Pond's Bitters "Makes You Go Some" by Ferdinand Meyer V

Pond’s Bitters “Make’s You Go Some” inspirational framed advertising trade card. [left to right bottle illustrations]

Pond’s Genuine Laxative Bitters illustration. Pond’s Bitters Co., Chicago. 21 percent alcohol by volume.

Lash’s Kidney & Liver Bitters illustration. Lash’s Bitters Co. San Francisco, New York & Chicago. 21 percent alcohol by volume.

Rex Kidney & Liver Bitters illustration. Rex Bitters Co., New York, Chicago & St. Louis. “As Old as the Pyramids”

Pond’s Genuine Kidney and Liver Bitters illustration. Pond’s Bitters Co., Chicago. 21 percent alcohol by volume.

Pond’s Bitters

“Makes You Go Some”

By Ferdinand Meyer V

The story here is about three related Chicago-sold bitters and their advertising. The first is Lash’s Bitters from California which inspired the copycat Rex Bitters and Pond’s Bitters, the subject of this first article. Pond’s Bitters was a direct competitor of their Windy City rival, Rex Bitters. I will follow up with Lash’s Bitters and Rex Bitters in future issues of Bottles and Extras. Many bitters collectors avoid these bitters bottles as they were common, late, and amber and not fancy like the figural or decorative squares. This is unfortunate because these bitters certainly have a story to tell and have some absolutely wonderful collateral material.

These well-known products were primarily bitters sold as a laxative and “a permanent cure for constipation” but contained quite a bit of alcohol, hence the Pond’s Bitters “Makes You Go Some,” monkey drinking on a chamber pot advertisement – one of my favorites! Doesn’t get much better than that. First of all, some may think that Pond’s Bitters Company is related to Pond’s Extract Company which started out in 1846 as a patent medicine company when Theron T. Pond [1880-1952], a pharmacist from Utica, New York, began selling “Golden Treasure,” a homeopathic remedy he developed from witch hazel. This is not the case. Most of us remember Pond’s Cold Cream. I’ve gone back in ancestry trees but cannot find a connection. There probably is somewhere down the line as both Pond progenitors came from New York.

Unrelated Pond’s Cold Cream advertisement, Ponds Extract Co., circa 1910.

Enameled sign for Pond’s Laxative Bitters “Make’s You Go Some” - Ketcham collection

Questionable children and chamber pots advertising trade card “Pond’s Bitters Make’s You Go Some.” placard nailed to the tree.

Fancy lady on the front of a Pond’s Bitters advertising trade card. Reverse below. Typically, all Pond’s trade cards had a version of the layout below with a different design arrangement and copy. Lash’s Bitters started out with John Joseph Spieker who moved to California in 1875. In 1876, at the early age of 20 or so, Spieker became a druggist in Sacramento and by 1878 he was a partner in Tufts & Spieker (A. C. Tufts and J. J. Spieker) who were druggists and apothecaries. In February 1884, John Spieker formed a new partnership with Tito M. Lash and named the company T. M. Lash & Co. to produce Lash’s Kidney & Liver Bitters.

Tito hired an accountant in 1889, who found questionable accounting problems in the company’s books. In October of that year, an injunction was granted that denied Spieker access to any accounts, money, or property, and the partnership was officially terminated. Ten days later, Spieker bought out his former partner, and also Lash’s half of the rights to produce and market the firm’s line of products.

John Spieker then established a new company called Lash’s Bitters Co. and continued to manufacture Lash’s Bitters. The company moved to San Francisco in 1893, and a year later, it was officially incorporated as Lash’s Bitters Co. The business was very successful and in 1901, the Chicago office was opened with $1,000 in capital, and in 1904, the New York City office opened.

George Morgan Pond

Pond’s Bitters is named after George Morgan Pond who was born in Tarrytown, New York on May 29, 1854. Tarrytown is a village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, about 25 miles north of midtown Manhattan in New York City. He was the son of Loyal Sylvester Pond (Vermont) and Harriet Sarah Taylor (New Hampshire). He later married Louise Fitch in 1882. Their children were Annie, Kate, George Jr., Guy, and Rainsferd Pond.

G. M. Pond grew up in New York but something made him move to the west coast, like many before him, as we see him working as a clerk in Los Angeles, California in 1879. He was 25 years old at the time. In 1880, he is listed as working as a bookkeeper in Los Angeles. He moved to Sacramento in the 1880s and eventually Santa Cruz. In the mid-1890s, Pond was living in San Francisco and was working as a manager at A. Schilling & Co. (August Schilling and George F. Volkmann) wholesale dealers in coffee, teas, spices, flavoring extracts, and baking powder at 108-112 Market Street. This was approximately one block from the Lash’s Bitters operation. It is during this period that Pond met John Spieker and Tito Lash. Whether he worked directly for them or as a business associate, I cannot determine, but he must have gained their confidence as he moved to Chicago, Illinois and opened and managed the Lash’s Bitters Co. office in 1901. The advertisement below is from the Chicago Business Directory that year.

The move for Pond to Chicago must have been sudden as the 1901 San Francisco City Directory lists George M. Pond as president of Pond & Company. They were doing foreign and domestic commissions, advertising novelties, and calendars located at 12 and 22 Market Street in rooms 32-33. The directory would’ve already gone to press. I wonder if his company was doing advertising and promotion for Lash’s and that was the connection? I doubt it was his son George Jr. as there would have been double listings in the resident section of directories from that period.

Pond’s Bitters Company

In 1909, George M. Pond left Lash’s and formed his own firm, Pond’s Bitters Company at 147 Fulton Street in Chicago. This picture card below shows Pond sitting on three boxes of his Pond’s Bitters surrounding by his office staff and sales force.

The Old Tried and True Force now the Pond’s Bitters Co. George M. Pond is seated on three crates of Pond’s Bitters. Pond would run the company with grand success until 1911 or 1912. It is then that we see John Schweger listed as president and Jacob Lamfrom as the secretary at Pond’s Bitters Company now located at 723 Fulton Street. Pond would die on May 30th, 1919, so maybe ill health or just advanced age made him leave the company.

Pond’s Bitters was now going national and in 1914, William F. O’Brien signed a contract with Pond’s Bitters Company to sell the bitters in parts of Pennsylvania and New York. The company would go on to manufacture Pond’s Cherry Whiskey (Cordial), Pond’s Kil-a-Kol, and Pond’s Vermo Stomach Bitters. The Vermo Stomach Bitters was sold from 1919 to 1924 and was pitched as a tonic and appetizer. The label was almost identical to Pond’s Laxative Bitters (left). At this time, Jacob Lamfrom was President.

Pond’s Bitters Meyer collection

Pond’s Bitters Co. would manufacture and sell Pond’s Bitters, their signature product. They also manufactured Pond’s Ginger Brandy, Pond’s Gin-Ger-Gin, and Pond’s Rock and Rye with Horehound. The bottles and packaging looked similar to Lash’s.

The Pond’s Bitters trademark was a facsimile of the Discobolus of Myron which is a Greek sculpture completed at the start of the Classical period at around 460-450 BC. The sculpture depicts a youthful male athlete about to release his throw. It’s interesting that Pond’s advertising altered the head to face forward and down. This was pre-Photoshop, cut-and-paste studio work.

[below] Pond’s Bitters trademark Discobolus

Suggestive Advertising

Just like Rex Bitters which started in Chicago in 1902, Pond’s Bitters put out a lot of advertising material and some of it was risqué and suggestive. Remember, Pond had a background in advertising and promotions in San Francisco. They would get in trouble with the same police chief and judge that hounded Rex Bitters when William E. Slaughter was president. In 1910, a summons was issued to Pond’s Bitters Company for distributing indecent advertising pictures near schoolhouses. Of course, this is how advertising works. Catch your attention and then hopefully, you will read about the product and then buy some.

Bitters Concern Faces Charges. - Chicago Tribune, November 17, 1910

Risqué Pond’s Bitters makes you go some advertising trade card. When held a certain way reveals some derrière. [right] Pond’s Bitters advertising trade card promoting and celebrating adultery. “My Wife Has Gone to the Country” Hurrah!

[right] Pond’s Bitters advertising trade card using the word “Tail” and a beautiful young lass. “Didn’t That Cat Ever Have any Tail” or did the skinny guy ever get any?

[right] “Maude with her little bear behind” Pond’s Bitters advertising trade card. A double entendre that engages the viewer to be naughty by inserting a quarter in the hole with tearing... the virgin.

Risqué Pond’s Bitters “Taking in the Sights” advertising trade card. Did the lad push her or did the dog frighten her? Why the “Keep off the Grass” sign? Suggestive Pond’s advertising trade card. I don’t even know where to begin with this one!

The Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906 did not spell good news for Pond’s Bitters Company. This act was set up for preventing the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated or misbranded or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors, and for regulating traffic therein, and for other purposes. On August 23, 1912, Congressman Joseph Swagger Sherley’s proposed amendment, the Sherley Amendment, to Section 8 of the Pure Food and Drug Act, was enacted. It prohibited “false and fraudulent labeling of a product.” Now it was not about the advertising. The future was not looking too good.

In 1916, the City of Chicago sued Pond’s Bitters Company for selling spirituous liquor without a license. Tests proved that their product was 20 percent alcohol. Obviously the ploy of selling the bitters as a medicinal product was wearing off.

City Sues ‘Pond’s Bitters.’ - Chicago Tribune, June 17, 1916

With Prohibition taking effect in January 1920, this would all come to a boiling point. In October of that year, a U.S. judge specifically targeted the heads of Rex Bitters Company and Pond’s Bitters Company. The judge went on to say, “and I want the presidents, not the office boys or any other minor officials of these two companies.” president. “I asked you if you sold any of it to saloons,” replied the judge vehemently. The conversation degraded from there and eventually, the judge ordered Lamfrom to be taken by United States Marshall’s and put behind bars.

Interestingly enough, a witness for the rival Rex Bitters Company was present and supplied information that Pond’s Bitters contained 21 percent alcohol. Hmmm…, Rex Bitters contained 22 percent alcohol.

The year 1924 would all but wrap it up for Pond’s Bitters Co.

Fulton Market

Pond’s Bitters, throughout their years in business, had many Fulton Street addresses. They hopped down Fulton Street a number of times from 1909 to 1924, eventually landing at Fulton Market on the corner of Fulton and Green Streets.

James Thompson’s original 1830 plan of Chicago was centered on Wolf Point at the fork of the Chicago River and included much of the area that is today the Fulton River District. The street grid and block layout imposed on this small area defined the pattern of Chicago’s development as the city grew. Commerce dominated the district for much of its history. Lumber and grain were shipped through the district, and Sears and Roebuck’s first mail-order warehouse was located at Fulton and DesPlaines. Randolph Street became the center of wholesale produce distribution in the late 19th Century and was the site of the famous Haymarket Square labor riots of 1886 on Des Plaines Street.

Subpoenas were issued after a jurist had examined 60 quarts of liquor that had been seized by federal agents at local Chicago saloons. According to a newspaper report, “The 60 quarts were piled high in front of the jurist when he reached over and at random picked out two bottles. The first was that of the Rex Bitters Company, labeled “22 percent alcohol.” The second was that of the Pond’s Bitters Company labeled “20 percent alcohol.” “These are rare remedies indeed to be found in saloons when Prohibition laws are in force,” said the jurist. Each of the defendants was fined $500.

In another bit of courtroom drama in 1920, Rex Bitters Company and Pond’s Bitters Company fought it out in front of the judge. A newspaper clipping was titled, ”Bitter Folks Seem to be in Bitter Tangle” where Judge Landis made attempts to discover the extent of the sale in the trade of Pond’s Bitters. He had asked for samples from three saloon raids. He called to the stand Jacob Lamfrom, now president of Pond’s Bitters Company, and asked, “How much of this stuff did you make last month?“ “Fifteen Hundred cases” Lamfrom answered, and added that all of it had been sold to wholesale druggists and grocers. “You didn’t sell any of it to saloons?“ “We do not solicit that trade.” sidestepped the

A busy Fulton Street in Chicago. Pond’s Bitters, throughout their years in business, had many Fulton Street addresses.

The End

I thought I would end this article here so we can put this one behind us and in the rear window.

Pond’s Bitters trade card full of somewhat shameful subliminal imagery.

2022

FOHBC NATIONAL ANTIQUE BOTTLE CONVENTION septemBer - octoBer 2021R E N O

SHOOTOUT

Info: FOHBC.org

This friendly competition will compare and judge three particular types of bottles from anyone who would like to enter examples that they own. The three judging events will be for the ‘best’ J. F. Cutter star shield type whiskey fifth, Bay City Soda Water Co. bottle and for the Old Sachem’s Bitters and Wigwam Tonic. The merits of each bottle will be judged by a panel of veteran collectors experienced with each type. Each bottle entered into the competition will be given a unique code that represents the owner, so the judges will not know the identity of the owner until after final judging. Limit three bottles per category per person.

RENO 2022

FEDERATION OF HISTORICAL BOTTLE COLLECTORS

RENO 2022

The Bay City Soda Water Company was formed under the laws of the State of California in December 1870, with stock amounting to $100,000. It was the first incorporated soda water company in California.

On April 27, 1872, the company trademarked its unique styled bottles to deter imitators. The bottle described in the submitted registration papers is shown here and is a copy of the actual filing. Several mold and color variants are known so it will be very interesting to see what has been found in this family of Bay City soda bottles. With that in mind, this competition will truly be based solely on the aesthetic qualities embodied in each example. Color, condition and other characteristics of the glass will be the merits that will guide the judges to their decision of a first, second and third place winner.

As is nearly always the case with antique bottles, some real surprises may emerge from the submitted entries, and this is what we are hoping to see. We urge anyone who has an example that they think is special, to share it in a grouping that may never be witnessed again.

GROUP 2: J. F. CUTTER FIFTH WHISKEY BOTTLES

Just as with the Bay City Soda, the second ‘shootout’ will be with a decidedly western bottle with a similar historical beginning. The J. F. Cutter bourbon bottles were initially documented with a protective trade mark issued by the State of California on April 15, 1870, although the registrant, John F. Cutter, was actually a resident of Louisville, Kentucky when the trade mark was registered. Cutter worked closely with his San Francisco agent, Edward Martin, in attempting to corner the Cutter brand whiskey market.

Much has been written about the brand and legal troubles that entangled it with the J. H. Cutter trade marks. It is safe to state that this whiskey was far more popular than soda water and many more examples and mold variants of the bottle were produced over the next three decades, but they all kept with the general theme of the registered trade mark. Some beautiful examples of this bottle have been found over the years and it will be exciting to see a representative grouping entered into this competition.

GROUP 3: OLD SACHEM’S BITTERS AND WIGWAM TONIC

This figural bitters barrel is a favorite among collectors. With a great name, the bottles come in a stunning array of colors. The label stated that it was “From an old Indian recipe in possession of the family of the proprietor for upwards of a century is now offered to the public as one of the most healthy and wholesale beverages extant and as a tonic is unsurpassed. Sold by principal grocers, druggists and hotels throughout the union. Endorsed by a professor at Yale College.”

George Goodwin began manufacturing patent medicines in the 1840s at 76 Union in Boston. Around 1850, he and Dr. John O. Langley of Langley’s Bitters became partners and in 1854, moved to 99 Union.

By 1857, the firm was named Geo. C. Goodwin & Co., and had taken in William B. Hibbard as a junior partner. Goodwin retired in 1859 and his son Charles C. Langley, and Hibbard ran the business. In 1863, they moved to 38 Hanover. Eventually the company became on of Boston’s largest wholesale drug firms. We will see some great examples in this category.

2022

FOHBC NATIONAL ANTIQUE BOTTLE CONVENTION