is rarely enough to cover your collectibles. Weʼve provided economical, dependable collectibles insurance since 1966. • Sample collector rates: $3,000 for $14; $10,000 for $38; $25,000 for $95; $50,000 for $190; $100,000 for $278; $200,000 for $418. Above $200,000, rate is $1.40 per $1000. • Our insurance carrier is AM Best’s rated A+ (Superior). • We insure antique to modern bottles (breakage included), and scores of other collectibles. “One-stop” service for practically everything you collect.. • Replacement value. We use expert/professional help valuing collectible losses. Consumer friendly service: Our office handles your loss - you won’t deal with a big insurer who does not know collectibles. • Detailed inventory and/or professional appraisal not required. Collectors list items over $5,000, dealers - no listing required. • See our website (or call, fax, E-mail us) for full information, including standard exclusions.
Collectibles Insurance Company P.O. Box 1200-FHBC - Westminster, MD 21158 E-mail: info@insurecollectibles.com
Call Toll-Free: 1-888-837-9537 - FAX (410) 489-5318 Need Info? Need a Rate Quote? Apply online.
Visit : www.collectinsure.com
FOR SALE: THE PILL ROLLERS, Third Edition, C.G. & L.C. Richardson. This is the only comprehensive book on apothecary antiques available to collectors with a serious interest in pharmaceutical antiques and collectibles. The book has 185 pages with 800 items illustrated. A separate price guide is included with the book price. The glossary includes information to help identify pharmaceutical artifacts including an extensive listing of names to help identify drug jar and apothecary bottle inscriptions. The price is $37.50, including shipping, and can be ordered from: CHARLES RICHARDSON, 1176 South Dogwood Drive, Harrisonburg, VA 22801. FOR SALE: FIRE GRENADE PRICE GUIDE - 122 grenade types priced from 400 auctions, 130 b/w illustions, 46 pages, $26.70 PP. Contact: RON FELDHAUS, 5117 W 92nd St, Minneapolis, MN 55437, or E-mail: vrfeldhaus@aol.com.
2001 EDITION ... “The Fruit Jar Collectorʼs Bible”
RedBook
9
Reflects Recent Price Influences of Auctions and the Internet, as well as Current Price Trends Soft Cover, 432 Pages Over 10,000 Entries $35 US - $40 Non-US - Post Paid Order from Author : DOUGLAS M. LEYBOURNE, JR. P.0. BOX 5417 - NORTH MUSKEGAN, MI 49445
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FOR SALE: Can you tell the “Real” from the “Repro”? Now you can with Tippecanoe & E. G. Booz Too! A book about cabin bottles, by Thomas C. Haunton. Detailed info on 57 different bottles, with new “McKearin” numbers, over 140 photos, and new information on E. G. Booz - the man! A price guide and free CD with 200 color photos are also included. Send $32.95 postpaid to: TOM HAUNTON, 48 Hancock Ave. #1, Medford, MA 02155-5621. E-mail: tchaunton@comcast.net FOR SALE: GEORGIA CROWN TOP BOTTLE BOOK. 260 pages with over 1400 bottles. Includes Georgia Bottling Works, 263 different Script straight-sided Coca-Cola bottles from Georgia, 236 different Georgia Chero-Cola bottles. Many others also listed. All Color! $39.95 + $3.95 Shipping. Send to: Georgia Soda Bottle Book, 1211 St. Andrews Drive, Douglas, GA 31533.
FOR SALE: Two books on whiskey jugs by Bottles and Extras writer Jack Sullivan. THE AMERICAN WHISKEY JUG features 200 richly illustrated pages with index. $20 plus $5 postage. THE WHISKEY CERAMICS OF SCOTLAND, IRELAND and ENGLAND features 100 pages with index. $10 plus $3 postage. Or buy both for $25 plus $5 postage. Contact: JACK SULLIVAN, 4300 Ivanhoe Pl., Alexandria, VA 22304; PH: (703) 370-3039; E-mail: jack.sullivan9@verizon.net. FOR SALE: COLLECTING APPLIED COLOR LABEL BOTTLES, Third Edition (2002). 1200 full-color photographs with over 1600 ACL soda bottles listed and over 1650 prices realized in an easy to read format. $45 includes postage Contact: KATHY HOPSON, 1966 King Springs Road, Johnson City, TN 37601; E-mail: kathy@thesodafizz.com. FOR SALE: “BOTTLE IDENTIFICATION AND PRICE GUIDE – 4 TH EDITION” The “BOTTLE BIBLE” for everyone – comprehensive, updated pricing guide, (3) new chapters: Cobalt Blue Medicine Bottles, Violin Bottles and Museum & Research Resources. Expanded & updated chapters: Determining Bottle Values, Trademark Identification, Dealer/Club Guide / Glossary / Auction Houses, Bibliography. 300 b/ w photos – 16 page color section - $21.00 (includes book/shipping/handling).
FOR SALE: “AMERICAN PATRIOTIC MEMORABILIA” Comprehensive Pricing Guide – 17 chapters including Uncle Sam items, political, folk art, flags, World War I & II posters, stamps, sheet music, advertising - $20.00 (includes book/shipping/handling). Check or money order to: MIKE POLAK, P.O. Box 30328, Long Beach, CA 90853; PH: (562) 438-9209; E-mail: bottleking@earthlink.net. FOR SALE: Now, finally available! BIG BOB BEST BITTERS is a comprehensive price guide for collectors of bitters bottles reporting auction prices realized for the last 17 years. This printing contains nearly 4000 accurately described bitters in a convenient, easy to read format. Listing bottle description and condition, Ring/Ham number, sale date and realized auction prices, this reference is a must-have for the collector or dealer of bitters bottles. To encourage your attendence at bottle shows, the price is an affordable $10. Price postage paid is $15. Send check or money order with your mailing instructions to: BOB STRICKHART, 3 Harvest Drive, Pennington, New Jersey 08534.
FOR SALE: A COLLECTOR'S GUIDE TO ARIZONA BOTTLE & STONEWARE - A HISTORY OF MERCHANT CONTAINERS IN ARIZONA 124 pages of very detailed sketches of bottles and stoneware from the state of Arizona (1999) Spiral bound, $25.00. Contact: MICHAEL MILLER, Miller Antiques, 9214 W. Gary Road, Peoria, AZ 85345, PH: (623) 486-3123 or by E-mail: gramike@earthlink.net.
FOR SALE ads are a benefit of FOHBC membership. Send YOUR free ad today!
MISCELLANEOUS $500.00 REWARD! for any information leading to the return of my stolen property, ie: WILLIAM GOEPPERT & SON, aqua, “champagne” top, quart beer from San Francisco, circa 1882. Please contact: DAVE ACORN, 11312 Cottontail Way, Penn Valley, CA 95946; PH: (530) 432-2111.
WANTED Wanted: Montana sodas - ACL Cleo Cola/Billings; embossed Apex Springs/ Dillon; embossed Hamilton Bottling Works; embossed Wolf Point Bottling Works; Niagara Bottling Works/Great Falls; ACL Big Chief/Missoula; ACL 5HI/ Plentywood. Contact: R.J. REID, 1102 East Babcock St., Bozeman, MT 59715; Ph: (406) 587-9602; E-mail: rjkreid@mcn.net Wanted: Moulton items! I collect bottles and related items with my name on them and am interested in purchasing anything which I do not have. Contact: TOM G. MOULTON, 1911 Preservation Dr., Plant City, FL 33566-0945; Ph: (813) 754-1396; or E-mail: corkscru1@aol.com. Info Wanted: I am researching pre-1906 dairies and milk dealers from San Francisco and would greatly appreciate any information you can share with me, especially regarding tin top milk bottles known or suspected to be from this city. Contact: KEN MORRILL, Ph: (831) 722-4740 or E-mail: arrowheadfarms@juno.com.
Wanted: Bottles, Flasks & Glass from the Connecticut glasshouses of Pitkin, Coventry, Willington, Westford and New London. Special emphasis on mold variations and unusual forms of freeblown utilities, chestnuts & globulars. Also wanted any freeblown New England tableware, pitchers, creamers, bowls, pans, rolling pins, etc... Contact: RICK CIRALLI c/o RCGLASS Toll free Ph: 866-332-6538; Fax: 860582-6594; E-mail: rciralli@eqcorp.com or richardciralli@sbcglobal.net. Wanted: HOTCHKISS PEPPERMINT BOTTLES: H. G. Hotchkiss, Lyons, NY; L. B. Hotchkiss, Phelps, NY; Also, Hale & Parshall, Lyons, NY; A.M. Todd, Kalamazoo, MI; Other Peppermint Bottles. Contact: RICHARD KELLEY, Ph: (315) 946-6316 or Email: kelleye@redsuspenders.com. FOR SALE and WANTED ads are a benefit of FOHBC membership. Send YOUR free ad today!
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Classified Ads
Wanted: CALIF. BEER’S - BOCA BEER QT., F.O.BRANDT HEALDSBURG Qt. PT., CAPITOL BOTTLING WORKS, QT. PT., PROPERTY OF FREY & CO. San Rafael, QT.PT., SANTA ROSA BOTTLING CO. QT., SEBASTOPOL BOTTLING WORKS, QT., SONOMA BOTTLING WORKS QT. PT. ½ PT., UKIAH BOTTLING WORKS, QT., WASSON’S BLOOD PURIFIER. Contact: RICHARD WASSON, 1162 Beaver St., Santa Rosa, CA 95404; Ph: (707) 542-3989; E-mail: richardwasson@sbcglobal.net. Wanted: Large aqua rectangular bottle, “DR. IRA BAKER’S / HONDURAS / SARSAPARILLA” in mint or near mint condition. Also looking for MONTANA bottles, OWL DRUG bottles, and LARGE size GILLETTS EXTRACT bottles with embossed picture of Owl. Contact: MARC LUTSKO, P.O. BOX 590, LIBBY, MONTANA 59923, Ph: (406) 293-4048 or E-mail: letsgo@montanasky.net.
Wanted: Cocaine bottle with the word “cocaine” embossed on it. A bottle with the label for “women’s weakness.” Contact: ELIZABETH SMALL, P.O. Box 362, Delaware Water Gap, PA 18327; Ph: (570) 223-6661; E-mail: donliz@ptd.net. Wanted: Oconomowoc Wisconsin Breweriana (anything with the word BEER on it from Oconomowoc Wisconsin Breweries. Contact: ROBERT E. JAEGER, 1380 W. Wisconsin Ave., Apt. 232, Oconomowoc, WI 53066.
est. 1979
Wanted: Stoneware: Pre-prohibition advertising jugs, crocks, pitchers, churns, rolling pins from all states and all sizes. Will pay premium prices for jugs from small towns and saloons. Also want preprohibition shot glasses, signs, corkscrews, tokens and back bar bottles. Contact: THOMAS NOEL, 1385 Norsworthy Rd., Kirksey, KY 42054; Ph: (270) 489-2440 or E-mail: jugging@mchsi.com.
Wanted: Wisconsin bottles, bitters, sodas, beers, whiskeys, colored druggists, cures, especially bitters, antique advertising from Wisconsin, especially beer advertising & stuff. I also collect figural bitters & whiskeys from anywhere. Contact: BILL MITCHELL, 703 Linwood Ave ., Stevens Point, WI 54481; Ph: (715) 341-6860 or (727) 319-2875 (FL). Wanted: Saratoga-type mineral waters and colored sodaas from N.Y. state. Especially looking for bottles from Sharon Springs, Cherry Valley, Richfield Springs and Cobleskill, N.Y. Also looking for T.J. Kilmers bottles from Schoharie, N.Y. Contact: JEFF ULLMAN, Ph: (518) 2341288 or E-mail: jullman@midtel.net. Wanted: These Western bottles - Dr. A. M. Loryea Unkweed Remedy; Wormser “horizontal embossing” flasks; Wonser’s Bitters; Cuudurango; Rosenbaums Bitters in green; W & B Shasta pontiled soda; unembossed quart ammonias in color. Contact: DALE MLASKO, P.O. Box 1142, Medford, OR 97501; Ph: (541) 6010245.
Full Colour BBR
The world’s first full color bottle magazine simply got BETTER and BIGGER PACKED FULL of all the information you need on the UK & worldwide scene Well-researched articles & All the latest finds Upcoming sales & Full show calendar “the classified ads alone make a subscription worthwhile, but the color pictures make it absolutely ESSENTIAL. Heck, what
1 year Air Mail subscription still just $20 - 2 years $40 Personal Check, MasterCard/Visa, even $ bills!
BBR, Elsecar Heritage Centre, Barnsley, 2, Yorkshire, S74 8HJ, England Tel: 011-44-1226-745156; Fax: 011-44-1226-361561
Wanted: Buying vintage Veterinary / Stockfood / Animal Medicinal advertising. Also Veterinary patent medicine - bottles with any labels, colorful boxes and tins. Booklets & paper ephemera. Contact: MIKE SMITH, 7431 Covington Hwy., Lithonia, GA 30058; Ph: (770) 4825100 (days); E-mail: petvet@mindspring.com. Wanted: Western whiskey bottles & gowiths, including shot glasses, advertising, letterheads. Also looking for car vases, hatpins, flower frogs & yard longs. When in northern Calif., stop & see my large collection of whiskies. Contact: KEN SCHWARTZ, P.O. Box 990956, Redding, CA 96099; Ph: (530) 365-5046. Wanted: Colored and picture blob beers from any state. Special interest in mint bottles witih closures. Contact: DAVID TINGEN, 9412 Greenfield Dr., Raleigh, NC 27615; Ph: (919) 848-4387; E-mail: tingen1@mindspring.com. Wanted: RABCA - Richmond Area Bottle Collectors Association is looking for new members interested in Va. bottles, related items, upcoming events, dig stories, completed auction sales, recently dug bottles and more. Contact us for a sample newsletter, “The Digger” and/or membership soon. Contact Editor: Rick Burchfield, 2702 Pineridge Ln., Powhatan, Va. 23139 Ph: (804) 598-8233 E-mail: FLASCHENJAGER@aol.com.
Canadian Bottle and Stoneware Collector
Canada’s quarterly bottle magazine now in its 7th Volume Year 1 year subscription costs $40 US Subscribe online!
CB and SC 102 Abbeyhill Drive Kanata, Ontario, Canada K2L 1H2 Check out our Web site: www.cbandsc.com
Bitters to ginger beers and everything in between!
E-mail: Info@cbandsc.com
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I am the cataloger of Tennessee trade tokens. My book TRADE TOKENS OF TENNESSEE is sold out. The book is constantly being updated. Any help with the historical undertaking, by sending me any information on tokens, will deeply be appreciated. I also collect tokens and would appreciate the opportunity to buy/trade for tokens that I need. Also, wanted are Tennessee Centennial items, Natiional Banknotes and obsolete banknotes, replies will be answered. Feel free to write, call or E-mail me: JOE COPELAND, P.O. Box 4221, Oak Ridge, TN 37831 Ph: (865) 482-4215; E-mail: joecopeland@comcast.net
McMURRAY ANTIQUES & AUCTIONS Specializing in Drugstore, Apothecary and Country Store Antiques and Collectibles
A Leader in the Field - Conducting 3 Cataloged Auctions Annually Collector of Dr. Kilmer Swamp-Root and Patent Medicine Bottles & Advertising Always Buying One Piece or Entire Collections
TERRY MCMURRAY P.O. Box 393 - Kirkwood, NY 13795 Phone: (607) 775-5972 - Fax: (607) 775-2321
JARX DOCTOR YOUR COMPLETE SOURCE FOR JAR, BOTTLE AND INSULATOR
CLEANING EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES
CLEANING CANISTERS Designed to safely and professionally clean inside, outside and base - all at one time. Available in White & Clear PVC (3” through 6” ID) Prices ranging from $85.00 to $125.00
CLEANING MACHINES Units available, starting at $160.00
OXIDES Aluminum, Cerium, Tin, Silicon Carbide TUMBLING COPPER New 12-gauge chisel point in 3 sizes Copper Wire: $3.75/lb.
Payment by Major Credit Card or PayPal
CUSTOM GLASS CLEANING
Including bottles, decanters, insulators, jars, lamps, pitchers, vases ...almost anything glass that needs cleaning. Two pricing options: 1) Uninsured option: $15.00 for polish - $25.00 for cutting (etching and scratch removal) *customer assumes all risk for breakage and/or damage 2) Insured option: Round Items: Cost is 4% of agreed upon value of the piece in addition to the normal cleaning charge. Odd Shapes: (not limited to square, rectangle, etc.): Cost is 6% of the agreed upon value of the piece in addition to the normal cleaning charge. Piece must pass inspection - no cracks, potstones or thin glass If breakage does occur during the cleaning process; insured will be paid agreed upon value and piece will not be returned or a negotiated amount will be paid in exchange for the item.
Postage is paid by customer both ways, regardless of option. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT:
R. Wayne Lowry 401 Johnston Ct., Raymore, MO 64083 E-mail: JarDoctor@aol.com Website: www.jardoctor.com (816) 318-0161 FAX: (816) 318-0162
SHOPS AND SERVICES CHAPEL ANTIQUES Specializing in antique furniture, bottles, Western Relics, Victorian glass collectibles, etc. Contact: CHAPEL ANTIQUES, 112 N. Curry St., Carson City, NV 89703; PH: (775) 885-8511
SPRING STEEL PROBES
Length 36” to 48” Diameter 1/4” to 5/16” “T” Handle 1” Dia. x 12” and Ring 4” above tip, both welded. $37.50 includes S/H $3 Extra for Rush Shipping Cashier Check or M.O. R. L. Wilcox 7422 Park Drive Mechanicsville, VA 23111 Phone: (804) 746-9854 or E-mail: Wilcox7422@aol.com
Churchillʼs Antique Bottle Cleaning Service Introductory Offer: Will clean one bottle at no charge ! (minus postage) Try me fee free! Less than 10 bottles: $15 each. 10-14: $12.50 each. More than 15: $10.00 each.
MARK CHURCHILL
PO Box 7023 Grand Rapids, MI 49510
(616) 248-3808 E-mail: mdiscoidalis@netzero.net
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FOHBC SHO-BIZ FOHBC Sho-Biz is published in the interest of the hobby. Federation affiliated clubs are noted. Information on up-coming collecting events is welcome, but space is limited. Please send at least four months in advance, including telephone number, to: FOHBC Sho-Biz, c/o Ron Rasnake, 6301 Lilyan Parkway, Fort Pierce, FL 34951, or E-mail: RonOldGins@bellsouth.net. Show schedules are subject to change. Please call ahead before traveling long distances. All listings published here will also be published on our web site at http://www.fohbc.com.
APRIL APRIL 2 - KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN Kalamazoo Antique Bottle & Glass 26th Annual Show & Michigan’s largest bottle show (Sat. 10 AM - 3 PM) at the Kalamazoo County Fairgrounds, 2900 Lake Street, Kalamazoo, Michigan. INFO: JOHN PASTOR, 7288 Thorncrest Dr. SE, Ada, MI 49301; PH: (616) 285-7604; E-mail: jpastor2000@msn.com or MARK MCNEE, PH: (269) 343-8393. APRIL 2 NATRONA HEIGHTS, PENNSYLVANIA Western Reserve Insulator Club’s Allegheny Valley Insulator Show & Sale (Sat. 9 AM - 3 PM; dealer setup, 7-9 AM) at VFW Post #894 (Rte. 28, Exit 16 / Freeport, follow to Natrona Hts., right at blinking stop light / Freeport Rd, right at first signal to VFW), Natrona Heights, Pennsylvania. INFO: RON BARTH, PH: (724) 845-8439, E-mail: rktbarth@kiski.net. APRIL 2 - WHEATON, ILLINOIS Antique Insulator & Lightning Rod Ball Show (formerly the Collectors’ Jubilee) (Sat. 7 AM - 4:30 PM) at the DuPage County Fairgrounds, 2015 Manchester Rd., Wheaton, IL. INFO: JASON TOWNSEND, PH: (630) 667-3357. APRIL 3 - SYRACUSE, NEW YORK The Empire State Bottle Collectors Association’s 35th Annual Spring Show & Sale (Sun. 9 AM - 3 PM; $2 donation, children under 12 free) at the American Legion Valley Post # 1468, 110 Academy Street (1/2-mile west of Rte., just off Seneca Turnpike), Syracuse, New York. Featuring antique bottles, go-withs, table top collectibles. Free parking, no early admission, Appraisal Table - limit 3 items. INFO: JOHN & CAROL SPELLMAN, P.O. Box 61, Savannah, NY 13146; PH: (315) 365-3156; E-mail: spellmanjc@tds.net; Website: http:// esbca.org. APRIL 3 - WAYNE, NEW JERSEY The 7th Annual Metro Vintage Advertising Collectors Show (Sun. 8 AM - 2 PM, $4 donation to benefit Eastern Christian Children’s Retreat, children under 14 free) at the Wayne P.A.L., Parish Drive (I-80 or I-287 to Route 23/Lincoln Park/Rte. 202 Exit, follow signs to hall), Wayne, New Jersey. New this year: Adjoining general flea market and collectibles show, paved parking, cafeteria, ATM, nearby motels. INFO: ED NATALE, Box 222, Wyckoff, NJ 07481; PH: (201) 4937172.
APRIL 3 SOMERSWORTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE New England Antique Bottle Club’s 39 th Annual Show & Sale (Sun. 9 AM – 2 PM, early admission 8 AM) at the Great Bay Gallery, 25 Willand Dr., Somersworth, NH. INFO: GERRY SIROIS, PH: (207) 773-0148 or JACK PELLETIER, PH: (207) 839-4389. APRIL 8 - 9 WAYNESBORO, NORTH CAROLINA The Western North Carolina Antique Bottle & Collectibles Club’s 13th Annual Antique Bottle & Collectibles Show & Sale (Fri. Noon - 7 PM, Sat. 8 AM — 2 PM; Setup, Fri. 11 AM - Noon, Sat. 7 AM - 8 AM) at the Haywood County Fairgrounds (I-40, Exit 24, South on Hwy 209 to Lake Junaluska), Waynesboro, North Carolina. INFO: TIM BRANCH, PH: (828) 669-5486; Website: www.antiquebottles.com/wncabcc/ APRIL 8 - 9 MORRO BAY, CALIFORNIA San Luis Obispo Bottle Society’s Antique Bottle Show & Sale (Fri. Noon - 10 PM, Sat. 9 AM - 5 PM) at the Morro Bay Veterans Hall, Morro Bay, CA. INFO: DICK TARTAGLIA, 1546 Hillcrest Pl., San Luis Obispo, CA 93401, PH: (805) 543-7484. APRIL 10 BLOOMINGTON, MINNESOTA North Star Historical Bottle Assn. & Minnesota’s First Antique Bottle Club’s 34th Annual Show & Sale (Sun, 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM) at the Days Inn, 1901 Killebrew Dr., Bloomington, Minnesota. INFO: DOUG SHILSON, 3308 32nd Ave., So. Minneapolis, MN 55406, PH: (612) 721-4165 E-mail: bittersdug@aol.com or STEVE KETCHAM, Box 24114, Edina, MN. 55424, PH: (952) 920-4205, E-mail: s.ketcham@uniquesoftware.com. APRIL 10 - ENFIELD, CONNECTICUT The Yankee Pole Cat Insulator Club’s Insulator, Bottle & Tabletop Collectibles Show & Sale (Sun. 8 AM - 2 PM, Free Admission) at the American Legion Hall, 566 Enfield Street (US Route 5, Exit 49 off I-91), Enfield, Connecticut. INFO: JOHN RAJPOLT, 17 Pheasant Lane, Monroe, CT 06468; PH: (203) 261-1190; E-mail: rajpolt@earthlink.net. APRIL 10 WEST SWANZEY, NEW HAMPSHIRE Gallery at Knotty Pine’s 11th Annual Antique Bottle Show & Sale (Sun. 10 AM – 1 PM, early admission 9 AM) at the Knotty Pine
Antique Market, Route 10, West Swanzey, NH. INFO: JOAN E. PAPPAS, PH: (603) 3525252. APRIL 17 - ROCHESTER, NEW YORK The Genesee Valley Bottle Collector’s 36th Annual Bottle, Antiques & Collectibles Show & Sale (Sun. 9 AM - 3 PM) at the ESL Sports Centre, Monroe Community College Campus, 2700 Brighton Henrietta Town Line Road, Rochester, New York. INFO: DON ANGELINI, PH: (585) 265-9516, E-mail: ange63@frontiernet.net; Chairman LARRY FOX, PH: (585) 394-8958, E-mail: brerfox@frontiernet.net; Website: www.gvbca.org. APRIL 22-23 - VALLEJO, CALIFORNIA Golden Gate Historical Bottle Society’s 39th Annual Show & Sale (Sat. 9 AM – 3 PM, early admission Fri. 1 PM – 6 PM) at the Solano County Fairgrounds McCormack Hall, 900 Fairgrounds Dr., Vallejo, CA. INFO: GARY or DARLA ANTONE, 752 Murdell Lane, Livermore, CA 94550-5104, PH: (925-3736758, E-mail: packrat49er@netscape.net APRIL 23 - PERTH, ONTARIO, CANADA Ottawa Valley Insulator Collectors 7th Annual OVIC Insulator Show & Sale (Sat. 10 AM - 2 PM) at the Lions Hall at the Perth Fairgrounds, Perth, Ontario, Canada. INFO: ROBIN PLEWES, PH: (613) 256-7638; Email: robin.plewes@cmcelectronics.ca; Website: www.insulators.com/clubs/ovic. . APRIL 24 WASHINGTON, PENNSYLVANIA The Washington County Antique Bottle Club’s 31st Antique Bottle Show (Sun. 9 AM - 3 PM, donation $3) at the Alpine Star Lodge, 735 Jefferson Ave., Washington, Pennsylvania. (From I-70, exit 17) INFO: NIGEL DUNMORE, 121 Highland Ave., Avella, PA 15312; PH: (724) 587-5217; E-mail: l e g i n 1 2 4 7 @ m s n . c o m . APRIL 24 - HARRISONBURG, VIRGINIA The Historical Bottle-Diggers of Virginia 24th Annual Antique Bottle & Collectible Show & Sale (9 AM - 3 PM) at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds, (US Rt. 11 South, Exit 243 off I-81). INFO: SONNY SMILEY, PH: (540) 434-1129 or E-mail: lithiaman1@yahoo.com. APRIL 30 - MANSFIELD, OHIO The Ohio Bottle Club’s 27th Antique Bottle & Advertising Show & Sale (Sat. 9 AM - 3 PM; early admission & dealer set-up, Fri. 2-6 PM) at the Richland County Fairgrounds, U.S.
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THE STATE OF FRANKLIN ANTIQUE BOTTLE & COLLECTIBLES ASSOCIATION PRESENTS ITS 7th ANNUAL SHOW
MAY 6th & 7th, 2005 APPALACHIAN FAIRGROUNDS GRAY, TENNESSEE Friday, May 6th 12 PM - 6 PM Setup Early Buyers: $10
Saturday, May 7th 8 AM - 2 PM Free Admission
Fellow Collectors and Dealers: Our show will be in the Farm & Home Buliding at the Appalachian Fairgrounds in Gray, TN. We have over 200 tables available, plus unlimited room at the fairgrounds to grow. We are centrally located, close to I-81 and I-26, with reasonably priced accomodations within a few minutes. When you purchase your first table at $25, you get a meal and all the fun you can stand! This is the perfect place for northern & southern dealers to get together to sell, trade or buy; but we need YOU - the dealers & collectors, to make this show great. On eBay, you can buy and sell, but you can始t see old friends, meet new people and get a wealth of information. Don始t miss the opportunity to be part of this show. For more information, contact: Melissa Milner Phone: (423) 928-4445 or E-mail: mmilner12@chartertn.net
POSTCARDS MARBLES FLASKS PHILA & NY BOTTLES MEDICINES DRUG STORE BOTTLES
JERSEY SHORE BOTTLE CLUB始s 33rd ANNUAL
MILKS SODAS BITTERS CURES LOCAL BOTTLES INKS
ANTIQUE BOTTLES POSTCARDS - LOCAL MEMORABILIA
SHOW & SALE
SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2005 BRICK ELKS 2491 Hooper Ave., Brick, N.J. 08723 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM Donation $3 No Early Admission
For table contracts or Info, conact: Richard Peal 720 Eastern Lane, Brick, NJ 08723 (732) 267-2528 or boxcar1@att.net
www.geocities.com/dtripet2000/jsbc.html
O. B. C. A. ANTIQUE BOTTLE & COLLECTIBLE SHOW & SALE Oregon Bottle Collectors Association presents The 2005 Show & Sale beginning SAT., June 4th, at the National Guard Armory, located just off of Marine Dr., at 10000 NE 33rd Dr., Portland, Oregon ***NOTE: New Location*** Set-up and Early Birds begins Sat., June 4th *** Dealer Drop Off at 12 Noon*** Set-up / Early Birds 1 - 7 PM Set-up and Early Birds 7-9 PM for Sunday, June 5th
***In Conjunction with the Portland Collectors Market***
General Admission - SUNDAY, June 5th 9 AM - 3 PM Early Bird Admission $5 Regular Admission $1
Free Parking!! Free RV Parking!!
For more information and/or table reservations, contact: Jim or Julie Dennis (541) 467-2760 jmdennis@hotmail.com
Bottles and Extras
Spring 2005
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~ RENO ~
Antique Bottle & Collectibles Club 43rd Annual Show & Sale
Saturday July 23, 2005
Reno/Sparks Convention Center 4590 South Virginia Street North Entrance Saturday Show: 9:00 A.M - 3:00 P.M. Admission $3.00 Friday Dealer Setup; 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. Friday Early Bird: 12 P.M. to 6 P.M. $10
Show Info: Willy Young (775) 746-0922 Reservations: Helen Walker (775) 345-0171
Over 100 Tables !
BOTTLES - COINS - TOKENS ADVERTISING - INSULATORS ANTIQUES - AND MORE!
Route 30 (Trimble Road exit), Mansfield, Ohio. INFO: RON HANDS, PH: (330) 6341977, E-mail: rshands225@yahoo.com. APRIL 30 PANAMA CITY BEACH, FLORIDA The Emerald Coast Bottle Collector’s, Inc.’s 8th Annual Antique Bottle Show (Sat. 9 AM 3 PM) at the Panama City Beach Recreational Complex, HWY 98, Panama Beach, Florida. INFO: BOBBY OR DEANNE VAUGHN, PH: (334) 684-0518, E-mail: deanne_vaughn@yahoo.com or ALAN MCCARTHY, PH: (850) 769-3984, E-mail: kajacanal@knology.net. MAY MAY 1 - UTICA, NEW YORK Mohawk Valley Antique Bottle Club’s 11th Annual Show & Sale (Sun. 9 AM - 2:30 PM) at the Herkimer County Fairgrounds, Route 5S & Cemetery Rd. (5 miles East of Utica), Frankfort, NY. INFO: PETER BLEIBERG, 7 White Pine Rd., New Hartford, NY 13413, PH: (315) 735-5430, E-mail: PMBleiberg@aol.com. MAY 6-7 - GRAY, TENNESSEE The State of Franklin Antique Bottle & Collectibles Association’s 7th Annual Show & Sale (Fri. set-up & early buyers - $10 Adm. - 12 PM - 6 PM with dinner for dealers &
early buyers at 6:15 PM; Sat. 8 AM - 2 PM, open to public, free admission) at the Gray Fairgrounds, Gray Tennessee. INFO: MELISSA MILNER, PH: (423) 928-4445; E-mail:mmilner12@chartertn.net or PEGGY COX, PH: (423) 349-4027; E-mail:cknhs@comcast.net. MAY 6-7 ~ CHEHALIS, WASHINGTON The Washington Bottle Collector Association Bottle & Insulator Show (Fri. 1-7 PM; Sat. 9 AM - 4 PM) at the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds, Chehalis. Washington. INFO: WARREN LHOTKA, PH: (206) 320-8412; E-mail: wlbottleguy@yahoo.com, or ROBIN HARRISON, PH: (206) 522-2135, E-mail: robin 3 2 5 0 @ c o mc a s t. n e t. MAY 7 - TULETA, TEXAS Three Rivers Bottle and Jar Show, Sale & Trade Day (Sat.) at the Historic Park Hotel Antiques Shoppe, 8937 N. Highway 181, Tuleta, TX. INFO: ELIZABETH, PH: (361) 375-2558. MAY 14 - GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA The Matheson Museum’s 4th Annual Bottle Show & Sale (Sat. 9 AM - 3 PM, Adm. $1, early admission Fri. 5-7 PM & Sat. 8-9 AM, $6) at the Matheson Museum, 513 E. University Ave., Gainesville, Florida. A number of collectors from around the state will
be present to show and sell antique bottles from Alachua County and beyond. Many of the vendors have collections that represent the County’s rich history of the bottling industry. INFO: MATHESON MUSEUM, PH: (352) 378-2280. MAY 20 -21 - CAYUCOS, CALIFORNIA Central and Southern Counties Insulator Club’s 13th Annual Great Insulator Show and Barbecue (Fri. 2 PM - 8 PM; Sat. 9 AM - 3 PM; Barbeque: 3:15 - 4:30. Barbecue is free to paid members & their minor children. Cost: $7 per person for everyone else.) at the Lions Veteran Hall, 10 Cayucos Drive (at the pier), Cayucos, California. INFO: PAUL ALLEESON, 1766 First St. #D, Simi Valley, CA 93065; PH: (805) 527-1770; or DWAYNE ANTHONY, PH: (909) 862-9279; E-mail: insulators@open-wire.com. MAY 21 - COVENTRY, CONNECTICUT Museum of Connecticut Glass 1 st Annual Antique Bottle & Glass Outdoor Tailgate Show & Sale (Sat. 9 AM – 1 PM, early admission 8 AM) at the Museum of Connecticut Glass, Route 44 & North River Rd., Coventry, CT. INFO: JAN RATUSHNY, P. O. Box 242, Eastford, CT 06242, PH: (860) 428-4585, E-mail: janratushny@aol.com.
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MAY 21 - STOCKBRIDGE, GEORGIA Dixie Jewels Insulator Club’s Spring Swap Meet (Sat. 9 AM - late afternoon) at the home of Dudley & Sandy Ellis, 131 Plantation Way, Stockbridge, GA 30281. INFO: DUDLEY & SANDY ELLIS, PH: (770) 957-9928, E-mail: pony102@bellsouth.net. MAY 22 - BRICK, NEW JERSEY The Jersey Shore Bottle Club Antique Bottles, Postcards and Local Memorabilia (Sun. 9 AM - 2 PM) at the Bricks Elks Lodge, 2491 Hooper Ave., Brick, New Jersey 08723. INFO: RICH PEAL, PH: (732) 267-2528 or E-mail: boxcar1@worldnet.att.net. JUNE JUNE 3-4 LUMBERTON, NORTH CAROLINA The Robeson Antique Bottle Club Annual Show & Sale (Fri. 3 PM - 9 PM, Sat. 9 AM - 3 PM) at the Farmer’s Market & Expo Center, Exit 14 off I-95, Lumberton, North Carolina. INFO: RICHARD STEPHENS, 1830 Riverside Blvd., Lumberton, NC 28358, PH: (910) 738-6075, E-mail: rhstep@nc.rr.com or PAUL VALENI, PH: (910) 738-3074, E-mail: cbxley@nc.rr.com. JUNE 3–4 - UNION, OHIO The 11th Annual Hog Roast & Insulator Swap including lightning rod & other vintage collectibles (Fri. 5 PM -?, Sat. 8AM - 2PM) at the home of Alan Stastny, 6010 N. Montgomery County Line Rd. West, Union, OH. INFO: ALAN STASTNY, PH: (937) 836-4691. JUNE 5 - MILLVILLE, NEW JERSEY Wheaton Village Antique Bottle Show (Sun. 10 AM - 4 PM) at Wheaton Village, 1501 Glasstown Rd. (Rt. 55 South exit 26), Millville, NJ. INFO: DORIS ABELING, PH: (856) 825-6800 Ext. 104, E-mail: dabeling@wheatonvillage.org, Website: www.wheatonvillage.org.
ANTIQUE BOTTLE COLLECTORS OF COLORADO SHOW Antiques
Glassware
Old Bottles
Collectibles
Paper
Photo Courtesy of Chris Buys: Historic Leadville in Rare Photographs & Drawings
HISTORIC LEADVILLE JULY 30 9 AM to 4 PM $2 Adm. Dealer Setup: 6 AM
National Mining Hall of Fame & Museum Convention Center 117 10th Street
INFO: Jim & Barbara Sundquist (303) 674-4658
Bottles and Extras
JUNE 26 - CHEVERLY, MARYLAND Potomac Bottle Collector’s Annual Show & Sale (Sun. 9 AM - 3 PM) at American Legion Post 108, 3608 Legion Dr., Cheverly, MD. INFO: JIM SEARS, 4211 N. 2nd Rd., Apt. 1, Arlington, VA 22203, PH: (703) 243-2409, E-mail: searsjim@usa.net or ANDY GOLDFRANK, PH: (202) 258-2389, E-mail: amg_sticky@yahoo.com, Website: http:// members.aol.com/potomacbtl/bottle2.htm. JULY JULY 8 - 10 - SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA The 36th Annual National Insulator Association Convention at the DoubleTree Hotel, 1-800-222-TREE (1/2 mile away from the San Jose International Airport) INFO: DAVE ELLIOTT, PH: (650) 988-1893; E-mail pabell121 @yahoo.com or COLIN JUNG, PH: (408) 732-8736; E-mail: muddhogg99@hotmail.com and the Nor-Cal Insulator Club. Information is also available on the internet at the http:// www.peninsulators.org/2005.html and the http://www.nia.org websites. SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER 23-24 JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA The Antique Bottle Collectors of North Florida’s 38th Annual Show & Sale (Sat. 8 AM - 3 PM; Fri. setup, 4PM and early buyers, 6-9 PM, Sat. 7-9 AM) INFO: WAYNE HARDIN, 3867 Winter Berry Rd., Jacksonville, FL 32210; PH: (904) 781-2620; E-mail: abcnf@juno.com or Website: www.waynesbottles.com/show to print show application and flyer info. SEPTEMBER 29-OCTOBER 1 MARTINSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA The Chesapeake Bay Insulator Club presents the NIA Eastern Region Show and Convention (Fri. 9 AM - 4 PM, Sat. 9 AM - 1 PM; Setup Thurs. 5-8 PM, Fri. 7-9 AM, Sat. 7-9 AM; Banquet Fri. 4 PM) at the Holiday Inn-Martinsburg, 301 Foxcroft Ave. (I-81, Exit 13), Martinsburg, West Virginia. INFO: JEFF HOLLIS, 56 Corning Way, Martinsburg, W.Va. 25401; PH: (304) 263-6140; E-mail: wvacampfire@cs.com; Website: www.insulators.com/clubs/cbic. OCTOBER OCTOBER 1 - HAMBURG, NEW YORK The Greater Buffalo Bottle Collectors Association’s Antique Bottle Show (Sat. 9 AM - 3 PM, Adm. $2) at the Expo Hall, Hamburg, New York Fairgrounds, Harnburg, New York. INFO: PETER JABLONSKI (Show Chairman), PH: (716) 440-7985 or ED POTTER (Dealer Chairman), 82 Gabrielle St., Cheektowaga, NY 14227, PH: (716) 6748890.
To get your show listed in the publication as well as on the website, send at least 4 months in advance, or as soon as you know the date - so it can appear as soon as possible to: Show Biz / Ron Rasnake 6301 Lilyan Parkway, Fort Pierce, FL 34951 E-mail: RonOldGins@bellsouth.net or Webmaster/Editor - Kathy Hopson 1966 King Springs Road, Johnson City, TN 37601 E-mail: kathy@thesodafizz.com (423) 737-6710
The Show Calendar is always up-to-date on the website: http://www.fohbc.com/ FOHBC_ShowCalendar.html
Have You Been to Our Website?
You’ll be surpised how much we have to offer at americanbottle.com! Along with the current auction, we also have results from the previous auctions, with loads of information and picures of bottles and that’s just the beginning. We also have sections on collecting glass, the history of glass and an extensive list of bottle books available and other links that will bring you to even more bottle websites. We also have directions on consigning bottles, packing and shipping them and even how we can help you do all of it!
So visit our website at americanbottle.com and we think you’ll be glad you did. If you have a bottle you’re wondering about, simply enter a name in our search engine and see what you find. Have questions you can’t find on our site? Give us a call. We’ll be happy to answer any question or give you a free appraisal. After all, we’re America’s Bottle Auction and we’re proud of it. American Bottle Auctions 2523 J Street, Suite 203 Sacramento, CA 95816 1800-806-7722 americanbottle.com info@americanbottle.com
Louisville Glass Factories Part 1 Page 45
Stendhal始s Syndrome Page 72 Page 66
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Bottles & Extras FOHBC c/o Ralph Van Brocklin 1021 W. Oakland Avenue, Suite #109 Johnson City, TN 37604
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Indelible Ink Page 34 PERIIODICALS
POSTAGE PAID Johnson City, TN 37601