Antique Bottle & Glass Collector by Ferdinand Meyer V

$4.00

November 2020

Two Pits Before Lockdown w PAGE 29

IN THIS ISSUE:

New Jersey Bitters and Hostetter's w PAGE 7

Hop on Over to Australia w PAGE 11

Can’t Breathe? Try Some Victorian Relief w PAGE 13

Still Digging into a Lash’s Mystery w PAGE 39

T h e Ma g a z i n e T h at Ke eps Yo u I n fo r m e d!

Don’t miss our Auction #27 – Coming November 9, 2020

American Glass Gallery

Auction #27 will include a diverse selection of more than 250 lots including Historical Flasks, Midwestern Pattern Molded, Bitters, Pontiled Medicines, Sodas and Mineral Water Bottles, Whiskeys and Spirits, Blown Glass, and much more! Full-color catalogs for this sale are only $15.00 (post-paid). Call, or visit our website to reserve your copy!

These items and many more, will be included in our upcoming Auction #27.

American Glass Gallery • John R. Pastor • P.O. Box 227, New Hudson, Michigan 48165 phone: 248.486.0530 • www.americanglassgallery.com • email: jpastor@americanglassgallery.com

VOLUME 37, #7 • November 2020 FRONT COVER:

Rick Weiner (right), and his friend Damian, bottle diggers extraordinaire, are at it again. Rick walks us through some of his digging adventures, and misadventures, in the article "Two Pits Before Lockdown." Read all about it beginning on page 29.

Publisher John R. Pastor

In This Issue:

Editors: Ralph Finch Bill Baab Jodi Hall

Letters to the Editor........................................................................... 2

Managing Editor Libby Smith The Medicine Chest John Panella Joe Widman American Historical Flasks Mark Vuono New England Review Mike George Bitters Columnist Bob Strickhart Spouting off on Mineral Waters Donald Tucker Contributing Writers: Ralph Finch Kevin Sives

Heard it through the Grapevine......................................................... 4 New Jersey Bitters and Hostetter's..................................................... 7 Hop on Over to Australia................................................................. 11 Can’t Breathe? Try Some Victorian Relief........................................ 13 Fruit Jar Rambles: Amber Longlife Jars........................................... 17 Classified Advertisements................................................................. 22 Show Calendar.................................................................................. 26 Antique Glass in Australia?............................................................... 28 Two Pits Before Lockdown............................................................... 29

Design, Layout & Production Jake Pluta

Still Digging into a Lash’s Mystery.................................................. 39

ANTIQUE BOTTLE & GLASS COLLECTOR (ISSN 8750-1481) is published monthly by Antique Bottle & Glass Collector, P.O. Box 227, New Hudson, MI 48165-0227. Annual Subscription $35.00 at periodical rates, $49.00 at First-class rates and $4.00 per single copy. Canadian (First-class rate available only) $54.00 (in U.S. Funds). Overseas rates please inquire. Published by Antique Bottle & Glass Collector, PO Box 227, New Hudson, MI 48165-0227. Periodicals Postage is paid at New Hudson MI and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to ANTIQUE BOTTLE & GLASS COLLECTOR, PO Box 227, New Hudson, MI 48165-0227. PH: 248.486.0530; Fax: 248.486.0538, Email: jpastor@americanglassgallery.com, Website: www.americanglassgallery.com.

Coming in December:

Medicine Chest: Rheumatism.......................................................... 40

A Visit From Old Saint Nick, by Bob Strickhart Thomas Martindale and the Hunter's Jugs, by Jack Sullivan Orangeine: Quack Medicine Killer Extraordinaire, by Mike Beardsley Fruit Jar Rambles: Pottery Globe Jars, by Tom Caniff Medicine Chest: Rheumatism - Part 2, by John Panella and Joe Widman And other very cool stuff! November 2020

LETTERS

to the Editor

Yellow American Life: The Rest of the Story Hi, John,

Remember the Mampe Bottle Hi, John, In July you had a very interesting article by Frank and Frank Jr. Wicker about the firm of Dr. Carl Mampe. I recently was lucky to acquire this Mampe bottle with the elephant trademark on both sides.

Here is the story about the American Life Bitters from the Ballentine collection. I got a call one day from a friend of my sister-in-law who said she had a bottle she wanted to sell. I believe this was around 1977 or ’78. I went to her house and sitting on top of her refrigerator was a yellowish bottle shaped like a cabin.

Thanks for your help. Regards,

She knew I liked bottles and I thought to myself this could be a good one. We settled on a price of a few hundred dollars. At the time I was teaching school, while my wife stayed home with the small children. Even though I collected bottles and other antiques, I was tempted to make a quick profit. What if I could triple my investment in one day?

Horst Klusmeier Dusseldorf, Germany

I knew Mary Ballantine well. She lived about ten minutes from my house. Mary

In thirty years of collecting I’ve never seen or heard of this bottle. Would you please be so kind and forward this picture to the Franks with the question if they are familiar with this example?

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

came to the door when I knocked. I said, “Mary, would you be interested in this bottle I have for sale?” She said yes, and we made the deal. If I remember right I heard her husband Paul was a little irritated at the purchase. I found out a few years later that the yellow American Life bitters was considered to be one of the special items in Mary’s collection. Pictured (above) is the New Carlisle, Ohio, Kennedy farmstead home of the Ballentine’s American Life Bitters. There was a Kennedy, I believe, involved in the patent of this bitters but I do not know if there was a connection. The bottle sold in September 2020 in the Glassworks auction for $49,000, including sale premium. It was exciting being a part of this bottle’s story. Paul Snyder New Carlisle, Ohio

LETTERS

to the Editor

country my great grandparents adopted and dearly loved. Also included on the front of the piece are my name, the first initials of my son, Noah, and my daughter, Christina, and the town we now live in, Latham, N.Y. Jim had once again exceeded my expectations and I was overcome with joy and emotion and did my best to express my heartfelt appreciation to him. This is a piece that I will treasure for the rest of my life, and that my children and their children will enjoy for generations.

Jim Healy holding the special presentation jug that he made for John Savastio.

I will close by reiterating my enthusiastic recommendation for Jim Healy’s talent for any seeking stoneware repair or to have a remarkable fantasy piece created for them.

‘Stoneware Doctor’ Creates Fantasy Jug

John Savastio Latham, N.Y.

Dear John,

Holy, Moses! What a History

Thanks to you and the staff at AB&GC for the wonderful job of putting together and laying out my article, The Stoneware Doctor, in the September 2020 issue. A few weeks after receiving the magazine, I was at the Sunday, Sept. 13 Capital Region Antique Bottle & Insulator Club outdoor bottle show at Mabee Farm in Rotterdam Junction, N.Y.

Hi, John,

While there, I visited the table of the Stoneware Doctor himself, Jim Healy, and was thrilled to pick up a fantasy jug I had commissioned a few months earlier. This piece honors my great grandparents, Rocco and Angelina Savastio, who immigrated to the United States with their young family from Italy in 1887. The vessel, which is from that period, features a masterfully executed Italian sparrow in the center, the national bird of Italy. Additionally, Jim added 13 stars to pay tribute to the original 13 states of the

I found this bottle in an antique shop several years ago, and was intrigued because I had never seen one before. I have always liked the Moses bottles, both the water and the gin, but I never saw one in carnival glass. It wasn’t expensive, so it came home to join the others on the shelf. I am not a researcher, so I did not make an effort to find out about it. Over the years I have mentioned it to various people I have met, and no one had ever heard of one. I finally called the Poland Springs Museum and their resident expert did not know of any other, so thought it was just content stain. I think that after fifty years of collecting I’d know the difference. The marks on the bottom indicate it was made by Anchor

Hocking in September 1941. I suspect it was a prototype for a promotion that did not happen because of WW II. It has the Federal Law Prohibits warning appropriate to the time and the embossing is strong. If any of your readers has any knowledge of this bottle I would be glad to hear it. George Oglesby Lakehurst, N.J. Editor’s note: The Salem Glass Works had a long history of glassmaking, beginning in 1862 and running until it sold to the Anchor Cap and Closure Co. in 1934. For the grand opening of the new Poland Spring House in 1876, Hiram Rickers introduced the unusual Moses Bottle, which continued to be the symbol of Poland Spring beverages well into the 1970s. November 2020

Heard it through the

Grapevine Medicine Show? Picture This Dr. Finch reports: Got the bug for old medicine bottles? This won’t cure you, but … Offered last Nov. 25 on eBay was this photo described (edited) as an “ORIGINAL ‘MEDICINE SHOW’ / PATENT MEDICINE TENT SHOW, CABINET CARD. This rare albumen image mounted to an 8 by 10 inch card stock is in very good condition. The image depicts five men, one being what appears to be a Native American in traditional dress. The other four men are standing on the same stage, which appears to be in a tent with a tent pole and rope seen in the foreground. A musical accompaniment was germane to these operations and an organ can be seen at the right of the image.” “The back of the image is annotated ‘Dr. Lawrence and Company - McDonald W. Va - Summer 1901’.” “A rare image from the height of the patent medicine practice where purveyors of mysterious ‘cures’ would use magicians, shamans, Native Americans, circus

performers and other attraction whimsies to gather crowds and sell their medicines, which claimed to heal just about every malady imaginable. These products never lived up to the exagerrated claims, but due to the traveling nature of the operations, they would be long out of town before the customer’s could realize they’d been duped for a nominal charge.”

Tired of Breaking Old Glass Bottles? Some heavy thoughts from Ralph Finch When was the last time you heard that delicate — yet thunderous — sound of a tink, crack, or crash! Next time, why not think about collecting old bricks. I have a few, and haven’t broken one yet. Or, if you don’t want bricks, how about cast iron? This information is just a bit late, but on Sept. 26, Soulis Auctions firm of Kansas City offered the Richard and Valerie Tucker Collection, an “unrivaled collection of American cast iron,” including the largest grouping of shooting gallery targets. The 2014 book, Step Right Up! Classic American Target and Arcade Forms, is a compendium of the Tucker Collection, with its many “only-known” or “one-of-two-known” examples. So, the next time you set your sights on old glass, consider aiming for cast iron.

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

“This practice began just before the Civil War and continued well into the twentieth century, especially in rural areas. This image is a rare and important documentation of what the operation would have looked like about the turn of the century.” It was offered with a minimum bid of $249.99, plus $10.50 for shipping. It didn’t sell.

Heard it through the

Grapevine

Late Delivery of Magazines Unfortunately, some readers are experiencing late delivery of their magazines. It seems as though timely delivery of the October issue has been impacted as well. We apologize for any delays in delivery that some readers may be experiencing. We pride ourselves on meeting production deadlines and in delivering each month’s issue to the post office in a timely manner. The higher volume of mail moving through the system (political ads and other periodical material), is likely contributing to some of these delays. We have been in communication with the post office and are working with them to try and mitigate the delivery issues. — John Pastor

Editor’s note: Are You Puzzled by Puzzles?

Are You a Card Carrying Member? George Schwaub certainly was, as is duly indicated on this turn-of-the-century Salem, N.J. glassblower’s card. It is for membership in the Glass Bottle Blowers’ Association of the United States and Canada. The image of the glassblowers card is courtesy of long time AB&GC subscriber, as well as contributing writer, Richard Sheaff.

In the current issue readers will find the latest edition of the bottle puzzle, Back to the Beginning. It was designed as a back-to-basics puzzle for the novice collector. In past issues we’ve included puzzles on Flasks, Bitters, Jars, Sodas and Mineral Waters, ‘Bottles and More’, and even glasshouses. We hope that you have enjoyed them. However, we’re puzzled! Are the puzzles challenging, mind-bending, too difficult, easy-as-pie, or even of interest? Ideas and feedback are always encouraged, so let us know.

November 2020

Select Antique Bottles & Early Glass at Auction

Bidding Begins: November 9th

Closes: November 18th

Select Auction 195 Including: Early Glass, Bottles, Flasks, Bitters, Inks, Utilities, Soda and Mineral Waters, Freeblown and Pressed Glass, Whiskeys, Medicines & More

Heckler 6

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

www.hecklerauction.com | 860-974-1634 79 Bradford Corner Road, Woodstock Valley, CT 06282

BITTERS bottles By Robert Strickhart

New Jersey Bitters

and Hostetter’s?

You never know where a story will lead you This article was originally written last year. For a variety of reasons which are of little or no consequence, the article didn’t make it into the November issue which it was originally intended for. No problem, I figured it would make just as much sense around Thanksgiving 2020 as it did Thanksgiving 2019. Right?

Few could have predicted the massive changes to our way of life that were on the horizon. And boy, have things changed. The last bottle show I attended and set up at was Baltimore, which was just before the proverbial poop hit the fan. When I began to write this, it was late October 2019 and fall was in full swing. Halloween was just around the corner, the foliage was spectacular and the apple cider tasted better than I ever remember it. We had made some Thanksgiving plans and we had wonderful friends and family gatherings lined up. We really didn’t see the storm clouds brewing. By the time St. Patrick’s Day rolled around, the world was quite different. Things have changed concerning our travel and gathering plans but still today one thing is true. Thanksgiving is one of my most favorite holidays, in spite of the fact that it kicks off the dreaded holiday buying frenzy, which actually starts two

weeks before Halloween in Home Depot, the mall and Walgreens. Guess that will even be different this year. I know there will be no Rockettes at Radio City in the Big Apple this year and I’m wondering if even Santa will be able to make his entrance at the Macy’s Day parade. On Thanksgiving, there is no gift-giving pressure, just a day to reflect on how fortunate we all are. No matter who you are, where you come from, or what you believe in, on this day we all have the chance to say thanks for all our blessings. This Covid-19 thing has given all of us a chance, whether we like it or not, to step back and reassess. No great words of wisdom here. This is a really bad time, but it could be a lot worse. We’ve survived worse. It will pass sooner or later. Perhaps we should take stock and be thankful for the truly important things we have. My hope is that we come out of this smarter, better and wiser. One of my regular Thanksgiving traditions is the Bethlehem, Pa., bottle show on the Sunday after Turkey Day. I don’t know if it will run this year. But in all the past years, it’s a great time, a great chance to stop eating leftovers, and a tradition for me personally, as I’ve attended Bethlehem for longer than I’d like to admit. For me, it’s the last show before Christmas and it ushers in the Holiday Season.

Laubach's Bitters from 100 Reservoir Avenue, Jersey City, N.J.

Most folks know I am proud of my Garden State. Yeah, we don’t have Florida sunshine or California girls, but we have The Jersey Boys, Jersey strawberries and the Jersey shore. Don’t even talk to me about Chicago deep-dish Pizza; if you November 2020

BITTERS bottles By Robert Strickhart

circumstance we had a chance to work closely together and I really got a chance to know Gary better. Gary is a great guy and a straight shooter. He’ll always tell you the truth, and he manages to do it in a gentle, friendly way. On two different occasions, Gary alerted me to two New Jersey bitters that were, in this case, available on eBay. Fortunately, I was able to prevail and can now share them with you. The first is a label-only bitters in very nice condition. The label reads in part: Laubach’s Bitters / Contains 15% Alcohol Added Solely as a Solvent and Presevative / Manufactured by Laubach Proprietary Medicines / 100 Reservoir Avenue / Jersey City, N.J. U.S.A.

TOP: "Sickness is a Luxury Nobody Can Afford" Laubach advertising card. MIDDLE: Laubach Proprietary Medicines Christmas card. BOTTOM: Early postcard showing the Water Works, Summit Ave., Jersey City Heights area around the time of Laubach's bitters.

haven’t had Jersey Tomato Pie, you’re in the dark ages of food. And when it comes to glass, who else can tell you they have a town named Glassboro in their state? Our list of New Jersey bitters is short, but impressive. And if you know me, you know I want to add an example of every N.J. bitters to my shelf. So to my assistance enter a few bottle family members with some great additions, and to whom I owe a debt of gratitude. When I was co-chair of the Springfield National show a couple of years ago, I got to really know Gary Beatty. He and I rubbed shoulders before, but in this

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

Are you kidding me? Not only is it a New Jersey bitters, but it comes from the town I was born and grew up in, Jersey City! Also, look at the label carefully and you’ll see a nice picture, with his signature below, of Thomas Laubach, the company’s proprietor. The bottle is unlisted and I’ve got to think fairly uncommon. The label places this bitters home on Reservoir Avenue. Reservoir Avenue is in the part of the city we used to call the Heights off of Summit Avenue, quite a distance from the Greenville section where I grew up. Once the site of a true reservoir system, after the city established water supplies from Boonton, N.J., some of the reservoirs became unnecessary, and so were converted to what we called Pershing Field. The Laubach company was apparently quite a going concern. I can share with you two pieces of advertising connected to the business. One is a nice Christmas note telling us that the Laubach company wishes

us a Merry Christmas and good health through the New Year with, of course, the help of Laubach Bitters! Gary also alerted me to another bottle available on eBay that was much earlier than the Laubach’s and, once again, it was label-only. Sporting a nice open pontil in somewhat crude aqua glass and an early tooled lip, the label reads in part: Feaster’s Indian Hemp Bitters / John Feaster Proprietor, Green Creek N.J. I believe this bottle with label-only is an earlier rendition of the known embossed bottle listed as: P 146 JOHN FEASTER & CO / PROP’S INDIAN HEMP BITTERS / GREEN CREEK, N.J. This bottle, according to Ring/Ham, is oval and colorless and extremely rare. The bottle listed was dug in Cape May, N.J., our southernmost point in the state, back in 1976. Green Creek is a small spot on the Delaware River side of Cape May county, far south in our state. Until I can find an example of the embossed Feaster & Co bottle, this labeled example will do just fine. I think you’ll agree it’s a pretty cool bottle. No, I didn’t forget this article’s title and its reference to Hostetter’s Bitters. Hold on to your hat, it’s coming. One of the best parts about writing these articles is meeting new people and making additions to the bottle family. About a year ago, I received an email from out of the blue from a fellow New Jerseyian. He referenced an article I wrote in 2015 focussing on New Jersey bitters. The email read: “Good morning, my name is Hubie Driscoll. I live in West Creek, N.J., and I collect Dr. J. Hostetter bottles

BITTERS bottles By Robert Strickhart

and all local Jersey bottles from this area. The reason that I am contacting you is I recently purchased a small bitters bottle from N.J. that is not on your Jersey list of bitters bottles that you did back in June of 2015. I have looked in my books but cannot find a listing for it, hoping that you can help. The bottle is 7 inches tall, 2 1/2 wide and 1 3/8 thick. Aqua color with a tooled top. Embossed on one edge is SWEDISH BITTERS Co. and on the other edge is WOODBURY, N.J. If you have any information on this bottle I would be very grateful if you could share it with me. Thank you very much and hope to hear back. Regards, Hubie.” Well, it didn’t take long for us to start conversing back and forth through email and phone calls and we became friends. What an exciting thing to come up with a new New Jersey bitters as till now unknown to the bitters world. After a conversation with Bill Ham, we confirmed that we had, in fact, a new bitters to add to the catalogue. I was able to track down some advertising from old newspapers that spoke about Swedish Bitters from Woodbury, N.J., but until now the bottle itself remained elusive. We arranged to meet so I could get a good look at this new bitters, and on a rainy day last year, I made the trip down to see Hubie and his wife, Nancy. I was excited to meet them in person and see this new bottle, so much so that I forgot that Hubie, in his first email, mentioned that he collected Hostetter’s Bitters. Hubie and Nancy were so gracious and inviting, I felt at home immediately. And so, after some introductions and hellos, off to Hubie’s bottle room we go to see the new Swedish bitters. The rainy day was about to get much brighter. We enter the room and my eyes open wide. We’ve all seen Hostetter’s Bitters

Feasters Indian Hemp Bitters.

TOP: Swedish Bitters (showing Woodbury N.J. side). ABOVE: Swedish Bitters side panel.

November 2020

BITTERS bottles By Robert Strickhart

Hubie Driscoll in his bottle room with some of the many examples of Hostetter's Bitters he's collected.

bottles before. You can’t go to a bottle show and not see one. But this, wow, this was different. There, in nicely-built cabinets were approximately 160 Hostetters, and they were all different! Hubie explained that he has approximately seventy different applied-top variants, with many being unknown as to which glasshouse might have produced them. Old variants, wild colors, crude examples and even a round labeled example were neatly displayed. What a terrific accumulation that inspired a new appreciation for what we often consider a common bottle. The Swedish Bitters was in great condition and exactly as described in Hubie’s first email. It was cool to have it in my hands. No, it’s not a fantastic figural with a wild color. In fact, its common appearance makes it easier to understand why this bottle has not surfaced until now. We both agreed that if you were at a bottle show, its common appearance wouldn’t draw too much attention at all, making it easy to overlook. But Hubie’s sharp eye caught it and I’m glad he did. It always amazes me that new finds are still being made today. Sometimes, you just don’t know where the road will lead you. Three new New

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

Jersey bitters and one that led to an amazing collection of Hostetter’s Bitters and a new bottle friend. I have to say that I’m once again thankful, thankful for a new New Jersey bitters and a new friend in the bottle family. It is my sincerest hope that you are well and surviving this storm. I’m sure there will be a brighter tomorrow somewhere down the line. One final thought. Some years ago, I had the chance to visit with Jack Stecher and his wife, and my pal, Audrey. This was before most of Jack’s collection went off to auction. Jack and I go way back, a true gentleman and an enthusiastic collector. My wife, Marianne, was there, as was Tom McCandless, and we were having a great visit. Anyway, a couple of glasses of wine and a really nice time in his bottle room finally led to a quiet moment when we were just quietly admiring his wonderful collection. I don’t remember who said it, but someone said something to the effect that we were sitting there admiring some very expensive beautiful bottles while there were others in the world who were just getting by. Take stock and count your blessings. Happy Thanksgiving.

Publisher’s Note: Antique Bottle & Glass Collector is looking for great digging stories! Do you have an interesting digging (or diving), story that you would like to share with your fellow readers? Let us know, as we would love to include recent finds and funny stories in one of our upcoming issues. And don’t forget about the Antique Bottle & Glass Collector Writer’s Contest: you may also win a great bottle! Send articles (and don’t forget to include plenty of good images) to: Antique Bottle & Glass Collector Attn: Editor P.O. Box 227 New Hudson, MI 48165 Phone: 248.486.0530 Email: jpastor@americanglassgallery.com

Hop on Over to Australia And be barreled over by this incredible beer item By Ralph Finch

ong-time collector Travis Dunn, editor of the Australian Bottle and Collectables magazine, also runs ABCR Auctions of Melbourne, Australia. Their latest sale contains: “Auction 41, with 991 Lots featuring some great GIANT items, more rare milk bottles, beers, ginger beers, marble bottles, poisons, advertising jugs, Kingsware, pot lids, early books and so much more!” (They call that a “giant” auction? Not one ketchup bottle, and not one single roll of old toilet paper. OK, it did include one Victorian “Toilet Pull with Chain.”) Of the sale, which ended July 25, I picked out one item of note: Lot 411, an embossed “G. Wilmot / Hop Beer / Colac*” with a “3” impressed on the back. A Victoria Majolica barrel with a wide mouth top and matching majolica lid. 3 Gallon. Travis says that this would have been made by the Bendigo Pottery around 1900.”

Lot 411, a Victoria Majolica barrel embossed “G. Wilmot / Hop Beer / Colac*” with a “3” impressed on the back.

“What a sensational item. This is different to the only other one we’ve sold. The previous one was two gallon and had an internal thread top. There are six small chips around the upper rim (two have been roughly filled). Crazing throughout. Some general dirt and grime. The ribbons have had green paint on them, most of which has been cleaned off. All these marks are really pretty minor in the overall scheme of things. Lid has chips on the outer rim. Crazing with a couple of short

fine hairlines. Wonderful item, possibly unique in this size.” Reserve: $4,400. Estimated at $7,500–$10,000 AUD (that’s $5,220–6,960 U.S.), plus **GST. I asked Travis for more information, and he replied: “Lot 411 is a very interesting item. We have sold two before — actually we have sold one, twice! In Auction 12, Lot 410 was a majolica G. Wilmot, Hop Beer, November 2020

Colac barrel. These were made by the Bendigo Pottery and would have been made in low numbers. The barrel had a $4,000 (Aussie) reserve, it sold for $5,050 to a local collector.”

Mind you, this one does have some chips around the rim. There may well have been only a handful ever made in the first place, and so they are always going to be very rare.”

“Fast forward to Auction 35, around six years later, and the vendor decided it was time to downsize, therefore, the very same barrel was consigned to us. It was Lot 369 in this auction, it had no reserve, selling for $7,257. These prices are hammer prices, a further 11 percent commission was paid on top of that.” There would be roughly five to 10 of these barrels known in collections.”

And had it been shipped to the States? “Well, the cost would have driven you to drink,” Travis agreed.

“When we were contacted over this piece (Lot 411), we noted the lid in place, which sure looked original. We have never seen one with a lid before. So, we pick it up, get it back and catalogue the piece, when suddenly a penny dropped! How is it possible that these internal thread stoppered barrel have a lid like this? Turns out this example has a wide opening in the top? Next thing we do is measure the item and when comparing the new listing with the previous listing it all became clear. This example is a 3-gallon size! All other known examples are two gallons and have an internal-thread stopper. “So, without even knowing it, we had picked up a previously unrecorded item.” And the envelope, please. Travis explained: “Yes, $9,305 AUD is the final price, plus 11 percent commission on top of this.” ($6,611 U.S. plus commission) “I thought this was actually a good buy! It is the only three-gallon version of this barrel known to collectors, the other known examples are two gallon in size, with the last one of them selling for around $7,500 AUD. “With this being considerably rare, I thought it may go a fair bit higher. Comparatively, a similar barrel with another maker’s name on it, of which only one is known to collectors, sold for around $20,000 (AUD) a few years ago.

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

He continued, “At 385 mm high (15.16 inches) without the lid we would need to pack this in our ‘Monster’ box, which is 58 by 58 by 58 cm, and wouldn’t fit in the trunk of your sedan!” “I have no idea what the weight would be, but let’s say 15 kg (33 pounds). According to the Australia Post website, with these parameters the price for weight would be $177.10, but due to the size of the parcel, it would not even be accepted by Australia Post. Therefore, an international courier would be required, which would be dearer.”

r FYI1: *So, what is a Colac? Wikipedia explains (edited): “For thousands of years clans of the Gulidjan people occupied the region of Colac, living a semi-nomadic life. The area was first settled by Europeans in 1837 by Hugh Murray and his brother, Andrew, in 1840, and proclaimed a town, Lake Colac, in 1848. The post office opened July 1, 1848 as Lake Colac and was renamed Colac in 1854.” The town’s fame includes, “In 1854 Hugh Murray employed a couple of shepherds named Thomas Brookhouse and Patrick Geary. Brookhouse was looking for missing sheep and disappeared without a trace. Patrick Geary and his wife soon left the district. Fifteen years later a boy out rabbiting found the skeletal remains of Thomas Brookhouse under a pile of rocks near Lake Corangamite. Brookhouse had his head smashed in. It took police two years to track Patrick Geary and charge him with Brookhouse’s murder. A friend of Geary told the court that Geary had killed Brookhouse with an ax to stop him

from informing Murray of Geary’s sheep stealing activities. Geary was hanged in Melbourne in 1871.” Do you have any items in your collection that have such colorful — or sheepish — stories related?

r **And, GST? Travis explain: “GST is applied to our auctions for Australian purchasers as the auction is a service and so falls under the goods and service tax rules. However, the GST is only on our service, therefore it is only applied to our commission which is ten percent of the hammer price. Therefore, if an item sells for $1,000, a commission of $100 is paid, and then GST is paid on that commission at ten percent, being another $10, a total of $1,110. Effectively, this makes the commission 11 percent on the hammer prices, with that 1 percent being the GST component. Did that make sense? If not, it doesn’t matter, for this is not applied to international buyers; all international buyers only pay the 10% commission, so would pay $1,100 using the same example.”

r FYI2: I asked Travis, if an American had purchased this, would he include a free dingo? He replied: “G’day, Ralph. If sold to the U.S., I would happily throw a kangaroo in because they are everywhere, but then the parcel might hop away, so better not do that. As for dingoes, I am in the Melbourne region, we don’t get dingoes this far south.” Editor’s note: For more on ABCR auctions go to www.abcrauctions.com or email info@abcrauctions.com, or write Travis Dunn at travis@abcrauctions.com or call 0417 830 939.

Can’t Breathe? Try Some Victorian Relief Inhalers today aren’t significantly different from those 180 years ago By Ralph Finch

erhaps the most depressing quote of the year is “I can’t breathe.” However, breathing has been a challenge since man first had nostrils, and medicine to aid breathing has been a big product for centuries. In fact, for the last two hundred years, Londoners have also lamented the same thing. And when it comes to patent medicine, no one is bigger than the Brits, either as makers, users or as collectors.

Recently, John Ault of Gravesend, England, offered a nice grouping. He added, “The Victorians and Edwardians did like to decorate everything to the max, even inhalers.” But John Ault admitted, “I’m afraid I don’t know a great deal about inhalers. All these came along by chance, an impulse buy because of their attractive prints and superb condition from the Keith Walker pharmacy collection that Alan Blakeman sold through a British Bottle Review auction.” And these old items have a direct link to today’s breathing, virus aside. Remember the lovely song about “*A Foggy Day in London Town”? Air in coal-burning London has for years been deadly.

TOP: These cigarettes claiming to cure asthma "may be safely smoked by ladies and children." BOTTOM: This Dr. Bulling Patent Thermo-Variator steam asthma inhaler dated 1904 was on eBay for $564.

November 2020

From Wikipedia (edited): “Fogs were relatively common in London in the 1700s, but by the early 1800s these had become deadly, as the smoke and fumes from industrialization and urban growth were trapped by calm, still air. Animals suffered, too. In 1873 the annual cattle show at Smithfield market was ruined by a December fog that left the “fat cattle panting and coughing,” and many of the animals collapsed and died.” There was the great London smog of 1952. For five days a thick layer of air pollution, mostly caused by coal burning in homes and factories, covered the city and caused the deaths of thousands of residents. (Twenty years ago I was in a damp pub in chilly London and it was being heated with charcoal burning in an open fireplace.) On the internet, Theresa Cannizzaro, a respiratory therapist, wrote, “The first ‘powered’ nebulizer was invented in France in 1858 by Sales-Girons. He made a device that would atomize medication in liquid form. It was similar to a bicycle pump where you would lift up and push down on a long pump handle which would push the medication through the atomizer and near the person’s mouth where they would breathe it in.”

The attractive Cooper Milton Inhaler.

The Westminister Inhaler is a beautiful example of the transfer work and early advertising on some of these products.

“In the early 1900s many asthma patients would use hand-held atomizers. In 1910, epinephrine became a first-line treatment for asthma flare-ups when it became available in a solution that could be nebulized with fewer side effects than injecting it directly into a vein.” “The term ‘aerosol’ was first coined in 1920. Also in the early 1900s, asthma cigarettes were widely used by many asthma sufferers as a treatment! These cigarettes contained stramonium as well as various other herbal remedies such as tea leaves, belladonna and eucalyptus (which later was realized to be a pretty big asthma trigger for many). The directions for inhaling the asthma cigarettes were very similar to both the metered dose

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

An assortment of inhalers, in a photo sent by England’s John Ault. In general, most inhalers run $25 to $75. I like the large third one from the left. Is this the brand the Road Runner prefers? From left are the Milton Inhaler; the Alexandra Inhaler; Maw’s Inhaler (one on eBay last June was priced at $60 plus shipping, they also are reproduced); the Hockin’s Acme Inhaler (was on eBay priced at $150); and the Hockin’s Bronchial Inhaler.

CLOCKWISE (from top left): On eBay I found this “Original tin inhaler with burner funnel and glass bottle, makers brass plaque ‘Dr. Siegle’s Patent Krohne & Sesemann, London’, with reprinted instructions, in original wooden box with label dated 1864.” It was priced at $3,129 plus $36 for shipping to the States. This must have been a popular item, since three others were available on the internet, one for $492, another for £465, and a third for $583.; Hockin's Acme Inhaler; Ad for the Adams Inhaler from 1892; and an advertisement for Godfrey's Chloride of Ammonium Inhaler.

November 2020

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John Ault with a rare poison.

inhalers and dry powder inhalers like we have today. Breathe all the way out and then take a deep breath and inhale as much of the smoke in as possible and then hold your breath for several seconds before exhaling.” Of the Milton inhaler, Laurence Cooper, who runs London’s “Antique Dispensary,” noted, “During the late Victorian/ early Edwardian period highly decorative pottery jar inhalers were produced for ailments such as bronchitis and other chest complains. Many different types were made for different regions of the U.K., generally connected to pharmacies who marketed them in exotic names such as The Perfect, The Oxford, The Bournemouth and Alexandra. The most highly prized are jars with exotic birds and butterflies and one known as the Milton is transfer printed with two birds.” FYI 1: In the 1800s, hot steaming water vapor and any sometimes additional medicine the doctor prescribed was placed in these inhalers and the patient would

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

breathe in these ‘therapeutic’ vapors, not just for lung disease but for other ailments like mercury vapor for syphilis. Ouch. *FYI 2: “A Foggy Day” was composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, introduced by Fred Astaire in the 1937 film A Damsel in Distress. It was in reference to the pollution-induced pea soup fogs that were common in London during that period, with worst to come. More history of antique inhalers and nebulizers can be found at https:// asthma.net/living/history-asthma-part3-nebulizers-inhalers/

Fruit Jar Rambles Extra By Tom Caniff — Photos by Deena Caniff

AMBER LONGLIFE JARS Modern fruit jars are mostly made by the big companies, in great numbers, and they lack the unique closures and colors that have made many of the earlier jars so collectible. Such is the case with the rounded-square LONGLIFE MASON jars of the 1970s. (Figure A) But there is one small exception. Amber quart LONGLIFE WIDE MOUTH jars appear to have been first reported to the hobby in Dick Roller’s July 1978 “Fruit Jar News Clearing House,” which appeared in the OLD BOTTLE MAGAZINE. Jar collector Nellie Smith, of Dearborn, Mich., had sent one of the labeled jars to Dick. Nellie’s jar had the “manufacturer’s name deleted from the base,” Dick explained, but he felt that the jars may have been made by the Obear-Nester Glass Co., of East St. Louis, Ill., in 1977. Dick felt that the jars were made by one of the “Indian Head” glass companies, a merger of Laurens Glass Co., Pierce Glass Co., Obear-Nester Glass Co. and Northwestern Glass Co. Our example in Photo 1 has a golden plastic screw-band, rather than metal as Nellie’s jar had, securing the top screening to the jar. But the label is the same, and our jar does have the smudged-out, or peened-out, area in the center of the base, along with 77, which likely refers to the jar’s date of manufacture. The Applewood Seed Co., of Golden, Colorado, user of the jars, identified them on their paper label as “The Sproutmaker amber, wide mouth quart jar for fast easy sprouting of seeds, beans and grains ... This special amber-colored jar is designed to keep your sprouts tender and flavorful by allowing them to develop in semi-darkness... ©1978.” (Photo 2) The

original price sticker on Nellie’s jar was for $2.75. Our amber LONGLIFE jar was found in its original 4 x 4 x 9 inches cardboard packing box (Photo 3) lettered “Applewood Seed Co.™ Sproutmaker With Seeds of Alfalfa ©1980 Applewood Seed Co. Golden, CO 80401. Figure B shows the 8 1/2 x 11 inches Sprout Cookery page, included in the box, with recipes for food items that could be prepared with the help of mung beans, alfalfa, soybeans, clover, and whole wheat that could be grown in the Sproutmaker.

FIGURE A: 1970s LONGLIFE MASON embossing.

In my opinion, Dick Roller was the greatest fruit jar researcher and writer in the last quarter of the 20th century. In his July 1978 column, his final comment on the amber LONGLIFE jars was that “it is hoped they will not be passed off in the future as amber canning jars.” It’s over forty years later and, while the amber LONGLIFE jars can sell in the $5 to $20 range, depending on the buyer and the phase of the moon, due to the large numbers of the Sproutmaker jars produced, they are not very scarce and it’s unlikely they will ever hit the big time monetarily. The clear LONGLIFE jars had been around for a couple of years before the amber seed sprouter jars were made. In July 1975, Dick Roller announced, in his “Fruit Jar News Clearing House,” that he’d been informed by “Bill Brantley, of the Ball Corp.” of three new jars recently added to the market and had received samples of the jars. One of these was the LONGLIFE MASON; the others were the MASON with the Glass Containers Corp. mark in the front heel and the MIDLAND MASON. On July 30, 1975, the CHARLESTON (West Virginia) DAILY MAIL carried an

PHOTO 1: Amber LONGLIFE MASON quart.

November 2020

Fruit Jar Rambles Extra By Tom Caniff — Photos by Deena Caniff

ad for the Foodland stores offering “Long Life Mason Jars With Caps ... Reg. CTN. Of 12 $1.99,” with no mention of size.

PHOTO 2: Part of amber LONGLIFE MASON label.

PHOTO 3: Cardboard box for individual amber LONGLIFE jar.

FIGURE B: Two page Sprout Cookery recipe sheet.

PHOTO 4: Bernardin box picturing a wide-mouth LONGLIFE MASON jar.

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

The LONGLIFE jars were then being made by the Laurens Glass Co. of Laurens, South Carolina, which had been in business since 1910. LONGLIFE jars were reported “in both pint and quart size, with grippers and cup/ounce graduations on the sides. The reverse is embossed with a group of vegetables and fruit (including corn, lettuce, carrot, apple, etc.) within a circle.” The bases were embossed L 75 LAURENS QUALITY GLASS SINCE 1910. Then in November 1975, Vivian (Granny) Kath had reported in her “Granny Kath’s Kitchen” that “Laurens Glass of Laurens, South Carolina makes the LONGLIFE MASON, which comes with the twopiece BERNARDIN STANDARD SNAP LID. The fronts of the jars have LONGLIFE in script and MASON in block letters, the reverse has a group of five vegetables embossed within a circle, the bottom embossed LAURELS QUALITY GLASS SINCE 1910.” Jerry McCann of Chicago cleared up some of the mystery of the jars’ early period by reporting a cardboard box (Photo 4) for “BerNARdin Mason Jars.” It pictured a drawing of a tapered, pint, wide-mouth LONGLIFE MASON fruit jar (without the WIDE MOUTH lettering). The side of the box is lettered, “One Dozen Pints 00201 BerNARdin Wide Mouth Mason Jars complete with Bernardin lids glass jars by Indian Head, Inc.” Jerry says that he bought this box of jars in 1976, and the jars in the box are baseembossed 76 OBEAR-NESTER GLASS, while the box’s bottom includes a printed 5/76, suggesting a May 1976 date. The 1975 BERNARDIN HOME CANNING GUIDE featured LONGLIFE

MASON jars, with reverse fruit medallions (showing only the reverse, of course), so Bernardin appears to have been marketing these as their “Bernardin Jars” since that time. LONGLIFE MASON and LONGLIFE WIDE MOUTH jars, with fruit medallions on the reverse, were made about 1975-1977 by the Pierce Glass Co. of Port Allegheny, Pa.; the Laurens Glass Co., Laurens, S.C.; and the Obear-Nester Glass Co., of East St. Louis, Ill. These LONGLIFE jars, even those sold under the Bernardin name, were packed in boxes marked “Indian Head,” the parent company of the three glass companies that made the jars. One of the regular-mouth quart LONGLIFE MASON jars made by Obear-Nester is shown in Photo 5. The jar’s stippled-edge base is embossed OBEAR-NESTER GLASS. Photo 6 shows a cardboard box side for “One Dozen quarts 00102 BerNARdin regular mason jars complete with Bernardin lids glass jars by Indian Head Inc.,” all on a green background. However, the jar depicted on the box is a LONGLIFE MASON rather than a Bernardin jar. In November 1987, Roller’s FRUIT JAR NEWS newsletter reported that, “Incon, which was recently merged with Ball Glass Containers Division, used to be known as Indian Head, [which was] a merger of Laurens Glass Co., Pierce Glass Co., Obear-Nester Glass Co. (all makers of the Longlife Mason jars, SR #689), and Northwestern Glass Co.” We’re not sure just how long the clear LONGLIFE jars were made. The last advertising that we found appeared in the Aug. 4, 1978 INDEX-JOURNAL, of Greenwood, S.C., offering a “Case of Twelve Bernardine [sic] Long-Life” Mason jars.

Fruit Jar Rambles Extra By Tom Caniff — Photos by Deena Caniff

PHOTO 5: LONGLIFE MASON quart from Obear-Nester.

PHOTO 6: Bernardin jar box depicting a LONGLIFE MASON jar.

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November 2020

WANTED

Greer #s of the mint state #1265 United States Syrup #1685 United States Syrup #1383 Dr. Perkins’ Syrup #5 Arthurs Renovating Syrup #778 Halls / Palingenesia / Or Regenerator

Also non Greer bottles of the mint state Dr. C.W. Robacks Scandinavien Blood Purifier Cincinnati, O, IP

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Please don't forget to use your 60-Word FREE classified ad credit in the magazine. Email, or "snail-mail" your ad to us! Libby@AmericanGlassGallery.com P.O. Box 227 New Hudson, MI 48165

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WANTED: Clarke’s Vegetable Sherry Wine Bitters, Sharon, Mass. All bottle sizes & variants…pontil/smooth base. Also, ANY ephemera..newspaper ads, invoices, letterhead, etc.

THANK YOU. Charlie Martin Jr. 781-248-8620, or cemartinjr@comcast.net

November 2020

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All ads must be received by the 30th of the month for the next issue. Example: Ads received by November 30th will be in the January issue. Copy should be typewritten, printed, or sent via e-mail. A.B.& G.C. will not be responsible for errors in an ad due to poor quality copy. A.B.& G.C. reserves the right to refuse any advertising.

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For Sale d FELLOW COLLECTORS/DEALERS: Please, if at all possible, include a name and phone number with your advertisements. Not everyone has a computer, and a physical address does help to make sure that all of our readers can reach you. Thanks. 12/21 FOR SALE: Antique glass polishing equipment and supplies. New economy machine now available as well as the platinum series. www.JarDoctor.com R WAYNE LOWRY, JarDoctor@aol.com, 816-318-0160, 401 Johnston Ct. Raymore, MO 64083. 11/20

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DISPLAY ADS One column x 2 inches One column x 3 inches One column x 4 inches One-fourth page One-third page One-half page Two-thirds page Full page

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$30.00 $35.00 $40.00 $65.00 $80.00 $120.00 $160.00 $250.00

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$130.00 $180.00 $210.00 $340.00 $420.00 $630.00 $825.00 $1,300.00

Rates for longer periods available.Write, e-mail, or call. Maximum copy size (full page) 7.5” X 10”. One column 2.3” wide. Two columns 5” wide. Camera-ready copy preferred but not a requirement. One time $12.00 additional charge for photos.* *Consecutive issues with NO changes.

FOR SALE: No Shows, No Flea Markets, No Street Fairs, BUT there is JR's free For Sale List published quarterly and delivered to over 200 folks. All major bottle categories covered with 200 plus items listed. A bottle show delivered to your home. JOHN RONALD, jlrantiques@att. net, 707-762-8515. 11/20

Stenciled Compliments of Ed Hettinger Lancaster, Ohio $75.00. 5) 3 1/2" tall Dark Brown (top) & White (bottom) Cobalt Stenciled Green Mill Whiskey S.M. Denison Chillicothe, Ohio $65.00. Will sell all in one lot for $300.00 plus postage. ROBERT BLACK, 740-654-5266, 1741 Glenmar Dr. Lancaster, OH 43130. 11/20

FOR SALE: 1) 8" tall Dark Brown Jug - Incised Script Kauffman & Lattimer Co. Druggist Col. O. $75.00. 2) 2 3/4 " tall 1 Qt Brown Jug - Incised Script Old Continental Sour Mash Corn Whiskey $60.00. 3) 3 1/2" tall Dark Brown (top) & White (bottom) Jug - Cobalt Stenciled Ed Hettinger's Liquor Store Lancaster, Ohio $65.00. 4) 3 1/2" tall Cream Cobalt

FOR SALE: Books printed and bound, "A History of the DesMoines Potteries, With additional information on Boonesboro, Carlisle, Hartford and Palmyra", 214 pages, 65 color. Cost: $23 plus shipping. Media mail, add $4.50, Priority Mail, add $8.00. MARK C. WISEMAN, 515-344-8333, 3505 Sheridan Ave, DesMoines, IA 50310. 11/20

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FOR SALE: Green 3 3/4 The Watrous Drug Co, Enid, Oklahoma $125. Green 3 3/4 Harry L. Elwood, Ellenburg, Wash $150. Cobalt 5 1/2 Marsh & Burke, Princeton, NJ $35. chipped lip, 6 7/8 Amber The Dennet Drug Store, Saco, Maine $25. Green 5 3/4 Horton & Converse Pharmacist, $35. BILL SIMON, mtsheller@yahoo.com, 719-239-1923, 534 N. Mission Rd. Wichita, KS 67206. 12/20

Shows, Shops & Services d 50 WEST ANTIQUES - Old Bottles, Bitters, Sodas, VA Items, 1000's of glass items. Been in Bottles 50 years this year! 540-686-0291, 540-662-7624. 11/20 Are you a SARATOGA BOTTLE COLLECTOR? Join the Saratoga Bottle Collectors Society and get fabulous quarterly newsletters and meet some wonderful fellow collectors! BOB PUCKHABER, 603-731-8071. rjppersonal@comcast.net 11/20 NORTH JERSEY ANTIQUE BOTTLE COLLECTORS ASSN. is planning on holding its 51st Annual Bottle Show and Sale this November 8th, 2020 in Pompton Lakes, NJ. If you are interested in renting space, please contact me by email for more information. KEN DICKSON, Email: froggy8@optonline.net 11/20

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL MICRO BREWERIES, pubs and distilleries as they are the source of the next generation of bottle collectibles. Drink responsibly! HENRY THIES, PO Box 1363 Cut Bank MT 59427. 11/20 WE BUY COLLECTIONS - Baltimore, D.C., V.A. and Stoneware. Leave message if no answer. J & R FINE JUNK & COLLECTABLES. JEFF 443-904-0566 or 410-335-1383, ROB 443-417-0109. 11/20

ANTIQUES ON FIRST - 919 FIRST ST. BENICIA, CA. When visiting the S.F. Bay Area or Napa Wine Country, be sure to stop in nearby historic downtown Benicia; a nationally designated small town “Main Street” with shops, restaurants and magnificent Bay views. Also location of the Gold Rush era brick State Capitol museum, Civil War Camel Barns military/ local museum, and legendary former waterfront Bottle Digging bonanza of the West (“Benicia Glass”, Balto torpedoes, cathedrals, sodas, bitters, pontiles). ANTIQUES ON FIRST has a rotating selection of locally dug Bottles, Clocks, Militaria, Railroadiana, Art, Advertising and more. Open Wed thru Sun 12:00 (often earlier) to 5:30. 9/21 PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE AT www.greatantiquebottles.com where you will find dozens of quality bottles and flasks for sale. We are always interested in buying good bottles & flasks. Please let us know if you have any for sale. Our email address is: bottleguy1@gmail.com. ED and KATHY GRAY. 11/20

Wanted d WANTED: Connecticut drug store, pharmacy or apothecary bottles. Embossed or labeled. We collect, research and document Connecticut drug stores. STEVE POULIOT, 860-608-7208, steve@ctbottleman.com 12/20 WANTED: U.S.A. Hospital Dept. and any pre-1866 embossed food bottles, mustards, early Baltimore, Wheeling, D.C., Alexandria sodas, beers (stoneware or glass) damage free. BRUCE, cwaddic@yahoo.com Phone: 703307-7792. 12/20 WANTED: Hobbleskirt embossed Coca-Cola bottles: 1915's, 1923's, D-Patent's 6oz's and 6 1/2 oz's. Collector will buy or trade. JIM GEORGES, georges77@twcny.rr.com or 315-662-7729. 7/21 WANTED: Old Marbles. Please call me! PAT DARNEILLE, 503-888-0665. 11/20

WANTED: EMBOSSED CURES WANTED: Including these pontils: Avery's, Benson's, Bernard's, Brown's, Bull's, Burt's, Cannon's, Flander's, Frambe's Geoghegan's, Hamilton's, Jacob's, Lay's, McAdoo's, McElroy's, Parham's, Rhodes' Prov. R.I., Rohrer's, Rudolph's, Star-in's, Stone's, Toledo, Woodman's. ALSO BIMALS: Anchor, Bavarian Bitters, Beesting, Bixler's, Bliss, Boot's Indigestion, Bowanee, Bower's, Bradford's, Bromo Mineral, Bronson's, Bull's (Baltimore), Carey's CholiCura, Clement's Certain (green), Collins' Opium (aqua), Cook's Turpentine, Cowan's Certain, Davis Indian, Detchon's Infallible, Edelweiss, Electrofluid, Ewer's Arcanum, Forest Pine (unpontiled), Francisco's, Frog Pond 8", Green's King's Cure, Large Handyside's (chocolate amber), Helmer's, Hilleman's, Hinderman's, Holden's (green), Hungarian, Indian Mixture, JBF, Kauffman Phthisis, Keeley's (opium, neurotine, solution), Large Kellum's, Kid-Nee-Kure, Lenape's, Lindley's, Long's Malaria, Loryea (green), Marsden, McConnon Cough, Amber McLean's (8"), Miniotti's (clear), Morning Glory, Murphy K & L. Pageapfel's, Park's (clear), Peck's, Pennock's, Peterman's (green), Rattail, large River Swamp, Riverview, Scott's (bird), Streetman's, Struble's (aqua), Tremaine's, Universal, Vosburgh, Wadsworth (goat), Warner's K & L Rochester (green, aqua, clear), Wildwest, Wilkinson's, Wilson Footrot, Winan's (no Indian), York Corn Cure. Looking for many others, especially embossed with label, contents, box. Also would like data on unlisted cures for future Cure Book. JOHN WOLF, 937-275-1617. ohcures@yahoo.com 1186 Latchwood Ave., Dayton, OH 45405. 12/20 WANTED: Peoria Blob Sodas, Beers & Patent Medicines, Peoria Bitters. Thanks. FRANK D., 309-645-6450. 11/20 WANTED: Buffalo, NY & Lockport, NY stoneware and bottles. Also, Buffalo beer trays and advertising signs. PETER JABLONSKI, 12489 Hunts Corners Rd, Akron, NY, 14001. Ph: 716-440-7985. 12/20 November 2020

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WANTED: Madeira Bottles & Ephemera. Old Wine & Liquors. Early Blown Stiegel, Midwest, Pittsburgh, New York, New Jersey BOB, rjelm5@aol.com, 412-418-9959. 11/20

WANTED: Harley bottles of West Chester, Pa. and Philadelphia, Pa. The West Chester bottles display either J. Harley or James Harley. The Phila. Bottles display Edwd Harley, Schul (Schuylkill) 4th & Market St., Philada (Philadelphia) or E. Harley, 802 Market St or E. Harley, West Market St. These two bottling businesses operated in the 1840s through the early 1880s. BOB HARLEY, Phone: 215-721-1107. Email: rwh220@yahoo.com 12/20

WANTED: KI-4, Carbolic Acid, poison, use with caution, 16 oz, KS-31, W.H. McCarthy LTD, Sydney, Poison. TERRY WARSOP, terrywarsop@yahoo.com, 720-788-9881. 11/20 WANTED: Squat Soda Embossed "S. Wiestling" Mug Base. I.P. BARRY THEURER, bktheurer@aol.com, 717-9030031, 2023 Mkt. St. Ext., Middletown, PA 17057. 11/20

WANTED: H.H. Warner Advertising, Odd Colored Barrels w/ damage. Rare Warner bottles. Warner Book still available, $15.00 e-book. MICHAEL SEELIGER, mwseeliger@gmail.com, 608-575-2922. 11/20

WANTED: PHILADELPHIA STRAPSIDED or Seamed Whiskey Flasks. I collect and catalog these and also have an interest in Thomas H. Dillon (TD) Philadelphia mineral water bottles. Please contact me if you have any in your collection or wish to sell. ART MIRON, 215-248-4612. jestar484@verizon.net 4/21

WANTED: Old Bottles of all types from Harrisburg, Highspire, Carlisle, Lebanon, Middletown, York and all surrounding PA towns. Thank you. BARRY THEURER, bktheurer@aol.com, 717-903-0031. 11/20

WANTED: Glass Lid (insert) and Zinc Ring for Quart Ball Fruit Jar (BBGMCo.) RB #195-1. Will buy insert, ring or both. MIKE BEARDSLEY, casketeer@aol.com, 315-3455094. 11/20

WANTED: It has been a difficult year, in so many ways. Right now we are all working through COVID-19. If you live in Northern California like I do, you are working through a huge fire season. Oh, of course, our major bottle show in Reno was cancelled. Many local shows have been cancelled. Through it all, in my book, a major unhappiness for our group was the passing of Mark Vuono, a really super guy and an asset to our bottle group. I hope that Andrew, his son picks up for his Dad. Best wishes to all the Vuono family. JAY JACOBS. 11/20

WANTED: Waite Farm Baldwinville Mass Early tin-top Milk bottle. LINDA HIETALA, jlhietala@comcast.net, Phone: 978-632-1976. 12/20

WANTED: BUYING Pre-Pro etched & amp; embossed beer brewery glasses; whiskey shot glasses; pre-pro brewery mugs, steins including souvenir steins mugs; souvenir china; old advertising material: signs, trays, mirrors, saloon material; back bar whiskey bottles; other early American bottles, flasks, bitters, especially from Kentucky. PAUL VanVACTOR, Phone: 502-533-2693, email: pvanvactor@aol.com P.O. Box 221171, Louisville, KY 40252-1171. WANTED: Jar Lid for Cohansey 2 1/2 Gallon R.B. #628. EDDIE DeHAVEN, 609-390-1898. 23 W. Golden Oak Lane, Marmora, NJ 08223. 11/20 WANTED: I Love Old Bitters From Ohio. Thank you for your consideration. GARY BEATTY, bocatropicalbreezes@gmail.com, 941-426-7302. 11/20 WANTED: Cobalt DemiJohn, looking for a darker cobalt demijohn with squared shoulder, non-pontiled, any size. Email me a price and photo. Thanks. MARTY HALL, rosemuley@att.net 11/20 WANTED: George Ohr Pottery Cabins. Or Cabin Inks. BOB TERRY, 303-5692502, llterryualusa@yahoo.com 9/21

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

WANTED: Ephemera, documents, journals, ledgers, maps, diaries, broadsides, posters, etc. With interesting & unusual content: any era considered - always buying. SUSAN FOX, 570-275-2590, 812 "B" St, Danville, PA 17821. 11/20 WANTED: Looking for Bottles, Stoneware from Avon or Avon by The Sea, New Jersey GLENN VOGEL, olgve@hotmail.com, 732539-8116. 11/20 WANTED: Will pay a fair price for these Hutchinson Bottles - 1. E.B. Co. / Evansville / Ind. 10 sided panels2, P.G. Stephen / Buffalo / NY 8 sided panels3. E.L. Winans / Buffalo / NY 12 sided panels. ZANG WOOD, Zapa33-51@msn.com, 505-3271316, 1612 Camino Rio Farmington, NM 87401. 12/20

WANTED: Collecting York County Penna. and surrounding areas. All early forms. 717862-1040. 12/20 WANTED: Looking for a few milk bottles: "L.H.Cooley" - St. Johnsville, NY, "Mamrosh Dairy" - Salisbury Center, NY and "McCarthy Dairy" - Little Falls, NY. rjpeets721@gmail.com, 315-429-9952. 11/20 WANTED: In search of Olive Green Paul Jones Blob-Seal Gin Bottle. I saw one for sale and didn't buy it 40 years ago, so I know at least one existed. Also, always looking for good Kilmer Bottles and ephemera. JOHN GOLLEY, Bygolley@msn.com, 315-4157989. 11/20 WANTED: Salt & Pepper Shakers from Fairway Dairy, No. Billerica Mass, Milk Bottles from Billerica Mass (embossed & pyros) and just pyro milks from Lowell Mass. TOM PASKIEWICZ, tomp342@comcast. net, 978-337-9919. 11/20 FELLOW COLLECTORS/DEALERS: Please include a name and phone number with your ads. Not everyone has a computer, and a physical address does help. 12/18

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WANTED: Brooklyn slug plate strap flasks. Long Island script & stencil jugs. Long Island and Brooklyn stoneware. MARK SMITH, libottle@optonline.net, 631-589-9027, 90 Holmes Court Sayville, NY 11782. 11/20 WANTED: Rare pontiled meds. Shnapps, spirits, bitters, especially Southern Pa and Ohio. Will trade also. 941-220-9123, mmorgandive@gmail.com 11/20 WANTED: Any signage or milk bottle go-withs; “lids”, tin cans, porcelain signage, etc, that has the name Maxbauer, having to do with the Maxbauer Meat Market and Maxbauer Dairy in Traverse City, Michigan. I have plenty of Milk bottles, but more interested in the other go-withs. Contact LIZ MAXBAUER at Liz@mcnamaraortho. com or call 734-645-5585. 12/21

WANTED: DRUG BOTTLES - Embossed Only, Name/Must have City, State. When retire in 2022, create team to compile all drug bottles in all 50 states. Offer to public on E-bay, etc. -- reactivate interest in collecting through ancestry/genealogy. I cannot be active until 6/22. WILL, kanza1859@gmail. com. 1/21 FELLOW COLLECTORS/DEALERS: Please, if at all possible, include a name and phone number with your advertisements. Not everyone has a computer, and a physical address does help to make sure that all of our readers can reach you. This ensures that the greatest number of people can respond to your ad. Thanks. 12/20

ATTENTION READERS: Due to COVID-19 precautions, a number of upcoming bottle shows have been postponed or cancelled. Please check with local show chairperson to see if your favorite shows are affected. We will have further updates in future issues as new information becomes available. Thanks.

D November 2020

Show CALENDAR CA

NOVEMBER 14

FEBRUARY 6

ELKTON, MARYLAND

NOVEMBER 1

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA

DeFUNIAK SPRINGS, FLORIDA

The Tri-State Bottle Collectors and Diggers Club 48th Annual Show & Sale (9 AM to 2 PM), at the Singerly Fire Hall, Routes 279 & 213, Elkton, MD. Info: PH: DAVE BROWN, PH: 302.388.9311, email: dbrown3942@comcast.net

Antique Bottle Collectors of North Florida 52nd Annual Show & Sale, (Sat. 8 AM to 2 PM; early buyers Fri. 2 PM to 7 PM, $50, 3 - 7 PM, $40, 5 - 7 PM, $20), at the Fraternal Order of Police Bldg., 5530 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville, FL. Free adm. Saturday. Info: MIKE SKIE, 3047 Julington Creek Road, Jacksonville, FL 32223, PH: 904.710.0422, or COREY STOCK, 904.607.3133, or email: jaxbottleshow@yahoo.com

The Emerald Coast Bottle Collector's Inc, 20th Annual Show & Sale, (8:00 AM to 2:00 PM), at the DeFuniak Springs Community Center, 361 N. 10th Street, DeFuniak Springs, FL 32433. Free Adm., Free Appraisals. Info: RICHARD K, P.O. Box 241, Pensacola, FL 32591. Call or Text: 850.435.5425; Email: shards@bellsouth.net

NOVEMBER 1

TOPSHAM, MAINE

New, 1st Annual Mid-Maine Antique Bottle Show, (9 AM to 2 PM; Early buyers 8 AM, $15), at the Topsham, Maine Fairgrounds Exhibit Hall, 54 Elm St. Topsham. Presented by the Mid-Maine Antique Bottle Club. Adm. $2. Info: PAUL McCLURE, Ph. 207.832.1503; email: oldbottles@outlook. com

NOVEMBER 8

OAKLAND, NEW JERSEY

North Jersey Antique Bottle Collectors Assn. 51st Annual Show & Sale, (9 AM to 2 PM, early buyers 8 AM), at the Pompton Lakes Elks Lodge No.1895, 1 Perrin Ave, Pompton Lakes, NJ. Info: KEN, PH: 973.248.6406, email froggy8@optonline.net

NOVEMBER 8

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA New Location! The Pittsburgh Antique Bottle Club’s 51st Annual Show & Sale, (9 AM to 2 PM, early buyers 7 AM, $25), at the Elizabeth VFD Station 139, 107 Market Street, Elizabeth, PA 15037. Adm. $3. Info: BOB DeCROO, 694 Fayette City Rd., Fayette City, PA 15438. PH: 724.326.8741, or JAY HAWKINS, 1280 Mt. Pleasant Rd., West Newton, PA 15089, PH: 724.872.6013; web: www.PittsburghAntiqueBottleClub.org

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

NOVEMBER 29 BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA Forks of the Delaware Bottle Collectors Association 47th Annual Show & Sale (9AM to 2PM, early buyers 7:30 AM), at the Bethlehem Catholic High School, 2133 Madison Ave., (corner of Madison & Dewberry Avenues), Bethlehem, PA. Info: BILL HEGEDUS, 20 Cambridge Place, Catasauqua, PA 18032, PH: 610.264.3130.

FEBRUARY 7 MANVILLE, NEW JERSEY New Jersey Antique Bottle Club (NJABC), 25th Annual Show & Sale, (9 AM to 2 PM) at the V.F.W. of Manville, New Jersey, 600 Washington Ave, Manville, NJ 08835. Admission $3, no early buyers. Info: KEVIN KYLE, 230 Cedarville Rd, East Windsor, NJ 08520. Email: bottlediggerkev@aol.com PH. 609.209.4034 or JOHN LAWREY, 908.813.2334. FEBRUARY 14

JANUARY 10, 2021

COLUMBUS, OHIO

TAUNTON, MASSACHUSETTS

The Central Ohio Antique Bottle Club's 51st Annual Show & Sale, (Sunday, 9 AM to 2 PM; early buyers 7:00 AM - 9 AM, $20), at the Doubletree Inn, 175 Hutchinson Ave., Columbus (I-270 & Rt. 23). Adm. $3. Info: ROJER MOODY, PH: 740.703.4913, Email: rtmoody@juno.com; or: BRAD FUNK, Email: bradfunk@yahoo.com or PH: 614.264.7846.

The Little Rhody Bottle Club Annual Show & Sale, (9:00 AM to 3 PM, early buyers 8:00 AM, $15), at the Holiday Inn, 700 Myles Standish Blvd., Taunton, MA (off Exit 9, Rt. 495). Adm. $3. Info: BILL or LINDA ROSE, PH: 508.880.4929; or Email: sierramadre@comcast.net JANUARY 23, 2021 JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI

FEBRUARY 27

Mississippi Antique Bottle Club presents their 35th Annual Show and Sale, (Sat. 9 AM to 4 PM, Free admission; Dealer Set-up and Early Buyers, Friday, 22nd, 12 Noon to 7 PM, $20.00, and Sat. 7 AM - 9 AM), at the Mississippi Fairgrounds, 1207 Mississippi St, Jackson, in the East Bay of the Trade Mart Building. Info: CHERYL COMANS, PH: 601.218.3505.

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN The West Michigan Antique Bottle Club presents its 30th Annual Show & Sale (10AM - 2PM) at the Fonger American Legion Post, 2327 Wilson, S.W., Grand Rapids, MI. Entry donation $3, children free. Info: STEVE DEBOODE, 616.667.0214; Email: thebottleguy@comcast.net or; ROGER DENSLOW, Email: rogerdcoger@gmail.com or Phone: 616.447.9156.

Show CALENDAR MARCH 14

AUGUST 6 & 7, 2021

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK

The Baltimore Antique Bottle Club's 41st Annual Show & Sale, (8 AM to 3 PM), at the Physical Education Center, CCBC-Essex, 7201 Rossville Blvd. (I-695,Exit 34). Info: Show Chairman RICK LEASE, 410-458-9405 or email: finksburg21@comcast.net For contracts, call: ANDY AGNEW, 410-527-1707 or e-mail: medbotls@comcast.net Website: baltimorebottleclub.org

FOHBC 2021 National Antique Bottle Show, OnCenter Civic Center, Syracuse, N.Y. View and download info. packet & contract at fohbc.org. Additional info: JIM & VAL BERRY, Email: jhberry10@ yahoo.com, or: JIM BENDER, Email: jbender@millservicesinc.com. FOHBC National Show – Eastern Region.

APRIL 17 COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA

New, Larger and Better Location! The South Carolina Antique Bottle Club's 48th Annual Show. ONE DAY SHOW WITH NEW DATE! The show will be held at the Jamil Shrine Temple, 206 Jamil Road, Columbia, SC. Details soon to follow. For more info: MARTY VOLLMER, Ph: 803.629.8553; email: martyvollmer@aol.com, or: ERIC WARREN: 803.960.7814, email: scbottles@aol.com

JULY 28 - AUGUST 1, 2022 RENO, NEVADA

FOHBC 2022 National Antique Bottle Convention & Expo, Grand Sierra Resort & Casino. Information: RICHARD SIRI, email: rtsiri@sbcglobal.net, or FERDINAND MEYER V, email: fmeyer@fmgdesign.com. FOHBC National Convention – Western Region.

JUNE 19 JOHNSTON, IOWA

Rescheduled from October 10, 2020. The Iowa Antique Bottleers 51st Annual Show and Sale, (8 AM to 2 PM), at the Johnston Lions Club, 64th Place and Merle Hay Road, Johnston, IA. Adm. $2, children free. Info: MARK C. WISEMAN, 3505 Sheridan Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50310-4557, Email: markcwiseman@msn.com, PH: 515.344.8333, or JOYCE JESSEN, 515.979.5216.

November 2020

Collecting around the world In upcoming issues of AB&GC magazine we’ll have several reports about glass from England and Australia. The stories are interesting, and will display items rarely seen in the U.S. (In a recent issue we had a great story by England’s John Ault.) Ralph Finch will set them up, with introductions with top collectors from across the pond and from the bottom of the globe. What follows explains Ralph’s world-wide interest in glass — and Australia.

Antique Glass in Australia? Memories by Ralph Finch

s noted many times over the years, I’ve loved traveling, and have been around the world. I thought Cuba was cool, Haiti was hot, and I left Russia with love. And, until I met Janet, had left my heart not in San Francisco, but in Japan, thanks to having lived there for two and a half years, courtesy of Uncle Sam. I’ve been across the country and have visited dusty ghost towns and major metro-polises. And with the thousand or so articles I have penned, not all my comments were well received. A visit to Jamaica resulted in a nasty note from the Jamaican travel bureau — it didn’t like my interview with a drug dealer for a story that carried this headline: “Why’d Jamaica me cry?” And a small blue-collar suburb of Detroit was red-faced when I wrote about it. The city council named a tree in my honor, and suggested I would swing from it if I return, but it wasn’t a swinging town, so I didn’t. And the Chicago bottle club, two or three decades ago, banned me from returning to its show, but like a bad rash, the club’s anger cleared up and a year later, again like a bad rash, I returned. But, a couple of articles in AB&GC magazine covering bottle auctions in Australia resulted with emails with Travis Dunn, the

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

chief the ABCR Auctions of Melbourne, Australia, and editor of the Australian Bottle & Collectables Review, a four-timesa-year magazine. I asked him about a bottle shop in Melbourne, but since it was 28 years ago and I have problems remembering what I had for breakfast, I was a little fuzzy on the details. What year was it, where was it, how did I get there, etc. So I emailed Chicago’s Jerry McCann for help. Now, Jerry’s knees are a bit wobbly, having traversed around the world, but his memory is as down-to-earth as ever. He told me: “The shop you went to was ‘Rocky’s Relics’ on 462 Waverley Road in East Malvern (a southeastern Melbourne suburb). The owner/operator was Rocky Huxley, since retired and enjoying life with his wife, June, in a country town in the old gold country of Victoria. You took streetcar (tram) No. 3 to the end of the line and walked a short mile east to the shop.” “Your trip was in late 1992 to see Phantom of the Opera, which was playing in the newly restored Princess Theatre in Melbourne. Your ticket to Australia was a free ticket given to you by taking a

European flight on Northwest Airlines.” Thanks, Jerry, but where did I leave my glasses this morning? But I do remember the Aussie visit well, traveling around and doing unusual things. Saw the Phantom, yes, again, and sat on a beach at dusk and witnessed the return from the ocean by a few thousand little penguins who waddle up the shore and into the dunes after they return from a day of fishing. (And if you are quiet, they’ll ignore you and walk right by you.) I also went to the “Giant Worm Museum.” Sadly, it has closed, complaining of not enough attendance, which is hard to believe. The museum was built in the shape of … a huge worm, of course. You think I’m kidding? Wikipedia explains: “The Giant Gippsland earthworm averages three feet in length, but has been seen as long as nine feet. It is native to the clay soil along streams in Victoria, Australia.” PS: Did I get any target balls while in Australia? I was told by a knowledgeable Aussie glass man that there were no target balls known in Australia. However, within a year or two, I owned three very rare Aussie target balls, and one cost more than my entire trip.

Two Pits Before the Lockdown The corona gloom puts a damper on the Badger’s dump By Rick Weiner

he year 2019 pretty much started on a slow note for any type of digging. The privy excavations were almost non-existent at the beginning of the year and the only big dump that I did frequently visit was “Badger’s dump.” We have hit a few older sections in his dump, but it requires major work getting to those sections. On occasion, we have dug down to fifteen feet. Then there are always those dangerous cave-ins that hamper the whole operation. The dumps are fun but I prefer an outhouse dig. The most difficult part of privy digging is getting permission — without permission you can’t dig privies. Lately, I have become stagnant in my willingness to knock on doors. I have all of the resources to accomplish this task, addresses of potential old homes, plenty of digging stories to show the homeowners, and pictures of dug bottles so people can understand what we do in our hobby. So I do have what it takes, I just needed to get off my butt and do it! The privy digging days will probably never be what they used to be, but I won’t throw down the shovel until the good Lord says it is time. One weekend I took my dog, Willy, for a walk down at the Burnside plantation. It was a farm and grain plantation built in the early 1800s. Today it is open to the public as a passive park. While walking there for the first time I noticed a big stretch of woods that ran behind an old two-story stone building. I thought there had to be a dump hiding in those woods somewhere. I gave Willy the tug on the leash to follow me.

As we walked up a grassy hill I began to think about the folks who lived here in the 1800s. My first thought was, “What path did they take while walking to the woods when they were dumping their garbage?” If it were me I would travel the path of least resistance. These big grassy hills would be avoided. As we got closer to the hardwoods I cut through some raspberry prickly bushes. Right away I saw glass, but it was milk bottle glass. Alas, that was par for the course, the newer glass will always be on top. I tied Willy to a tree so I could check it out. He gave me that look of, “I’m old, I’m not going to run away.” It’s funny how I can read his mind. When I scanned the base of the hill I saw a spot, it had that “dumped-in look.” I picked up some old rusted rebar that I found nearby and started to dig. And, low and behold, applied tops started to pop out! They were all broken, but it was a sign that older goodies were soon to come. In no time I had ten broken blown meds laying in front of me. But I had myself in a tizzy before I knew the whole tale. As I dug down deeper I hit hard clay at one foot. Mother earth does not lie. This was not a full-blown house dump, it was just a “bucket drop.” They would come to the woods and toss random buckets full of trash around the area. I have been fooled many times in my younger days by this practice. There was probably a bigger dump somewhere, but I would have to search another day. I could see Willy was getting tired

and crabby and wanted to go home. It was near lunchtime, and he knew it. I truly don’t have bottles on my mind 24/7, contrary to the beliefs of a lot of friends — and my wife. I try to do other activities in life that balance things out. One of my other passions is mountain bike riding. I used to ride the hard trails through the dense woods when I was younger and less brittle. But now I take the nice, flat, scenic routes, and my knees thank me for it every time. I enjoy riding along the river at the Lehigh Canal. There I can easily put fifty miles on the odometer! Along this river ride, there are many cool sites to see. I make it a point to take pictures of the day or my rides would not feel complete. The same holds true for bottle digging. I have been taking pictures of my digging adventures for many years. I often wish I had snapshots of my earlier undertakings, back when I first started digging at age fourteen. What would even be cooler is if I had videos! I may not have the hard copies but I do have the memories. I must admit sometimes, while riding, a few passing thoughts do enter my mind about where the old bottle dumps might be located along the river. I am usually traveling at a pretty good clip so stopping every few minutes to search the woods would be defeating the purpose of getting exercise. But one day, while heading out to the trails, I started to go off of the main drag. I veered towards an old stone bridge and a side creek. There was a blacktop path along the little creek wrapped in cauNovember 2020

tion tape. Upon further inspection, I saw that a big part of the blacktop walkway was caving in right in the center, most likely due to flooding over the years. I turned the bike around and started to head back to the main path, but then I noticed little pieces of shiny glass on the hill next to the trail. I did have a few more miles to put on to fill my biking quota, but I did need a quick break and what better way to rest my legs? That’s right. I was ready to dig some bottles! I grabbed the nearest stick that closely resembled a digging tool and got underway. Right off the bat, I noticed a few whole bottles sticking out of the hard layered gray ash. On the first pull, I got a clear tall boy blob from Bethlehem “Samuel Wissenberger.” With that find, I knew it would be a nice digable dump. But for now, I had to get a move on because my wife is unmanageable when I am late for dinner. I called the Badger on the ride home and asked if he wanted to dig a dump. That was like asking a dog if he wanted more food after he just gulped half of a juicy cheeseburger. We made the plan to come the next day because this spot was right in the public eye, and sooner or later another like-minded digger might see it and wipe it out. It was a Monday, a day like any other day, except today Badger and I took off from work! That’s right, we were playing “bottle digging hooky.” I was retired but I worked part-time landscaping, so it was still considered hooky. I had to pick Badger up because both of his cars were broken down. I got up bright and early, around 5 a.m. On the ride over to the park our conversation consisted of, “What would be in the dump and would anyone say anything if we dug in that spot. We were about to find out. TOP: A tiny basket bottle. MIDDLE: The Mad Hatter figurine at home. BOTTOM: Samuel Wiesenberger bottle from South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

I parked under the iron bridge. It was very early so there were only a few cars parked there. With our backpacks on, we made our way to the creek. This was the first time Badger was here, but his bottle sniffing experience took him to the spot. Within minutes he popped out an amber blob! We both looked at each other with that wide-eyed exciting feeling. Soon we had a few keepers on the ground. I was washing the last find off in the creek when I heard someone talking in the distance. “What are they doing?” I noticed a man and a woman across the creek on the walking trail, looking through some bushes like some Russian spies. I knew it was a city park we were digging, but we were not really digging “in the park” per se and we were not digging any deep holes, we were just scratching around. Badger popped out a few more goodies and just then I got a weird premonition. “They called the cops!” We packed up and made our separate ways to my truck. When I was able to see the truck through the trees I spotted two cop cars sitting in the lot and one officer talking to Badger. What a way to end a good bottle dig. I started to walk over and saw Dave handing the officer his driver’s license. Badger was going to the slammer! It would have been kind of funny but the whole thing started to turn around in our favor. One of the cops asked what we were doing by the creek? When I said digging bottles, he blurted out, “Digging bottles? Is that all!” Then they proceeded to verbally bash the kind of people who call in about every little thing and send them on wild goose chases when they have bigger fish to fry. This debacle ended with three police officers standing around the parking lot asking questions about our hobby of bottle digging. One of them even gave us a lead on a place where a dump might be located on the other side of town. We would go back to the “creek dump” another day, but for now, the dinner bells were ringing and it was time to head home.

For the week ahead I had no plans to dig. I had to work for a few days and I needed a break from the dumps, to be honest. That did not mean I was going to hang around the house all day. I can only last so long indoors. No, it wasn’t the wife. I just get that rammy feeling like a caged animal. I had been texting back and forth on FaceBook with my friend “Doug,” a local digger/collector. He has been asking me to stop by his studio when I had some free time. Well, today I had plenty of that. His shop was literally five minutes from my house. I was embarrassed that I hadn’t dropped in sooner. But you know us bottle diggers, we are busy people. When I finally got to his studio at the Banana Factory in Bethlehem I was in awe with what I saw. Doug was not just a bottle digger/collector, he was an awesome artist! Critically acclaimed for that matter. We talked about bottles as I carefully examined his jars full of marbles and doll heads. I knew he was an OK guy if he had a jar full of doll domes sitting in the open. It looked to me like Doug saved everything! He had a half-gallon jar full of dice he had dug. “Where do you find that many dice?” “All over the world,” he replied with a crazy kind of smile. My focus began to shift towards his paintings. One that caught my eye had old bottles in it. Go figure. His paintings looked like actual photographs, they were that good. As I walked around the room, looking at each painting intently, I commented, “Man, this takes some dedication and lots of patience.” We wrapped up our visit and made plans to do a little digging together in the near future. It is always a treat to see the array of different hobbies that our fellow bottle diggers and collectors enjoy. The weekend was approaching and I had the opportunity to dig a privy out of town, but family comes first. Yes, even over bottles. There was a little thing I did when I visited the kids. I searched through my collection of “smalls’’ and

picked out a few goodies. I would get a marble or two, some small bottles and maybe an old coin I have dug. Then while they were not looking I would bury the treasure in a designated area. A spot that was OK’d by mom, of course. Then later in the day they would always say “Let’s go dig, Popieo!’’ That’s what they call me. The excitement on their faces when a shiny marble or a rusty coin was unearthed was priceless! I guess this silly adventure will continue to be a part of my regular visits until they get older and wiser and then realize Popieo is the treasure man. Digging was in my blood long before I had been bitten by the bottle bug. I was digging in my grandmother’s backyard with a tablespoon at the age of five. I had no idea what this was going to lead to but now I realize it was the making of a bottle digger. Now when I see the grandkids digging with their spoons and getting excited, it floods my mind with wonderful thoughts of the past. Soon they will be on their way to a real bottle digging adventure with Popieo! Another part-time workweek was ahead for me. But that was OK, it kept this old body in shape for digging. We had a job right up the road from my house. I often pray that the customer has an old home so I can spring into action and try to acquire permission to dig a privy. But that rarely happens. We usually take care of newer upscale neighborhoods, and today was no exception. These homes were not all that new, but they were not good for any kind of bottle action. I believe they were built in the 1960s or ’70s. After I unloaded all the tools and got ready to do some decorative mulching, I took a walk to the nearby woods for a nature break. As I got a little deeper in I noticed a deer stand overlookTOP: Dr. Jayne's Tonic Vermifuge. MIDDLE: Holy water holder unearthed. BOTTOM: Tall boy Seitz.

November 2020

ing a deep ravine. I reminisced a little about the long days I used to spend in a deer stand waiting for that big buck to walk by. That daydream vanished in a puff when I saw a wall of ash in a deep ravine! Could it be? An old dump among the new homes? Anything is possible, I guess. I thought maybe there were older homes here before these were built. But the only way to tell the true age was to drop in the crater and dig out a bottle. I slid down on my butt and started to chip away at the white ash. I prayed it would be at least TOC — “turn of the century” — then I saw glass! As I dug around it I said a prayer. Please, God, make it an old one. But God had other plans for me that day. A milk bottle rolled out, then a Clorox right on its tail. Bummer. The dump was dated, things from the 1930s and ’40s. When I was a kid I would have been doing backflips over this stuff. But alas, I have outgrown it and what excites me has changed. On my way home from work I got a call from my buddy Damian. He called to tell me he scored permission in “Catty.” When I heard that I lit up like a 100-watt light bulb! I knew Catasauqua was one of the best places to dig privies. I have dug there for many years and wrote countless stories for AB&GC magazine and other publications about our adventures. The million-dollar question to Damian was, “How old is the house?” My timeline for saying yes to digging an outhouse pit is the era from the 1850s to 1880. Anything newer than that is a recipe for heavy depression. I waited for the answer. He came back with the build date as being 1880. I would have rather have 1850s –’60s, but beggars can’t be choosers. I haven’t dug a privy in a while so with a little luck and TOP: Shards and stuff. MIDDLE: Milkglass oil lamp. BOTTOM: Shoveling out of the pit.

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

a prayer we might get a well-loaded pit. Plumbing did not make it to Catty until the late 1900s so we had a chance. Everything was going fine until Damian hit me with the stipulations of the permission. He said we could not dig the privy until spring. There is always a wrench tossed into the works, but we had to deal with it, and spring was only a few months away. Fall and winter were very mild for us. Hardly any snow or below freezing temperatures to deal with. So through November and February, we did a few road trips for privies and also dug some local dumps, mainly Badger’s. But as it was getting closer to March I was getting ready for the local privy. Since the weather was still on the warm side I decided to give Damian a call about the permission he got in Catty. Damian was a busy guy. He worked as a mixer (sound man) at various sports and music venues. He was always on the clock so he had little time for digging. I figured I would hit him up early so he could plan and take a day or two off soon. There is one thing I learned in the permission getting game. Do not wait too long to dig the privy once you get the green light. Sometimes people change their minds. They might do a little research and see what a hole in their yard will actually look like when someone digs a privy and think, “Not in my yard,” and then it’s over. We did have a little security with this permission though, as Damian knew the homeowner. He used to be one of his students when he taught audio-video classes at his old job in Bethlehem. The guy recently bought the house and remembered Damian telling the class about his passion for bottle digging and gave him a call. I was very excited about digging this 1880 house. We agreed to do it in the upcoming week, because the Baltimore bottle show was right around the corner. There was no way the Badger and I would miss

that. We have been attending the show without fail, but sadly this year the show would have a different feel to it. The corona virus had begun to rear its ugly head, but thank god it was in the very beginning stages and the show was not affected by social distancing or, even worse, a total shut down.

dozen shovels of dirt out, it started to take shape. I hit what looked like a concrete block and then another. It didn’t take long for us to discover what was making this spot sink. Damion hit a block with his shovel and it disappeared. It was swallowed up by a 20-foot brick-lined pipe-fed cesspool!

People were just starting the safety steps. I saw a few using hand sanitizer — including me — but no masks and there was no “6-foot rule.” How things have changed.

There was nothing in this hole but air; we could not even see the bottom. What we had here was an accident waiting to happen. It must have been used in the 1920s and ’30s and covered over with wood and dirt. I have encountered this before. The old homeowner probably just got lazy and covered the top of the hole, not the depth. The result is a death trap for homeowners and children in the future. If it were covered with a steel plate there wouldn’t have been an issue but it was covered with a thick piece of plywood which rotted over the years. I took a few pictures and we filled that brick-lined booby trap in.

It was a great show under the circumstances. The camaraderie and the great bottles made me forget for a little while what was going on around the world. But it was still always in the back of my mind. As the day inched towards that 3 o’clock bell, the show would be over and then it was time to get back to reality. But the news only got worse as this invisible nightmare began to engulf all of our lives. Soon, I had forgotten all about the permission Damian had scored in Catty, as the virus erased it from my memory. But when I got home and settled at my computer there was a message from Damian. “It’s a go, can you dig on Friday?” It was about the 1880 house! There was no hesitation, I accepted. It was early on with the virus, so we figured if the homeowner was OK with it, so were we. We planned on meeting at 9 a.m. The yard wasn’t probed yet so I suggested we get there a little earlier. Damion did have a spot he eyeballed when he was there last, an area he thought might be a pit because it was sinking. That is the location I decided to probe first. I stuck the six-foot probe in and put some weight on it. Down it went like it was going through pure air! In my experience this had to be some type of void, as it was lacking that crunchy feel when the probe is buried. It felt way too easy, and with many years of probing experience you just know when something is not right. We started to dig the targeted spot. With half a

We were back to square one. With no sunken spots in the yard to give us a hint I started to probe the property line. There are only so many spots an outhouse can be placed. After all, it was a private matter, so most were at the side or the back of the house. Since this was an 1880 homestead I figured there would be at least two thunder-shack holes. One would date from 1880 to ’90s and the other from the 1890s to 1900s. As I jammed the rod down with no luck, Damian yelled over. “Hey, check this board out.” Sometimes the fence on a property line will sink due to the privy sinking over the years. With this one, the fence wasn’t sinking, but the bottom board was hanging off. I didn’t think much of it at first but when I stuck the trusty probe in and gave it a steady push I heard that magical crunch and felt the easiness of the push. When it TOP: Cobalt W.H. Hooker & Co. / Sole Agents / North and South America. MIDDLE: Let the glass begin! BOTTOM: A mystery bottle appears.

November 2020

came out, the tip was loaded with white ash. No doubt about it, we had a privy! It was time to get into action fast because we did not know what would become of this corona menace. It felt strange to be digging a privy at this time to begin with, but we were taking it a day at a time. I started to cut out the grass that needed to be placed on a tarp and saved for when the job is finished. The next step was to start removing the contents. I buried the shovel with ease in the hole, that was a real good sign. We both examined the first few buckets with anticipation. It looked really good, as the texture of the fill and the bits of the foreign matter told us this was an outhouse crafted in the 19th century. The further down we went, the more excited we became. There wasn’t any sign of earth whatsoever, just ash and old fill layers. A half-hour of digging revealed a huge clay cap. These clay monstrosities were used to cap off the contents of the privy. A clay cap sort of reminds me of big corks. It always struck me as strange to put three feet of clay in a privy when they were about to fill it in for good, never to be used again. Some cities and towns had their own set of wacky rules and regulations when it came time to fill these pits in. In the town we were digging, some of these clay caps were huge. Most of the time there is nothing found in these dense blocks of earth. But once in a while, you will find a bottle. The bottles we find are mostly liquor bottles. This a good way to estimate a date when they filled the privy in for good. Why liquor bottles in the cap? My theory is the people were drinking while they were filling in the hole. Every bottle I have ever found in a cap was a booze bottle. I guess it took the edge off of the crappy task at hand. TOP: Assorted goodies. MIDDLE: Can't touch this. BOTTOM: A.W. Long bottle from Bethlehem.

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

This cap was slowly shrinking. The massive chunks were piling up on the blue tarps. Just as I was getting a little perturbed with the weight and the awkwardness of this stuff. Damian yells out: “I see a square brown bottom!” Right away, I thought of a bitters bottle. It was hard to dig a bottle out of this clay because it is so dense. There was always that chance of breaking it. After ten minutes he had it free. When Damian held it up I kind of recognized the shape. It was an amber square whiskey with a swirled neck. It also had a round slug plate. My first question was, “Does the seam go up,” and the answer to that was yes. I must say I did get a little depressed knowing that the first bottle out was an automatic bottle machine product, which started in 1903. But upon further investigation, I found out the history information on this bottle was off the hook. It turned out it was part of a family of distillers that ran a business where some of my family has lived for most of their lives, namely Benton township in Columbia County, Pennsylvania. The Rohr McHenry Distilling Co. was in business from 1812 to 1913. In 1911 there was a fire that destroyed 17,000 barrels of whiskey. The company stayed open for two more years and then threw in the towel. I am guessing the bottle Damion found was one of the remaining few distributed that year. Here is a link for more history on the McHenry distillery: www. born1812.com/history.html. After admiring the bottle, we kicked the shovels into overdrive. I just polished off a can of Starbucks triple shot and felt like a teenager for a good fifteen minutes! Finally, we began to see a change in the fill. A nice black texture was popping through the dull white ash. It was the use layer, bottle bed, and trash layer, whatever you wish to call it. To us, it was “the sweet spot” where all the fun starts. I was scratching around the right corner of the pit and right away I hit glass. It

felt like it was whole but I never count my bottles before they are dug. As I was pulling it out I began to pray, “Please be whole, please be whole.” With a steady tug, out popped an aqua tall boy blob beer! After that, the glass just started to pour out of this privy. I was excited, but Damian was even more excited. He was fairly new to the privy game and hasn’t had the pleasure of digging a truly loaded outhouse before. I had a feeling today was going to be his day. Damian dropped down into the pit and started to do his thing. Only ten minutes had passed. The shouts I heard coming from the hole told me he found something awesome. Wooo wooo wooo! As I walked to the edge and looked in I saw Damian holding up another dark aqua blob top! The day would be filled with exciting moments like this. I think it was God telling us “Get it while you can boys, as things are about to change for a while.” As I looked through the bottles coming out of this privy, I knew it was not the older one. Reading a privy is like reading a clock. The items found on the very bottom tell the time the pit was first used. This house was built in 1880. None of the bottles or knick-knacks dated to the 1880s. This privy was used from the 1890s to 1914, give or take a few years. While Damian was having fun down under I decided to try and find the 1880 pit. I proceeded to pace off six feet from the one we were in and slammed the probe down on the property line. I yelled out to Damion, “I got it.” The rod sunk with ease and had that crunchy feel. It was without a doubt the older privy! It doesn’t always happen that fast but today seemed to be our day. The bottle gods were shining down on us. We were almost near the bottom of the first pit and it was my turn for digging. I started with an undug section on the back wall. While I was scratching around the privy, Damian broke out his metal detector to search the yard for old coins. He

decided to call Jeff, a friend of ours who works at a local TV station. He was off work and he lived ten minutes away. He also dabbled in metal detecting. In the meantime, it looked like I was going to finish off this privy. There was just a small section left to do and I did not have to take any more fill out of the pit. I would just move it to the back section that had already been dug. A lot of bottles were coming out, but they were “clear slicks.” Seeing so many of these also verified the date of this outhouse. It was 1890s and 1900s for sure. Just as I put the last slicker in the bucket I spotted the bottom of a blue bottle. My heart started to race when I pictured a cobalt blue soda in my mind. I started to scratch around it and twist at the same time, and out it came, bingo. It was whole! It wasn’t a soda but it was a very cool bottle nonetheless. It looked like a wine with a little blob top. With some research, it was confirmed as “Sparkling Water.” After that pull, it was time to fill this baby in. As Damian came over to the pit I heard another voice in the distance. I hadn’t even noticed Jeff was already here. When you are in a ten-foot hole the world around you is pretty much silent. That is a good thing sometimes. Jeff stepped over to the edge of the pit. “Hey, Rick, check this out.” He tossed down a neat old lock he’d found in the yard while detecting. This place is oozing with history. After I passed around the blue bottle and everyone rubbed it for luck, it was time to try our new-found luck on the next privy. But first we had to take a little well-deserved break. Jeff wanted to interview us. He had a few questions about Covid 19 and how it was affecting our lives. The short segment would be on our local PBS news that TOP: Embossed medicines. MIDDLE: M.M. Boss / Druggist / So. Bethlehem. BOTTOM: Williams Magnetic Relief from 1880s.

November 2020

evening. He also filmed a shot of Damian in the privy. We all started to fill in the first pit. I suggested one of us begin to open up the older one so we could save some time. Yes, I was calling it the older one before I even broke ground. I was pretty sure it was the original outhouse. Everything was going well but then it started to rain like cats and dogs! But I saved the day because I just happened to have my pop-up tent in the truck. Lucky for Jeff, he also had a nice dry place to film the digging action. It was time for more dirty work. I had dug about three-foot of fill out of the second privy, but the probe told me we had at least eight more feet to go. Jeff had been documenting each step for the TV show called “History Diggers” on our local PBS station. He didn’t get to film the first dig but he would certainly get some good footage on this one. Within a half-hour, I was up to my chest in the second pit and I wasn’t seeing a monster clay cap as we had in the other hole. Every privy is filled in differently. They may have had a ton of red clay on hand for one hole and barely a thin layer for the other. So far this one looked like the latter, very little clay. That translates to less time to get to the bottles. As we kept the flow of dirt coming, the homeowners stopped by to see if anything interesting had come out yet. We had a five-gallon bucket full of bottles waiting for them. The wife went crazy when she saw the small perfumes and the husband loved the blob beers. Some things never change, even after 130 years. After a little while, the conversation changed from bottle talk to what we heard about the corona virus. It was still in the back of our minds even though we were TOP: Some of the older finds. MIDDLE: Damian with a tall boy. BOTTOM: Doug's studio.

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

digging and having a grand old time. The news hadn’t really changed much. They just kept repeating what we needed to do to stay safe. Wash our hands and keep six feet apart. We definitely could accomplish that task while digging privies. There is only room for one guy in the hole at a time. I filled the last bucket and sent it up to Damian. At this point, I didn’t need a ladder to get out, but I bet I looked like a crippled seal crawling out of an ice hole. When Damian was ready to go in we decided to get the ladder, because after he finished digging deeper it would be tough to climb out for both of us. Soon, we got settled into our designated jobs. Damian was digging, I was the bucket man and Jeff, obviously, the cameraman. Not too much time went by before I heard that all familiar “Woo woo woo woo!” again. Translated, that means Damian found something good. Jeff got on board and lined the camera up with the open pit, hoping to get a shot of the bottle in its undug state, but it was too murky for that. Damian sprung up like a dirty jack-in-the-box with a cool square brown bottle in his right hand. It was a “WH Hooker Blood Elixir,” and in his left hand was a cure that read “Williams Magnetic Relief.” These action moments are what Jeff was looking for. Hopefully, we will see this cut on the History Diggers one day. As the hours went by the pile of bottles started to build. We also had a nice array of knick-knacks. It was always fun going through the items on the pile while the man in the hole was filling buckets. One of my favorites was a holy water holder. It was in two pieces but I would glue this one back together. Later Damian also found one. When I find religious items in privies I take it as a good sign for the day, and we could sure use it in these trying times. The next little item we found was what I call the “Mad Hatter,” just a little fellow who lost his head. Yes, we later found his entire body. Another success story.

As the day progressed we got closer to the bottom. Bottles were still coming out, but it was getting deeper, darker and tighter. We were all getting tired and wet despite the tent. Damian was debating on coming back the next day to finish up. But that thought would vanish from our minds in a flash. The homeowner came out to us and said, “You guys are going to finish and fill that in today, right?” His yard had a mountain of dirt five feet high, his grass was matted down, and there was a circus tent in his yard. Why panic now? The next words out of his mouth made me understand. “There is a lockdown.” This was the first day of the lockdown from the Covid-19 virus. The homeowner knew we would not be back for a while. It was time to fill it in, this adventure was over. Things were getting weird pretty fast. It was all over the TV and radio. They were telling us to continue to wash our hands and after a while, it was social distancing. People were still going to work, but soon after seeing how fast this ghost of a virus was spreading the shutdown began. Nonessential businesses were closing left and right. The streets resembled a ghost town. It was starting to get a little scary. Knowing there was no cure or medicine to combat this invisible enemy made it even more frightening! I had to learn more about it to try and calm my worries. Watching the right news channel and reading the facts made me realize we needed to do the simple things to keep us safe. Wash our hands, stay at least six feet apart, and wear a mask when visiting public places. As the days and weeks went by the death toll around the world would rise. Wearing masks at the early stages was not mandatory but soon you could not enter a store without one. It would be the new normal until they found an antidote or a vaccine for Covid-19. I am sure glad we dug the privies when we did. We had that one last chance before lockdown.

TOP: A ribbed flask comes out of the pit; a Mrs. Dinsmore Cough Balsam. MIDDLE: Cann's Kidney Cure / Philadelphia PA / U.S.A. / Est. 1876. BOTTOM: Damian and Rick digging in.

November 2020

Premier Selections to be included in our Nov. 9, Auction #27

American Glass Gallery

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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

AB&GC reader Marc Lutsko writes:

I have attached four pictures of a Lash’s Bitters bottle that I dug in the redwoods of the northern California coast in 1974. A friend and I had found a dump below the railroad tracks of a small town where we lived, and had dug several local bottles in the dump, including five Owl Drug Co. poison bottles and some embossed northern California flasks.

Still Digging into a Lash’s Mystery

At one point I unearthed the corner of what looked like a bitters bottle while at the same time my friend, digging next to me, exposed a top to what looked like a whiskey bottle. Low and behold, we were both digging the same bottle: this Lash’s Bitters bottle. Once we pulled it out of the ground we flipped a coin and I won the toss. Though we noticed some whittle marks in it when we dug it, it wasn’t until it had been cleaned that we saw the very pronounced wave patterns that covered all of the inside of the bottle. As you can see in the pictures, there are several horizontal lines going up all four sides on the inside of it, where the glass is different thicknesses. It almost looks like a cabin bitters, the patterns are so strong. And unlike whittle marks which occur on the outside of a bottle, from the hot glass hitting the cold mold, these marks are all on the inside. We were kids then. Now I’ve grown old, and all of this time I managed to hold on to the bottle for nearly fifty years now. So when I saw the article on Lash’s Bitters in the magazine (September and October, 2019), well, I had to send in a picture. It is an ABM machine-made bottle, probably dating from about the 1915 era, as that is about the date of the BIM owl poison bottles. I haven’t seen another and I wonder if any of the readers have ever seen one like this? There had to be a few of them blown in that batch of glass, but it is the only one that I know of. Thanks for sharing this short story with your readers. Marc at letsgo@montanasky.net November 2020

By John Panella and Joe Widman

RHEUMATISM PART ONE: Warming up to the marvels of total quackery Starting with the campaign of Andrew Jackson, the term “The Age Of The Common Man” was coined. At the time, common sentiments included anti-intellectualism, rejection of scientific experts and the fervent belief that the common man was the best person to decide his own destiny, even in matters of life and death. A consequence of this was the rapid growth of competing and well-advertised “cure-alls,” which continued throughout the Golden Age Of American Medicine. Much of the medicine out there was poison. This month we choose to look at a few historical examples. Popular medicines of the day were produced mainly by individuals with a lack of education or medical knowledge, and by shrewd, dishonest entrepreneurs. Promotional techniques were expanded and elaborated as the common man just sought relief from pains. British exporters brought remedies like “Turlington’s Balsam of Life” and “Hooper’s Female Pills” to American shores. These were sold by postmasters, printers and apothecaries, and Americans grew accustomed to their distinctive names and the shapes of their packages and bottles. During the American Revolution, imitations of most of these nostrums were produced, similar in name and even the shapes of the bottles, along with copied labeling. Knock-off brands were made to look similar when, in fact, they were often not even good fakes. Doctors were expensive, too costly for the working man and considered as “one-trick ponies” ready to perform gruesome and murderous acts of bleeding and purging. Nostrum makers often described them as heartless brutes armed with scalpels and mercurial purges.

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Patent medicines were effective. Their ingredients almost always consisted of psychotropic and stimulant components, which brought about a feeling of wellbeing to allay pain, fear and anxiety. Alcohol and other effective stimulants were mixed with a wide array of toxic and narcotic, even nuclear radioactive ingredients. “If you feel troubled by something and you try our product we guarantee a full refund if you are not entirely satisfied with our cure/remedy.” That was said a lot and not many people at all returned their narcoticspiked, high-alcohol “cure” compound.

Now, let’s look at some of their products, advertising and tall tales of deceit. Some favorites of mine follow. The graphics and advertising really tell the story.

Yes, it worked! The curative effects did not last forever, so instructions specified to repeat the dose when it seemed ineffective or whenever needed. It’s made to please the customer, till the bitter end. Relief was always just a dose away.

He is Now in the City and Explains the Nature of the Discovery

Dr. Plouf ’s Rheumatic Cure Text taken from the MORNING CALL, San Francisco, Friday Oct. 21, 1892: A GREAT DISCOVERY A Cure for Rheumatism now a Known Fact Dr. Plouf Achieves Honor

The term rheumatism is an old-fashioned word used to describe problems that affect the joints and connective tissues. It is an auto-immune condition, which means it is caused by the immune system attacking healthy body tissue. It is unknown what triggers this condition. Normally, your immune system makes antibodies that attack bacteria and viruses, helping to fight infection.

A gentleman arrived in this city a few days ago who has distinguished himself by making a discovery that ranks as the most important one recorded in the annals of medical science for a number of years. Dr. J.E. Plouf is his name, and he is the fortunate mortal whom the fates have ordained to give to the world the only known cure for rheumatism. For generations the medical fraternity has been wrestling with this malady, as they have with consumption and other supposed incurable ailments, but it remained for Dr. Plouf of Seattle to come to the front with a medicine that is destined to make rheumatism as scarce as cholera cases in this “glorious climate.”

There is no known cure for rheumatism in today’s world of medicine. We have assembled some pictures of labeled rheumatic patent medicines. Most of them provide the proof right on the bottle and advertising that they will cure the incurable. It is a world of false advertising, phony testimonials and quack physicians and patent medicine companies, all trying to habituate you to their products. While laughing all the way to the bank, all these individuals were referred to in old-fashioned terminology as “Toadstool Millionaires.”

This gentleman, whose name will soon be probably as well known as Dr. Koch and Pasteur, is just from Seattle, which city he has been electrifying the past year through the remarkable curative properties of this remedy. A Chronicle representative was detailed yesterday to obtain fuller information concerning the nature of the new discovery, for the published accounts and reports that reached this city from Seattle were so remarkable in character as to be almost incredible. Dr. Plouf was found in his office in the Nucleus block, and he readily places at the disposal of the reporter information of

Rheumatism: what is it?

AN ARRAY OF RHEUMATISM REMEDIES PHOTOS (clockwise from top left): An embossed Dr. Plouf's Rheumatism Cure. Dr. Plouf's Rheumatism Cure with label, very scarce. Hanford's / Celery Cure / or / Nerve Food / Cures / Rheumatism / Neuralgia / Insomnia. Collection of Gordon Hugi Denn's Sure, Safe Speedy Liver, Kidney, Rheumatism Remedy. Image from the collection of Gordon Hugi Labeled Donnell's Rheumatic Liniment bottle with box. Image courtesy of Gordon Hugi

November 2020

By John Panella and Joe Widman

a positive character which thoroughly convinced the reporter that scientific knowledge and rigorous testing had tested the medicine to be a sure cure for rheumatic ailments. The Chronicle investigator was also presented with attested notarized statements and various affidavits submitted by a large number of notaries. Dr. Plouf stated, when asked about the effectiveness of his cure, “I was not really positive that the cure was an infallible one, but after I had tested it on all kinds of cases, some of which were twenty years standing, and the medicine worked like a charm in all of them, I was then convinced that my discovery was more important than I supposed. Its composition is, of course, a secret, but I will say that the treatment is based on a new theory on the origin and nature of rheumatism. The common practice had been to treat it externally. The new remedy works internally.” The reporter was also shown endorsements from the daily press of Seattle and inquiries both from the Far East and Europe for the remedy, showing that the fame of it had gone abroad. “I have yet,” concluded the new medical luminary, “to come across a case which this medicine will not positively cure. It cures not only rheumatism, but it cures all kinds and does it for all time. If the Chronicle can find a person whose rheumatism will not yield to this medicine I will present him with $1,000 in gold.” — San Francisco Chronicle.

And now THE BIG SURPRISE: Who would have figured? June 19, 1905 - San Francisco Examiner DR. PLOUF STRUCK THREE TIMES AND KILLED Dr. Plouf Hit McGaughey Once with his Left Hand and Twice with his Cane Attorney Rael Terry’s Statement of the Process of Manufacturing Dr. Plouf ’s Celebrated Rheumatic Cure

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

The prosecution rested yesterday in the case of the people against J.D.L. McGaughey for the killing of Dr. Plouf, and the defense began examination of witnesses”

McGaughey then fired three shots, then one more. Plouf was still going for McGaughey, eventually collapsing in a pool of blood dead on the ground.

In these examinations the following was reported regarding the manufacturing of Dr. Plouf ’s Rheumatic Cure, through J.D.L. McGaughey’s attorneys statements as follows:

In the San Francisco Examiner - later in 1906 came this news:

The lawyer narrated the business acquaintance between McGaughey & Dr. Plouf: McGaughey had come from Seattle in 1893, and met Dr. Plouf. He was then earning $16 a week from a telegraph company and it was on this income that he and his wife lived. McGaughey had saved a little money and through representations of Plouf that they together could make a fortune from the sale of his Rheumatic Cure which McGaughey had invested $200 in the enterprise. McGaughey soon found out that this whole scheme by Dr. Plouf was a fraud. The nostrum consisted of two gallons of ingredients in a barrel, the hose was turned on and 7,000 bottles of Dr. Plouf Rheumatic Cure were produced. When he discovered the fraud McGaughey quit Dr. Plouf, pocketed his loss and engaged in other business. Dr. Plouf was verbally out of control and violent towards McGaughey. He was slandered, and misrepresented, having false charges made against him wherever he found employment. Abused, vilified, accused, cursed maligned and assaulted McGaughey had enough! W.M. English, an eye witness, was called to the defense. Shooting of Dr. Plouf took place in front of the Columbia Building on Market Street. His attention was first attracted by a loud conversation between the two men. Dr. Plouf was striking McGaughey once with his hand and twice with his cane. McGaughey fell on to the pavement. As he tried to get up Plouf hit him with his cane in the right hand breaking the cane.

McGAUGHEY ACQUITTED James McGaughey, the man who was charged with killing “Dr.” Plouf, was fully acquitted and case dismissed, judge ruled the killing to be in self defense. Shortly after this incident Dr. Plouf ’s Rheumatic Cure, due to his demise, was not produced much longer. Maybe it was karma or just rotten luck for another lying Toadstool Millionaire.

Our picture gallery is eye candy for rheumatism collectors. The included photos are labeled and embossed bottles and advertising representations of patent medicine rheumatism cures and remedies. Read the labels so you can conclude for yourself the effectiveness of these nostrums. None remain on the market. Many of these medicines really contributed to creating today’s wide world of substance abuse. Here's hoping a lesson in history and common sense can be learned. Mistakes not learned from are sure to just repeat themselves. In next month’s Medicine Chest, Part 2, you will find the conclusion of this topic. Many more cures, all outright poisons, were produced and sold over the counter. There was always a new batch of wicked American quack rheumatism medicines and advertising. We continue in our never-ending quest to expose the realities of old-fashioned pharmaceutical profiteering … and selling poison. Unless otherwise noted, all images are from the author's collection.

RADIUM REMEDIES PHOTOS (clockwise from top left): Radium Emanation Water advertisement. Image courtesy of California Antique Bottle Club member Small bottle with label, containing "Certified Radioactive Water." Image courtesy of California Antique Bottle Club member An interesting example of how radium was used in other advertisements and beyond medicinal applications during the golden age of quackery. Advertisement for "Radium Is Restoring Health." A two-gallon jug containing "Pure-Radium-Water." Labeled Radium Radia bottle with box. It was advertised as the "World's Premier Conqueror of Pain." Radium Hand Cleaner, "Takes Off Everything but the Skin."

November 2020

FOHBC.org

Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

November 2020

WANTED!

Irresponsible collector willing to pay reasonable prices for: Attractive, bubble-filled snu f jars, pretty snuff jars, or unusual snuff jars Ralph & Janet Finch, 34007 Hillside Ct., Farmington Hills, Mich. 48335 or e-mail rfinch@twmi.r .com, or janloik@yahoo.com.

Over 125 examples of cures and bitters from common to rare will be auctioned. The collection includes many examples of other bottles and related gathered over a 40 year period. Approximately 300 + lots will be sold absolute at no minimum and no buyers premium. Hospitality Buffet provided. Pictures and information posted at www.PlossAuction.com Auction Preview Nov. 7, 8am, or by appointment

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WANTED

(amber) ANDREWS & ST. ANDREWS embossed SARSAPARILLA - WINE OF LIFE ROOT - WINOLRO ALSO Sanitary type toothpick holders

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November 2020

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Articles inside

Still Digging into a Lash’s Mystery

Two Pits Before Lockdown

Medicine Chest: Rheumatism

Antique Glass in Australia?

Letters to the Editor

Classified Advertisements

Show Calendar

Can’t Breathe? Try Some Victorian Relief

Hop on Over to Australia

Heard it through the Grapevine

New Jersey Bitters and Hostetter's