Since 1993
lass G n erica m yA l r a of E y t eau B e r th e v o c D is • Call or email us for auction dates • We pay top dollar for quality bottles and glass • Free appraisals 2523 J Street Suite 203 Sacramento, CA 95816 1800-806-7722
On the web: americanbottle.com Email: info@americanbottle.com
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Bottles and Extras
Don’t miss an issue of BOTTLES and EXTRAS ! Please check your labels for expiration information.
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Who do I contact at BOTTLES and EXTRAS, or for my Change of Address, Missing Issues, etc.?
Vol. 32 No. 6
November - December 2021
TABLE OF CONTENTS
No. 258
On the Cover: Collage of image components from Dr. King, The King of Marketers
To Advertise, Subscribe or Renew a subscription, see pages 66 and 72 for details.
FOHBC Officers | 2021 - 2022 ............................................................................................2
To Submit a Story, send a Letter to the Editor or have Comments and Concerns, contact:
FOHBC President’s Message .................................................................................................3 Shards of Wisdom ...............................................................................................................4 History’s Corner ..................................................................................................................5 FOHBC News - From & For Our Members ..............................................................................6 Follow up article Eichelberger Distillery and the Eichelberger Dew Drop Bottle by Mike McKillop...................................................................................................... 10 Capital Brewery Frank Wright and Indianapolis by Martin Van Zant........................... 14
Page 14 Page 29
Dr. King The King of Marketers by Jerry Hemry........................................................... 29 Eugene Bode Saloon Owner Fredricksburg, Virginia by Jeff Eastland........................... 38 A 4th of July Dig Came in with a Bang and Went out with a BOOM BABY! by Rick Weiner........................................................................................................... 42 Antique Bottle Provenance and Other Value Enhancers by Burt Robbins...................... 52
BOTTLES and EXTRAS © (ISSN 1050-5598) is published bi-monthly (6 issues per year) by the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, Inc. (a non-profit IRS C3 educational organization) at 101 Crawford Street, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002; phone: 713.504.0628; Website: FOHBC.org, Non-profit periodicals postage paid at Raymore, Missouri 64083 and additional mailing office, Pub. #005062.
Third Time's the Charm for Key West Bottler by David Rakes....................................... 58 Lost & Found .................................................................................................................... 62 FOHBC Member Photo Gallery .......................................................................................... 64 Classified Ads ................................................................................................................... 66 Page 38
FOHBC Membership Additions & Changes ......................................................................... 70 Membership Benefits, Ad Rates, Donations to the FOHBC ................................................... 71
Postmaster: Send address changes to Elizabeth Meyer, FOHBC Business Manager, 101 Crawford Street, Studio 1A, Houston, Texas 77002; 713.504.0628, email: fohbcmembers@gmail.com Annual subscription rate is: $40 for standard mail or $55 for First Class, $60 Canada and other foreign, $85, Digital Membership $25 in U.S. funds. Life Membership: Level 1: $1,000, Level 2: $500, The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, Inc. assumes no responsibility for products and services advertised in this publication. See page 72 for more details.
Membership Application & Advertising ............................................................................. 72
Page 42
Coming next issue or down the road: Stockton's Port Wine Bottles • Catawba Wine Bitters • Pikes Peak or Bust • Dr. E. Champlain's Ligneous Extract • Hunting Hunt's Honey Hole • Digging in Indiana • Phelan's Hair Tonic • Abraham Klauber: An Early San Diego Merchant's Wooden Crate • Summer Digging with Mark Wiseman
Martin Van Zant BOTTLES and EXTRAS Editor 41 E. Washington Street Mooresville, Indiana 46158 812.841.9495 email: mdvanzant@yahoo.com Fair use notice: Some material in BOTTLES and EXTRAS has been submitted for publication in this magazine and/or was originally published by the authors and is copyrighted. We, as a non-profit organization, offer it here as an educational tool to increase further understanding and discussion of bottle collecting and related history. We believe this constitutes “fair use” of the copyrighted material as provided for in Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this material for purposes of your own that go beyond “fair use”, you must obtain permission from the copyrighted owner(s).
Virtual Museum News by Richard Siri......................................................................... 22
FOHBC Sho-Biz - Calendar of Shows .................................................................................. 68
Elizabeth Meyer FOHBC Business Manger 101 Crawford Street, Studio 1A Houston, Texas 77002 phone: 713.504.0628 email: fohbcmembers@gmail.com
Page 58
The names Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors Inc., and BOTTLES and EXTRAS ©, are registered ® names of the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors Inc., and no use of either other than as references, may be used without expressed written consent from the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors Inc. Certain material contained in this publication is copyrighted by, and remains the sole property of, the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors Inc. while others remain property of the submitting authors. Detailed information concerning a particular article may be obtained from the Editor. Printed by ModernLitho, Jefferson City, Missouri 65101.
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Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors Business & News
The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors is a non-profit organization for collectors of historical bottles and related collectible items. Our primary goal is educational as it relates to the history and manufacture of historical bottles and related artifacts.
FOHBC Officers 2021 - 2022
President: John O’Neill, 1805 Ralston Ave. Belmont, California 94002; phone: 650.619.8209; email: Joneill@risk-strategies.com
Merchandise Director: Val Berry, 200 Fort Plain Watershed Rd, St. Johnsville, NY 13452; phone: 518.568.5683; email: vgberry10@yahoo.com
First Vice-President: Jeff Wichmann, 915 28th Street, Sacramento, California 95816; phone: 800.806.7722 email: info@americanbottle.com
Business Manager: Elizabeth Meyer, 101 Crawford Street, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002; phone: 713.504.0628; email: fohbcmembers@gmail.com
Second Vice-President: Michael Seeliger, N8211 Smith Road, Brooklyn, Wisconson 53521; phone: 608.575.2922 email: mwseeliger@gmail.com
Director-at-Large: Ferdinand Meyer V, 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002; phone: 713.222.7979 x115; email: fmeyer@fohbc.org
Secretary: Val Berry, 200 Fort Plain Watershed Rd, St. Johnsville, NY 13452; phone: 518.568.5683; email: vgberry10@yahoo.com Treasurer: James Berry, 200 Fort Plain Watershed Rd, St. Johnsville, NY 13452; phone: 518.568.5683; email: jhberry10@yahoo.com Historian: Jim Bender, PO Box 162, Sprakers, NY 12166; phone: 518.673.8833; email: jim1@frontiernet.net Editor: Martin Van Zant, 41 E. Washington St., Mooresville, IN 46168; phone: 812.841.9495; email: mdvanzant@yahoo.com
Director-at-Large: Open Director-at-Large: Richard Siri, PO Box 3818, Santa Rosa, California 95402, phone: 707.542.6438; email: rtsiri@sbcglobal.net Midwest Region Director: Steve Lang, 13173 N. Paddock Rd., Camby, Indiana 46113, phone: 317.734.5113 email: slang14@yahoo.com Northeast Region Director: Fred DeCarlo, 11 Sheely Place, Utica, New York 13502, phone: 315.725.7577; email: fdecarlo117@gmail.com Southern Region Director: Jake Smith, 29 Water Tank Drive, Talladega Alabama 35160, phone:256.267.0446 email: syl_bottleguy@yahoo.com
Membership Director: Linda Sheppard, P.O. Box 162, Sprakers, NY 12166; phone: 518.673.8833; email: jim1@frontiernet.net
Western Region Director: Eric McGuire, 1732 Inverness Drive, Petaluma, California 94954, phone: 707.778.2255; email: etmcguire@comcast.net
Conventions Director: Open
Public Relations Director: Open
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FOHBC
President’s Message Ferdinand Meyer V
John O’Neill FMG Design, Inc. 101 Crawford Street Studio 1A Houston, Texas 77002 1805 Ralston 713.222.7979 x115 Avenue, Belmont, California 94002 fmeyer@fohbc.org
650.619.8209 Joneill@risk-strategies.com itting down at my desk, on this first back-to-work Monday after New s President likewith to take thispots-a-cooking. opportunity Years, I conjureofupFOHBC, a vision Iofwould a stove lots of to address comments thathas continue to be communiThe kettle labeledsome antique bottle events us all looking forward to the stretch leading up tomembers, the FOHBC 2016 Sacramento National Antique Botcated to me. Our our board and I have no explanation tle & Expo this August. coordination conference as Convention to why certain individuals feel We the have way athey do, so please feel call in the plan to step it up notch or them two. We are also freelater to send usweek yourand comments so we cana address in hopes pleased that we locked in Springfield, Massachusetts for our 2017 Nationof alleviating your concerns. al Antique Bottle Convention, and by the time you read this message, the FOHBC 2018 National Antique Bottle Convention & Expo will have been At times, the little hairs on the back of my neck stand up when I announced for Cleveland, Ohio. We really have our teams in place and hearwheels someone say that the FOHBC is anstart elitist organization, our in motion. I suppose we should thinking about the but 2019 nothing could be farther from the truth. Most of our members are Convention in the Southern Region. Planning ahead has many benefits.
A
not born to wealthy families and I am fairly certain all of them
haveFOHBC workedisvery have earned The also hard proudtotoachieve say thateverything this March they | April 2016 issue in of BOTTLES and EXTRAS is theatfirst be printed full color, which life. I am constantly amazed howtomany of ourinboard members only costs us give an additional $184, anmany issue.times This change promptedofa few continually of themselves; at the expense design revisions,inwhich hopetime youtaken will notice, such as the ITable their families terms we of the away from them. can of Contents and a few of the section headers. We receive quite a few unequivocally state that our board is one of the hardest work- really nice compliments on how the magazine looks and have come ing, groups of committed individuals representing you and your so far in a relative short number of years. Oh, and look for a new secregion. They diverse group of people from all ages, backtion in the backare of athe magazine called “Member Photo Gallery”. This grounds, occupations and interests. They are anything but elitist new section is dedicated to the fine photography of antique bottles and and this is myfeel opinion working all for of them for several glass. Please free toafter submit your with images consideration. We yearsalready now. They arework the most earthissue group dedicated have started on thedown May to | June andofhope that you will consider you authoring article for to thework magazine. We are to help! individuals wouldanever want with who sohere generously
give of their time to a hobby they love. I personally don’t think Within thisanyone issue ofjust BOTTLES and EXTRAS, read been the proposed badly of by the virtue that theyplease may have born bylaw updates and revisions that have been marked in red. revisions into a circumstance of financial means. I doubt any of All us pick have been approved by the FOHBC Board of Directors. These bylaws our friends by what is in their bank account, or the size of their have been amended and need to be reviewed by the FOHBC membership home, or the cars they drive, and if you do well then perhaps the prior to the annual general membership meeting at the FOHBC 2016 Naproblem doesBottle not lieConvention with us but you. Many of California us started by tional Antique & rather Expo in Sacramento, out as bottle diggers and remain diggers to this day. We are in a an affirmative vote of a majority of all votes cast by the eligible voters sense amateurprovided archaeologists. in attendance, that a copy of the proposed changes are made available to each member in advance, either directly by mail or by timely notice the Federation’s periodical or on website. I just in turned sixty-four official years of age at the endtheofFederation August and I
have had probably one of the most enjoyable digging years of my
In other news, moving ahead withcultivated photography Virtual life, thanks to we the are relationships I have andfor thethe friends Museum and hope to have regional photography labs set up in regions that I have made. We are happy for each other when we have to start photographing bottles both in a standard format and 3-dimenthe ability to save a bottle from the tractors treads or the claws sionally. This effort is being spearheaded by Museum Director, Alan Deof the excavator. We only dig with granted permission from the Maison. You may have met Alan at the Virtual Museum table during the construction or property owner, and weShow sharelast ourAugust. finds FOHBC 2015 company Chattanooga National Antique Bottle
with those who helped us achieve any success we are fortunate to
have. While much Alicia of thisBooth, is on weekends hours, we still Federation member is heading or upafter the nomination promakeforsure completely our holes and leave the site a safe cess the to election of all fill Federation officers including the in President, Vice President(s), Secretary, Business and restored condition, andTreasurer, if something failsManager, at a laterMembership date,
we go back and rectify it. (Elitists certainly would never take the time to do this). The immense fun we have digging together is Director, Public Relations Director, Conventions Director, Historian, what creates great memories for a time when we can no longer Merchandising Director, Directors-at-Large (3), and Region Directors dig These due toelections our advanced age or physical restraints. To hold some(4). occur every two years. Any officer may run for sucthing interms. our hands that has not the light of day since the time cessive This committee hasseen prepared a slate of nominations for of the Civiland War is truly astounding. The anticipation each and each office is listed below. It is important to note thatof any member desiring to runextracted for any office in the Federation may file a nomination every bottle from the privy is palpable. form with the Election Committee (in accordance with procedures approved by thehad membership instituted the Election Committee) We recently the good and fortune to digby a dump that was comindicating the office of they desire to the run San for. Francisco The deadline for filing this pletely comprised trash from Earthquake is April 1st 2016. We have seen successful campaigns by our memberand Fire of 1906, recovering many treasures of common to rare ship before so if you want to run for a position, please let Alicia know. glass and relics. Shortly thereafter a construction project providYou and reach her at this email address, alicia@cis-houston.org. You ed additional opportunities hadsoa number of early privies that will be receiving a ballot forthat voting please take the time to vote.
contained relatively few items, to some significant finds for our personal thrilled to personally digVa Jackson’s President: Ferdinand Meyer FOHBCcollections. CandidatesI was Houston, Texas Napa Soda bottle that I did not have in my collection. I have Here is the slate of FOHBC exactly 89 unique and different mold variantsSheldon of theseBaugh bottles, so First Vice President: recommended candidates to dig one I did not have was nothing short of a small miracle. Russellville, Kentucky put forth by the nominating While not(Alicia of much value per-se, it was still something committee Booth, monetary Second Vice President: Gene Bradberry Chairperson) for 2014 of importance to- 2016. me. I had only one other prior to finding Bartlett,seen Tennessee slate isItbeing put forth for thisTheone. was a transitional bottle that went from a blob top to your consideration and anyone Secretary: James Berry a crown extended neck, not made in the bottle desiring totop, run forbut office with may an Johnsville, New York machine with a nice be nominated by going to the twists in the glass resulting from the extracTreasurer: andthe printingmold. out a That makes 90. Gary Beatty tionwebsite from
North Port, Florida nomination form. Then, mail or email to Alicia Booth, 11502 Historian: Jim Bender of the people, but OK,Burgoyne enough aboutTexas why we are the organization Drive, Houston, Sprakers, New York elitist will never define us. Now onto the state of our hobby. It 77077. alicia@cis-houston.org seems are feeling aEditor: little more comfortable Closingwe date all for nominations Martin Van Zant coming out of is April 1, 2016toat call midnight. what I like Covid hibernation with the vaccinations doing Danville, Indiana Additional nominations will their work and decreasingMerchandising the infectionsDirector: around us. am not goValI Berry be printed alongside the slate ingproposed to getbyon a political bandwagon, but I am not sure why vacJohnsville, New York the nominating cination committeeever and willbecame be listed a political issue. I don’t choose my friends Membership Director: Lindadoes Sheppard in theon May-June 2016 issue or no based vaccination vaccination, and neither the Sprakers, New York of BOTTLES and EXTRAS along virus. There is no denying that our shows have taken a severe hit with a short bio of each duecandidate. to this pandemic. TheConventions vaccinationDirector: rate in San Mateo Louis FiferCounty Ohio are some breakthrough where I live is over 90% Brunswick, and while there infections, for the most part our hospitals areElizabeth clear and open for Business Manager: Meyer business. Our state of California some of the lowest infection Houston,has Texas rates in the country, and ifDirector-at-Large: we all want to getBob back to our shows Ferraro again, then vaccination isBoulder the quickest way to get there. That’s City, Nevada not a political or elitist viewpoint, it’s a scientific one. Director-at-Large: Steve Ketcham Edina, Minnesota
I know we are all looking forward to the Reno 2022 National Director-at-Large: John Pastor Antique Bottle Show, next August. It’s really going to be an New Hudson, Michigan outstanding event, so make your plans now to what might posRegion Director: Matt Lacy sibly be the best show in Midwest the past ten years. The pent-up demand Austinburg, Ohio should bring all sorts of things out of the closets, garages, barns and attics. I hope all of you are continuing to stay healthy Northeast Region Director: Andrewand Vuono wish you the best in yourStamford, collecting efforts. Also I want to put in Connecticut a plug for the Virtual Museum, whose contributors are doing Southern Region Director: Ron Hands an outstanding job. If you have not North had the opportunity to go in and Wilson, Carolina look at all of the new additions to the museum, you are really Western Region Director: Eric McGuire missing out on some of the best glass photography I have ever Petaluma, California seen. Do yourself a favor and jump on line to the Virtual MuPublic Relations Director: seum and enjoy the experience. I know you will beRick gladDeMarsh you did. Ballston Spa, New York
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Bottles and Extras The Glass Works after the Earthquake By Warren Fridrich Images are Courtesy of University of Southern California's digital archives library.
Society for Historical Archaeology By Martin Van Zant
Here are two pictures of the Pacific Coast Glass Co that emerged after the ending of the S.F. & Pacific Glass Works in 1900. Pacific Coast Glass Works were started by Carlton Newman's son George in 1902 and ran thru 1925. These pictures were taken by Charles Pierce, a San Francisco photographer just after the 1906 earthquake.
Every once in a while, I think it's important to revisit some websites that we have covered in the past. I am seeing too many people talk about things they just don't understand or maybe they just don't know about. There are many wonderful websites out there on the world wide web, but which are helpful and which are not? There is a lot of misinformation out there especially in these bottle forums I see on Facebook. Some of the things I read just blow my mind, people regurgitate something they've heard that is not factual in the slightest. Then that misinformed person will continue to spread the nonsense. I could spend all day correcting people on some forums but I don't.
We need to guide them in the right direction to seek out information on their own and not believe everything they've heard because it was convenient. I am going to start with the very basics, and show you a website that is most informative, not only dating bottles but has a wonderful bottle glossary. The Society for Historical Archaeology has a wonderful website for the beginner to learn terminology as well as how to date a bottle. SHA.org is a wonderful way to learn the basics and there are a ton of people who would benefit from just one or two visits. This website will have an image corresponding to what they are describing. This website is very comprehensive and full of good information! https://sha.org/bottle/glossary.htm
This was the glass works responsible for such bitters bottles as Marshall's Bitters, Star Kidney and Liver Bitters, Wait's Wild Cherry Tonic, Wait's Kidney and Liver Bitters, Lash's Liver Bitters, Wm. Johnson's Pure Herb Tonic Sure Cure for All Malarial Diseases and other collectible "squares". A glassblower who was 90 years old in the early '70's was interviewed and he said that they were still blowing glass bottles by hand at this glass works when he worked there. Taken from the http://www.westernbitters.com/2009/04/ The First Mention of Rosenbaums Bitters By Rick Simi (RIP) ROSENBAUMS BITTERS - N.B. JACOBS & CO. SAN FRANCISCO - Circa: 1864 – 1868
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HISTORY’S CORNER In Memory of Dick Watson longtime FOHBC Historian By Jim Bender
The Royal Ruby Beer Bottles. Have you ever been at a bottle show or Flea Market and spotted a Ruby Red Beer bottle only to have the dealer tell you they are rare?
The first mention of Rosenbaums Bitters is in an 1858 advertisement listing George Thatcher, a liquor merchant residing in San Francisco, as an agent for the product and Dr. Rosenbaum of Philadelphia as proprietor and manufacturer. In 1859, N.B. Jacobs was listed as the general agent for Rosenbaums Bitters while he was working at the George Thatcher & Co. In November of 1859, N.B. Jacobs removed himself from Thatcher & Co. and started his own liquor concern, still advertising that he had the depot for Rosenbaums Bitters. Meanwhile, Thatcher & Co. is still advertising that they are also an agent for Rosenbaums Bitters. In 1860, Jacobs starts to advertise more aggressively, pushing the Rosenbaums Bitters in several large ads, stating that he is the sole agent for the Pacific Coast. In an advertisement for Rosenbaums in 1860, he cautions the public about another firm counterfeiting these bitters, saying that it is put up in similar bottles with the name Rosenchief’s Bitters, and to beware that it is of externally similar style, and to look for the name, N.B. Jacobs & Co., branded on the top of every cork. In 1861, N. B. Jacobs becomes the proprietor of Rosenbaums Bitters, suggesting that he is now the owner of such brand and we do not see anymore advertisements with Dr. Rosenbaum of Philadelphia as manufacturer and proprietor in any of his ads. The Rosenbaums Bitters comes in various shades of green and also in amber. There are two variants of this bottle; the large variant is believed to be the earliest, and is thought to have been blown in the east. The small variant is believed to be a later western blown bottle. These bottles are considered rare with possibly thirty some specimens known. Relation to Sierra County: One whole medium green example of the large size Rosenbaums was dug by the author at Indian Hill in Western Sierra County. This bottle had a small base chip and was sold to a collector from Redding, California. A broken green small variant Rosenbaums was also uncovered at Indian Hill by a Nevada City digger in the 1990s. A base of a dark green large size Rosenbaums was discovered above the Ruby Mine by the author in 2008. To my knowledge these are the only examples of the Rosenbaums discovered in Sierra County.
The fact is they are far from rare. In 1949 and again in 1950 the Schlitz Beer Company made and sold over 50 million of these bottles in a quart and 7oz size. They were made by the Anchor Hocking Glass Company and called Royal Ruby, a name which Anchor Hocking used for its red glass. However, the beer bottles are the only thing ever marked Royal Ruby. The marketing of red beer bottles quickly failed, and they dumped the idea of selling red beer bottles. The red bottles, even though made with a copper formula instead of a gold formula, were still more costly than the standard amber bottles. But once again in 1963, they tried the Royal Ruby Red bottles. This time in a 12oz size. This time only 4 million bottles were made. Once again it proved that beer drinkers did not like drinking from a red bottle. On a side note, in 1971 the Schlitz Beer Company became the first major beer company to make their own in house aluminum cans. Looks like they got that one right! Watch each issue for a new installment of History’s Corner.
HutchBook.com is a great reference By Martin Van Zant Here is another example of a great website to check out. Hutchbook.com is a great historical reference with correct information. There are several ways to look up bottles and information. There is also the history part of the website that can be very
helpful to the newbie as we would call them. There are over 21,000 Hutchinson listings and most with images to compare your bottle to. Also, the author of the website is super friendly and will respond to questions. I've even heard he will reach out to authors if he sees something different from what he has listed. Check out Hutchbook.com for more
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FOHBC News
From & For Our Members To Editor: Dear FOHBC Members, I’m pleased to say that I believe I can call myself a professional bottle tumbler according to the criteria of avoiding the undesirable characteristics of tumbled bottles in Burt Robbins’ article(s) in the July-August 2021 edition of B&E ... despite primarily tumbling bottles that will remain in my personal collection. When I do tumble for others, my goal is to change the condition of their bottles (or bottles that I’m selling to them from my collection) from some degree of “sickness” to mint or near mint – “to restore bottle surfaces to a like new condition” as Burt states. If someone wants only some or part of the “sickness” removed so that the bottle still could be considered a dug bottle, I would decline to tumble for them as I don’t know how to do that with the abrasives, polishes, equipment, and techniques that I use. What troubles me about Burt’s article is his statement that a tumbled bottle “is not a mint bottle.” That absolute statement seems illogical to me. If a tumbled bottle that has been restored to “like new condition” (which is my goal and desire and “the potential outcome of tumbling”) and exhibits none of the undesirable characteristics of a tumbled bottle, is it not reasonable to label it “mint?” As Burt states elsewhere, “if it is impossible to tell if a bottle has been tumbled, then why should it matter?” And if that bottle appears to be mint, “you’ve got a great bottle” and in my opinion should it not be called “mint.” I’m aware that the term “mint” can be misused, like when someone says a dug or sick bottle is “mint” simply because it has no known issues or flaws: cracks, scratches, bruises, gouges, holes, chips, fleabites, open bubbles filled with dirt/crud, or weak embossing (not caused by overly-aggressive tumbling). I’ve been sold bottles (sight unseen) that I was told were “mint” or “tumbled to mint” that were neither. My choices were to accept them or reject them but I rarely did either without telling the seller that his description was inaccurate and misleading and that his grading needed some improvement. I will not be swayed by the article I’m referencing to list bottles that I’m selling with a notation that they are “tumbled” (or not), but will continue to provide a subjective description such as “mint” or “near mint”. If the bottle I’m selling looks “mint”, for example, from a typical viewing distance under good light and without a magnifying glass, but has a scratch on the base or a fleabite on the back of the lip or the slightest haze on the inside shoulder, I’ll call out those issues. “Mint” doesn’t mean, in my opinion, that the bottle has never contacted earth or appears as it may have looked (because do we really know?) when it was blown in, say 1890. To the person describing the bottle, “mint” may mean “unmarred”, “unblemished”, “as if new”, “being complete of its kind and without defect or blemish”, “first class”, “untarnished”, “appearing unused or newly made” and even “top shelf” and “excellent.” As a subjective descriptor, “mint” is a
description chosen by and affected by the personal views, experience, or background of the describer. I do not find it reasonable or accurate to state that a tumbled bottle cannot be a mint bottle. Bob Jochums Berkeley Lake, Georgia Passing of Boyd A. Beccue Boyd Alan Beccue, 73, of Monticello, Minn. passed away peacefully on September 11, 2021, with his family by his side and his wife holding his hand. He was preceded in death by parents Gale B. Beccue and Shirley (Anderson) Beccue of Blackduck, Minn, and his beloved cousin, David H. Wood. He is survived by his wife of 40 years, Jane; sister Karen (Richard) Fox; daughters Candace (John) Randle, Courtney (Todd) Bouman, and Hillary (Cullan) Luther; son Judson (Kayla) Beccue; and grandchildren Aivary and Aidan Bouman, Ryann and Jonathan Randle, Sawyer, Asher and Ryker Beccue, and Wyn Luther with another granddaughter on the way. Steve Ketcham Edina, Minn. Tippicanoe Bottle Found in a Box Hi,I found this bottle in a box at an estate sale in Chicago. I understand that it might be something that should be in a good collection and not on my window sill. I listed it on Ebay not knowing a better way to find the best way into a good collection. Thanks for your time. Regards, Jon Chamlin Chicago, Illinois
Early Georgia Sodas Book Update 19th century Georgia soda book to become treasured by collectors by Bill Baab – If there was such a degree as a doctorate in research, David Kyle Rakes would hold it. And, if such a degree in design existed, Ferdinand Meyer V would own it. The degrees
Bottles and Extras
November - December 2021
may be mystical, but that pair has become a team and from that teamwork has evolved absolutely one of the best books sure to be treasured by collectors of Georgia’s 19th-century soda bottles. “Early Georgia Sodas – the Bottles and Proprietors in Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, Macon, Savannah, and Valdosta,” will become every collector’s “go-to” source of up-to-date historical information on John Ryan, Edward Sheehan, and many other bottlers of the soft drinks called sodas. Rakes, a resident of Belleview in Central Florida, is a master researcher who has traced the history of each bottler from birth to marriage to death. Those backgrounds generally have not been readily known to collectors. Meyer and his wife, Elizabeth, live in Houston, Texas, and are FOHBC Board Members. Complementing the book’s text are enlarged color photos of each soda bottle, many taken by Mike Newman, of Martinez, Georgia, who has become an expert in the proper use of digital cameras. He also is a longtime collector of antique bottles. The book is at the printer now. Contact the David Kyle Rakes for purchase information, barakes123@gmail.com
Bill Baab riverswamper@comcast.net
Ferdinand Meyer V Houston Texas
Fly Traps
Marriage Requirment for Bininger Descendants I found this requirement this afternoon on the marriage application for one of the Bininger descendants. Wonder how that would go over today? I’m sure many people would be disqualified from marriage! :-) I retyped it so it would fit on a normal page.
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Interesting Digging Shards Thought you might find these shards interesting…dug in a trash pit in Galveston this past Sunday. One from an Argyle Bitters out of New Orleans (thanks Courtney Frioux for the ID!) and the other I believe is part of a Senour’s Calisaya Bitters. I noted your comment in your writeup on the Senour’s back in 2016 “I suspect, someone will eventually dig a bottle in our port cities here in Texas”. I’ll keep trying to find a whole one! Best Regards, Brandon DeWolfe Spring, Texas
I hope you are well, and your whole family safe as the world around us seems to crumble. I was writing a story about some fly traps being offered by an auction house that should know better, and ... I came across the story you had printed (with the usual great photos) ...
"That neither of said parties is an habitual drunkard, epileptic, imbecile or insane, and is not under the influence of any intoxicating liquor or narcotic drug. Said parties are not nearer of kin than second cousins and there is no legal impediment to their marriage. That neither said parties is infeted with suphilis in a form that is communicable, or likely to become communicable." Regards, Chris BuBash Dayton, Ohio FOHBC Commemorative Bottles Free to a Good Home. I am starting to downsize my collections and I’d like to know if any FOHBC members might be interested in my FOHBC commemorative bottles? I will donate the bottles, but the recipient(s) must pay shipping charges. Some are made by Clevenger, while others by different glassworks. Bottles are from the Iowa Antique Bottleers (among the first clubs to join the FOHBC), the Denver club, the Phoenix, Ariz., club, the First Chicago Club, and others marking celebrations and anniversaries of various individuals (Charles Gardner, Grand Old Man of Bottle Collecting) and historical events with appropriate embossing.
The traps the person had gathered were, actually, rather common. When I used to yearly go to England (and occasionally France) at big market I would find crates of those traps. I even have a few in my collection, alone with really good fly traps, including woundup wood mechanisms. Not just a crate or two, but many crates, usually from wineries that had placed them out amid the vines before they probably switched to chemicals. My favorites are the “thumb prints” ...
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Have you ever seen the wooden ones with clock mechanisms? Ralph Finch Farmington Hills, Mich. Charleston, S.C. collector Vic Svendsen, 69, dead James Victor “Vic” Svendsen, 69, of James Island, S.C., died Monday, August 23, 2021, after an extended illness. A native of Charleston, he had a successful career in the food sales industry. He enjoyed digging early Charleston privies for antique bottles. First-time visitors to his home would be given a tour of his vast bottle collection and perhaps an old bottle to keep as a souvenir. Survivors include two daughters, Andrea Hoelscher (Sean) of Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Lindsey Bonham (Dave) of James Island, and a brother, Virgil Svendsen (Barbara) of James Island. Donations may be made in his memory to Ronald McDonald House Charities, 81 Gadsden St., Charleston, SC 29401. Bininger Trivia Hi, Ferd, Good news! I just added a Rushton & Aspinwall Compound Chlorine Toothwash to my collection! My hand is still shaking from writing the check. :-) Two more items while I have you on the line: 1. I'd like to submit a few suggested revisions to the Virtual Museum text for Newton’s Panacea and Rushton & Aspinwall Compound Chlorine Toothwash (see below). 2. Today’s Bininger Trivia: During my research last night, I discovered that one of A.M. Bininger’s descendants via his daughter Helen (Christopher Albright) went to Valhalla High School in El Cajon, CA with diving legend Greg Louganis! It’s amazing what falls out of the Bininger Tree when you start shaking it… :-) Regards, Chris Bubash Dayton, Ohio FOHBC Club Contests are Back! After a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, it’s that time again! The FOHBC is sponsoring a contest in five (5) categories and as a member club, you are encouraged to participate. Submissions are due no later than June 1, 2022. Judging will then be conducted and all winners and awards will be announced and presented during the banquet at the FOHBC Reno 2022 Antique Bottle Convention in Reno, Nevada on Friday, July 29, 2022. See page 37 or more details Richard Siri Santa Rosa, California FOHBC Bi-Annual Board Meeting Since the 2021 Syracuse National was canceled, the FOHBC bi-annual board meeting did not occur. After three or so attempts
Bottles and Extras
to have it in August and September, President O’Neill was finally able to schedule a 1-Hour Overview Call on 29 September. The second call will occured on 14 October 2021. Look for notes asSecretary Val Berry provides, which are uploaded to the fohbc.org website. Elizabeth Meyer FOHBC Business Manager Houston, Texas Teakettle Ink Price and Reference Guide Hello FOHBC , I'm French and I'm tring to find a copy of the 'Teakettle Ink Price and Reference Guide' by Joe Mathews Jr... I seen your great article about it : https://www.fohbc.org/2016/07/teakettle-ink-price-and-reference-guide/ So, I've tried to contact Joe by mail but no answer... Maybe you can help me to find me this guide or help me to contact Joe please? Thanks for any help you can give. Tristan BERGERE Baby Bottles My father collected baby bottles for about 30 years before he passed away in 2004. I am trying to find a home for articles he collected about baby bottles. I have three large notebooks that have old copies of a newsletter from the baby bottle organization, but also correspondence between the Corning bottle company and him about baby bottles. There are copies of old magazine articles with pictures of early baby bottles. Would your organization be interested in these notebooks? I do not just want to throw them away. I have written to a few other people and I'm hoping someone will be able to do something with these notebooks. Thank you. Donna Price [Response] FOHBC - Please chekc with the American Collectors of Infant Feeders - acif.org Word of Thanks Bottles and Extras Team: This is to let you, and your associates in publishing Bottles and Extras, how pleased I was with the layout of the “Reno boxing” article. It is a good one and the design made it a gripping one. All the best to you and yours — and keep safe. Jack Sullivan Arlington, Virginia
Midwest Region Steve Lang
slang14@yahoo.com
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November - December 2021
Midwest shows are all running as planned so far as summer turns to fall. Auctions are starting to be in person which is so much better than cold, generic online ones. Clubs are meeting in person and I see a lot of traffic in flea markets/antique malls. I feel things are moving back towards normal a little at a time. Even with a positive move towards normalcy there are still the stories of club members passing due to Covid or complications from Covid. I am not going to mention specific people because I don’t want to miss someone inadvertently. Any member that passes away or stays away from events due to the pandemic is a terrible loss to our hobby. I am a member of Facebook groups across our hobby plus Beer Can and Breweriana collecting groups and it is affecting groups / hobbies everywhere. Stay safe out there. Get the vaccination if you are so inclined, social distance and use good sanitary practices to keep yourself safe while out looking for that new piece for your collection. I wish everyone a safe fall and good luck searching. Stay safe and happy collecting!
Western Region Eric McGuire
etmcguire@comcast.net
I can’t wait for the day that the word “Covid” will only be common in history books. It is still taking its toll on everyday life in certain segments of our world. Having said that, as I write these words our local antique street fair was finally resurrected downtown. Cautious optimism abounds with large gatherings, even though attendance is still lower than usual, but we may have turned the corner to a more normal world. Lately, bottle shows in Aurora, Oregon and Downieville, California, both on the heels of the Los Angeles show, have signaled the beginnings of normality. Best of luck to the upcoming Sacramento Valley (Williams) and Auburn shows! Jeff Wichman’s recent bottle auction featured some interesting selections from several collections including a grouping of whiskey and ‘whiskey type’ bottles consigned by Richard Siri. The amber fifth whiskey bottle is a favorite item for the collector in the Western Region. Associated with the mythic hard-living western pioneers who often eased their pain with alcohol, these bottles have become icons of the rugged West. But the specimens in the auction were almost all from the Midwest and East – probably the largest representation of this type of bottle ever amassed and certainly ever auctioned. The sales results were interesting, although not too surprising overall. No one expected hammer prices to mirror the values placed on many of their Western counterparts, but a respectable number exceeded the $1,000 mark. Such a sale of unusual bottles is an interesting insight into the health of the bottle collecting fraternity and overall, it appears we are doing well. I recommend a visit to the American Bottle Auctions Internet site to view the results. It won’t put a bottle on your shelf but I strongly recommend taking a peek at what is happening at the FOHBC Virtual Museum. A small group of highly dedicated volunteers are continuing to put together
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what is already a world class virtual collection of amazing bottles, along with masterful photography and in-depth historical data about many bottles, some of which you may own. For me anyway, the history associated with each bottle gives them so much more meaning in the construct of life itself. Like most material objects, understanding how it fits in our world gives it so much more meaning.
Northeast Region Fred DeCarlo
fdecarlo117@gmail.com
The Northeast Region is beginning to start buzzing again with shows. A few have been cancelled, but this is to be expected as some venues are imposing attendance limits etc. I was able to make my way recently to the Greater Buffalo Bottle Collectors Association show in Depew, N.Y. This show was well attended and I was happy to see so many smiling collectors out chatting and buying. I was especially glad to be able to present some Bottles and Extras magazines featuring Dr. Claris from Buffalo while attending the show. The Merrimack Valley Antique Bottle Club show was also held the same day. I was told attendance was good and the show went great. Make sure to check our show listings section of the FOHBC website. Coming up soon are some shows you do not want to miss.The Richmond Area Bottle Collectors Association on October 2nd. Also the Forks of the Delaware Bottle Collectors Association show on October 23rd. Then in November on the 7th is the Mid-Maine Bottle Club’s first show. Get out there and stay active. If you are in the northeast, please give me a message of anything you would like to share.
Southern Region Jake Smith
syl_bottleguy@yahoo.com
North Texas Show in Plano,Texas. What I saw on Facebook was a great first-year show. I heard that they plan on having a secondyear show in 2022. I personally went to the North Alabama Show in Graysville, Alabama. The first-year show went well and a 2022 show will be held. There were about 50 tables and vendors from all over the South. It was great to see so many other show chairmen supporting other shows. The Nashville show in Lebanon, Tenn., was a great show based on what I saw on Facebook. The organizers of the show in Youngville, N.C. didn’t share any photos on Facebook, but I hope it was a great show. I hope all the shows later in the year were great shows.
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Bottles and Extras
Follow-up article
Eichelberger Distillery and the Eichelberger Dew Drop Bottle By Mike McKillop
Leonard Eichelberger
Originally Dills tavern, in 1800 it was sold to Leonard Eichelberger
T
he Eichelberger Distillery at Dills Tavern in Dillsburg, Pa. spanned several eras on the timeline of American history. Dills Tavern was established before the American Revolution near the northernmost gap of the South Mountains. Settlers heading west to the frontier passed through the crossroads with local farmers and drovers who all stopped into the tavern for meals and whiskey on their travels. In 1794, amid the controversy of the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania, the third generation of Dills converted the log tavern to the stately stone tavern seen today. In 1800, the ScotchIrish Dills sold the tavern to the German Eichelbergers. The new proprietor was Leonard Eichelberger. Before 1800, small farm distilleries operating copper pot stills dominated whiskey making in America and provided whiskey and other spirits for local consumption. After 1800, farm distilleries became less widespread and production more dominated by larger efficient distillers. The Eichelberger Distillery was no exception. Prior to the purchase of Dills, the Eichelbergers had been tavern keepers and wagon builders, in addition to distillers. These additional assets helped them expand the distillery business and take advantage of the means to transport their rye, corn, barley spirits to distant markets like Baltimore. From their old ledger records list the amounts of grain they
purchased for the distillery indicate that their whiskey mash was rye, corn and barley. So they made a Maryland-style rye. This makes sense since it was to be sold in Baltimore. It also makes sense because Leonard Eichelberger, the proprietor and distiller, was from Frederick, Maryland. It was barreled and shipped to Baltimore by wagon taking ten days. Today, the Eichelberger Distillery at Dills Tavern is a state park and museum operated by the Northern York County Historical & Preservation Society. As for the Eichelberger Dew Drop bottle, I believe that the rye whiskey in the bottle came from the Eichelberger Distillery. In whiskey terms, the phrase Dew Drop comes from the dew of aging whiskey in barrels which is considered the best whiskey around. So it is possible that a hogshead or barrel of Eichelberger Rye aging for 20-plus years was used for that bottle, and that it was bottled exclusively for Truett, Jones & Arrington for their involvement with the San Francisco Vigilante Committee. This also makes sense since Miers F. Truett was born in Pennsylvania on October 6, 1816. The background of the Dew Drop bottle is truly extraordinary and is now a piece of American history.
Bottles and Extras
November - December 2021
56th Annual 2022
Antique Bottle & Collectibles Show/Sale
PALACE STATION
2411 W. Sahara Ave. Las Vegas, Nevada 89102
February 18&19 2022 Early Bird Admission $10 • Friday 8:00 am to 10:00 am Regular Admission $5 • Friday 10:00 am to 5:00 pm & Saturday 9:00 am to 3:00 pm • $5 Admission
contact:
John Faulis - 702.242.2792 or 702.373.7175 or jjfuzzie@yahoo.com Dealer Set-Up Thursday 2/17/22 from 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Proudly presented by the Las Vegas Antique Bottles & Collectibles Club
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Bottles and Extras
The National
Bottle Museum Where history is the bottle!
Situated in the heart of Ballston Spa, New York is a museum whose mission is to preserve the history of our nation’s first major industry: Bottle making. Exhibits inside of the National Bottle Museum allow visitors to view thousands of glass bottles.
National Bottle Museum 76 Milton Avenue Ballston Spa, NY 12020
NationalBottleMuseum.org
518.885.7589
• Educational Resources • Scholarship Opportunities • Membership Benefits
www.nia.org Request your free brochure: Email: information@nia.org Call: (949) 338-1404 Or write to: Christian Willis NIA Information Director P.O. Box 2797 • Parker, CO 80104
Bottles and Extras
November - December 2021
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ovember--D December ecember2021 2021 NNovember
ottlesand andEExtras xtras BBottles
Capital Brewing
Frank Wright and Indianapolis By Martin Van Zant
Frank Wright's Ale in a super green color!
I
started collecting bottles in the 1990s and really haven’t looked back since. I was collecting, probably like most, what I could find. I should say I started collecting what I could afford. There were many bottles that I found, but just couldn’t afford. (Insert frowny face) So my collection started with dug bottles, blob beers and Hutchinson bottles. I had to sell more than I could keep back in those days when I would dig for bottles. I still collect Indiana blob beers and Indiana Hutches. However, I’ve expanded into the earlier things and more groups of early Indiana bottles. This brings me to the topic of this article: Capital Brewing Frank Wright and his ale bottles. I saw my first ale bottle through an old-time collector named Bob Chaudon. He and my step-father (Billy Gonterman) were lifelong friends. I got to know Bob really well and was able to buy my first early flask from him. He let me choose between a scroll flask and a Washington/Taylor, I chose the latter. It wasn’t until years later that I was able to buy my first Indiana Ale, which happened to be embossed “Frank Wright’s Ale, Indianapolis, Ind.” These bottles commanded a high price for a guy in college. I think it was around $60 to purchase one of these prized bottles. Prices vary now and more likely you’ll spend around $140 for a standard ambercolored ale from Wright’s. If you add a little color/molds in there, the price goes up just like anything else.
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Here is a really neat envelope from the 1860s
Over the years, I have seen only a handful of different colored ones, and really not too many for sale as they are highly coveted by their current keepers. The colors range from light amber to almost black amber. The glass can be as crude as they come or just a regular old early amber. Some of the applied lips look like they were laid on with skill and precision; others look like they were just placed on and then moved to the next one. I really like the crude ones where the necks are slightly leaning to one side or the other. The seedy or bubbly appearance in the glass looks excellent in the greens and lighter colors. The greens can range from grassy green to really dark almost can’t see through it green. Most ales around here that you find are in the amber colorations unless you can find some of those early black glass-looking ales in super dark ambers and greens. However, there are not many of those from Indiana!
Indianapolis Daily Journal, Indianapolis, Indiana, US First ad January 8,1861 for Wright & Jennings January 8, 1861, Page 4 https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-jan-08-1861-2166178/
We should start at the beginning with Frank’s father, John H. Wright, born in 1807 in Maryland. He then moved to Richmond, Indiana during his childhood. John started a dry goods business in Richmond and did rather well. In September of 1831, he married Mary Ann Mansur and have three children, Frank (1833-1896), Mansur (1835–1885), and Mary Jane Wright (1837-1839). Their only daughter died at the mere age of two for unknown reasons. John eventually moved to Indianapolis in 1838 when Frank was just 5 years old. He was a fine businessman during his small stint in Indianapolis. He had a large business in the sale and purchase of dry goods. He also was one of the first to purchase and pack pork in Indianapolis. For some reason or another John died in the summer of 1846, leaving a wife and two sons. Mary remarried after John’s death to Dr. Charles Parry. Frank was only 13 when his father died. Dr. Parry must have had a great influence on Frank as he named his first son Parry Wright. On another note, Frank’s brother Mansur was a practicing physician following in Dr. Parry’s footsteps. Frank Wright was born in 1833 in Richmond, Indiana. In 1838, his father brought the family to Indianapolis. Frank married on March 3, 1856 to Laura Lawrence and they went on to have three children, Parry, Fannie and Marianne. I didn’t find much other information
January 11, 1861 ad from an Indianapolis paper, talking about the large addition made by Frank Wright
Indianapolis Daily Journal, Indiana, US March 5, 1861 dissolution for Indianapolis, Wright & Jennings March 5, 1861, Page 2
https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-mar-05-1861-2166207/
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Early amber version, embossing on front only, small letters. Tall skinnier version
Early green version, embossing on front only, small letters. Peened out embossing on the back. Looks the same as the front. I would image same mold as amber botttle however used for such a long time they reused the mold
Bottles and Extras
Later version with medium size letters, New Albany glass works on the base Circa 1867-1872
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November - December 2021
Later example, rarely seen version with extra large embossing, notice the taller letters compared to the others
Latest example, standard version you see most, embossing with small letters
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about Frank until the 1860s when he followed his father’s footsteps and began in the sales of dry goods and grains. On a side note, Laura’s family is from Richmond, Indiana, and her father was a judge in the county and a prominent member of the community. The couple may have met during one of Frank’s visits to Richmond since his father grew up there and had many friends. The Lawrences could have been family friends to the Wrights. The first evidence of Wright’s business is from the “Indianapolis Daily Journal” dated Jan. 8th, 1861. There is an ad for Wright and Jennings, dealers in feed and flour of all kinds. He also mentions selling ales from the celebrated brewery of Downer, Bemis & Co. out of Chicago in half-barrels, barrels and bottles. It’s possible he was doing business for sometime prior to January 1861.
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early March, we see an ad in the Indianapolis Daily Journal on March 5, 1961, for dissolution for the partnership of Wright and Jennings. The ad calls for those indebted to the old firm to please call and settle. It is also noted that Jennings is the one withdrawing from the firm. There is no record of, or any that I could find, that describes why the partnership failed. I would love to find a bottle with Wright and Jennings ale, Indianapolis, Ind., embossed on it.
Daily Journal, Indianapolis, Indiana, US SeptemberIndianapolis 13, 1861 Frank Wright ads famous September 13, 1861, Page 3 Monumental Oysters https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-sep-13-1861-2166292/
In April, Frank is at it again, announcing his new shipment of Chicago Champagne Ale. The ad in Indianapolis Daily Journal, dated April 5th, 1861, talks up the ale and how great it is. My favorite quote from this ad: “He also has London Stock Ales, five years old, that would make an American Johnny Bull smack his lips with delight.” There is another ad in May with almost the same verbiage of being the sole agent in this city of Downer, Bemis, and Co., Chicago Champagne Ale. The difference in this ad is in the middle of the ad he talks about stock ales. Then at the end of the ad for the first time, the ad says physicians and others proclaim Wright’s Ale to be the best and purest in the city. So I suspect he used his embossed bottles to bottle the Chicago Ales and just used a paper label to note the product. (If anyone has any information about a label of any sort, I would love to know.) Again on July 24th, 1861, he had another shipment of new stock of ale, only this time does not mention Wright’s Ale. Indianapolis Daily Journal, Indianapolis, Indiana, US April 9, 1861, Page 3
April 9, 1861 Frank Wright runs this great ad
1861 was a busy year for Wright, as noted in the Sept. 13th, 1861 Indianapolis Journal. Frank was now selling Monumental Oysters
https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-apr-09-1861-2166229/
A week later, Wright runs another ad, only this time it’s an announcement. The ad is in a Richmond newspaper called the Richmond Jeffersonian and is clipped for the Indianapolis correspondence, inserting into an Indianapolis paper. The ad from Jan 11, 1861, paper announces that Frank Wright has erected a large brewery in which he has commenced the manufacture of Chicago Ale. There is no mention of his own brand of ale. The fact that Frank builds a large brewery means he has the demand for such a quantity. I am certain it would take more than a week’s worth of sales in order to build a large brewery. The Wright and Jennings ads run for a couple of months. Then in
Indianapolis Daily Journal, Indianapolis, Indiana, US
July 24, 1861 FrankJuly Wright talks 24, 1861, Page up 3 the Chicago Ale https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-jul-24-1861-2166279/
Ad taken in the 1861 City directory, taken out early in the year as they were dissolved only a couple months later
Ad taken in another city directory in 1861, which must have been printed later, as there is no mention of Jennings
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Indianapolis Daily Journal, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1868 December newspaper clipping thatUSwas the December 5, 1868, Page 1 start of the downfall for Frank and his business https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-dec-05-1868-2193841/
1862 city directory ad, listing for a short lived Wright & Downer and first appearance of Capital Brewery
Indianapolis, Indiana, US 1871 FrankIndianapolis Wright Journal, files for bankruptcy February 22, 1871, Page 2
https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-feb-22-1871-2193892/
Indianapolis Daily Journal, Indianapolis, Indiana, US
1863 ad in the December newspaper with the first December 9, 1863, Page 1 https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-dec-09-1863-2166371/ mention of Wrights Pure ale.
Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Indiana, US
September1871 September Frank Wright 14, 1871, sales Page 2 zero ales Indianapolis Daily Journal, Indianapolis, Indiana, US August 13, 1866, Page 4
1866 ad in the August newspaper, you can see https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-aug-13-1866-2193818/ Wright selling over three hundred barrels of beer/ale
Daily Journal, Indianapolis, Indiana, US 1866 adIndianapolis in the August newspaper, Frank was September 18, 1866, Page 4 competing with the big boys. On a side note Schmidt https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-sep-18-1866-2193822/ would later merge with Maus and Lieber to become the Indianapolis Brewing Co.
https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-sep-14-1871-2193899/
Indianapolis Evening Journal, Indianapolis, Indiana, US
October1872 Frank Wright was back in business October 17, 1872, Page 3 and doing on selling 30 barrells that month https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-oct-17-1872-2194012/
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from Gram & Taylor’s daily. I didn’t find much news from Frank during the year 1862. This could have been due to the fact that there was a war going on? There was a Union camp in Indianapolis, and I wonder if the troops were able to enjoy Wright’s Ale? In 1862, with Jennings out of the picture, Wright takes on another partner. D.S. Downer, who was the Chicago supplier as noted in the early ads. This must have been short-lived since it was the only advertisement I could find in the annual city directory. This is also the first time Capital Brewery is mentioned, the same name used by the Frank Wright’s Brewery. It’s not until 1863 that we see a new ad for Wright’s Ales. In the Dec. 9th, 1863 issue of the Indianapolis Daily Journal, we see Wright’s ad for his different types of oysters and his ale. It’s the first time I saw an ad strictly for “Wright’s Pure Ale” with no mention of his Chicago connection. Frank must have been selling ales and oysters like candy. In 1864, he added cigars to the mix and he is listed next to another brewer.
Bottles and Extras
The war must have taken a toll on everyone as there was limited advertising for Frank Wright and his Capital Brewery. There are no newspaper advertisements, and the only listings were in the 1865 city directory. He is listed again as the Capital Brewery in the business section of the city directory. I would love to find the sign that was hanging on the building “Capital Brewing,” Indianapolis. I can imagine a wood-painted sign with gold lettering. Oh, man! Imagination can go wild. 1866 seems like a good year as Wright sold around 3,000 barrels of ale, nearly double what everyone else sold. In these reports, there is no mention of how many bottles of ale were sold. I think that would be a more interesting number, to the how many bottles I need to search for? Capital Brewery is doing great for the next two years. In 1868, all seemed well and things were going well. Frank is on course to sell more than double his previous record -- well over 4,000 barrels. Sometime in December, his oyster suppliers have trouble getting the oysters to Frank and a lawsuit soon follows for
Here we have a few Images of Frank Wright Ales from a private collection, the two in the middle are the older versions and green and amber
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1873 Frank is discharged from bankruptcy
1876 Frank is in bankruptcy again and this is the last newspaper clipping we find for him and his businesses
non-payment. This will be the start of the downfall of the Capital Brewery. In 1869, the brewery sold less than 900 barrels of ale. Frank’s business would last another two years before declaring bankruptcy. In September 1871, he was noted as selling no ales. I’m not sure what happened at this time, perhaps family troubles, or just poor management, I’m just not sure. Two months later, Frank has resumed sales in a small way, perhaps 30 barrels a month for the next couple of months. Indianapolis Journal, January 04, 1876 Pg. 7, Indianapolis, Indiana, US https://newspaperarchive.com/indianapolis-journal-jan-04-1876-p-7/
Feb 14,Indianapolis 1874 Fannie, Franks daughter diesUS from Journal, Indianapolis, Indiana, February 14, 1874, Page 5 illness https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-feb-14-1874-2194048/
1872 turns out to be a decent turnaround and Capital Brewery is still selling about 30 barrels a month. Frank Wright was discharged from bankruptcy in April of 1873. Things are starting to go in the right direction. Then disaster strikes: Fannie Wright, Frank's eldest daughter, dies, the cause of death is illness. It is noted that Frank’s father-in-law, the honorable Edmund Lawrence of Wayne County, was visiting for a few days. I like to read the old newspapers from the 1800s because everybody’s business was everybody’s business and was recorded in the daily newspaper. This was the form of communication in their day. Sometime in 1875, someone decided to break into Frank’s home. The perp did not know Frank was home and barely mde it out alive as Frank fired two shots from his gun. In December of 1875, Frank declared bankruptcy again and this is the last we see of the Capital Brewery. There are no more ads, no more listings in the city directories. The last mention I have of Frank Wright is in the 1880 census in which he is listed as working in a pork house. Frank died in 1896 and is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery near the heart of Indianapolis. He leaves us many wonderful specimens of ale bottles to find. Thank you, Frank, we appreciate your bottles and only wish for a taste of the great Capital Brewery Ale!
Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Indiana, US
Sept 1875 burglars tried to rob his home, mistake! October 30, 1875, Page 2 https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-oct-30-1875-2194182/
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Bottles and Extras
Alan sent out an email thanking all the wives, Vicki Ciralli, Janet George, Elaine DeMaison, and Linda Crislip for adjusting their schedules so this trip could happen. Alan is planning another trip east in the spring to visit with Jeff Noordsy, Eric Correa, and possibly Rick and Mike again. Chris Bubash will be visited this October, and Alan is planning a November visit to Chip Cable in Pittsburgh.
Virtual Museum Ne ws By Richard T. Siri, Santa Rosa, California The FOHBC Virtual Museum has been established to display, inform, educate, and enhance the enjoyment of historical bottle and glass collecting by providing an online virtual museum experience for significant historical bottles and other items related to early glass. **************** In case you haven’t heard, Alan DeMaison and Terry Crislip recently returned home from a 1,467-mile museum imaging trip to the New England states. This was after being locked in for well over a year with the pandemic. Their first stop was to meet with Rick Ciralli in Connecticut to image great specimens from his collection including medicines, utilities, historical flasks, inks, blown three mold, and free-blown and pattern molded flasks and decanters. All pieces had been pre-coordinated and were prepared, staged, and ready when Alan and Terry arrived on the morning of 07 August 2021. After a slow start at Rick’s due to a software issue as when Alan changed software with his new laptop, he didn’t realize that the software was different. It took almost two hours to adjust, but when he did, the process sped up considerably. Alan surpassed his initial goal of imaging 24, pieces and was able to capture 38. Many of Rick’s pieces have already been processed by Alan, Miguel, and Ferdinand and have been placed in the museum. Rick Ciralli looking over the shoulder of Alan DeMaison who was imaging this fine Dr. J. W. Poland medicine bottle. The piece has already been edited, formatted for the website, and historically researched. It was placed in the museum’s Medicines Gallery on 27 September 2021.
Alan and Terry were off to New Hampshire next to visit with Michael George to focus primarily on very rare medicines and utility bottles like snuff, boot polish, and blacking bottles. Again with pre-visit coordination, Alan and Terry were able to stage the bottles for rapid imaging. The goal at Mike’s was to image 35 and they were almost complete by lunchtime by capturing 27 by noon, an amazing 9 bottles per hour. They finished with 54 spins at Mike’s with a total for the two days at 92 items.
I’m very pleased to announce that Eric McGuire from Petaluma, California is going to be our next Virtual Museum imager. This will be our third station after Gina Pellegrini and Alan. Eric knows photography and Western bottles extremely well so he has a heads up on what to image in each category. He is also an excellent researcher so that will help speed up the process from getting the image to placing it in the museum. The imaging equipment needed to set up this third imaging station was donated and funded by the FOHBC president, John O’Neill. John fully understands that this imaging process needs to move on quickly as there are lots of bottles out there, and time is a big factor. By the way, Eric is also the keynote speaker at the Reno 2022 National Antique Bottle Convention banquet and he and Alan will be imaging at the show as well. Eric is also our West Coast Region Director. Way to go! We are fortunate to have Eric come aboard to help on the West Coast.
The museum is getting rave reviews from everybody that visits as it gets better and better daily with Ferdinand adding new pieces every day and with Miguel keeping the museum website up and running. There are lots of bottles out there that need to be put into the museum and that takes time and money. Miguel recently updated the museum floor plan to include a new Utilities Gallery and an expanded and relocated Early American Glass and Medicines Gallery. We also developed a shell gallery for Beverages such as colas and pop. That will be neat to have the rare deco and ACL sodas. This gallery is being spearheaded by FOHBC board member Steve Lang. The museum could also use someone in the northeast and southern regions to image, and someone to help Ferdinand with his research. As much as we need to expand, we also need monies to fund it. The museum has only one paid worker and that is Miguel. Ferdinand, Alan, Gina, myself, and now Eric are all volunteers. Donations are what fund the museum as we don’t use FOHBC monies to help it out. All donors are acknowledged in the museum, so make a donation and have your name go down in history.
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Spinner Spinner
FOHBC Virtual Museum.
EDER ATI ON EF
OLLEC TO RS
development of the
O
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Phase 2 fundraising campaign to continue
STOR IC A L B
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Please help us in our
HI
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Chicken Dinner!
F O
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U A L MUSE U
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VIRTUAL MUSEUM OF HISTORICAL BOTTLES AND GLASS Phase 1 Goal: $30,000
Phase 2 Goal: $60,000
ACHIEVED
$30k
$25k
$20k
$15k
$10k
$5k
PLEASE HELP US FILL OUR JAR! The FOHBC and the Virtual Museum team thank our many donors who have helped us raise over $47k to date. We have close to $11,000 in available funds to continue development to build our galleries, exhibition hall, research library and gift shop. Donations are tax deductible. All donors are listed on our Virtual Museum Recognition Wall. With one salaried website technician averaging $1,000 a month, we need help. Plus, we are now traveling to collections again as Pandemic restrictions are gradually lifted so costs will be incurred. All other time is donated by the Virtual Museum team out of our love and passion for the hobby and the FOHBC. Thank you!
Current Operational Account: $11,090.45 - Development Gifts to date: $47,546.48
FOHBCVirtualMuseum.org
For gift information contact: Alan DeMaison, FOHBC Virtual Museum Treasurer, 1605 Clipper Cove, Painesville, Ohio 44077, a.demaison@sbcglobal.net
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R E N O 2 022 November - December 2021
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FOHBC RENO NATIONAL ANTIQUE BOTTLE CONVENTION
Auction Date
Friday, July 29 - Saturday, July 30, 2022 Auction ends on Saturday at 4:00 pm.
SILENT AUCTION
RENO 2022 SILENT AUCTION
WELCOME BIDDERS! Bid during the convention on 50 to 100 lots displayed at a secure area on the showroom floor. Consign a bottle or related piece to our Silent Auction which will be held during showroom floor hours on Friday & Saturday 29 July to 30 July. Auction ends Saturday at 4:00 pm. 10% consignment fee. 10% buyers fee. Minimum value on items $100. Consignment fees on items that sell for over $2,000 will be charged at 7½%. Items over $4,000, charged at 5%.
RENO 2 02 2
Contact Richard Siri, rtsiri@sbcglobal.net or Ferdinand Meyer V, fmeyer@fmgdesign.com More info at FOHBC .org
FOHBCVirtualmuseum.org
FOHBC.org F O H B C R E N O N AT I O N A L A N T I Q U E B O T T L E CO N V E N T I O N
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TOP 25
WESTERN WHISKEY DISPLAY INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE You are invited to participate in the centerpiece bottle display at the upcoming FOHBC Reno 2022 National Antique Bottle Convention from July 28th - July 31st, 2022 at the Grand Sierra Resort & Casino. This display is designed to show the best of the best of the Top 25 Western Whiskey bottles known. The quintessential bottle that represents our old west is the iconic fifth size whiskey bottle. As the new western frontier developed, the hard driving, hard drinking pioneers often turned to whiskey to lessen the burden of life. As a result, many whiskey dealers marketed their product in what was termed “glass labeled” bottles – that is, appealing bottles blown in molds heavily embossed with lettering and symbols usually reserved only for paper labels. They are generally highly desired by collectors and some were even produced in different colors and crudeness that make them aesthetically pleasing. Others are quite rare as well, which makes them even more precious. The FOHBC is inviting possessors of these rarities to participate in a joint display at the Reno convention in a secure display area on the showroom floor. This display is expected to attract a special grouping of bottles that will easily approach one million dollars in total value. Such a display may never happen again, and with the help of the collecting community, will provide an attraction that, alone, is worth attending the RENO 2022 Expo to witness. Because of the monetary values involved, the display will be guarded with security and other methods not publicized. Nearly everyone who possesses these rarities understands what constitutes bottles considered to be in the “Top 25.” However, for more information you are invited to contact the show chairman, Richard Siri, at rtsiri@sbcglobal.net or 707.542.6438. Bottles must be in the secure Summit Pavilion display cabinet from Friday 11:30 am to show close on Sunday at 2:00 pm.
FOHBC.org
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FOHBC RENO NATIONAL ANTIQUE BOTTLE CONVENTION WESTERN REGION
Thursday, July 28 - Sunday, July 31, 2022 Antique Bottle Show & Sales, Bottle Competition, Early Admission, Seminars, Displays, Awards Banquet, Membership Breakfast, Bowling Competition, Silent Auction, Raffle, Children’s Events and more... $5 General Admission Saturday and Sunday half day
Go to FOHBC.org for hotel booking information, schedule and dealer contracts. Hotel rooms will go fast!
Richard & Bev Siri (Show Chairs) rtsiri@sbcglobal.net
Eric McGuire (Seminars, Keynote Speaker) etmcguire@comcast.net
John Burton (Displays) JohnCBurton@msn.com
Ferdinand Meyer V (Marketing & Advertising) fmeyer@fmgdesign.com
DeAnna Jordt (Show Treasurer) dljordt@yahoo.com
Gina Pellegrini (Event Photographer) angelina.pellegrini@gmail.com
TEAM RENO
Info: FOHBC.org
C A L L FO R HIST O R I C AL I M A G ES
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The FOHBC, led by board member Michael Seeliger, has started a major new initiative to preserve our history. We would like your assistance in locating potentially long-lost images before it is too late as they could potentially be forgotten forever. We are looking for photographs, either in black and white or color of the great collections, collectors, bottle shows and displays of yesteryear. Our goal is to gather, enhance and index this material digitally and make it available to our members and collectors for generations to come.
Send photos to: Michael Seeliger We prefer images in digital format, jpg or pdf format, or original photos that we will scan and archive, or return. Please specify. The highest resolution possible. Please caption each image. If you know of anyone who may have some of these images like club historians, or old collectors, please let them know or provide contact info for these people we may have lost track of. We are also looking for older bottles books to scan and archive on our web sites. Thank you.
N8211 Smith Road Brooklyn, Wisconsin 53521 mwseeliger@gmail.com 608.575.2922
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Dr. King Bottles and Extras
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THE KING OF MARKETERS By Jerry Hemry
Billhead for the new Chicago location
H. E. Bucklen & Co. commenced business in 1879 in Elkhart, Indiana. The President and owner of the company was Herbert Elden Bucklen, born July 19, 1848 in Herkimer County, New York (far Southwest corner of the Adirondack Mountains) a young assistant druggist in Elkhart, Indiana. H.E. Bucklen moved his company to Chicago, Illinois in 1880. By 1885, the company occupied a six-story,” Laboratory” building facing Lake Michigan on Michigan Avenue. The company was very active until sometime in the 1930s. The company produced and sold millions of patent medicine items over the 50+ years. Items manufactured and sold by the company: 1. Dr. King’s California Golden compound The bottle is an aqua embossed glass medicine bottle with a paper label.
Amber embossed medicine bottles with paper labels. Items #2 and #3 can be found in two or three sizes of bottles plus #2 can be found in a 3 inch “trial” size bottle. 4. Bucklen’s Arnica salve A round tin, 3 inches in diameter and ½ inch thick. 5. Dr. King’s, New Life Pills A clear glass embossed bottle about 3 inches high, packaged in a white cardboard box. 6. King’s Croup and Cold syrup 7. King’s Hop Cordial 8. Dr. Skeeter’s Great German Cure for Consumption
2. Dr. King’s New Discovery for Consumption (after the food and drug Act of 1906, the company dropped the word "Consumption”and inserted “Coughs and Colds” on the embossed bottle and on the paper label).
The company also issued numerous trade cards, counter top displays and product jars and generated invoices and other ephemera listing and praising its various products and containing written testimony by various “consumers”.
3. Electric Bitters Each of the items #2 and #3 are packaged in
In addition, the company created and distributed annual Almanacs,
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A Dr. King’s trade card
November - December 2021
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An advertising pamphlet published by H.E. Bucklen
starting about 1880 and running through 1925. It also had printed annual calendars featuring pictures and descriptions of its various products on the face of each calendar page, as well as testimonials from “customers” on the backside of each calendar page. The finest single advertising effort and most successful and widely cherished was a Souvenir Program. This 13 page Souvenir Program lithographed in color, was for the crowds attending the 1893 Chicago World’s Exposition. The full size 7 1/2 x 10 ½ inch page Souvenir Program priced at $.50, featured a color lithograph of each of the specialized buildings for the 1893 Chicago World’s Exposition. On the back of each page was a description of a company product and reports of an individual’s use and experience and recovery from whatever physical ailment the individual had prior to consumption of product. In addition, the company during its extensive lifetime, purchased thousands of advertisements in various local newspapers throughout the Midwestern United States featuring its products and testimony as to the effectiveness of a particular product featured in the ad. The company had a network of salesmen traveling the Midwestern, Southern and Southwestern parts of the United States. My grandfather, Ulysises Sidney Grant Hemry, was Vice President and Sales Manager for the H. E. Bucklen Company from approximately 1900 to 1908. In 1908, Grant informed Mr. Bucklen. He was quitting his job as Vice President and Sales Manager of the company. When he told Mr. Bucklen that he was quitting the job as Vice President and Sales Manager, he explained it was to spend more time with his wife and young son, Jerome. Mr. Bucklen then told Grant that he hated to lose his abilities and outstanding service on behalf of the company. He went on to explain that as owner and president of the
Bucklen’s Arnica Salve was advertised to cure cuts, corns, bruises, burns, boils, ulcers, eczema, old sores, cold sores, fever sores, scalds, scars, cracked lips, chapped hands, chilblains, sore eyes, skin eruptions, salt rheum and more!
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Electric Brand Bitters
company, he was considering retiring. He then offered to sell the company to Grant Hemry. My grandfather was shocked by that offer, and said he needed to consider it carefully and would get back to Mr. Bucklen by noon the next day. Grant Hemry went to the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago, where he habitually stayed when checking in with the home office. He carefully reviewed the purchase offer. The next day he returned to the office of Mr. Bucklen and thanked him for the offer to sell him the company. Grant Hemry then told Mr. Bucklen, after careful thought and consideration, he respectfully declined the offer because he had only an eighth grade education. He went on to state that he was confident he could handle the sales of the company, as he had already demonstrated. However, he felt he could not handle the detailed administrative requirements of ownership of the company. Mr. Bucklen, then thanked Grant Hemry and said he did not want to lose the sales ability of Grant Hemry. He then offered Grant Hemry any sales territory in the United States that he would like to have to continue as a salesman. After careful thought, my grandfather responded that he would choose the sales territory of the new State of Oklahoma, which had just been admitted to the Union the previous year, 1907. The President of the company quickly agreed and inquired as to why Grant Hemry had chosen Oklahoma. My grandfather responded that he had chosen Oklahoma because in Oklahoma, “it was not who you were… But what can you do.” My grandfather, accepted the sales territory of Oklahoma. Front and back of a Testimonial Souvenir for America's Greatest Remedies, 1899 H. E. Bucklen & Co. Illinois Post-War Token
My grandfather then left Chicago and traveling by train, went to
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The smaller New Discovery bottles on the right are “Free Samples” that were given away to attract business.
Bucklen’s “New Discovery” was a medicine for consumption (tuberculosis) a disease which at the time was killing millions of people. Many companies offered cures, and remedies for consumption— all were frauds, including the “New Discovery.”
Front and back of a Dr. King's New Discovery for Consumption trade card
Dr. King’s New Life Pills was marketed as a cure for stomach.
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Here are a couple more images of the Bitters bottles, the first set showing one of the wonderful colors this bottle comes in. Next set shown is the larger version of the Bitters bottles. (Bottle images provided by Peachridgeglass.com)
Vinita, Oklahoma, where he had previously rented an apartment, two blocks from the train station on the second floor of a bakery for his wife and young son, (my father, Jerome Herbert Eldon Hemry. He had been given the boss’s name!). Upon arriving in Vinita, Oklahoma, my grandparents decided to move to the State capital, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where they quickly established a residence and where they lived the rest of their lives. I was told the above narrative of my grandfather’s experience with the H. E. Bucklen Co. at lunch one day by my father when he was 90 years old. I decided it would be interesting to see what the H. E. Bucklen Co. had for a history. I found the Oklahoma Territory Bottle and Relic Club listed on the Internet and contacted its President, Johnnie Fletcher, who invited me to their next meeting. At that meeting Johnnie handed me a bottle of Dr. King’s New Discovery which he had dug in his many years of digging privies in Oklahoma, Kansas, and other nearby states. He informed me that it was a very common bottle. From that point on I commenced collecting bottles and products produced by the H. E. Bucklen Co and its many items of advertising as mentioned above. I would be delighted to hear from other collectors of H. E. Bucklen Company items. Here is a postal cover, with one side showing the building and the opposite showing all the workings.
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Sidebar to Dr. King, the King of Marketers
Herbert E. Bucklen Dealer in Patent Medicines H. E. Bucklen, manufacturer and dealer in patent medicines, was born in Herkimer County, N. Y., on July 19, 1848. The family relocated to Coldwater, Michigan in the 1850s. By late 1860 they lived in Elkhart, Indiana and at the time of the 1870 census, Herbert, age 22, was a druggist alongside his father, Isaac Bucklen. A biography of Bucklen appeared in The Indianapolis News Herbert E. Bucklen (8/16/1902). In it, Bucklen says that he began buying real estate and building small homes when he was a teen, reinvesting the profits in real estate, and by the time he was twenty, he owned 32 houses in Elkhart. At the same time, he says, he worked in the back room of his father’s pharmacy developing his own special patent medicine—“Bucklen’s Arnica Salve.” Herbert married a Michigan girl named Bertha Redfield in 1877, and obtained a patent for his salve in 1878. He and Bertha then moved to Chicago, where he sunk his patent medicine earnings into real estate in the growing city. Herbert E. Bucklen purchased the rights to the medicines of Dr. Z.L. King of Elkhart, Indiana, about 1879 and moved the business from Elkhart to Chicago about 1880. Bucklen spent lavish sums on advertising in all types of media, and created the brand name of “New Discovery”, which had national recognition by 1885. He also had several other top selling medicines including the Electric Bitters and The New Life Pills, introduced in 1880 as a cure for stomach ailments. Products which never sold well were Dr. King’s California Golden Compound. Dr. King’s Hop Cordial, and Dr. Scheeler’s Great German Cure for Consumption Mr. Bucklen is the proprietor of four patent medicines in which he does a very large and successful business: Dr. King’s New Discovery for Consumption, Coughs and Colds, Bucklen’s Arnica Salve, Electric Bitters, and Dr. King’s New Life Pills. He also prints a newspaper called The Druggist, devoted to “Health, Business and Science,” to advertise his medicines, and also expends, annually, about one hundred thousand dollars with the leading newspapers all over the United States and Territories, setting forth the excellent qualities of his wonderful remedies. By then Bucklen owned real estate in Chicago, zinc mines in Missouri, gold mines in Colorado, and a great deal of land in northern Indiana, especially Elkhart, where he built a grand opera house in 1884 and remodeled a magnificent hotel in 1889. (Neither building still stands.) Although Bucklen’s primary residence remained in Chicago, he had a strong presence in Elkhart. He considered it his true home, and he was listed in its city directories—“occupation,
capitalist.” He sent his son Herbert Jr. to nearby Howe Military School. Another of his pet projects was the St. Joseph Valley Line Railroad, built in 1904-1905. The St. Joseph Valley Line was a “traction line” that started in Elkhart and ran east through Bristol, Middlebury, and Shipshewana to Lagrange. Later a “railway line” extended the Valley Line east from Lagrange through Mongo, Orland, Inverness, Angola, and Berlin to Columbia, Ohio, a total of 70 miles in all. The section from Elkhart to Bristol operated on electricity; from Bristol to Lagrange by gasoline engine; and from Lagrange to Columbia by steam engine. When Bucklen was extending his railroad line eastwards from Lagrange to Ohio in 1905, he suggested to the residents of Angola, Indiana, that this would be a boon to their small community. The millionaire asked the residents for $50,000 to help him with the project. When they didn’t come up with the money, he was so offended that he decided to build a rival town. An article in the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette (11/24/1912) said that the “Arnica Salve King” was planning to “build a city in Steuben County with the express purpose of injuring Angola, against which town he has conceived a grievance.” But the railroad line did run through Angola, and the rival town (eight miles east of Angola) evidently was never built. The railroad line was not nearly as profitable as Bucklen hoped, in fact, it lost a lot of money. Running three kinds of power was complicated and expensive. Business at the west end was very slow. Bucklen poured large amounts of his own money into the project to keep it alive, but it was estimated by the Indianapolis News (4/4/1918) that he lost $1,750,000 on the project. At one point Bucklen’s assets were thought to be worth $7,000,000, but when he died in 1917, he left his widow an estate which the Chicago Daily Tribune valued at $1,000,000. (That would be equal to $17,000,000 today, still a nice chunk of change!) Due to the popularity of his Arnica Salve, his death was reported in newspapers as far away as Honolulu. His wife inherited her husband’s assets, but the Valley Line, managed by their son Herbert Jr., was already in financial trouble which only got worse as 1917-1918 progressed. A severe winter, a drop of freight traffic, and a wreck in Inverness which produced serious injuries and fatalities were the final blows. The advent of the automobile probably didn’t help, either. The rail line soon went into receivership in preparation for being both legally and literally dismantled and sold for scrap. Bucklen’s funeral was held in Elkhart, and he was buried at Half Acre Cemetery in Cass County, Michigan, along with his wife Bertha.
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When You Discover Good Bottles & Glass... Send Them to Heckler’s! We welcome your conversation to discuss consignment options for a singular item, group or entire collection.
www. hecklerauction.com | 800-974-1634 79 Bradford Corner Road, Woodstock Valley, CT 06282
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November - December 2021
Eugene Bode
Saloon Owner
Fredericksburg, Virginia By Jeff Eastland
T
hey say every bottle tells a story. This particular one tells several, though you wouldn’t know it to look at it.
Pictured is an 1890s clear strap side flask, a plain bottle except with a rare original label for “Fine Old Gray’s Rye Whiskey E. BODE Fredericksburg Virginia.” The Bode family, of Fredericksburg, Virginia, is a quintessential American immigrant tale of triumph and tragedy. Eugene Bode was born on Sept. 16, 1854, to August and Bertha Bode, in what was then Breslau, part of the German Empire, and is now Wroclaw, Poland. The Bode family emigrated to the United States, with young children in tow, in 1855, and settled in Fredericksburg, Virginia, a town with a large German/GermanAmerican population. Shortly thereafter the Civil War broke out and father August enlisted as a private in the 30th Virginia Infantry of the Confederate Army. August was wounded at the brutal battle of Antietam, Md. on Sept. 17, 1862. He continued to serve in the Confederate Army until July 29, 1864, when he suffered a terrible accident and died while boarding a freight train in Chester, Va, slipping underneath the train and becoming mangled. He was 38 years old with a wife and three small children.
1890s clear strap side flask, a plain bottle except with a rare original label for “Fine Old Gray’s Rye Whiskey E. BODE Fredericksburg Va.”
Bottles and Extras
Bottles and Extras
November - December 2021
Here is an image of, 600 Commerce St. (now William St.) in Fredericksburg where this flask would have been sold.
One imagines the difficulties the young widow and her three children faced, in a new land, without the patriarch. But they, as so many have, persevered. Eugene Bode went on to become a successful businessman in Fredericksburg in the late 1880s, opening a grocery and liquor business, and a saloon, located at 600 Commerce St. (now William St.) in Fredericksburg. This strap side flask was sold out of the location pictured. Bode’s Liquors is listed in the 1892 and 1899 Fredericksburg city directories. Eugene Bode’s brother, Richard, died in 1883 and Eugene married his brother’s widow, Augusta (Miller), in 1886. They had two children, Freda, and Richard. Incredibly, and ironically, Eugene suffered the same fate as his father, 40 years later. On Sept. 6, 1904, while attempting to board an R F & P passenger train pulling away at the Fredericksburg depot, Eugene slipped and fell under the train. His body, caught in the wheels, was badly mangled, literally cut in half. Witnesses described the awful scene. Women fainted on the train platform. The train had to be jacked up to remove his body parts.
The label of the bottle shown here, enlarged to show the details
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November - December 2021
Bottles and Extras Eugene Bode was 49 years old when he died The city of Fredericksburg mourned one of its most prominent as well as one of its most beloved citizens. The family carried on the business for several years. Eugene’s widow Augusta remarried Harry Lane in 1914. Despite the tragedies that cut short the lives of both August and Eugene, the rest of the family had tremendous longevity. Augusta lived until 1958 before passing away at the age of 96. Eugene’s son Richard lived until 1962 and his daughter Freda lived until 1973. By then the old building that housed Bode’s Saloon and Liquor store housed Scotty’s Pastry Shop, a popular local business for many years. The building still stands today, now occupied by Primavera Pizza.
An older image of Scotty’s Pastry Shop, a popular local business for many years.
One final note. Eugene Bode’s grandson, Richard Jr., served in the U.S. Army during World War II. On August 8, 1944, 40 years after his grandfather died, and 80 years after his great-grandfather died, Richard Bode Jr. stormed Omaha Beach as part of the D-Day invasion. Richard Jr. lived all the way until 2007, passing away at age 92 as part of America’s Greatest Generation. From Immigration to the Civil War, from the rise of America during the Industrial Revolution as an economic entity to World War II, the Bode family story is a classic American one.
This building and if the walls could talk, now occupied by Primavera Pizza.
This image shows his gravestone in Fredericksburg. The building still stands today, now occupied by Primavera Pizza.
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51st Annual COLUMBUS BOTTLE SHOW Sponsored by the CENTRAL OHIO BOTTLE CLUB
Sunday February 13, 2022 9:00 am to 2:00 pm Doubletree Inn, 175 Hutchinson Ave. Columbus, Ohio (I-270 and Rt. 23) Admission: $3, Early Admission: $20 7:00 am to 9:00 am Show Co-Chairs Rojer Moody (General Info)
740-703-4913
rtmoody@juno.com
Brad Funk
(Contracts & Information) 614-264-7846 bradfunk@yahoo.com
Sue O’Keeffe
(Show Treasurer) 614-263-0573 suebo1058@gmail.com
Europe’s leading specialist salesroom for Antique Bottles, Pot Lids, Advertising & Breweriana
Sunday 28 November BBR
BBR
£6,25
5
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£6,9
0
AUCTIONS
Antique Advertising World records in most every field Serving the hobby for over 40 yrs BBR collects & Breweriana Nationwide AUCTIONS
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BBR’s WinterNational Europe’s LARGEST specialist quarterly event of its type
£4,720
Antique Bottles, Pot Lids Advertising Collectables Saturday 22 January
£9,090
the
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120 -150 stalls
£5,180
E.E. 8.30am £5 10am £3
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entries close Sunday 24 Oct
Mixed General Auction
Highly varied/ eclectic spread FREE adm’n 9am Auction 11am
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£5,665
0
£6,60
! or earlier £4,720 £9,680
£5,200
ALL sales LIVE ONLINE bid LIVE listen LIVE tel bid LIVE absentee bids in house p & p £8,730
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Entries close Sunday 28 November Other 2022 BBR events: April 23 & 24 July 2 & 3 SummerNational October 1 & 2
BBR,BBR Elsecar Auctions, Heritage Centre, Elsecar Nr Barnsley, Heritage S. Yorks., S74 Centre, 8HJ t: 01226Nr 745156 e: sales@onlinebbr.com Barnsley, S. Yorks,www.onlinebbr.com S74 8HJ
t:
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e:
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BBR, Elsecar Heritage Centre, Nr Barnsley, S. Yorks, S74 8HJ
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A 4th of July Dig came in with a bang and went out with a
BOOM BABY! By Rick Weiner
A
year and a half had passed since I enjoyed a decent privy dig. The days of back-to-back loaded outhouse pits have pretty much evaporated from my activity list. The last memorable dirt dive was right before “The Covid” took control of our daily lives in 2020. I tackled this one with Damian Righi, a.k.a.“Mr. Rings.” I swear he likes metal detecting better than bottle digging but he will never admit it. I wrote a story for Antique Bottle &Glass Collector about this dig called “2 pits before lockdown." I remember going to the Baltimore bottle show a week before this privy dig took place. We just made the show by the skin of our teeth. There were no mask mandates and very little washing of hands. That was a year and a half ago. This year the Baltimore Bottle show is canceled! I can’t recall how many years we have been making the trip to Baltimore but this is the first time the show was axed. I guess the Covid still has its hooks in us even though it seems like the world is getting back to “semi-normal” again. Whatever that is. The Shupps Grove “outdoor” bottle show has eased some of the pain caused by the cancellation of the Balto show by having three consecutive shows this year. We attended the first one in April 2021. The second is coming up this Saturday, July 17th and the third is in September. Bottle shows are a great way to catch up on each other's digging adventures and life in general. Throughout the year most of us “out of towners” talk on the computer, in bottle chat rooms, and forums. Also if you want to add a nice bottle to your collection, there are many great vendors at Shupps to accommodate you. When I go to Shupp’s Grove I rarely buy bottles. Not because I don’t have the money but because I would rather invest in one of the Grove's famous cheese-steaks instead. If I see something that screams out “take me” I will give it a new home. I always have fun at these shows. First, it’s a social event; the bottles are just an extra. For me anyway. The time in between bottle shows for me is spent dreaming about a good privy dig. I don’t just lay around in a daze daydreaming
of blue sodas barely covered in that dark use layer ready to be plucked out, I dream about the green ones too! and everything else that goes along with privy digging! I always have it in the back of my mind how much fun it was when I was digging with my buddy Paul 11 years ago, pulling out those cobalt gems like I was plucking them off a table at a bottle show. The bottle gods had our backs in those golden days of digging. I used to be a permission magnet back then. It seemed like no matter who answered the door it would be a yes. Many times Paul would look at a person and say “no way he/she will say yes” and I would disagree, "So what if he looked like an ax murder I’m going to ask anyway''. Low and behold Mr. Ax said yes and turned out to be a hell of a nice guy. He was also a little league coach for kids. We ended up getting 4 loaded privies in his yard that day, and some of the best bottles in my collection. So the moral of this story is never judge an ax murder by his cover, he may have good bottles in his yard and he might say yes! The golden days of privy digging also had its ups and downs. Since I still have all of the pictures of my hay day adventures, when I start feeling a little low about not getting into any good digs currently, I boost myself up by posting “old digs” like the “Cobalt Hole.” The Cobalt Hole had 35 cobalt blue iron pontil sodas in it. It also had 15 green “Khol & Beans” iron pontils. The new members of my forum 19thcenturybottlediggers have never seen these pictures and swoon over the number of colored sodas coming out of one privy. It feels good to give hope to new diggers. On the other hand, the older members will keep me honest and razz me by saying "that's old news” when are you going to post some good recent finds. I am glad for digging what I have in the past. God blessed me to make that happen but they are right, I wanted to get into some older pits again. I missed the feeling of unearthing a nice colored soda from an old privy or any old bottle for that matter. These days I have been digging dumps here and there to pass the time. I do not enjoy the ash dumps much anymore. Most have been dug over by people for years. That is depressing to me. There is nothing like hitting that un-dug “old” outhouse. Even if there are only a few keepers in it. The feeling of going down through those layers and knowing you were
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The start of the monster stone liner.
the first person there since the 1800s and then finding that first colored soda it's an explainable feeling. I am 62 years old now so I have slowed down some. One day bottle digging will come to a halt for me. But as long as my health allows it, I will keep unplugging those old outhouse holes from the past. With the help of my younger friends of course. I can take care of shallow ones myself if I have to, up to 6 feet. But once the pit is over my head it’s time to call in the troops. The other thing that can take the place of “your own” lack of local privy action is going on road trips and digging with out-oftown guests. You are still digging a privy but you don’t have to do any of the leg work to get it, you just need to show up and dig. Don’t get me wrong, it is fun and exciting on road trips because you will be finding bottles that you normally won't find in your hometown. But I like to get my own permissions and do the research that gives me a sense of accomplishment and makes the whole dig feel more rewarding. Especially when it turns out to be a good one! Some people never get permission and never will but they are good mussels on the dig. I guess everyone has their good points. Like the old saying goes “What have you done for me lately” While I am on the subject of road trips. I was recently reminisc-
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How deep will she go
ing about a permission Badger and I went on before the pandemic hit. Dave F and sons Seth & Josh invited us up to Wormleysburg near Harrisburg Pa. It was a long drive. It’s even longer when you have to listen to Badger for 3 long hours. It’s all good though soon we would be hearing the clinking of glass and praying for a good one to roll out! The site we were digging that day was an open lot. Directly across the street was the mighty Susquehanna River. A beautiful view on a beautiful day. On the lot, an 1880s house was demolished some years ago and Dave is the one who helped with the demo operation. He hit a privy with the big Cat backhoe in the process and decided to ask for permission from the owner to excavate it. That is one of the perks of being a demolition man/bottle digger: you get the first crack at the permission. After we all got done telling our recent bottle digging stories and tall tales, “especially Dave F” his were the tallest tales of all. We all got into action. At first, I thought we were going to get to use the monster backhoe to dig, but that was just a passing dream. But all was not lost, Dave did have a “skid loader” that he was using to dig out old planks of wood from the pile of rubble that used to be the 1880s house. That was his second business, he sold planks from old demolished homes and barns. As we assessed the area that was supposed to be the outhouse pit I starting pulling an old green garden hose out of the crack in the
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sunken hole. Not to worry, this was at the very top, a lot of new trash is often caught up in these semi-open pits over the years mostly due to people who just don’t give a crap and dump garbage where they please! As the hole was beginning to take shape we found the walls and made our way down. Someone yelled out, “why are we digging by hand when we have a machine”! And on that note, Dave gave us the “hold on a second” sign. He had two more beams to move and stack. Soon he was moving dirt for us. The blacktop was removed first then the ash and dirt fill layers were revealed. Dave dug down as far as he could but there was only so much a machine can do digging a privy. Soon the human machines had to take over and start making their way down to the use layer, aka the layer of old glass goodness! Bucket after bucket was removed and soon a sign of life from the past revealed itself. Josh yelled out “ I got an embossed med” it was a good sign for things to come. The dig went on for a few hours and in the end, we had a good number of bottles and weird “Nick Knacks' ' sitting on the large track of the earth-mover machine waiting for the pick. At least the beast machine served a purpose other than digging that day. Everyone went home with something cool. If I recall the best bottle was an amber anchor flask. That is what this hobby is about. Friends adventure and bottles! In that order.
B Extras Bottles ottles and and E xtras
hit the streets. It was time to knock on doors in a town where I had much luck in the past. This is not a fun thing to do but it must be done if you expect to dig outhouses. When I go out and do this task I need to have a positive attitude. But that is hard to acquire sometimes because I hate rejection. Doesn't everyone? If you fall prey to those feelings, back to the white mountains you go! When I walk up to a door I make sure I have my magazine with Damian and me on the front cover, a picture book with some bottles I dug over the years, and a game plan on what I am about to say. Being on the front cover of a bottle magazine helps ease the suspicion that I am a swindler trying to take advantage of an unsuspecting homeowner for unknown reasons. I was on a mission, a mission to try and relive the old days of privy digging. It was hard to start over when so much time has passed, I felt rusty and uneasy but it had to be done if I wanted to hold one of those brilliant blue cobalt blue sodas in my hand once again.
Back home I was still privyless. One Saturday while I was digging at Badger's dump, I realized that I was not going to get any permission to dig privies while I was on my butt wallowing in the fluffy white ash dump that was dug for 40 years. Yeah, I did say that a million times but it’s the facts. So I packed up my digging tools and Damian digging into the tough river stone cap
In this game, you have to be happy with what you get, but I always try and go for the houses that are built between 1850 and 1880. The last choice is 1880. The reason for this is if you get permission to dig an 1850 era house your chances of getting a good “old” pit are pretty good (if no one has dug it before). When building the main house they had to dig the privy right away. After all, they needed a place to go right away! In my experience, an 1850 home has at least 4 privies in the yard. The original pit most likely lasted at least 15 years. When its time was up they dug a new
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hole close to the original, usually 6 or I got permission! There was only one 7 feet away. They kept on digging new stipulation, I had to wait a month to dig pits every 15 years or so until plumbthe property. The guy went on to tell ing came into the house. The older the me he had insurance people coming house, the more privies there should to do some estimates on the house for be. This also depends on when city some work and he didn’t want the yard water came into play. The scenarios I dug up at the moment. I didn’t have explained are for wood-lined pits. The a problem with that, I waited longer wood will rot over the years and new than that trying to get other permisprivies must be built. Most cities and sions. I even set him up with a remoldtowns had rules and regulations due to ing friend of mine to help him with a contamination in the ground. This does cheaper rate on construction work he not always pertain to stone and brickneeded for his house. lined privies. These bad boys never Steve waiting for the go to pull up more fill rotted so they could use them over and I had a month to try and get other over. They dip (clean) them and keep permissions and try to build my digusing them into the years. So it is not unusual to find 30 years' ging clientele. Well not exactly a whole month, more like a few worth of glass floating around these well-built time capsules. weekends and some Mondays, I had a part-time job that cut into Most people who had higher incomes had stone and brick liners. my digging time. But I had to keep trying to get into a good yard This especially holds water in my area. Other places around the whenever I could. Even if I didn’t get any solid hits, at least I globe could be different. tried. Another Saturday rolled around with no prospects of privy digging on the horizon. Times were tough and I needed a plan. I knew if I did not at least make an effort, I would be digging at “Badger's dump” complaining about ash down my pants. It is fine if you enjoy it as Badger does but I lost my taste for it and wanted to get back into the privy digging game. That meant it was time to get off my butt and knock on some doors! I remembered walking around a part of town that I didn’t frequent a lot. I was checking out this very old church and rectory that looked like it was abandon for years. Sometimes I like to roam around old cemetery's looking at the gravestone dates. I enjoy the look, the craftsmanship, and some of the cool sayings on the old stones. Similar to the way I like the look of old crude bottles. Some people say it's morbid, I say it is a form of reliving history. It is also the quietest place in town! I put the address of the church on my phone hoping to get a hold of someone who might permit me to dig the rectory. Who knows maybe the nuns were drinkers and the pits were loaded with colored beers! A digger can dream, can’t he? When I was finished at the church I left my truck and I started to walk down the next street. I spotted some houses on the next block that looked like federal-style 1850ish row homes I like. I quickly did a check on my phone and to my surprise, there were 4 houses with built dates of 1850! I did not waste any time, within a few minutes I was standing up close and personal with a bullfrog door knocker. The frog was the least of my worries, soon someone would answer the door and I would have to explain why I wanted to dig up his backyard for bottles. Just saying that out loud sometimes gives me the heebie-jeebies but it has worked many times before. Soon I was standing face to face with an older fellow wearing a black baseball hat that read “getter done” that was a perfect hat for a privy digger trying to get permissions! So I laid out my knowledge of privy digging on him, showed him my magazine and pictures of bottles, and waited for the answer. I am always on the fence when I ask for permission so whatever the answer is I try and accept it. If it's a no, on to the next prospect. If it's a yes then “weeee-haaa”! This time it was a “Weeee-haaa”!
A month of dead ends has gone by as normal. I was excited to go back to the secured permission. I figured since I hooked him up with my friend for the work on his house I would be in like Flynn. When I showed up at the house with my digging buddy Damian, we got all of the probes from the truck and went right to the back yard and literately found two pits in 15 minutes! It felt good pushing that metal rod into that crunchy abyss after all this time. It was like a spiritual experience of sorts. But our serenity bubble was about to burst! The old man's son came out of the back door in a semi rage and said “Stop don’t dig anything!” and then proceeded to drop his breakfast sandwich on the ground! We were beside ourselves with confusion. It turns out Mr “Getter done” was senile and the son owned the house. He was taking care of dear ole dad. Dad permitted us to dig and did not even remember us being there. To make things worse, we just probed out 2 great spots at an 1850 yard and we had to abandon ship! Sometimes these things happen in the permission game. You just have to bite your lip dust yourself off and move on. That is exactly what we did. Damian had to go visit his mother and I just kept on pounding the streets for potential digs. I was a little pissed, but more determined. I always carried a list of places where I have never tried getting permission before. Today was a good a day as any to use it. I started by wandering through the narrow crooked alleys. I love this town and its history. I glanced up at a yard we had dug 10 years ago and instantly started daydreaming of that day. It was a good pit. ST drakes bitters, a Hazleton coal region blob top, and many good local bottles. We also found almost a full skeleton of a horse in the privy! The memories were vivid. As I walked down to the next block I came upon one of the best digs we ever did in that town. I stood on the back of the Victorian slate steps and looked down into the yard. Another dig took place 10 or more years ago. I could still see a slight sinking spot through the lush grass where the privy was dug. We pulled out 35 1850s cobalt iron pontil sodas from this one! I had to snap out of the reminiscing stage and get into
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the present permission-getting mode. I whipped out the ragged list and got into action. Without hesitation, I walked up and gave the first door a rap. Surprisingly the door swung open on the first knock. “Hi I am a bottle collector/digger I “never use the word digger first” it scares them away. I am a writer for a few bottle magazines and….” Boom I was cut off right there! “I’m sorry we are renters” Ah the lovey renter. Another gamble that comes into play. Renters have permitted us in the past but sometimes the outcome is not very pleasant, so I stopped asking renters. If the landlord comes to the property unexpectedly, you will have a lot of explaining to do, and I’ll leave it at that. I roamed around and knocked on more doors in the same area for a good hour and realized I was pretty far away from my truck. So I decided to grab a slice and a soda at my favorite local pizza shop. I would fuel up and rest and then make my back to the truck. I figured I would try my luck at another old section of town before heading home. Back at the truck as I was heading out, I took a wrong turn and had to backtrack a little because it was a one-way street. As I cut through a parking lot to correct myself I realized I was at a small business where I had asked a guy 8 years ago if I could try and probe for privies at some of his properties. He was a landlord and he owned many old houses in this town. Needless to say, the answer was no back then. I was hesitant as I walked up to the metal door that I knocked on in the past. The sign on the door read” knock to enter” flashbacks of rejection almost pulled my hand away from the door like it was electrified but I just remembered, I was “pissed & determined”. I gave the metal door 2 raps with my wedding ring and waited, no answer. As I started to walk away feeling a bit depressed the door swung open with a squeak. I saw the same fellow as I did 8 years ago. He invited me in. I looked at him and said, “remember me”? There was a short silence, and then he said “no should I”? I just went with what I had and pointed to my shirt. “Antique Bottle & Glass Collector” and with that, it all opened up! He said “oh yeah the bottle guy!” I blurted out without hesitation “would you mind if I checked out a few of your places for privies”? Sure he said with a smile and went on to give me a list of old homes on the oldest street in the town! I was excited and shocked, to say the least, but I played it cool. As the old saying goes “if at first, you don’t succeed try 8 years later” I could not help thinking about the guy that said no to me earlier that day. If it wasn’t for that guy I would not have started walking the neighborhoods, and I would not have gone down that oneway street only to find myself in the parking lot of the permission that never materialized years ago. I am a firm believer in “things happen for a reason” Once I had the list in my hands I was like a kid in a candy store. I had Carte Blanche to be on any property he owned! All I had to do was carry his business card and show it to anyone who asked what I was doing in the yard. I was in dreamland because I wanted to dig some of these homes 10 years ago but they were all were out of reach. The age of the properties ranged from the 1870s to the 1850s and I had a list of 10 homes! The chances of everyone being great were pretty slim but back in our hay day this town produced some great stuff for us so I was an optimistic digger today. I began my journey, looking at the house numbers on the list. I was house shopping for bottles! The first homestead I picked was one that always had me in awe back when I was digging the good stuff. I would look at it and imagine the lifestyles
Bottles and Extras
of the people that lived there, the dirt roads, the oil lanterns that lit up the town at night, and the outhouses that stood in the shadows waiting for the future privy diggers to haul up the trash that is now treasure. As I walked up the thick Victorian slate sidewalks to the back of the property I had this feeling of nostalgia. This was not just any ordinary dwelling, some influential person lived here. Someone with big bucks! I would do the research later but for now, it was time to probe! As I walked to the back yard my eyes were scanning the ground for dips and potential privy locations. I knew an outhouse could have sat anywhere, but I also knew the back of the property was my best bet. When I reached the end of the line I noticed the back area wasn’t that big considering the size of the house. There was a large clapboard building that turned out to be a carriage/ Servant house tucked next to the alley. That structure took up a lot of space. The side yard had some distance but I would not look there unless the back did not pan out. I decided to take a water break, it was very hot that day temps creeping near 100. The steps to the carriage house were a good a place as any, and the thick green moss that covered the steps made a comfortable seat. A big cherry blossom tree engulfed the whole area and gave me cool needed shade. As I sat there looking at the huge 1869 3 story buildingI noticed the house next door. It was the same size as the house I was at. But it didn’t have quite the same structural value as the one I got permission for. I was curious about this place so I texted my buddy Mr landlord. I gave him the number and he came back with “that's my house, it's on your list” can the day get any better! Another one to check out down the road. God was definitely with me that day. My water break was over and I had to get on with the probing. I stood up and visually scanned the yard again. As I walked forward my leg kind of buckled and knocked me off balance a little. Normally I would contribute this to my arthritis, but not this time. Would you look at that! a sink right in front of me! With the probe in hand, I jammed it into the center, down it went! Could it be that easy? I stuck the rod in a few more places, then I hit something hard. Was it brick? Was it stone? The tip of the probe told me it was stone. A lot of times people from the past filled privies in with what they had so it could be stone in the fill. My next plan of attack was to find the walls and see how big this thing was. I also needed to find out what it was lined with. As I said, It could be brick or stone, and I forgot to mention wood. 99% of all the privies we dug in this town were wood-lined. I began on the outside sticking the probe in on an angle. With the first thrust, I hit a solid stone. My wrist encountered a bad shock wave. I moved around the pit and hit the same, more stones and all seemed large. If my calculations were correct this thing is approximately 6 feet across! I had off on Mondays from my parttime job so I decided to make a trip down to the yard and do a test plug to try and find out a little more about this monstrosity. When I returned I did the same processes with the probe. I have ADD so it is not unusual for me to probe 15 times before I start to dig. Even though I knew where I wanted to start digging, to begin with. Better to be over probed than under probed I always say. When I finely got down to moving dirt I noticed the fill was solid black. That is a good thing, no clay makes my day. The
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Here I am at the very start of the dig. Who knew.
Down at the bottom the good stuff is starting to pop!
Looks like we have a blue peeker!
A fancy Perfume hits the light
Beautiful Bennington Wax Sealer
Love the transfer ware, especially this early stuff!
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Sapphire blue Kanuss & Lightenwaller. 1860s
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Back of F.Seitz iron pontil.Easton Pa
Rare J. Marbacher Iron pontil Easton Pa
Bottles and Extras
Cobalt J.Wise Allentown Pa
hole I had dug was only about a foot and a half deep. I must have picked the right spot because soon I had a pile of old pumpkin brick, a double collared squat soda neck, a hand full of glazed pottery, and that pile of flaky oyster shells sitting on the grass. What did this all mean? At the time absolutely nothing. But as I started to dig down and across the privy I saw that it was undug. Soon I would find out that the packed fill in this pit would go from one end to the other. That is what a privy digger wants to see! This hole was definitely un dug by any other human in our time. That is good news, No privy pirates! The stuff I had found was what they tossed in when the privy was filled in the 1800s. That was a good indication of the age of the outhouse. It was time to open this baby up end to end and pray as we make our way to the bottom!
dug. And that my friend is not a good feeling.
A week would pass and I was ready to get this project underway. Damian came to help me start shoveling dirt, and there was lots of it. This thing was packed tighter than a tick with big layers. The first layer was just a solid crumbling clay about 3 feet thick. It was tough to get it out but it gave me comfort knowing these were untouched virgin caps. Once the clay was removed it was time to tackle the next mass. That would be a medium-sized river stone and dirt cap! I don’t know how much of that we bucketed out but my back told me it was a significant amount! We spent a good part of the day digging down and speculating on how deep it would go? It becomes a guessing game of sorts because we never know what is going to be on the bottom. The only way to find this out is to dig to the bottom! I always throw my Captain obvious logic out there, it helps with the morale. It could be loaded with bottles or it could be empty. But we dig despite not knowing. The only way I will fill a pit in is if I know it was 100% dug by another digger. A Gator aid bottle or a burger King wrapper will make the fill-in happen a lot quicker! Sometimes we find a lot of old shards tossed in near the top and no layers of fill, everything is mixed. No layers in a privy is a key sign to look for, take heed! If you can not read the bad signs you will end up digging bad privies. Most likely ones that someone else had already
Damian and I had dug 6 feet into this privy. I had set up the pulley system during the week to save some time when we were ready to go full bore. It was getting too deep to haul buckets up with just a rope and pure back mussels. Especially for this old digger, I did enough of it!. I knew this was going to be a tough one but we were ready.
We had a lot of this stone liner to dig but were making good headway. I had planned on hitting it hard the following weekend. My crew would consist of Damian Aka Mr. Rings, Badger, and my self but things did not work out that way. Damian's new job had called him in suddenly and that left us one man short. I suggested to Badger that we call “NY Steve” to come and fill the gap. That is if he wanted to join us. Steve was a good 3 hours away. The phone call was made and Steve was on board with it. I didn’t think he would turn down an opportunity like this. But like we all know, anything can happen and that’s just the name of the game. He could be making the long 3-hour trip home totally bottle-less.
I arrived at Badgers' house at 8 am. Steve called and said he would be there shortly. He had stopped at Cracker Barrel for breakfast? Steve asked if we wanted anything I said yes “A bottle sandwich with use layer sauce let's go we got a pit to dig!” When Steve arrived we all packed in my truck and headed down to the site. The chatter on the way down was the typical wonderment of what will be the outcome of the dig. I always try to be the voice of reason. (Again) “We have to dig to the bottom and hit mother earth” that is the only way we will truly know the outcome! And with those words of wisdom, we had arrived at the dig site. We didn’t waste any time, we grabbed all of the tools and gear off of the truck and headed to the back of the huge brick home. When Steve and Badger saw the gigantic stone privy they couldn’t believe it! We were all excited about what was about to take place.
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I was the most excited. I knew the history of this house because I had done extensive research before we even broke ground. The home was that of James. W Fuller. A very influential man of his time. He was the second-largest income earner in the Lehigh Valley from the 1840s through the 1860s. He was a big wig at the infamous Crane Iron-works. The Iron-works employed 98% of the town from the 1840s into the early 1900s. He also was a horse trader during the civil war. So this man definitely had the means to build and maintain a massive stone privy. While I was in the yard myself setting up one day I would in vision big night parties, dimly lit by oil lamps with people wandering around the yard aimlessly, drinking, smoking clay pipes, and having fun. The outhouse was set in the back and some of the tipsy guests would toss their empty's down the thunder shack hole. I envisioned someone standing where I was standing back when the outhouse was just a dirty necessity. I often wish I had a video that goes back in time to witness my daydreams of the past. But for now, we had the next best thing, the digging of a time capsule! Finely we were pulling buckets. We knew by the size of this stone monster we would be here a while. And the only way we would
accomplish that task is “one bucket at a time” The weather was iffy that day. It was calling for strong thunderstorms to roll in by the afternoon. I came prepared though, I brought along my blue “pop-up tent”. After about an hour and a half, we got through the second clay cap. We thought that layer was tough until we hit an even bigger river rock cap, that seemed like it went on forever! These people took pride in filling in their crap holes! I guess if you have the money you might as well do it right. Two hours would go by, Steve was in the hole, he sent up the last bucket of dirt and stone and was ready to come out when we heard a loud “holy crap”! Right under the stone layer by the wall lay a bottle. This bottle was the start of crazy things to come! Steve reached down chanting “I think it's blue I think it's blue” he held it up to the light. Sure enough, it was blue! A “Knauss & Lichtenwallner” double collared squat from Allentown Pa. and a scarce one at that. The company was only in business for a year. It was Steve's first blue soda. We were all stoked. My reaction was “get on the ladder and get out of the pit” I wanted to experience that great feeling again, it's been a while. As I climbed down the ladder I thought about all the hard work I had put in trying to get permissions in the last few years. I felt in my gut that my persistence was about to pay off. When I got off the ladder and my feet were
Red iron pontil the old stuff is poppin!
Another colored soda!
Sodas & Meds
Nice Flint glass tumbler
Early Open pontil Ink
Colored Allentown & Easton sodas.
Love the early Marbles
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Pontil "Greek" med nice ans wavy
Steve, Badger and me after the pick.
A mob of milk glass. Mostly G W Laird Perfumer N.Y.
Steve and Badger looking through the treasure
What a way to end a dig. The Marbacher
Some of the good ones back from the past, clean and catching some rays
F. Seitz, Easton Pa. RARE
Early umbrella ink very dark glass
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planted firmly all I saw was a nice dark ashy loam. I knew the hard part was done now and it was time to have some fun! I pulled out my hand scratcher and started to move a big pile of fill to the left of where Steve hit the first blue soda. Within minutes, 2 double collared tops appeared out of their resting spot! The question was would they be intact? With a little finagling, I popped them both out togather, and oh yes they were whole! Another blue K&L and a green Seitz Bros. I was happier than a pig in an outhouse! I knew this was going to be an insane ride to the bottom! But when would the bottom come? I once dug an 1865 24 foot brick liner that had a 10-foot use layer with 700 bottles! But today no matter what the outcome, we would try and have fun, and relish the day because digs like this don’t happen very often. Soon I had a pile of colored sodas and embossed meds lined up next to me. I know Badger was getting itchy up top looking down seeing all of these great bottles being uncovered. He did enjoy looking through the piles of fill for marbles and knick-knacks but pulling out 1860s bottles had that beat! Soon Badger was on his way down to take his turn in the capsule. I was getting hungry so we decided to order two large pizzas from the local Italian shop. There is nothing better than getting a fresh pie delivered directly to the outhouse! We needed a well-deserved lunch. Badger decided to stay in the pit so Steve just lowered 2 slices down in the bucket. A little ash never killed anyone I suppose. I wrapped it up the best I could. It was hard for us to eat because good bottles were popping out left and right. I was pulling up buckets with a pepperoni slice hanging out of my mouth. This day so far was just awesome! It doesn't get any better. But you never know. The owner of the property was coming in and out of his house. He was checking on our progress. He wanted a few bottles because of the history involved with his house and the house we were digging behind. A lot of times no one wants any of the bottles we find but either way I comply with the homeowner's wishes because we would not be there if it wasn’t for them. Steve was up, it was his turn in the pit, Badger had to get out because he was hungry, he dropped his pizza and he added a new topping “ butt cake” A real privy digger would have eaten it! In minutes Steve was on to something of color! It seemed like everything was colored in this pit. That is why I love the older privies. No junky clear glass no fluffy ash cakes! As Steve picked away at the square bottom bottle, I chirped out an Idea I just had. Since this was such a nice wide privy and we didn’t have to take many buckets out now, we can all dig together in harmony in the privy! All we had to do is pick a corner. Badger and I joined Steve in the pit. I lifted the ladder and jammed my short probe in between two rocks in the wall. Now the ladder was hovering above our heads. I’m glad someone is using their noggin. And the group dig began. The bottle Steve was working on finely popped out, it was a cool-looking piece of glass. A yellow “Mishlers Herb Bitters” is a fairly common example at bottle shows but who digs yellow bitters? I saw the fill changing under me. It was getting darker and denser. We had a decent pile of cool old bottles building in the middle of the pit. I popped out a “G. W Laied perfumer New York” it was milk glass. This was a dam cool bottle and I was happy with it. In one hour, there was a pile of 15 of the same bottle sitting in the middle! It went from a cool bottle to” Oh one of those” Not that I am complaining, it’s just the progression of the privy. The woman of the house must have smelled great! We
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also were unearthing a lot of great pottery. It's a shame most of it was broken but it usually is, people used the stuff until it chipped or broken then down into the sloppy abyss it went. There was also a lot of “worm-ware” and “Mocha ware” all cool stuff busted or not! On my next swipe of the hand tool, I saw a bubbly green panel of glass. I had no idea what it was, I couldn't make it out right away. Then a handle appeared, then a spout. When I pulled it out everyone's eyes popped out of their heads! It was a light green open pontil master ink! Circa1840s. Wow-what a beauty. Another one you don’t see that often. I could tell we were getting close to the bottom. The theory that the house was built in 1853 was starting to become reality. At first, I believed both houses, the landlords and the one he rented out were both 1869. They were both listed as such on the Realtor sites. But the items we were starting to find in this pit were telling me this bottom should be the 1850s era! After the master ink, more pontiled goodies appeared. And that proved they were not just late throws. Soon we had some cool pontiled pharmacy s and miscellaneous tidbits to add to our bounty. Badger got out to pull a few more buckets up, that would give us more room to dig. Plus he was starting to smell a little so it was a God's send. I was having too much fun, I forgot Steve was still in the hole and threw a shovel full of use layer on his back. He didn’t flinch. As we ripped into what was left in the privy like groundhogs digging a home we both shouted out “bottle!” at almost the same time! I got to work on mine and Steve on his. When these bottles hit the daylight I couldn’t believe my eyes! One was a green F. Seitz and the other a J.Marbacher both were red iron pontils! They were rare bottles from the early 1850s. I have dug many years dreaming about an F Seitz beer bottle. Fred Seitz was the father and founder of the Seitz soda & Beer empire starting in 1821. I finely had one in my hands! I looked at Steve knowing this one will go down as an unforgettable digging experience for him. For me also, and I have been digging since I was 14 years old. I decided to stick the probe in to see where we were. I knew the bottom was very close. I cleared out a spot and slowly pushed the rod down. There it was, rock-hard mother earth. It was the end of the line for us. When you can not get the probe through even one inch then you know it's all over. There was still a little bit of use layer left to go through. Maybe four or five buckets worth on one side. Steve and I decided to get out and let Badger dig the rest. We saw he was drooling, and felt bad because he was still looking for his lost marbles. He slid down into the pit for one last hurrah! But before he could even start digging he shouted up “oh my God a soda” we thought he was joking. But we should have known better to think anyone would be joking about good bottles in this pit! As we both looked down Badger was holding up a teal iron pontial soda! It was an 1850s Raub & Eckert from Easton pa another great soda. In the end, we had 9 blue sodas and a hand full of greens from the 1860s. Also, 3 rare sodas from the 1850s were pulled from the bottom and Lots of old great miscellaneous stuff. Definitely a good time had by all. What a way to end a dig. This 4th of July dig came in with a bang and went out with a Boom baby! It would go down in the record books and be a hard one to top. Even for this seasoned crap hole digger!
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Antique Bottle Provenance and Other Value Enhancers
By Burt Robbins
A
ntique bottle provenance needs more attention from collectors. It adds value, interest, and history to a bottle and helps create a story line to go to the next owner. In the event of bottle theft, provenance is important to validate ownership. Best of all, it’s free and easy to do since it mainly involves keeping a record of ownership history.
Should headlines such as these become more common, it is wise to be prepared. Bottle theft becomes more likely to happen as prices increase, collections become bigger and more famous, and morals decrease. While you are doing the provenance process for a bottle, I would recommend including a sketch or a detailed photograph of unique identifying details of the bottle such as bubbles, scratches or other damage, pontil or base wear, or applied top details. These details will help you identify and recover a stolen bottle.
Over the years many large, important antique bottle collections have been sold, whether by private sale, by auction house, or through eBay. The prices realized have often been higher than estimated. Many of the bottles sold were one of a kind, in top condition, or best-known examples. The new owners of these items may be building important collections of their own recognizing that their time to sell will come someday. To obtain the highest selling price, the best thing the bottle collector can do is to keep notes of a bottle’s previous owners and other relevant information. These notes will be helpful as memories fade and years pass. It pays off because even a more common bottle’s value can be increased by the recording of the chronology of ownership that is called provenance. Bottle author and collector Matt Knapp believes that there are at least three significant forms of provenance relating to antique bottles. “One is who owned the bottle in the past, another is the context of where the bottle was found, and a third form is where the bottle was sold.” The physical attributes of a bottle are enhanced by provenance. The ability to produce documented ownership history adds to the emotional appeal and satisfaction of ownership. Conversely, the lack of information can
Before eBay and online auctions became popular, it was important to buy antique bottles from a trusted dealer. His reputation and the ad write up were all you had to make important decisions about purchases because in the 1950s-1990s bottles were commonly purchased sight unseen. Ads like this one from an issue of Old Bottle Magazine or Antique Trader commonly had no photographs. I really wish I saved all those receipts from the bottles I bought from those printed ads and also gotten more information from sellers at bottle shows.
add to a bottle’s mystery. For collections that have started with little information, it is better to begin late to gather provenance for antique bottles than to never begin at all. A collector can start by maintaining a logbook for his bottles. A numbering system is very helpful. Just write the number on a blank sticker and cut to size. Word processing software and self-adhesive labels can also be used to create low cost, personalized, numbered stickers. Examples can be seen on the HARDY’S and WISTAR’S bottle photographs shown in this article. Be sure to write down the seller’s name in your notes. Information such as date of purchase, price, description, and where purchased will come in handy in the years to come. When purchasing the bottle, ask the seller who he bought it from and where and how long he owned it so that the information can be recorded. Is the bottle dug? Cleaned? Some collectors highly value western bottles or Civil War bottles for example, so it would be wise to record where a dug bottle was found. Keep the sales receipt. This helps to build bottle provenance and the documenting process. Write down any modifications made to the bottle such as damage, washing, cleaning, tumbling, polishing, oiling, and waxing so that changes in condition can be monitored and remembered years into the future. Provenance can travel with a bottle, either verbally or written, and a good story will help it sell for a higher price if the collector or dealer realizes he is part of the provenance process and can find a buyer with the same opinion.
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bottles. Sometimes value is added unintentionally when a bottle is given as a gift and it becomes a cherished momento. Strong attachment to a bottle can be created when a bottle is found at an unusual place or circumstance. Such bottles are kept and usually not for sale.
Shown here is a portion of a page of my bottle journal that I started in 1970. I logged in the basic information as I made my purchases but I wish I had recorded more information about the bottles using a more detailed system.
The ability to supply bottle provenance may add to a bottle’s selling price but how important is provenance to the average collector? The answer may be found by comparing art collecting and bottle collecting. One difference between the two is that serious art collectors and investors must rely on sales receipts, old photos of a painting with a previous owner, exhibition records, and other authentication, before committing a large sum of money toward a painting. These documents, part of its provenance, go with the painting. A bottle dealer or collector does not need provenance as much as an art dealer. The reason is the high quality of the many art forgeries out there while antique bottles are difficult to fake. To avoid forgeries and stolen art, important works of art should not be purchased from unknown dealers. The collecting of antique bottles has many similarities to collecting art. Beauty, rarity, and historical interest are among them, but most bottle collectors do not normally need provenance as a prerequisite before buying a bottle unless ownership history is also of value to them. Most collectors can tell if a bottle is genuine and can recognize signs of age and authenticity. Of course, many a novice collector has purchased a base-scarred ABM bottle on eBay thinking it to be a pontiled bottle. Sometimes Clevenger or Wheaton bottles are sold as older historical flasks and FISCH BITTERS figural reproductions are sold as the much scarcer and more valuable original items. Generally, though, it would be very hard for any bottle forger to create a realistic looking antique bottle reproduction that would not be detected by the average bottle collector. When dealing with antique bottles, provenance is not a sales prerequisite for most collectors but it is important for some. Provenance may add to the desirability and price of a bottle but it helps most with a higher priced bottle. Provenance is often not the most important bottle value enhancer and price will often make or break a sale. Characteristics such as color, shape, contents, labeling, geographical origin, manufacturing glasshouse, pontil, size, degree of bottle crafting art and/or manufacturing crudeness, cleaning treatments, historical value and lore, embossed words, rarity, damage, and condition can combine to influence collecting preferences and therefore bottle value. For example, some collectors will specialize in blue colored bottles. Some collectors will only buy mineral water
When buying a bottle, I ask the seller some questions such as: where the bottle was found, whose collection it was in, how long ago it was purchased, etc. I also write down the condition of the bottle and what I have done to the bottle over the years. Each bottle gets its own separate page for the information that will be saved. I also now keep receipts and shipping labels. The top part of this photograph shows the response via eBay from Matt Knapp, long time early medicine bottle collector and author of two bottle books, when I requested more bottle provenance from him. I was very happy to purchase the bottle from him, to receive the extra provenance, and add my sticker above his as shown in the WISTAR’S photograph. The bottom part of the photograph shows a receipt for a bottle I recently won in an online auction. Keeping this receipt will add to the bottle’s provenance because it adds a value and condition story line about the bottle in addition to the previous owner being mentioned. This information may prove useful when the bottle is sold.
Many collectors want top condition bottles. Many collectors do not want or collect tumbled, damaged, repaired, or greatly altered bottles unless there is no other choice due to scarcity. Some collectors prefer what they would call a natural bottle. Such a bottle would possibly have some wear or minor damage, have some traces of contents from long ago, or have dull surfaces and other evidence of use or the passage of time. Interestingly enough, a more natural bottle may be purchased for a lower or higher price depending on the seller. Many collectors do not mind paying extra for a tumbled bottle if the bottle looks like new and has been professionally treated. In contrast, some collectors will buy a super shiny, over tumbled bottle and have the bottle tumbled again to reduce the surface glare. It’s a matter of preference, rarity, and often price. Damaged bottles usually sell for less but the rarest, most desirable of bottles can be bid up at auction even though they are badly damaged. Many top collectors will pay highly if necessary for a damaged,
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rare bottle. Another example of a value enhancer can be the location where a bottle was dug or found. Historical value is added if it has been documented that a bottle was dug at a Civil War encampment or if a bottle was brought up from a notable old shipwreck for example. Auctioneers can add value to an antique bottle by including known past provenance and the results of a thorough examination in their written catalog description. Auctioneer Jeff Wichmann says that upon customer request, the auctioneer can often supply a new owner with even more provenance information from his records. Sometimes though, Jeff cannot provide the previous owner’s name due to an anonymity request by the seller. Bottle auctioneer Norman Heckler also honors anonymity requests. Drawing on old sales records to embellish the bottle’s description can help new buyers and sellers make a more informed bottle sale years into the future if the description is kept. Matt Knapp believes that recording where a bottle was sold gives it provenance. “A bottle which was sold in a well-known glass auction may appeal to collectors because they perceive the bottle has been handled and examined by experts. The chance
When buying an expensive painting, an art collector must rely on provenance to avoid buying a fake. In contrast, most antique bottle collectors can easily identify most bottles they want to buy as genuine and can also assess their condition and approximate value without worrying greatly about unknowingly buying a fake or reproduction. If he wants a certain bottle, a collector will buy the bottle with or without provenance. The story behind this painting illustrates how provenance is more important to the art collector than the bottle collector. When I bought this painting at a garage sale four years ago, I was told by the seller that it was painted by an artist in the Miami area over 20 years ago. I liked the painting and paid $20 for it, therefore, I had little to lose. It was signed T. Denver and painted in the style of the popular artist, I. Tarkay. With a magnifying glass, I could verify that it was an acrylic painting and see the signature. I did not have to worry about the painting being a fake but if the signature was Tarkay, I should expect to pay much more and be provided with provenance to ensure its authenticity. Many people in the world make their living by painting in the style of a great artist but will fake his signature. Provenance is necessary for the artist but not for the bottle collector. The provenance and description supplied by the bottle auctioneer or dealer does not need to verify the authenticity of the bottle but rather is provided to attest to its desirability. The bottle collector can visually verify authenticity and check condition. In contrast, the art collector will want an unbroken ownership history, dealer testimony, or genuine papers of authenticity before spending large sums of money.
Stickers are important aids that help many collectors to identify a bottle and provide tangible evidence of bottle provenance. Whether it is an auction sticker or a personal collection sticker, they are reminders that bottles in a collection have a past and will have a future. Hopefully, as the bottle passes from collection to collection, the stickers don’t become too numerous, distracting, or unsightly. If so, just put the sticker on the bottle’s notes and information page. Take care to save any removed stickers though because it is possible over the years for bottle collecting to go through trends of people wanting bottles without stickers and then, much later wanting bottles with their original stickers. Auctioneer Norman Heckler says that he will keep a sticker on a bottle whenever possible and that “Gardner’s stickers are golden.”
that it is a reproduction, has been color modified, or has been adversely cleaned is lower. This provenance instills confidence lacking in a bottle found at a flea market.” When the auction catalog is published, the description and record of sale become part of the bottle’s provenance and can help future buyers and sellers make more informed decisions years into the future. This process will make a desirable bottle even more valuable when its current auction catalog states that it was, for example, in the collection of famous collectors Charles B. Gardner or Samuel J. Greer and the catalog photograph shows that the old sticker is still on the bottle. Even if a buyer was going to bid on the bottle anyway, solid provenance entices him to bid over his original intended amount. For example, if a collector reads from the description in an auction catalog that a rare bottle has damage and also reads that the bottle was in a famous collection, he may conclude that the bottle is the best available example for him to buy. The collector may then bid higher than normal for the damaged bottle. The reasoning is that if it was the best example that the long-time famous collector could get, it’s likely the best that anyone could get because large collections are usually acquired by people with a good eye and the financial means to buy the best examples available. A good example of how provenance increases the desirability of antique bottles comes from Jeff Wichmann, owner of American Bottle Auction and a veteran of 52 years of bottle collecting, who says he would not have considered auctioning two bottles in his latest bottle auction except for the fact that they had Gardner stickers. “Without those stickers, I wouldn’t have touched them.
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They might be interesting bottles but we need value to print a costly catalog. The stickers were everything”. Jeff also included a rare date KELLY’S LOG CABIN BITTERS in the auction because it was “from the famous Burton Spiller collection and what really makes it is the provenance. Everyone knew Burt was a very picky collector and his stuff sold for big bucks because they knew they were getting a great example of whatever he owned. What might be a $3,500 cabin bottle will go a lot stronger because it has the Spiller sticker. It’s an identifying mark that what you are getting is a top specimen. People know where it came from and no matter what I say, it’s already been said in the catalog it originally sold from.” Auctioneers also add value by means of a thorough examination
Who would not want a bottle from this collection? In 1988 and 1989 some 1,820 bottles were sold from the Sam Greer collection by the Harmer Rooke auction company. Some are being resold from time to time and many still bear the original “GREER COLLECTION/ HARMER ROOKE/NYC” sticker containing the bottle lot number. I’ll bet the sticker brings the seller more money when offered for sale. In fact, I’ve often tried to win one at auction but always bid too low. These stickered bottles were always worth more than I estimated.
This nondescript bottle contains many value enhancers that tend to increase its desirability but lacks many enhancers that would make it even more popular among collectors. It is mainly the embossing that increases collector interest to a high level. The embossed words of interest are: INDIAN, HEMP, BITTERS, and GREEN CREEK, N.J. This bottle would also be sought by collectors of medicine bottles, slug plate bottles, and manganese (purple) bottles. The bottle would be even more valuable in a color other than its light purple or if it had a greater size than 6 inches. Only the mouth shows evidence of hand tooling and very few bubbles can be seen. There is no pontil and it dates to about the late 1800s. It is not a beautiful bottle. For me the bottle’s main value is sentimental. It was dug in Cape May County in the 1960s by my uncle, George McConnell and my cousin Jimmy. My uncle traded this bottle to me from his very large collection for a bottle from my collection and I intend to give it to his grandson George someday.
and authentication process. For example, an unknowing collector may want to sell a reproduction of a figural antique bottle such as DOCTOR FISCH’S BITTERS, BROWN’S CELEBRATED INDIAN HERB BITTERS, and NATIONAL BITTERS. Clevenger glass items can be mistaken for older originals. Selling such a reproduction through a reputable auctioneer would be rare. Bottle buyers depend on reputable auctioneers and dealers to identify or weed out reproductions. Buying such authenticated examples from a reputable dealer or auctioneer brings provenance to the bottle and satisfaction in knowing that the bottle is genuine, is free of hidden damage or repairs, and that the accompanying bill of sale or sticker will enable an easier sale of the bottle at a future date. Auctioneers will reject problem bottles. In fact, Norman Heckler who is a bottle, flask, and early glass collector, auctioneer and appraiser, has stated that it “happens every week, every month” and Jeff Wichmann of American Bottle Auctions says he
As part of writing this article, I was able to speak with a number of antique bottle auctioneers. Most seem to have a generally positive view about bottle provenance and it can be noticed in their auction catalog descriptions. For example, the green CHANDLER’S bottle photo is from an American Bottle Auction catalog and supplied by Jeff Wichmann, who says that he tries to cite previous owners whenever possible.
The blue bottle is a scan I took from a Norman C. Heckler & Company auction catalog. Its description recounts the many previous owners of the bottle. Except for his live bottle sales, Norman also emphasizes bottle provenance, which he characterizes as “terribly important and critical.” John Pastor, of American Glass Gallery and publisher of Antique Bottle & Glass Collector magazine, confirmed that it is important to know the provenance in an important collection. I agree and though I do not have an important collection, I have often noticed that in auctions and bottle sale listings of lower priced bottles, provenance is often missing. Perhaps the seller believed it was not worth doing or no one would be interested.
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often must reject reproductions from unknowing clients. Bottle provenance should begin or continue with the acquisition of a bottle. Where a bottle is found can be important. When a
Bottles and Extras
who sold it to a store who sold it to the customer. This lost provenance adds to a bottle’s mystery.
It was a happy day for me when at an estate sale I saw this mint pontiled, blueish, JOHN WINSLOW… bottle. I needed no provenance, bottle description, trusted seller, or pricing guide for me to realize it was a genuine antique bottle. Its price was only $4 and I began its provenance then and there. I just wished that the seller could have offered some more information about the bottle to add to its provenance.
Though some doubt it, the future of antique bottle provenance should be positive as bottle prices increase. If a buyer is paying thousands of dollars for a bottle and the seller can provide This is a mystery flask that I bought in a thrift store. Is it an old flask from evidence of previous ownership going back for years, then more the 1800s, or is it a reproduction? If I purchase a similar bottle from a buyer satisfaction and interest is generated. Even lesser-known reputable bottle auctioneer or dealer, I would have little need to worry collections will become more involved with provenance but at because they have the experience and knowledge to identify and sort present it is with the higher end bottles that provenance really out issues like authenticity, condition, and rarity. EBay, however, does not authenticate a listing and many bottle listings on eBay are posted by ama- makes a difference. The lower end bottles are numerous and not often thought of as candidates for the process. As times change, teurs. As an eBay buyer, you must be able to authenticate your purchase. If dissatisfied, the seller may or may not set things right. On the other hand, provenance may someday be important mainly because collectors a reputable auctioneer would routinely search for repairs and hidden dam- just want to be part of its process and be known and remembered age. The bottle looked like a reproduction to me but I bought it anyway because of it. As bottle collecting becomes more sophisticated, due to its low price. Though most collectors can recognize a reproduction, provenance would become more important due to personal a sticker from a reputable dealer or auctioneer can instill confidence into choice. Collector satisfaction is increased by knowing who the a prospective buyer. Both Jeff Wichmann of American Bottle Auctions and previous owners were. There is, however, a limit to the value of Norman Heckler of Heckler Auctions say that they commonly have to reject bottle provenance because of the relative ease at which antique reproductions found in lots submitted for auction. bottles are recognized as genuine. In contrast, provenance in art bottle is dug, found, or recovered, note taking can begin at that collecting is essential because paintings can be offered for sale for time. Sadly, in these situations, there is also lost provenance. millions of dollars yet be expertly faked. A solid trail of ownerLong ago, when the bottle was discarded, previous ownership ship records, restoration history, photographs, news stories, and and use history likely was lost. Sometimes evidence from the auction history must be present before any seller will receive top bottle will help. For example, if no wear marks are found on the dollar for an important painting. Although provenance may be imbase, and if it is found in a large landfill, the bottle would likely portant to bottle collectors, auctioneers are using it to bring higher have been used once by an unknown person and then thrown prices to sellers and more knowledge and satisfaction to buyers. away. If found in a privy or in a wall cavity of a house, the bottle By increasing his services to both buyer and seller, the auctioneer would likely have belonged to the owner of the property, his demonstrates his worth to the bottle collector. family, or his employees. If heavy wear marks are found on the base of the bottle, it would have repeatedly served as a valued utility bottle. Wear marks on colorful figural bottles may be common because they were too pretty to throw away or been on display in collections for a long time. Perhaps wear marks exist on a medicine or wine bottle because it was reused for storage of homemade whiskey or wine, pharmacy use, or may have had use in the kitchen or the barn. A soda, beer, or mineral water bottle would have been reused many times as it went back to the company to be refilled. A typical antique bottle would not usually I was very happy to purchase this bottle twice. In March of 1979, Muracquire any wear marks with its normal intended first use in the ray Yanofsky first sold this bottle to me. Then in 2002 I sold it and many house and, once emptied, would often pass to another owner for other bottles to raise cash. Over the years, I very much regretted selling reuse and perhaps a rougher life. If we start at the very beginthe bottles. However, in August 2006 I saw a familiar looking bottle on ning, more lost provenance would include a typical bottle being eBay with my bottle sticker on it. I was able to buy back the bottle and produced by the glasshouse, sold to the product manufacturer it now has a great story behind it. For me, a bottle couldn’t have better who filled it, and then the bottle would be sold to a distributor provenance than this.
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November - December 2021 JANUARY 09, 2022
(Sunday) TAUNTON, MASSACHUSETTS
LITTLE RHODY BOTTLE CLUB SHOW Holiday Inn, Taunton, Massachusetts Early Admission, $15, 8:00 am, General Admission $3, 9:30 am
Contact Bill or Linda Rose sierramadre@comcast.net 508.880.4929
Directions: Take Exit #9, off Route #495 for 700 Myles Standish Blvd.
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Third Time’s the Charm for Key West Bottler By David Rakes Various stories abound about pirates burying treasure on Key West, the last of a chain of islands jutting into the South Atlantic from the port of Miami, Florida. One far-fetched tale involved some late 19th century cellars dug for use of a soda water factory operated by Douglas Temple Sweeney. Often called “D.T.”, Sweeney died more than a century ago, leaving behind deep cellars local residents call “catacombs.” He also left a few embossed soda water bottles. The problem with history is that certain facts can get lost in the annals of time and left to the imaginations, in this case Key West natives known as “Conchs.” In 1954, sight-seeing guides entertained tourists by claiming the soda water works cellars were dug by pirates to store their booty. However, the true story of the soda water factory and the man who built it shows more inventiveness and originality than any story about buried treasure. D.T. Sweeney was a man determined to be successful. He operated a hotel with attached restaurant, a billiard saloon and raced yachts for money for entertainment. Here is the real story obtained from libraries around the country: Douglas T. Sweeney was born March 31, 1839 in New York City. His father’s name is unknown, but mother Charlotte Sweeney was a druggist. D.T. and younger brother William were raised by their mother. In 1858, at the age of 19, D.T. left New York for Savannah,
Georgia to become an apprentice to prominent soda water manufacturer John Ryan. Ryan must have known the Sweeney family before he left New York. It is said he, “offered to teach the young man,” the soda water business. Sweeney was employed by Ryan for two years and left to set up his own soda factory in Columbus, Ga. It’s probably just a coincidence, but Ryan had established a branch of his business in Columbus in 1858, six years following his establishment of the Excelsior Bottling Works in Savannah. Be that as it may, Sweeney’s business failed after a year and he returned to New York. But in 1862 at age 23, Sweeney tried again, this time at 33 Norfolk Street in New York. His goal was to manufacture soda water and syrups. On July 23, 1864, he married in Manhattan to Margaret Emma Conner, the daughter of John Ryan. She was 21 and a native of Georgia and apparently had been married before. He was 24 and described as 5 feet, 6 inches tall, with blue eyes and a prominent nose and light-colored hair. However, his business and marriage were interrupted by the Civil War. Sweeney closed his business and joined General Ambrose Burnside’s Union Army corps as a “citizen” forage master. Burnside’s troops conducted successful campaigns in North Carolina, East Tennessee and Virginia. His distinctive style of facial hair became known as “sideburns,” derived from the general’s last name. So D.T. worked as
Sweeney's Hotel ad taken in a Key West paper
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Sweeney bottles courtesy of Robin Lennon
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This map of Key West shows the Sweeney bottle manufactory building in the center with the copula. Picture from "Vintage Map of Key West, 1884" scavenger for the general for less than a year before returning to New York. D.T. reopened his business, even getting city approval “to keep a stand on the northwest corner of 59th Street and 6th Avenue” opposite a sentry box. The 1870 New York City Census showed he was 31 years old, manufacturer of flavoring syrup. His wife Margaret “Emma” was 26 and they had a 9-year-old daughter, Minnie. D.T. had only two different forms of bottles and they were similar to those used by his former employer, John Ryan. One of D.T.’s bottles was cobalt blue in squat or pony shape and embossed D.T. Sweeney on the front and Philadelphia XX Porter & Ale on the back. The other bottle, considered very rare by collectors, was embossed D.T. Sweeney / New York on the front.
Bottles and Extras
This is a close up of the same map showing numbers. Number 40 is the D. T. Sweeney Saloon and Billard 2 ½ stories high with a 4-story cupola. It was considered at the time to be Key West’s tallest building because of its roof’s huge cupola. A wing 20 x 25-foot was on one side and held the stables. Under the main building Sweeney had a deep cellar dug beneath the factory. “The cellar was cut out of solid rock, even the stairs,” and used to store his wines, beers, liquors and mineral waters to keep them cool. The inside temperature was 80 degrees yeararound. Top floor was equipped with six large fountain machines for making soda water. It was said the factory sported the island’s first elevator. A mineral spring on the property was converted into a 24-foot-deep well (dug by D.T. himself) and the water used to manufacture lemon soda and sarsaparilla. During the fire of 1886, the famous gold service of William Curry was stored in Sweeney’s cellars for safety.
But records show that his business had met with only “tolerable success” so in October of 1874, he closed it and he and his family moved to Key West via steamer. They landed on the key on Nov. 13, 1874 and opened the first soda bottling works in the southernmost city of the U.S. His soda works establishment was located on Whitehead Street in the rear of the Cosgrove home. After only a few months the child Minnie died of yellow fever. He stayed on Whitehall Street until June of 1876 and moved to larger quarters on Solares Hill near Simonton Street between Elizabeth in the 600 block. At 18 feet above sea level, Solares Hill was the island’s highest point.
Four years after building the soda water factory, D.T. purchased the surrounding property and built an “elegantly furnished” private residence. The dining room was decorated with scenes and designs. The Elizabeth Street home backed up to the factory’s bottling plant. The home also had underground storage to keep his wines and liquors a bit cooler than those of his competitors. He supplied those to nearly all the island’s residents, delivering the goods by wagons drawn by teams of horses.
The new Simonton Street soda water factory was 50 x 50 feet and
D.T. used four types of bottles for his sodas. One was an aqua
It is no wonder he may have thought his third time in the business was the charm after finally making it big in the bottling business.
Bottles and Extras
November - December 2021
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or aqua-blue gravitating stoppered bottle embossed D.T. Sweeney / Key West / Fla. Another was an aqua patented stopper with the same embossing. An aqua-blue blob topped bottle with D.T. Sweeney / Key West/ Fla., embossed in a circular slug plate. The fourth bottle was likely a lager beer in amber, honey yellow and light green. In addition to being embossed as previously This Bottle Not / To Be Sold was embossed on the back. It is considered extremely rare with several of the ambers known among the 15 or so in existence. Key West’s 1880 Census shows Sweeney to be 42 years old and still operating his business. In 1881, his wife Margaret died and was buried in the Key West Cemetery on Solares Hill. Two years later, D.T. married sixteenyear-old Florida native Mary Reike, daughter Here is the full view and the close up of the Sweeney Cemetery headstone of Rudolph Reike, a lighthouse-keeper. Sweeney, then 44, was more than twice his bride’s age. The Reike’s were from Germany and had SOURCES: been in-route to Milwaukee but settled on staying in Key West. Story of D.T. Sweeney cellars, elevator, pirates:“It’s a Lot of Bunk” Sweeney and Mary had at least one daughter named Charlotte say Conchs of Pirate Cave Tale. Solares Hill Residents Protest “Caves” Larrango who lived on Elizabeth Street. Sightseers, by Jim Cobb, The Key West Citizen, July 6, 1954, Page 1. The energetic Sweeney ventured into other businesses, opening Sweeney’s Hotel on Duval Street near the corner of Green Street, His operation was based on the European Plan (lodging only), but had a first-class restaurant attached. Also connected to the hotel was D.T. Sweeney’s Saloon and Billiard Parlor. The 1885 census shows him as a saloonkeeper instead of a soda water manufacturer. He also was vice president of the short-lived Building and Loan Association formed in 1886 with John Jay Philbrick president. It was prosperous at first, but was out of business by 1892. Other historical records show D.T. had other interests. He served as alderman for the city and was an active Board of trade member. In 1886, he campaigned for mayor, but was narrowly defeated. He was a member of the Island City Guards, a militia organized in 1888 and equipped with “1884 Springfield Rifles” from the Rock Island (Ill.) Arsenal. The company enjoyed a social life, holding semi-monthly balls at their armory and a grand dress or masquerade ball held for the city’s elite. D.T. also owned a yacht he named “Margueretta” and raced against George H. Curry’s yacht, “Myrtle,” for a $100 purse. In 1890, Douglas T. Sweeney, 51, died and was buried in Key West Cemetery on Passover Street. This is a 13-acre burial ground surrounded by Angela, Frances, Olivia, Windsor and Passover streets, the latter where the cemetery gate is located. Sweeney’s grave sports an elaborate, six-foot-tall headstone with the dates March 31, 1839 – Sept. 26, 1890. Perhaps I’ll visit Key West one day to see what has become of the soda water factory site. His name will surely live on through his collectible bottles which stand on as a reminder of how a man from New York made it big on a tropical Florida island. After two tries, he just never gave up.
Census returns: 1850 NYC, Ward 5; 1855 NYC; 1860 Savannah, Ga,, Chatham County, 1st District; 1870 NYC, Ward 17; 1885 Key West, Elizabeth Street, Page 5, District 4m household 42; 1880 Key West, Monroe County, Fla. Douglas Temple Sweeney Papers, Interview Mrs. Charlotte Larrango, Elizabeth Street, Betty Bruce, March 19, 1967, Courtesy of Russ Butler of Havana, FL, February 2021. NYC Marriage records, 1829-1940, D.T. Sweeney marries Margaret Conner, NYC. D.T. Sweeney’s NYC bottles, bottle collection photos, Robin Lennon, DeLand, Fla. Douglas Sweeney Street, Key West Art & Historical Society. D.T. Sweeney bottles: Treasures in the Sun, Antique Soda and Beverage Bottles of Key West, Fla., by Larry Smith, 2nd edition, 2014. Margaret Conner Sweeney birth and death dates, Findagrave.com, photo of headstone. D.T. Sweeney marriage to Mary Riecke, Florida Marriages, 1830-1993. D.T. Sweeney Yacht Racing, Savannah Morning News, Sept. 6, 1883, Image 1, and the Morning News, 1887-1900, Nov. 9, 1889, page 6, image 6. D.T. Sweeney’s hotel, saloon and soda water manufacturing company, Vintage Map of Key West, 1884. D.T. Sweeney’s physical appearance Passport application issued for Sweeney, Dec. 10, 1885, Monroe County, Key West, Fla. D.T. Sweeney, member of The Island City Guards, Trade Edition, The Daily Equator-Democrat, March 1889, Page 11. D.T. Sweeney biography, Trade Edition, The Daily Equator-Democrat, March 1889, Page 31. D.T. Sweeney death, Findagrave.com index, photos of monument on grave.
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Bottles and Extras
The Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) said the smooth, carved limestone toilet was found in a rectangular cabin that was part of a sprawling mansion overlooking what is now the Old City. It was designed for comfortable sitting, with a deep septic tank dug underneath. “A private toilet cubicle was very rare in antiquity, and only a few were found to date,” said Yaakov Billig, the director of the excavation. A 1776 Continental Dollar, Coin was authenticated and graded MS62 by the PCGS (Professional Coin Grading Service) in Paris. Lots of coins get graded, but it is the fact this coin, valued at almost $100,000, was found in a junk box of coins at a flea market in Northern France for 50 cents. It wasn’t until after some research that the buyer, who is remaining anonymous, realized his treasure find.
Animal bones and pottery found in the septic tank could shed light on the lifestyle and diet of people living at that time, as well as ancient diseases, the authority said.
Treasure hunter finds $46,000 hidden in cashbox beneath floorboards of Massachusetts family’s home after decades of rumor. Keith, a self-described treasure hunter and metal “detectorist,” has a motto: “You lost something. I find it.”
A linen banner of historical importance of the 1800 election is held at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. The museum bought the relic from a family back in 1959 for $2,000 (equivalent to around 17,000 in today’s time). The banner displayed an image of Thomas Jefferson with an eagle above. From the eagle’s beak was a ribbon which proclaimed “T. Jefferson President of the United States. John Adams is No More.”. It was then realized it was a National Treasure, and sold to the museum for all to see and appreciate the linen’s piece of history.
Bottles and Extras
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Amazing Fantasy No. 15 climbed to its record high, a CGC Near Mint 9.4 copy of The Amazing Spider-Man No. 1 sold for $241,200. Only four years ago, the first issue of the Wall-Crawler’s solo title was selling for about half that in the very same grade. Spidey, now at the center of the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe, appears to have become the most treasured character in comicdom.
In July 2019, construction workers renovating a pond at a golf course in Tetney, England, stumbled onto a 4,000-year-old wooden coffin. Now, the Bronze Age relic is set to go on display at the Collection Museum in Lincoln after undergoing extensive preservation work.
This rare salt-glazed stoneware face cooler (William Wilbur, Ironton, Ohio, circa 1870) shattered world auction records for an American face vessel and Ohio stoneware when it sold for $177,000. Hundreds of Roman gold coins found in basement of old theater Archaeologists are studying a valuable trove of old Roman coins found on the site of a former theater in northern Italy. The coins, at least 300 of them, date back to the late Roman imperial era and were found in a soapstone jar unearthed in the basement of the Cressoni Theater in Como, north of Milan.
First-time treasure hunter Ole Ginnerup Schytz had only been out with his new metal detector for a few hours when he stumbled onto an astounding discovery: a stash of 1,500-year-old gold artifacts dated to the Iron Age. Now, experts have deemed the find—made in a field near the town of Jelling in southwestern Denmark last December—one of the largest and most important in Danish history.
November ovember - December ecember 2021
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Member Photo Gallery John Hayes - Lightnings from here to there!
ottles and and E Extras xtras BBottles
A collection of spectacular and inspiring photographs from around the world and around the web. Please feel free to submit your images for consideration. Jerry Moffitt - Pretty Inks!
Dennis Rogers - Pics of my Pickles
Mark Yates - Shades of green in the winter
Jomes Movich - Dr J's in the house! Michael Brodzik - Teller Mineral Waters
Jimmy Barbrey John Ryans
Marty Homola Colorado Territory
Christopher Bellizzi Beautiful
Brian Shultis - Cabins Paul McClure - Demi's
Greg Eaton - Tennessee Bottles
Joey Guercio - Mixed View
Max Bell - Serving up Colors
Laurence Tod Cagle - Colored Druggists
BBottles ottles and and E Extras xtras
Vern Huffstetler - Lyons Powder Bottles in a wide variety of colors
Paul Delguercio - New Jersey Sodas Francis Nonnenmacher Dr. Pinkhams
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ovember - December ecember 2021 November
Tim Pemrick - Stoddard
Richard Peal Macy Bay Rum
Gary Lassiter- Washongton Beaded Tim Henderson - My Favorite Queen
Rusty Duke Blaydes - Cobalt Inks
James Campiglia - Virginia City Nevada
Mike Newman - Ryans in Puce
Dillon Womack - Montana Bottles
Helena VonDrakenstein - Pontiled Holy Waters
ted Events 66
November - December 2021
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Send your advertisement to FOHBC Business Manager, 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002 or better yet, email: emeyer@ fmgdesign.com
outright purchase. For purpose of writing a FOR SALE: Nevada Bottles: Many FOHBC book. Contact: Henry Thies, P.O. Box 1363, drugstores from Virginia City, Carson City Cut Bank, MT 59427, Phone: (406) 873and Reno. Some President’s crown top sodas. Contact: Message 2811 or (406) 229-0356, Email: bottlerx@ James Campiglia, Phone: (805) 689-0125, gmail.com Email: chipsbottles@bresnan.net
President’s Message FOR SALE: Several hundred bottles in mint Membership News WANTED: NuGrape and NuMint “Bottles
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and Extras classified for free. Change the bottles and your ad is free month after month. Include your website in your ad to increase traffic to your site. Send your advertisement to FOHBC Business Manager, 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002 or better yet, email: emeyer@fmgdesign.com
and Extras”. Please see my NuGrape articles condition, most with labels and contents, circa in the Jan/Feb 2020 and 2021 issues. My 1910 plus advertising and pharmacy equipment research is ongoing and historic documents from that era. Contact: Neil Sandow at Teleare needed. All NuMint and pre-Mae West phone: (707) 373-8887 or Email: nsandow@ Calendar ofNuGrape Shows bottles are of interest as well as gmail.com advertising items of ANY kind. Contact: & Related Events nugrapekid@gmail.com Send pics please. FOR SALE: Books “A History of the Des Thank you kindly! Moines Potteries,” with additional information on Boonesboro, Carlisle, Herford and WANTED: Signet Ink, 1-gallon solid white Palmyra, Iowa. Cost $23 plus shipping, stoneware jug with handle, pour spout, blue Media Mail add $4.50, Priority adds $6.00. lettering stating, “Russia Cement Co., sole Mail to Mark C. Wiseman, 3505 Sheridan manufacturers of Signet Ink and LePage’s Avenue, Des Moines, Iowa 50310 or call Glue.” Also interested in any other Ink or (515) 344-8333 Individual & Affiliated paste stoneware that I do not already have. FOR SALE: Labelled Bitters Bottles, South Contact: David Curtis, Email: dcu8845@ Club Information thewavz.com, Phone/Text: (567) 208-1676 Carolina Dispensary Bottles, Advertising Signs and Paper. Contact: John Bray at BotWANTED: Dr. Kilmer’s lung cure. Aqua tle Tree Antiques, 1962 Mt Lebanon Road, bottle with outline of lungs on it. Wanted to Donalds, SC 29638 or visit our website at: bottletreeantiques.com Individual & Affiliated complete my collection I have the kidney and the heart cures. Please send clear picClub Information tures. Email: plongdyke@yahoo.com FOR SALE: The 2018 updated POISON BOTTLE WORKBOOK by Rudy Kuhn. Price WANTED: Vermont Bitters, Medicines $50 plus $5 media mail USA. Contact Joan and Cures (no pharmacies). Contact: David for postage out of USA. Email: jjcab@b2xMosher, 4 Green Mountain Drive, St. Albans, online.com. Phone: (540) 297-4498. Make VT 04378; Email: dachano@comcast.net check or money order out to Joan Cabaniss, 312 Summer Lane, Huddleston, VA 24104 WANTED: Pre 1920 Blob and Hutchinson style bottles embossed with ROOT BEER. Wanted For Sale Contact: Dave and Kathy Nader at (224) 622-3812 or Email: dknader@yahoo.com WANTED: Smith’s Green Mountain Renovator and Pontil Vermont bottles. Contact: WANTED: Illinois Bottles: Keeley & Bro William Brugmann Phone: (985) 249-1570 Alton ILL Ale. Buff & Kuhl Alton ILL Gravor Email: billylloyd9@yahoo.com itating Stopper. A & F.X. Joerger Alton ILL. L. Abegg’s Soda Manufactory Belleville, WANTED: Pictures of the following Great ILL. Jos. Fischer’s Selters Water Belleville, Falls Montana bottles: 1) Emporium DruILL. J.N. Clark Belleville, ILL. Beck & Bro. gRealty block/Great Falls, Mont; 2) Chas Highland ILL. Mueller & Beck Highland Gies clear seltzer, acid etched; 3) Green ILL. Weber & Miller Highland ILL. Dan Quart abm, acl, around base of bottle propKaiser Quincy, ILL. Mr & Hw Lundblad erty of Squirt Bottling Co. Great Falls, Mont, Quincy, ILL. Contact: Theo Adams 3728 or something similar; 4) Labeled only bottles Fair Oaks Drive, Granite City, Ill. 62040. from either Montana Distilling Company; (618) 781-4806 Manchester, Montana, or Manchester Distilling Company; Manchester, Montana, or Sun River Distilling Company; Manchester, Montana. From same distillery but different owners and years of operation. Will consider
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FOR SALE: Georgia Straight Side Script Coco-Cola Bottles, The Complete 72 City Collection of Jeff Weinberg, a Pictorial Identification Guide: The book consists of 35 years of diligent and focused bottle collection. 152 pages with over 750 full color photographs, it offers well researched information on all 72 known Georgia Cities that used script Coca-Cola bottles between 1902 and 1915 features pictures of nearly e very bottle variant made by 8 different glass makers during that time period. Also offered are scarcity and value tiers, bottle hunting anecdotes, and many original advertisements. Only 300 copies were printed with the first 100 signed and numbered. Makes a great Christmas gift! To order send F&F PayPal payment to: oldhouse156@yahoo. com or mail to: Jeff Weinberg, 156 Boulevard, Athens, GA 30601. The cost is $49.95 + $6.00 shipping. Questions contact: Jeff Weinberg, Phone: (706) 247-6373
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Individual & Affiliated Membership Benefits Club Information
FOR SALE: Glassware and Stoneware pieces. Contact: Marge Elmer (267) 644-9244, after 6pm
Individual & Affiliated Shards of Wisdom Club Information
FOR SALE: Lippman’s Great German Bitters. $400 Southern Pottery-Hahn, Meaders, Crocker. Contact: Bill Johnson, Email: bj3605@comcast.net FOR SALE: Glass and Bottles (Beer’s, American & Foreign. Medicals, Whiskey, Scent Bottles, Figurals – (Boats, Planes, House, Banks, Lamps, Buildings) Food Bottles Jars, Stoneware Pieces, Furniture. Contact: Margaret Elmer (215) 692-4781 Evenings 7PM, Address: 341 Blaker Drive, East Greenville, P 18041
Shards of Wisdom
Bottles and Extras
November - December 2021
WANTED: Pre 1900 Macon, Georgia bottles, Georgia pottery, looking for a C.A. ELLS AND SONS MACON GA also Georgia Hutch bottles. Contact: Mike Gasaway (478) 986-9222 or Email: rustygold01@ gmail.com
WANTED: Redondo Beach/Redondo California bottles. Labeled or embossed. Elk bar Redondo flask most wanted. Also tokens and souvenir china. Contact: Dave Deto at P.O. Box 118, Yosemite, CA 95389 or (209) 626-9846
WANTED: RARE OR UNUSUAL MEDICINAL TONICS. Contact Marty: (260) 3672400 or Email: roadrunner@centurylink.net
WANTED: Early Wisconsin Bottles, Earthenware P. Stoneware. Pontiled bottles from Milwaukee. Photos and other ephemera for game. Contact Henry Hecker, Email: Phantomhah@gmail.com, Telephone: (262)844-5751
WANTED: Ladies Leg Bitters. All sizes and colors. Contact: Bill Taylor - Phone: (503) 857-0292 or Email: wtaylor178@aol.com WANTED: Looking to buy or trade Southeast Alaska medicine/druggist bottles. Douglas Island, Wrangell, Petersburg, Sitka, Juneau, Ketchikan, etc. If you have anything from Southeast Alaska embossed, give me a call or text. Lindsay Wheeler. Phone: (941) 720-5713 Email: Lindsay2020@gmail.com WANTED: U.S.A. HOSP. DEPT. bottles. Longtime collector interested in all shapes, sizes, colors. Thanks! Contact Brian Schilz at (308) 289-6230 or Email: bottlenut@ charter.net WANTED: Ornate jumbo – large, no damage art deco soda pop bottles for my personal collection. Contact/Text: Elizabeth Meyer Phone: (713) 504-0628 or Email: ejmeyer2131@ gmail.com WANTED: American ACL, painted sodas. Hard to find with pictures and multi colors from small town bottlers. Collections are of interest as well. Will travel to deal. Contact by Text or Messenger: James Campiglia (805) 689-0125 or Email: chipsbottles@ bresnan.net WANTED: INSULATORS. Long time collector. Interested in mixed color. If you have any insulators that have been dug, please give me a call. Contact: James E. Meyer (386) 679-6439 or Email: jemmy194268@ gmail.com WANTED: Bottles or any items from E. Milde Bottling Works, Milde’s Soda, Milde’s Cola. Also, any bottles from Jackson, Missouri. Contact Steve Ford by text at (615) 714-6254 or e-mail at sford@garney.com WANTED: New Bottles Monthly. Contact: Carlasboy on Ebay WANTED: Green Top Kimberry, SouthAfrica, Ginger Beer Browing & Co. Contact: Dennis Fox (530)295-0124, Email: mummysisters@aol.com
WANTED: New members to join the St Louis Antique Bottle Collectors Association. We meet every 1st Tuesday at 7pm (except July), First Baptist Church of Arnold, MO Family Life Center. Basement Rm 2. Always a lively discussion. Patsy Jett Show Chair (314) 570-6917 WANTED: Jar lid for Cohansey 2-1/2-gallon R.B. #628. Contact: Ed DeHaven (609) 390-1898. Address: 23 W. Golden Oak Lane, Marmora, NJ 08223 WANTED: ARKANSAS BOTTLES: Sodas, Hutches, Mineral Waters, Whiskey Flasks, Drug Stores, Patent Medicines. ARKANSAS WHISKEY JUGS: Marked Stoneware, Shot Glasses, Cork Pulls and any Arkansas Advertising. Contact: James Larry Childers, 801 N 18th Street, Ozark, AR 72949. (479) 264-4601 or Email: jamesl.childers@yahoo. com WANTED: Clarke's Vegetable Sherry Wine Bitters, Sharon, Mass & Rockland, ME. All bottle sizes & variants. Contact: CHARLIE MARTIN (781)248-8620 or Email: cemartinjr@comcast.net WANTED: Bottles, Pottery, ephemera from Oak Park, Illinois. Email: Ray at komo8@ att.net WANTED: Kimberley Green Top Ginger Beer, Browning & Co. Contact: Dennis Fox Email: mummysisters@aol.com WANTED: Vintage Crock or Jug with name: Morton. Contact: Darlene Furda 6677 Oak Forest Drive, Oak Park, CA 91377 or Call: (818) 889-5451 WANTED: Colored Illinois and Missouri Sodas and Colored Fruit Jars. Top $$$ Paid! Contact: Steve Kehrer (618) 410-4142 or Email: kehrer00@gmail.com
67 WANTED: New Members to join the Antique Bottle Club of Northern Illinois. Meet 1st Wednesday of each month at 7:30pm, Antioch Senior Center, Antioch, Illinois WANTED: Cabin Bottles, E.G. Booz Bottles. GU11-4, All Colors, with Diagonal Base Seam. Any Ruby Red or Black, by Clevenger Taiwan Booz Bottle, Amber, GU11-16 Clevenger Commemorative 16A, 16-C, 16-E GU11-25 Clevenger Commemorative, 25-A, 25 I, Jacob’s Tonic Bitters GU11-7 any number. Contact: Steve Gray (440) 279-8381 or write to address: Steve Gray, 7533 Clay Street, Thomson, Ohio 44086 WANTED: North American Log Cabin Commemorative: GVII- 25-I-Cool X-C; GVII-25-E-AllenTown; GVII-25-FChristmas 1976; E.G. Booze Log Cabin Bottles; GVII-37; sGVII-40; GVII-9 Cobalt Blue; GVII-7-Jacob’s Cabin Tonic Bitters. Contact: STEVE GRAY (440)-279-8381 or by mail at 7533 Clay Street, Thompson, OH 44086 WANTED: Clarke's Vegetable Sherry Wine Bitters, Sharon, MA & Rockland, ME All sizes, variants, smooth/pontil base. Especially need labeled Clarke's any size. Also, any Clarke's ephemera...trade cards, Almanacs, news ads, etc. Contact: CHARLIE MARTIN (781) 248-8620 or Email: cemartinjr@comcast.net WANTED: Just love Bitters! Especially Ohio Bitters. Here are a few I am looking for. Star Anchor Bitters, Portsmouth, Ohio. Henry C. Weaver Mexican Bitters, Lancaster, Ohio. H.I. Weis Dayton, Ohio. Stewart Bros. Swamp Root Bitters, Columbus, Ohio. Greenhut’s Bitters, Cleve. Ohio, Cliff’s Aromatic Bitters, Clev. Ohio. Catawba Wine Bitters, Cleve. Ohio. American Plant Bitters, Wooster, Ohio. Hofstettler Bitters, Galion, Ohio. B&L Invigorator Bitters, Cincinnati, OH. Dear Wahre Jacob Bitters Toledo, OH. Frazier’s Root Bitters. For The Blood, Clev. Ohio. Hartley’s Peruvian Bark Bitters, Cincinnati, Ohio. Night Cap Bitters Cincinnati, Ohio. Pale Orange Bitters, Cincinnati, Ohio. Dr. M. Pinton’s Pure Stomach Bitters, Cincinnati, Ohio. Holtzernann’s Patent Stomach Bitters Piqua, O. this is an amber square. Any other Ohio Bitters you might have; also, Blue Jacket Bitters. Thank you for your consideration and Best Regards, Contact: Gary Beatty (941) 276-1546 or Email: tropicalbreezes@verizon.net
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November - December 2021
SHO-BIZ
Bottles and Extras
Calendar of Shows & Related Events
FOHBC Sho - Biz is published in the interest of the hobby. Federation affiliated clubs are connotated with FOHBC logo. Information on up-coming collecting events is welcome, but space is limited. Please send at least three months in advance, including telephone number to: FOHBC Sho-Biz, C/O Business Manager: Elizabeth Meyer, 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002; phone: (713) 504-0628; e-mail: fohbcmembers@gmail.com, Show schedules are subject to change. Please call before traveling long distances. All listings published here will also be published on the website: FOHBC.org
November 5 & 6 Jacksonville, Florida Antique Bottle Collectors of North Florida Show & Sale! Saturday 8:00 am to 2:00 pm, Fraternal Order of Police Building, 5530 Beach Boulevard, Jacksonville, Florida. Free Admission. For more information contact Mike Skie at 904.710.0422. Early Bird’s Friday. 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm $50, 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm $40, 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm $20. Also contact Cory, jaxbottleshow@yahoo.com
and show information contact: Jack Hewitt, Box 12126, Big Canoe, Jasper, Georgia 30143, 770.856.6062 or Bill Johnson, 770.823.2626, bj3605@comcast.net
Convention Center, 401 S. High St., Muncie, Indiana 47305, Contact Info: Coleen & Jerry Dixon, 765.748.3117, ckdixon7618@att.net, Show chairman: Dave Rittenhouse, 1008 S. 900 W, Farmland Indiana 47340, 765.468.8091
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November 13 Royal Oak, Michigan The Metropolitan Detroit Antique Bottle Club’s 38th Annual Antique Bottle Show & Sale, 9:30 am to 3:00 pm, Admission $2, Free Appraisals! Royal Oak Elks Lodge, 2401 E. Fourth Street, Royal Oak, Michigan, Contact: Mike Brodzik, 586.219.9980, bottlemike@outlook.com
February 13 Columbus, Ohio The Central Ohio Antique Bottle Club’s 51st Annual Show & Sale, Sunday, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm; early buyers 7 – 9:00 am, $20. Admission $3, Doubletree Inn, 175 Hutchinson Avenue, Columbus, Ohio (I-270 & Rt. 23), Contact Rojer Moody, 740.703.4913, rtmoody@juno.com, or Brad Funk, 614.264.7846, bradfunk@yahoo.com
Individual & Affiliated Membership Benefits Club Information
November 7 Topsham, Maine The Mid-Maine Antique Bottle Club Bottle Show & Sale, Topsham Fairground Exhibition Hall, Topsham, Maine, Sunday, November 7, 2021, $2 General Admission, 9:00 am, $15 Early Admission 8:00 am. Contact Paul McClure, 207.832.1503, oldbottles@outlook.com, maineantiquebottleclub.com
November 14 Pompton Lakes, New Jersey North Jersey Antique Bottle Collectors Assn. 51st Annual Antique Bottle Show & Sale, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm, Early Buyers 8:00 am ($15) at the Pompton Lakes Elks Lodge No. 1895, 1 Perrin Avenue, Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, 07442, General Admission $3, Children free, See Contract, Contact: Ed, 201.493.7172, metropetro222@gmail.com
Individual & Affiliated Shards of Wisdom November 7 Club Elton, Maryland Information The Tri-State Bottle Collectors and Diggers Club 48th Annual Show & Sale, Singerly Fire Hall, Routes 279 & 213 (I-95 exit 109A), 300 Newark Avenue, Elkton, Maryland 21922, Sunday, November 7, 2021, 9:00 am – 2:00 pm, No Early Admission, Dealers only entry at 6:30 am, Setup begins at 7:00 am, Admission: $3 per person, Children under age 12 free, Tri-State Bottle Collectors and Diggers Club, Inc, Contact: Dave Brown, Show Chair, 6 Martine Court, Newark, Delaware 19711, 302.388.9311, dbrown3942@ comcast.net
November 14 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania The Pittsburgh Antique Bottle Club’s 51st Annual Show & Sale, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm, early buyers 7:00 am, $25. Admission $3. www. PittsburghAntiqueBottleClub.org, Elizabeth VFD Event Center, 107 Market Street, Elizabeth, Pennsylvania 15037, Contact Info: Bob DeCroo, 724.326.8741 or Jay Hawkins, 724.872.6013
Shards of Wisdom
November 12 & 13 Auburn, California 49er Historic Bottle Assoc. “Best of the West” 2021 Antique Bottle, Insulator & Western Collectibles Show, Gold Country Fairgrounds & Event Center, The Placer Building, 1273 High Street, Auburn, California, Friday, 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm $15 Early Admission, Saturday, 8:00 am to 3:00 pm Free, Contact: Show Chairman Dan Bell: 530.305.8794, Max Bell, 530.823.3315 or Club President, Mike Lake, 916.496, 1817
Wanted
November 12 & 13 Jefferson, Georgia 50th Annual Southeastern Antique Bottle and Pottery Show, Sponsored by the R.M. Rose Co. & Cagle Auction Co., Saturday, November 13th, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm, Dealer Setup & Early Admission, Friday, November 12th, 3:00 – 8:00 pm and Saturday 7:00 am to 9:00 am, Jefferson Civic Center, 65 Kissam Street, Jefferson, Georgia 30549, Free Admission! Early Admission with Dealers: $10, For table reservations
December 4 Terre Haute, Indiana Wabash Valley Antique Bottle and Pottery Club Presents the 23rd Annual Bottle, Pottery, and Antiques Show and Sale. Saturday, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. Free Admission – Free Parking. Vigo County Fairgrounds, 133 Fairgrounds Drive, Terre Haute, Indiana 47802, Contact Marty Plascak, 7210 E. Gross Drive, Terre Haute, Indiana 47802, mplascak@ma.rr.com
February 18 & 19 Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas Antique Bottles & Collectibles Club presents their 56th Annual 2022 Antique Bottle & Collectibles Show & Sale at the Palace Station, 2411 W. Saraha Ave., Friday 8:00 am to 10:00 am, Early Bird admission $10, Friday 10:00 am to 5:00 pm., Regular Admission, Saturday 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. $5 admission. Contact: John Faulis at 702.242.2792 or 702.373.7175 or jjfuzzie@yahoo. com Dealers Setup: Thursday 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm April 3 Bloomington, Minnesota North Star Historical Bottle Association Presents its 50th Annual Antique Bottle, Advertising, and Stoneware Show and Sale, 9:30 am – 2:30 pm at the Knights of Columbus Event Center, 1114 American Blvd. West, Bloomington, Minnesota 55420. Info: Jeff Springer, 651.500.0949, springer_associates@yahoo.com
For Sale April 22 & 23
2022 January 9 Taunton, Massachusetts Little Rhody Bottle Club Show, Holiday Inn, Taunton, Massachusetts, Early Admission, $15, 8:00 am, General Admission $3, 9:30 am, Contact Bill or Linda Rose, sierramadre@comcast. net, 508.880.4929 January 15 Muncie, Indiana The Midwest Antique Fruit Jar and Bottle Club Fruit Jar Show!, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm, Horizon
Antioch, California The Golden Gate Historical Bottle Society’s 54th Annual Bottles, Antiques & Collectibles Show, Early Buyers: Friday 12 pm – 5 pm, $10 Admission; General Admission: Saturday 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, Free. Contra Costa Event Park (Fairgrounds), Sunset Hall, 1201 West 10th Street, Antioch, California 94509. Info: Gary and Darla Antone, 925.373.6758, packrat49er@ netscape.net July 28 – 31 Reno, Nevada FOHBC RENO 2022 National Antique Bottle Convention, Grand Sierra Resort & Casino, Information: Richard Siri (rtsiri@sbcglobal.net) or Ferdinand Meyer V (fmeyer@fmgdesign. com), Latest Information Here, FOHBC National Convention – Western Region
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Wabash Valley Antique Bottle & Pottery Club Presents (More) Sho-Biz The 23rd Annual Bottle, Pottery
and Antique Show and Sale
Saturday - Dec. 4th - 9am - 2pm Antique Bottle, Pottery and Antique Show and Sale
Coins - Advertising - Primitives - Marbles - Bottles - Flasks - Bitters - Sodas - Medicines - B - Brewiana - Pop - Fruit jar - Root Made - Whiskies - Inks - Ales - West Terre Haute - Jugs tery - Stonware - Coca Cola - Coins - Advertising - Primitives - Marbles - Bottles - Flasks - B - Sodas - Medicines - Beer - Brewiana - Pop - Fruit jar - Root MadeRoot - Whiskies - Inks - Ales Glass Co. Terre Haute - Jugs - Pottery - Stonware - Coca Cola - Coins - Advertising - Primitives - Mar - Bottles - Flasks - Bitters - Sodas - Medicines - Beer - Brewiana - Pop - Fruit jar - Root Mad Whiskies - Inks - Ales - West Terre Haute - Jugs - Pottery - Stonware - Coca Cola
Free Admission - Free Parking Vigo County Fairgrounds 133 Fairgrounds Drive Terre Haute, IN 47802 Dealer Space $15 per 8’ft table while they last
Send Check or Money Order to: Marty Plascak • 7210 E. Gross Drive, Terre Haute, IN 47802 mplascak@ma.rr.com
SET
THE
YOUR
SIGHTS
BIGGEST
FOR
LITTLE
THE
CITY
IN
BIG
ONE
THE
AT
WORLD
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Individual & Affiliated Shards of Wisdom Club Information Five Member's gained this period. The names below represent persons agreeing to be listed in the printed membership directory. Some of those listed agreed to be listed in the membership directory but not the online directory. Three new members do not want to be listed in printed or online directory
Steve Cowles 28 Orchard Lane Elmsford, NY 10523 stevecowles9@aol.com
Jeff Hargrove 2340 Buena Vista Street Ridgecrest, CA 93555 (760) 285-2104 All types of old bottles. Insulators - Fruit Jars jeffhargrove6@mchi.com
Shards of Wisdom
Richard Crete 2605 NE Ford Street McMinnville, OR 97128 (971) 241-2675 racrete@yahoo.com ACL soda bottles, embossed deco sodas, medicine bottles, whiskey bottles from Oregon.
Wanted
Lester J Rathjen 408 N 2nd St, Apt 8 Bismarck, ND 58501 (701) 301-9483
For Sale
Lee Gardner 459 Sunset Strip Sunset, LA 70584 (337) 945-3935 leegardner20@gmail.com Antique bottles and digging
Remember! You can submit show calendar information and renew membership online at FOHBC.org ALSO, DON’T FORGET TO USE YOUR MEMBERS PORTAL
Bottles and Extras
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November - December 2021
Individual & Affiliated Membership Benefits Club Information The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors cordially invites you to join a dedicated group of individuals and clubs who collect, study and display the treasured glass and ceramic gems of yesteryear.
Individual & Affiliated Shards of Wisdom Club Information
The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors (FOHBC) is a non-profit organization supporting collectors of historical bottles, flasks, jars, and related items. The goal of the FOHBC is to promote the collection, study, preservation and display of historical bottles and related artifacts and to share this information with other collectors and individuals.
Federation membership is open to any individual or club interested in the enjoyment and study of antique bottles. The Federation publication, Bottles and Extras is well known throughout the hobby world as the leading publication for those interested in bottles and “go-withs”. The magazine includes articles of historical interest, stories chronicling the hobby and the history of bottle collecting, digging stories, regional news, show reports, advertisements, show listings, and an auction directory. Bottles and Extras is truly the place to go when information is needed about this popular and growing hobby.
Shards of Wisdom
In addition to providing strength to a national/international organization devoted to the welfare of the hobby, your FOHBC Individual Membership benefits include:
Wanted
• A full year subscription to the bi-monthly (6 issues a year) 72-page publication Bottles and Extras. Various options are available including Digital Membership.
For Sale
• Free advertising of “For Sale” items in Bottles and Extras (restrictions apply ads may be up to 100 words, items must be of $25 or greater value, and free advertisements are limited to the first 100 received, based upon date mailed). One free ad of 60 words each year for use for items “Wanted”, trade offers, etc. • Follow the development of the FOHBC Virtual Museum. FOHBC members will be museum members. • The opportunity to obtain discounts to be used on “Early Admission” or table rental at the annual Federation National Shows and Conventions. • Access to the private FOHBC web site Member Portal and a wealth of historical information.
713.504.0628 fohbcmembers@gmail.com
• FOHBC digital newsletter and so much more. We encourage Affiliated Bottle Club memberships by offering these additional benefits to your group: • Display advertising in Bottles and Extras at an increased discount of 50%. • Insertion of your bottle club show ad on the Federation website to increase your show’s exposure. Links to your club website free of charge. Social Media (Facebook) exposure. • Free Federation ribbon for Most Educational display at your show. • Participation in the Federation sponsored insurance program for your club show and any other club sponsored activities. We need your support! Our continued existence is dependent upon your participation as well as expanding our membership. If you haven’t yet joined our organization, please do so and begin reaping the benefits. If you are already a member, please encourage your friends and fellow collectors to JOIN US!! For more information, questions, or to join the FOHBC, please contact: Linda Sheppard, PO Box 162, Sprakers, New York 12166; phone: 518.673.8833; email: jim1@frontiernet.net or visit our home page at FOHBC.org
Where there’s a will there’s a way to leave Donations to the FOHBC. Did you know the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors is a 501C(3) charitable organization? How does that affect you? It allows tax deductions for any and all donations to the FOHBC. You might also consider a bequest in your will to the FOHBC. This could be a certain amount of money or part or all of your bottle collection. The appraised value of your collection would be able to be deducted from your taxes. (This is not legal advice, please consult an attorney). The same type wording could be used for bequeathing your collection or part of it, however, before donating your collection (or part of it), you would need the collection appraised by a professional appraiser with knowledge of bottles and their market values. This is the amount that would be tax deductible. Thank you for considering the FOHBC in your donation plans.
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Individual & Affiliated Shards of Wisdom Club Information FOHBC Individual Membership Application For Membership, complete the following application or sign up at www.fohbc.org (Please Print) Do you wish to be listed in the printed membership directory? (name, address, phone number, email address and what you collect) { } Yes { } No
Shards of Wisdom
Name_______________________________ Address_____________________________ City________________________State____ Zip _____________Country____________ Do you wish to be listed in the Telephone___________________________ online membership directory? E-mail Address_______________________ (name, address, phone number,
Wanted
email address and what you collect) { } Yes { } No
BOTTLES and EXTRAS FREE ADS
Category: “WANTED” Maximum - 60 words Limit - One free ad per current membership year. Category: “FOR SALE” Maximum - 100 words Limit - 1 ad per issue. (Use extra paper if necessary.)
For Sale
Collecting Interests_ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Would you be interested in ___________________________________ serving as an officer? { } Yes { } No
Additional Comments___________________ Would you be interested ___________________________________ in contributing your bottle ___________________________________ knowledge by writing articles
for the BOTTLES and EXTRAS? { } Yes { } No
Membership/Subscription rates for one year (6 issues) (Circle One) (All First Class sent in a protected mailer)
United States
- Standard Mail - Standard Mail w/Associate* - Standard Mail 3 years - Standard Mail 3 years w/Associate* - Digital Membership (electronic files only)
$40.00 $45.00 $110.00 $125.00 $25.00
1st Class $55.00 1st Class w/Associate $60.00 1st Class 3 years $125.00 1st Class 3 yrs w/Assoc. $140.00
Canada - First Class $60.00 Other countries - First Class $80.00
- Life Membership: Level 1: $1,000, includes all benefits of a Standard 1st
Class membership. No promise of a printed magazine for life. - Level 2: $500, Includes all benefits of a regular membership but you will not receive a printed magazine, but rather a digital subscription. Add an Associate Membership* to any of the above at $5.00 for each associate for each year
Associate Member Name(s) __________________________________ *Associate Membership is available to members of the immediate family of any adult holding an Individual Membership. Children of ages 21 or older must have their own individual membership. Associate(s) Members enjoy all of the right and privileges of an Individual Membership
Signature ______________________________Date ______________
Please make checks or money orders payable to FOHBC and mail to: FOHBC Membership, Elizabeth Meyer, 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002
Affiliated Club Membership for only $75.00 with liability insurance for all club sponsored events, 50% discount on advertising in the BOTTLES and EXTRAS, plus much more, Contact: Business Manager: Elizabeth Meyer, 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002; phone: 713.504.0628; email: fohbcmembers@gmail.com
Clearly Print or Type Your Ad Send to: Business Manager: Elizabeth Meyer, 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002; ph: 713.504.0628; or better yet, email Elizabeth at: fohbcmembers@gmail.com
Article Submission Requirements: All BOTTLES and EXTRAS articles or material need to be submitted on CD (preferable) or an email using a compressed (zipped) file. The file must be created by Microsoft Word, Publisher or Adobe N-Design so the editor does not have to retype the work. High-resolution digital images are our preferred format. Please submit digital images on a CD according to the instructions below. We will accept e-mail submissions only if the image resolution is acceptable. The e-mail or CDs must have only ONE subject per transmission to minimize confusion. Each image must be accompanied by a caption list or other identifying information. Professional-grade equipment is a must to achieve the size and quality image we require. The highest setting on the camera should be used for maximum resolution and file size. Only high quality images will be considered. Please do not send photographic prints or scans of images—the color and quality are generally not up to par compared with digital images or slides scanned by our imaging department. We will consider exceptions for photos that can’t be easily found, such as older historical images. We rarely use slides anymore and prefer not to receive submissions of slides due to the time and liability involved in handling them.
Seeking quality consignments for our 2021-2022 auction schedule!
American Glass Gallery
TM
As a consignor, consider these benefits to help ensure your valued items reach their highest potential: w Competitive consignor rates and low buyer premiums w Broad-based and extensive advertising w Experience, knowledge, honesty and integrity w Attention to detail and customer service
Watch for these choice items and many more, in our upcoming 2021 – 2022 Auctions.
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
FOHBC C/O Elizabeth Meyer, 101 Crawford, Studio 1A, Houston, TX 77002
THE BEST EARLY GLASS & BOTTLES THE BEST EARLY GLASS & BOTTLES We welcome youryour conversation to discuss consignment We welcome conversation to discuss consignment options for your singular item, group or entire collection. options for your singular item, group or entire collection.
Please Check your information and notify us of errors.
FOHBC.org
THE BEST EARLY & BOTTLES THE BEST EARLYGLASS GLASS & BOTTLES welcomeconversation your conversation toto discuss consignment We welcomeWeyour discuss consignment options for your singular item, group or entire collection. options for your singular item, group or entire collection.
www.hecklerauction.com | 860.974.1634
www.hecklerauction.com | 860.974.1634 www.hecklerauction.com | 860.974.1634