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This and the associated linked web pages are my current listings of antique or "historic" bottles, bottle books, and other collectibles for sale.

I try to be as comprehensive as possible in describing bottle condition but am not perfect (thus the money back guarantee).  Many of the "flaws" or condition issues that I point out are often overlooked by others.  I also try to take representative pictures of all the bottles listed, though some bottles can defy accurate pictorial representation.  Click on the highlighted link(s) in each listing description to see the picture(s) of the specific item for sale. 

If you would like additional digital pictures or information, please e-mail me (link below). 

If you have any concerns about the quality or reliability of my transactions, check my extensive (and perfect) eBay® buyer & (sometimes) seller feedback: eBay Feedback for jfcutter.

To help properly describe the bottles on this list or for the people who found this page and have some basic questions about antique bottles, I have another web page that is a glossary of some major antique bottle descriptive terms. It is found at the following link - Bottle Description & Condition Glossary.  It includes more links to pictures to help portray some of the bottle characteristic described.

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Important Information For Buyers 

Shipping/insurance is in addition to the listed price on all bottles, books & collectibles and will be calculated at as close as I can estimate to the actual cost via the USPS website depending on the weight of the item and your zip code.  No additional packaging or handling fees; I use recycled boxes and packing materials from past purchases.  I will ship via USPS Ground Advantage (books via Media Mail) unless a buyer wants the item(s) sent via the now more expensive Priority Mail at additional cost.

For an idea of the shipping costs, click on the following USPS link to calculate the cost from my zip code of 97624 - DOMESTIC RATE CALCULATOR.  Small bottles usually ship individually at 1 to 2 pounds packed, average sizes at 2 to sometimes 3 pounds with large, multiple and/or heavier items at sometimes 4 or rarely 5 pounds.  Bottles shipped with one or two other bottles would be more of course.  Unless very small bottles, I will generally not ship more that 2 or 3 bottles in the same package.

I will ship to the U. S. and (maybe) Canada but not to other overseas addresses any longer due to the difficulty in determining shipping costs ahead of time - even to Canada at times. 

Insurance cost will (usually) be noted in my shipping quote back to you upon inquiry though I suppose it is optional.  Insurance on items up to $100 is included in the shipping cost by the USPS if sent via Ground Advantage or Priority Mail.  Above that value would be additional. I try to pack well but one never knows how packages will be treated in transit so I usually prefer having the insurance added at bottle priced and sold above that already included as noted. 

I offer a 7 day, no questions asked, 100% (sales price; buyer pays return shipping) money back guarantee on everything I sell!  It's the only way to do "e-business."

Payment by personal check is much preferred.  If not a previous buyer personal checks may entail a 5 business day electronic clearing time.  Money orders (MO's) are accepted though they can no longer be electronically cashed.  Instead, MO's must be deposited at my credit union (Klamath Falls ~30 miles away) and I only go to town once or twice a week which may entail a shipping delay.
(Note: PayPal and other similar services are not typically accepted; I'm not even signed up for any except PayPal which is only used for payments I send.  Sorry.)

My mailing address for sending payment will be provided via email once the total price - with shipping/insurance - is determined.   

Please confirm item availability prior to sending any type payment and include your zip code in your message so that the shipping can be calculated.

I also have a books-for-sale (non-bottle books) list if you click on the following link: BOOKS FOR SALE. Though limited in scope, this list has a variety of books, with an emphasis on Western Americana books.

 



 

 

 

ANTIQUE BOTTLES FOR SALE

▪The bottle categories are listed in the menu below.
▪Click on each category link to move to that section. 
▪The first category - "Western American Bottles" - is on this webpage below.

The other categories are on separately linked pages.
Use the browser back arrow to return to this menu from any of the category pages.
 

WESTERN AMERICAN BOTTLES
BITTERS
EARLY AMERICAN BOTTLES & FLASKS
MEDICINAL "TONIC" BOTTLES
OTHER MEDICINAL BOTTLES
FOODS & CANNING JARS
SODA/MINERAL WATER & BEER
LIQUOR & MISC. BOTTLES and COLLECTIBLES
BOTTLE BOOKS

Click on the thumbnail picture, highlighted title links, or other links within each listing to see pictures of the bottles described. 

My email is -
 


Western American Bottles

Liquor/Spirits 

 

WOLTERS BROS / & CO / 115 AND 117 /FRONT ST / S. F. - According to the late John Thomas's most recent though posthumous "Whiskey Bottles of the Old West" (2002) Henry Wolters first began the wholesale liquor business in San Francisco in 1872 with a partner (Charles Fecheimer) at the corner of Third & Market Streets.  They moved to 221 California St in 1874.  In 1878 the partner sold his interest in the business to Henry's brother August in 1878 - the business name changing to Wolters Brothers.  They moved again to the address embossed on this bottle - 115 and 117 Front Street - in 1885.  The company lasted until 1896 then apparently went out of business according to Thomas with another wholesale liquor company listed as occupying that address in 1897.  Maybe the brothers were bought out?  (Note: There is an almost identical plate mold - aka "slug plate" to collectors - cylinder that has the 221 California address on it instead of that on this bottle.  It is quite a bit rarer and listed as #176 in Thomas's book.  This offered example is the last cylinder listed at #177.)

Like most - but not all - of the plethora of mouth-blown Western liquor cylinders made from the late 1860s to National Prohibition this bottle is just embossed on one side, the reverse being plain.  Click reverse view to see such which is where the long gone label would have been; what brands of whiskey they sold I have no idea.  The embossing on this example is typical - comparatively sharp and bold given the thin engraving the plate received.  Click close-up of the embossing to see such.   The base is moderately domed in the center and of the #1 type that Thomas described as that found on the majority of older Western whiskies made between 1870 and 1890.  Click view of the base to see the early type base this example has.  (It also has some interesting crudity.)  The lip has a moderate "drip" to the base of the applied then tooled "brandy style" finish.  The tallest one (top to bottom) is shown in the image to the right; click to enlarge.  There is also a horizontally wider but less tall drip on the opposite side (not pictured) just below the base ring.  The glob top, applied finish examples are the ones most desired by collectors of Western liquor bottles though these were also made with tooled finishes probably until the company bit the dust in the mid 1890s.  I don't know the ratio of glob/applied finishes (like this one) to tooled finishes but these globs are by far the most desired and probably much less common that the tooled lips.

The specifics details of this bottle are that it is a standard "fifth" in size (1/5th of a gallon), is just under 12" tall and the glass is a nice, bright medium amber in color.  Thomas notes that most of these cylinders have air venting at the shoulder though this one does not (and I've looked hard).  So this is likely an early example from the mold prior to air venting (?) probably dating from about 1885 to maybe 1887.  The bottle has moderate crudity in the form of a nice smattering of teardrop bubbles here and there and ample stretch marks to the neck.  There isn't any whittling to the glass but the crude neck has a couple very small unmelted "stones" which have no radiations whatsoever.  There are no cracks, chips, nicks, scratches, staining or other post production issues - it is essentially perfectly as it left the glass makers which was almost certainly the San Francisco & Pacific Glass Works.  This bottle was used for illustrating two differently embossed cylinder liquor bottles which were almost certainly made in the same mold - using different plates - the other being the Thos. Taylor & Co. P. Vollmer's Old Bourbon plate mold bottles.  (Both are shown at the following link on my other Historic Glass Bottle ID & Information website at the following link - https://sha.org/bottle/body.htm#Plates%20&%20Plate%20Molds )  These cylinders don't show up much any more and though not exceptionally rare they are a great addition to anyone's Western collection.  One of the few I've seen on eBay was recently and it sold for $943 and it was certainly no better than this example.  $850

 

FOSTER & McINTOSH / PENDLETON, OREGON / & / SOUTH BEND, WASHINGTON / (fancy F & Mc monogram) - Here is a small, half point (more or less) "Baltimore Oval" type liquor flask with lots of embossing in the plate panel.  This bottle is an unusual "two cities" flask since Foster & McIntosh had stores starting in South Bend and later expanding into eastern Oregon a bit later.  The late John Thomas covered this flask (which also came in a pint and quart) in both his 1998 Oregon and Washington "Whiskey Bottles and Liquor Containers" books.  He acknowledged that the history isn't totally known but the South Bend store opened in 1890 and continued until 1906.  The Pendleton store opening was less clear, but around 1900 with both stores being known to be running by 1902.  The Pendleton bit the dust in 1908.

This small flask is 6.5" tall, 1.4" deep and 2.6" wide.  It is of clear/colorless glass with a slight amethyst tint indicating the glass was decolorized with manganese dioxide.  It has an "improved tooled" brandy finish.  If unfamiliar with the improved tooled finish you can read up on it on my other educational Historic Glass Bottle ID & Information Website at the following link:  https://sha.org/bottle/finishes.htm#Molded%20&%20Tooled%20finish   The base has an indented rectangular panel with the number 594 embossed in the center which is a mold or model number used by some yet unknown bottle maker, though likely in California.  Click base view to see such.  The bottle is just about pristine in condition with only a microscopic rough spot on the edge of the lip which appears to be in-making.  A few bubbles in the glass also are present.  Nice flask Western flask for either Oregon or Washington collectors!  $60

 

SIMMOND'S / NABOB / TRADE (Sultan with hookah and attendant) MARK / PURE / KY BOURBON / WHISKEY - All this embossed on this well known but quite scarce, full faced, Western "picture" whiskey cylinder fifth.  This example is listed in the late John Thomas's most recent book (2002) as #142A and is the earliest of this short series of cylinders dating from the late 1870s to early 1880s.  Apparently this whiskey was advertised in 1882 as being  "Strongly recommended by the medical faculty (what "faculty" isn't noted!) for all cases of nervousness, dyspepsia, chills, etc..."  Like many high alcohol products of that era, it was purported to have high medicinal value.  (Reminds me that my dad always noted that his stops at the state liquor store in Oregon were needed to get his "medicine"!) 

Thomas also notes that many of these were found in Nevada in the usual mining camp areas like Hamilton, Eureka, and Virginia City as well as the Sierra Nevada and some other mining areas in California.  Although a San Francisco bottled product (George Simmond's & Co. in business from 1877 to 1888 according to Thomas) these were one of the earlier German made "Western" cylinders dating from the noted range above. 

As with most all of these type amber to red-amber German made Western-used whiskey cylinders this example has a nice and sloppy applied top (click applied top to view such), heavily whittled throughout the body, a high slightly pointed/domed base, and a color that is a medium orange to somewhat reddish amber getting redder towards the base as the images show.  This is a beautiful window bottle with that color and crudity!  Condition is very good to excellent (aka close to mint) with some very minor light wear/scuffing in a few places (largely on the back) but no chips, cracks or other post-manufacturing damage.  Thomas's book lists the mid-range value of these at a seemingly high $2500; this very nice example is offered for significantly less.  $850

 

SPRING VALLEY / WINE CO. /"THE BIG STORE" /2ND & YAMHILL / PORTLAND, ORE.  - This is all embossed within a plate - called a slug plate by collectors - as evidenced by the relative distinct and slightly indented to elevated plate edge circle around the embossing; it is not an embossed circle.  The lower body also reads FULL PINT with serifs on the lower body.  These early 20th century style flasks - this being a "Eagle" style (see my educational website discussion on this style at http://www.sha.org/bottle/liquor.htm#Eagle%20Flasks ) are often quite rare, or at least as rare as their coffin, shoo-fly and picnic flasks cousins, but don't get quite the collecting interest as those slightly older (though often contemporary) brethren.  These are still very interesting pre-Prohibition liquor flasks which are often quite hard to find as they were usually made for a relatively limited time. 

According to the late John Thomas's excellent 1998 book Whisky Bottles and Liquor Containers from the State of Oregon "Starting sometime during the year 1909 the Spring Valley Wine Company opened its doors at 242 and 244 Yamhill in Portland.  The Shapiro brothers George and Joseph opened it.  It was a wholesale operation only.  The company lasted until closed by Prohibition in 1915."  So these date sometime between 1909 and 1915.  Oregon's statewide Prohibition began on January 1st, 1916 preceding full National Prohibition by 4 years (lucky state...ha).  Although Thomas noted it was a "wholesale operation only" the fact that they bottled some of their products in these flasks - which come in pint and half pint sizes - indicates that they at least sold some in smaller quantities...or these flasks were give away items for holidays, special customers, or ???  Interestingly, the flasks were blown in the "Dandy Style" as well as this "Eagle" style; the Dandy being quite similar but without the ring on the neck.  (See the following section of my educational website on "Dandy" style:  http://www.sha.org/bottle/liquor.htm#Dandy%20Flasks ) Both sizes in the Eagle and Dandy style seem to be equally rare; they are all seldom seen flasks.  This is a duplicate pint for me with the one I've had for years being blown in a slightly fatter and shorter Eagle flask mold (and the FULL PINT is non-serif lettering & it has double rings at the base of the neck) but with the same plate obvious upon close inspection.

This particular flask, as noted, is the pint size with the "serif" lettering for FULL PINT.  It is 9.3" tall, made in a now slightly pink (amethyst) glass, and has a tooled "brandy" style lip or finish.  This particular mold also has a bunch of faint (but visible in the images) "peen" or "rivet head" markings on the body above the plate (7 circular marks) and on the back upper body (3 marks).  Why?  No idea except something to do with the formation or alteration of the mold and an interesting crudeness at a time (late mouth-blown era) when crudeness was less common although this flask also has an assortment of bubbles in the glass.  It is in very good condition with one tiny pin prick mark on the lip edge, a small impact mark on the back base (about pin head sized), a few external abrasions and some very light, scattered content haze here and there.  Overall a very nice and hard to find pre-Prohibition flask.  $75

 

CROWN DISTILLERIES / (crown above double shield with CDCo monogram inside) / COMPANY - That is all embossed within an oval on the body of this fifth sized liquor bottle from San Francisco.  It has inside threads and includes an original hard rubber stopper with essentially the same "embossing" on it.  Click HERE to see a close-up of the stopper which is in pretty good condition with a little bit chipped off one side.

These bottles like the Van Schuyver listed above likely contained a popular spirits product - Cyrus Noble Whiskey - and span a pretty wide time frame from at least the 1880s to National Prohibition at the end of 1919.  This  company was connected with the Lilienthal (San Francisco) and W. J. Van Schuyver (Portland, OR.) companies as briefly discussed above in regards to sharing the same stoppers in their inside threaded bottles.  Most of the bottles used by the three companies had essentially the same monogram of the crown over a shield with the initials inside the shield varying with the company.  This particular example likely dates from the 1900 to 1910 era.

As to the details of this bottle it is the same height and general conformation as the Van Schuyver above measuring about 11.25" tall without the stopper.  The color is a bright medium amber, has some scattered bubbles in the glass and a tooled inside threaded finish with the noted stopper.  Condition is essentially mint with no cracks, chips, dings or significant staining...maybe just a bit of dirt on the inside and a few minor and non-distracting scuff marks.  This example was found out in the woods of the Cascades near Klamath Falls many years ago and given to me since the person was not a collector.  Time to pass it on as I've too many bottles.  $30

 

W. J. VAN SCHUYVER / & Co (crown & double shield with V monogram) INC / PORTLAND, OR - That embossing is inside an embossed square and is probably the 6th oldest mold used by the company which used a total of 9 different mold varieties.  This example is what I call mold 6a as there are bottles made from the same front and back mold halves, but a different base plate; or the original base plate with the letters P.C.G.W. engraved part way through the molds life.  This indicates that the both variants were manufactured by the Pacific Coast Glass Works in San Francisco.  The examples with the base embossing I call mold 6b.  Like most of the Van Schuyver cylinder molds this is not a true plate mold but instead an embossed square. 

These bottles contained a pretty popular product - Cyrus Noble Whiskey - and span a pretty wide time frame from at least the late 1880s to Oregon's "early" statewide Prohibition at the end of 1915.  This Portland based company was connected with the Lilienthal & Crown Distillery Companies (San Francisco) since the Van Schuyver bottles with inside threads come with hard rubber stoppers that are embossed either with LILIENTHAL & CO (and their "L in a shield below a crown" monogram which this example has), or with (as this one is; click HERE to see the cap close-up) CROWN DISTILLERIES COMPANY (and the "CDCo. in a shield below a crown" monogram) or just a six pointed star with no name. 

In retirement I've been accumulating and studying the different molds used for this company's cylinder fifths.  I believe I have all of the variations of the molds dating from the late 1880s until statewide Prohibition began in 1915 - 5 years earlier than National Prohibition.   There are also variations within some of the mold types which are found with both cork and inside thread finishes or lips; others have just corks or just inside threads, but not both.  Also the earliest, true "slug" plate example comes in both closure types with both tooled and true applied lips.  Four slightly different conformations from just one mold!  The company was incorporated in 1901 so all those with INC embossed date after that time, though the last mold variant without INC embossed may have been still in use in 1902 or 1903 depending on how quick the company went through their bottles.  This example dates from around 1905 give or take a few years as the PCGW company didn't use that name until 1903.

In any event, this example has a height (without stopper) of 11.25" and the color is a rich, bright medium amber; the images show the color well to my eye.  It has a tooled inside threaded lip/finish typical of the era it was made.  There surface is glossy with no straining glass inside or out and very little scuffing. The only issues are a bit of roughness to the rim of the bottle under the cap; click close-up of the rim to see such without the cap on.  Some or all of it may be in making or not; it isn't too distracting and totally invisible with the cap on. There is also a "peck" mark at the front base edge that is a bit bigger than a pin head.  All in all this is a pretty good example of a Northwest favorite - yesterday (full) and today (empty).  $30

 

STAR (asterisk?) BASE EMBOSSED, 4-PIECE MOLD, APPLIED LIP, WESTERN MADE CYLINDER SIXTH - Offered here is a relatively rare, Western blown cylinder sixth (6 to the gallon) that was found on private land near Klamath Falls, OR. a few decades ago.  Specifically, it was found on the Running Y Ranch back when it was an actual ranch owned by the Disney Corporation (it is now an upscale resort, vacation and housing area) by a timber "cruiser" cruising (marking trees for selective cutting) for a future timber sale.  Not being a bottle collector the owner gave it to me years ago and I used it as an example to illustrate the category of tall cylinder liquor bottles which were used widely by Western American liquor companies though the style was  also used throughout the US.  (See the write-up on it at the following link: https://sha.org/bottle/liquor.htm#Tall%20slender%20bodied%20straight%20neck%20spirits%20cylinders )

These bottles with the star or asterisk on the base are firmly attributed to the San Francisco and Pacific Glass Works (SF&PGW) or if they predate about 1876 (not likely in my opinion) to either of those companies prior to their merging in that year.  There are various body embossed liquor and some food bottles that have similar markings on the base which were virtually certain to have been made in the Bay Area, although the markings can vary.  For example the "curved R" examples of the Fleckenstein & Mayer  (a Portland, OR. liquor Co.) cylinder fifth and pint "knife edge" flask both have similar markings except it is a 4 pointed (instead of 8 pointed) version more like a + with pointed ends like this bottles marking.  In any event these are Western made and used bottles.

This example is a bit over 11.5" tall, 2.75" in  body diameter (fifths are more like 3"), has a crudely applied "brandy" finish with some slop below, and was blown in a four piece mold.  Click close-up of the shoulder to see the mold lines in that area reflecting its four piece mold production.  Click close-up of the shoulder, neck and finish/lip to view such.  The glass color is wonderful in that it is a light to moderate density yellow amber with a bit of a green tint thrown in for fun.  I've heard this called "old amber" though that isn't very informative.  The images show the color pretty well.  Following is also a link to the same bottle in a window with a couple of related "fifth" cylinders on each side which were likely blown at the same SF&PGW - window image.  (That linked image shows the bottle as more yellow with little green, though to my eye the images to the right here show the green hue more accurately.  The fifth on the left is a standard medium amber; to the right a more medium chocolate amber.)

Condition is just about perfect with no chips, cracks, dings, potstone bruises or other like issues.  It has no staining as it was found on top of the ground in some ponderosa pine duff. It does have a very faint, very narrow meandering scuff line on one side which may have just been from when it was made or possibly when filled and/or shipped?  It is barely visible and non-distracting and takes nothing away from the visual condition.  Some scattered bubbles, stretch marks in the neck and wavy - whittled in places - glass round out a very nice, Western made spirits bottle.  I've seen a couple of examples from the apparent same 4-piece mold sell (eBay) for $250 or more the past couple years including an essentially identical star/asterisk base (my offering has a much bolder star; see image to right), 4-piece mold example that sold for $485 in September 2023!  It did have a bit more crudeness and a bit sloppier top but was otherwise identical to this example in size and glass color.  This is also one of the oldest bottles (ca. 1880 give or take a few years) I know of found in Klamath County.  (More of less contemporary with this bottle would be a Fleckenstein & Mayer cylinder reportedly (by John Thomas) found 40-50 years ago near Fort Klamath.  I have an example of that rare bottle which also has a similar but not identical marking (as noted earlier) on the base and was certainly made by the SF&PGW also.  I'm sure there were a few older bottles found in the Klamath Basin long ago as Klamath Falls was founded in 1867 as Linkville.)  Great example with great provenience.  $175 

 

JOHN KREMER / WALLA WALLA / WASH. - This is - as best I can determine - an unlisted Washington "saloon" flask from the "town so nice they named it twice" - Walla Walla, Washington.  John Thomas noted in his book "Whiskey Bottles and Liquor Containers From The State of Washington" (Thomas 1998) that "Even though I had reports that John Kremer was in Walla Walla in 1883 having the Schwartz Saloon up to 1905, my research shows him first listed in 1905 in business with a Mr. Hansen in 1905." He goes on with "By 1907 he was in business by himself. Research by Francis Christiano of Walla Walla shows him having the Schwartz Saloon up to Prohibition in 1915." 

Thomas also noted that "Bethman and Larson working on their flask book for the state of Washington turned up another Kremer flask showing him also in business with a fellow named Knox during 1907 and 1908." (Note: I wonder if that book was ever published as I've never heard of it and I have almost every bottle book published.)  That flask is embossed with KREMER & KNOX / BANK EXCHANGE /WALLA WALLA, WASH. and is a "clear glass half pint oval type flask that is similar to what Putnam in "Bottle Identification" calls a basket swirl type...(with)...a brandy type finish."  Putnam's (1965) book is simply a reprint of the Illinois Glass Company's (IGCo.) 1911 catalog and it simply calls the style a "basket flask" which was available at that time as a 6 oz. "half-pint" and 12 oz. "pint" (so called 'scant sizes').

Thomas further notes that "The only bottle known for John Kremer by himself is a clear glass, pint Washington flask."  This flask, however, is the "half pint" sized (actually a scant 6 oz. at most) "Olympia" style flask and not as described in his book.  Maybe the pint is a "Washington flask" but I suspect Thomas was misinformed?  The Olympia flask was a patented (August 9th, 1898) by the IGCo. - a fact which is also embossed on the base of this flask (click base image to the right to see a larger version).  See the following link to the page (left page) in the 1906 IGCo. showing an illustration of the flask an array of sizes including a 6 oz. "half pint" like this flask.  https://sha.org/bottle/Typing/IGCo1906/IGCo1906page172.jpg  That page also notes that at least 5 sizes - including the 6 oz. - were available as "plate moulds"...just like this flask.  The flask is shown in the 1903, 1906, 1908 and 1911 IGCo. catalogs which fits with Thomas's history based dating of Kremer in the saloon business from 1905 to 1915 (Prohibition in Washington).

So is the bottle unique?  I don't know, but it is the first one I've ever seen.  The bottle is 7" tall, colorless/clear glass, and has a unique tooled finish that I've is only seen on some very late 19th into the very early 20th centuries. flasks though a finish that is common on this style flask though the IGCo illustration makes it look more like a "champagne" style banded finish.  I know of no particular name attached to this finish.  The reverse side of the flask is not embossed - click reverse view to see such.  The bottle is in quite good shape with a patch of light white-ish water staining in the inside front below and to the left of the circular plate outline which shows in the image to the left (click to enlarge).  Other than that inside staining the glass is sparkling and clean.  The one post production flaw is there is a shallow flake/rough spot about 8 mm wide and 3-4 mm tall on the back side of the lip/finish that is hard to photograph.  Click view of the lip flake to see the shallow chipped area circled.  For another view click another view of the chip which shows the location on the backside of the lip.  Probably a key flask to have for a Washington liquor bottle collector...so priced to reflect the rarity with a discount for the lip flake.  $150

 

WARRANTED HALF PINT / FULL & HONEST MEASURE / ABSOLUTELY PURE / PURCHASED IN BOND / BOTTLED BY / FRANK WALKER / BUTTE, MONT. -  That is all embossed on 7 lines (likely a record for this size of bottle!) within a plate (plate mold bottle) on this 8 oz. druggist style bottle that was used for whiskey!  I procured this bottle to illustrate the cross-over of bottle types that is often seen in mouth blown bottles for my SHA/BLM Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website (aka Historic Bottle Website or HBW).  This is a great example of one type of bottle (druggist) being used for a quite different product (liquor), i.e., a de facto liquor "flask" in the shape of a typical rectangular druggist style bottle.  Here is the write-up that I did for the HBW about this bottle and some of the interesting history behind it which includes just being from Butte, Montana during the hey day of the copper mining:

As with most types of bottles it was ultimately up to the purchaser/user of the bottle to determine what they wanted to put in the bottle.  In the case of the bottle to the right (click to enlarge) what was placed in the bottle was various Amercian whiskies including Old Crow, Black Thorn, Kentucky Turf, Woodland and others.  Like the Wm. D. Barry bottle above this rectangular bottle was used for liquor though is essentially a classic druggist bottle shape.  In addition this "whiskey" bottle is boldly embossed as follows:  WARRANTED HALF PINT / FULL & HONEST MEASURE / ABSOLUTELY PURE / PURCHASED IN BOND /BOTTLED BY / FRANK WALKER / BUTTE, MONT.  The bottle is about 7" tall, has a tooled "prescription" finish, mouth blown and embossed via a plate inserted into an accommodating plate mold and is rectangular with slightly rounded outward narrow sides.  Click base view to view a cross-section of the bottles shape. 

Some internet searching by a member of the Bottle Research Group (thanks Bob!) found that Frank Walker arrived in the Montana Territory in 1887 according to "A History Of Montana" (Sanders 1913).  He did various jobs (miner, retail liquor business, mining property developer, saloon bartender) but by 1901 was a retail liquor dealer at 12 Park St. in Butte, MT. doing $100,000 in business by 1913 and probably until 1920 when National Prohibition likely killed the business. Mr. Walker early on advertised in The Butte Miner that "The family trade will be solicited" by the wholesale business ( connected to his saloon!), "That the finest liquors for medicinal use will be kept in stock" and "Goods will be sold in quantities of full gallons, quarts, pints and half pints (emphasis mine)" (The Butte Miner Dec. 10, 1901).  The pictured bottle is one of several very similar variations of half pint "druggist" style bottles he used during those years.

As the base view linked earlier shows, this bottle is also embossed on the base in script lettering with ENGLISH which is almost certainly a glass maker proprietary name for that style druggist bottle.  Several very similar to almost identical Frank Walker embossed half pint liquor bottles have the Western Bottle Manufacturing Co. (W.M.B.Co.) makers marking on the base (although no ENGLISH embossed) so it is quite possible that this bottle was also made by that Chicago based company.  Another identically embossed Frank Walker bottle of the same 8 oz. capacity actually has druggist type graduation markings down both sides of the embossing (also a plate mold) as well as the stylized "3" at the top of the shoulder which is typical of early 20th century druggist/prescription bottles.  (Note: The same plate was used to produce at least one of the non-base embossed examples I've seen online.) Click Frank Walker bottle variation to view an image of a graduation markings version.  Graduation markings are discussed in the section of the Medicinal bottles page at the following link:  https://sha.org/bottle/medicinal.htm#Druggist%20Bottle%20Dating%20Summary/Notes 

Interesting, eh?!  Like an assortment of "Family Liquor Store" bottles from the same early 20th century era in Portland, OR. and elsewhere, this weak appeal about the family nature of liquor stores was a last stand reaction to the Temperance movement which consummated with the passage of National Prohibition.  That constitutional amendment took affect in early 1920 even though many states had already gone "dry" prior to that (Oregon & Washington in 1915).  This interesting bottle is as described in the excerpt above and in absolute perfect "mint" shape with sparkling clean glass and no chips, cracks, cracks or any post-production damage...looks like it did the day it was blown, i.e., first decade or so of the 20th century.  Click upper body, neck and finish to see such which shows the sparkling nature of this bottle.  It also has the tiniest tint of pink to the glass indicating that it was decolorized with manganese dioxide to achieve the essentially colorless glass.  Nice bottle from Butte, Montana and apparently fairly rare, especially in this pristine condition!  $95

 

J. F. CUTTER / EXTRA /TRADE (star in a shield) MARK / OLD BOURBON - Western bottle collectors are well aware of this particular bottle which is one of the more commonly encountered full face embossed Western, glob top, cylinder 5ths.  The "book" on this genre of Western liquor bottles is the late John Thomas's "Whiskey Bottles of the Old West" which had several editions beginning in 1969 up to the final updated hardbound version published in 2002 by his fellow collector friends (Bill Ham, Richard Siri and the late Ken Schwartz).  This particular bottle is one of many in the universe of "Cutter Whiskey" bottles - cylinders and flasks - cherished by collectors.  It is listed as #46 in the aforementioned book. 

The book notes that there were 4 different molds used for the product during the applied finishing/lip era for the brand beginning in about 1870 until 1885.  (Note: There were also an assortment of later, tool top cylinder fifths made after that time frame up until National Prohibition in 1920 which also used the star in a shield motif.)  This example is listed as variation #2 dating from 1870 to 1875.  It is differentiated from the other variations (#1, #3 & #4) as it has a distinctive flat top to the 3 "A"s in the embossing (EXTRA, TRADE & MARK) whereas the three others have more pointed "A"s along with other differentiating features.  (That included #4 having the famous Western curved "R"s and #1 having a larger straight sided applied finish.) This mold variation as well as #3 & #4 have the somewhat more tapered applied "brandy" style finish which is evident in the images.  This #2 variant also has very bold embossing - something also evident in the images to the left.

The bottle is 11.75" tall - a fifth size - and has a somewhat neatly applied finish with just a bit of slop over from applying the glass for the finishing.  Click view of the neck and finish to see the minor amount of slop over...though it is there.  The base is somewhat domed as most early (1870s) Western made cylinder liquor bottle have and it is pretty certain these bottles were made at either the Pacific Glass Works or the San Francisco Glass Works (or after their 1875 merger the San Francisco & Pacific Glass Works).  Click view of the base to see such as well as to view how boldly the embossing is.  The glass is a medium amber glass with a bit of "brightness" to the color...maybe "old amber" is applicable to this color.  See the images.

The bottle is in excellent condition with just a few very faint, almost invisible, wisps of staining on the outside and even less inside.  There are no chips, cracks, potstone bruises or the like and little scratching though I'm sure this was dug somewhere in the West.  There are lots of little bubbles scattered around throughout the body with a concentration in the neck along with stretch marks there.  The only issue is that there is a dip in the rim of the lip that may have been a small buffed out flake - I'm not sure.  It was sold to me being mint condition with no repairs but it is suspicious though not too distracting.  Click on the following two images to see what I am describing - rim view #1, rim view #2.   It is also visible in the "view of the neck and finish" link above.  I want to believe that it was in making (under fill of the applied finishing glass) but I just don't know.  In any event I'm pricing it as though it was buffed as it still is a very nice, typical example of a Western cylinder classic!  $235 

 

L. EPPINGER / PORTLAND. large ("pint") size coffin/shoo-fly flask - This is a nice example of a rarely offered saloon liquor flask from Portland Oregon.  It is also quite a bit rarer than the "half pint" version which are also pretty hard to find.  These are related to The Bureau saloon flasks also from Portland.  John Thomas did a pretty comprehensive history of Louis Eppinger in his 1998 "Whiskey Bottles and Liquor Containers from the State of Oregon" book which along with Thomas's Washington State equivalent book, are the bible(s) for the collectors of Northwest liquor bottles.  Following are links to images of John's historical write-up of Louis Eppinger and The Bureau saloon in the noted book: Eppinger write-up first part, Eppinger write-up second part

Thomas noted that at the time of researching/writing the Northwest books, there were two known pints and maybe 10 or so half pints.  He also notes that they were likely the earliest of the flasks used by Louis Eppinger in his relatively short  stint as owner of several bars during the 1877 to 1884 era.  The known examples information was actually provided by me to John since I knew of most of the finds of these flasks when living near Portland in the late 1960s to mid-1970s; when John was beginning his research of  NW liquor companies, their bottles and period of business.  Well, up to the early adoption of alcohol Prohibition by Oregon in 1915.

This offered example is the 7.5" tall "pint" though practically speaking, it held more like 12 oz. or so.  It is what was called a "scant" size by period bottle makers.  It is of the style called a "coffin flask" due to the more or less flat beveled narrow sides as versions the "shoo-fly" flask which are quite similar but the side panels are more distinctly rounded.  Click base view to see that the two side panels on each side of this flask is not quite perfectly flat but darn close.  (I cover the coffin/shoo-fly flasks on my educational Historic Glass Bottle ID & Information Website at the following link:  https://sha.org/bottle/liquor.htm#Shoo-fly%20&%20Coffin%20flasks )  Shoo-fly was the name used by bottle makers at the time in their catalogs with "coffin flask" being more of a modern collector term...I think.  See the following link to a page from the 1906 Illinois Glass Company bottle catalog that I have posted on my other website:  https://sha.org/bottle/Typing/IGCo1906/IGCo1906page174.jpg

This example is in very good condition with some very limited and light scuffing in a few places on the outside and a very faint but even haze on the inside.  These flasks, like most colorless liquor flasks of the era, tend to water stain quite a bit.  It does have a small (5-6mm), very narrow cooling check or "flash" in the glass on the front below the embossing which is very hard to see (and not noted by the seller I got it from). Otherwise it has no chips or other post production issues.  It has a tooled "brandy" style lip ("finish" in glass maker terminology) and a faint amethyst tint to the glass; evidence that the glass was decolorized with manganese dioxide.  It does have two tiny air venting bumps opposite sides of the plain back panel edge which is as early as bottles come with such...and probably dates it to the early 1880s.  Overall this is as better than average example as are the other examples (pint and half pint) I've had for decades having dug them in Portland back in the late 1960s.  Priced right considering the small in-making flaw but at about what I paid for it.  $95

 

 

Bitters & Medicinal
 

WORMSER BROS' / (indented "bung hole") / SAN FRANCISCO - Here is example of one of the classic Western (made) bottles - the famous Wormser barrel!  This is the only true Western barrel bitters (or maybe used for liquor also?) bottle (the Turner Brothers barrels are really Eastern items). 

These used to be virtually unobtainable and rarely seen, though due to a couple small caches of them being found some years back (Nevada & Oregon reportedly) there are a few around now...including this excellent example.  (If you are looking for one of these you likely know the stories better than I.) These bottles date from only 1869 according to Wichmann's great "Antique Western Bitters Bottles" book (and the Wilson's 1969 classic) who listed them as valued at "$3000 to $7000" in the various shades of amber (the unique light citron green example was unknown at that time). 

Since there were a few more of them around, economics dictated a falling of prices - which happened for a time.  Examples are more rarely seen at auctions today.  A similar colored example - though not as brilliant as my offering here - sold a few years back on eBay for over $2600! Another similar one at American Bottle Auctions (ABA) went for $2500+ with commission though the supply is still dwarfed by the demand and prices have been ticking up again.  I recently acquired one that I know came from a particular Nevada mining camp, so I'm selling this example even though it is superior in condition and color.  (This offering is actually an ex-ABA auction item from years ago.)

This offered example is 9.5" tall, has an applied, one-part "oil" type lip or finish, smooth shallowly domed base, and is in a very nice yellow color with an amber tone.  Call it light yellow amber if you will; a tad lighter than the average example but not quite as light as the lighter example pictured in Wichmann's book.  The images show the color accurately to my eye.  This example is perfectly mint with no chips, cracks, pings, dings or flea-bites.  It has been professionally cleaned I believe (like most of them) but without any diminishment of the glass surface or beauty; it looks like it was never buried.  It has some bubbles in the glass and a vague touch of whittle making it a beautiful example of a classic bottle that every Western bottle collector should have.  $2100  SOLD

 

CELRO-KOLA - CELRO-KOLA CO. / PORTLAND, ORE. - CELRO-KOLA - Here is a VERY rare Oregon bitters type bottle.  In fact, this is the only one I've ever seen or heard of though I've seen an assortment of the later Celro-Kola bottles which are machine-made without the sunken panels.  This example is embossed on two indented sides with CELRO-KOLA in script and on the in-between side with CELRO-KOLA CO. / PORTLAND, ORE.  The fourth unembossed label panel is not indented.

This hand-blown (not machine-made) bottle dates from the very early 1900s as it has a tooled "brandy" style finish or lip and a smooth base (indented square).  It is near mint with just a bit of scuffing or light scratching on the label panel.  The color is a bright light to medium amber which is accurately shown in the images (click any to enlarge).  An interesting aspect is the neck which tapers from larger to smaller going up to the lower ring at the base of the lip or finish.  The only square "bitters" type bottles I've seen with this feature is one variation of the California Fig Bitters, which also date from the same early 1900s era.  I've had this bottle for decades, though I don't remember where I acquired it.  In any event, a great Oregon rarity!  $250  SOLD

 

DR HENRY.S / WORLD'S TONIC - & / BLOOD PURFIFYER. - This is a very nice example of what is reported to be a Western blown tonic bottle and possibly related to the California Dr. Henry's products (e.g., Dr. Henry's Sarsaparilla).  It has the deep blue aqua color typical of the 1870s and 1880s products blown at the SF&PGW (or predecessors) and have been reported to be found in the West, though some seem to come from back east also. 

The shape, size and embossing pattern was probably chosen to emulate the way more popular "Dr. McClean's Strengthening Cordial & Blood Purifier" though the mold engraver (or Dr. Henry?) had a problem correctly spelling purifier choosing to spell it "Purifyer" to the delight of modern bottle collectors.  Unlike the McLean's product, this bottle has the noted embossing spread over both sides of the body...once again to the delight of collectors. 

In any event, this example is 9.2" tall, "flask" shaped body (over 4" wide and 2" thick), blown in a post-base mold, lacking evidence of body air venting although boldly embossed, and a crudely applied double ring lip or finish with an appearance and manufacturing signature dating it to the 1870s.  The glass is, as noted, a rich blue aqua with a nice assortment of bubbles in the glass and a bit of other crudeness to the body.  Condition is near mint with no issues besides one surface open bubble at the heel that has no depth at all; it appears to have been professionally cleaned to my eye.  Great example of a very rare tonic bottle that I've seen a couple examples sell for around $500 in recent years.  This example is well priced at... $195

 

DR. HENLEY'S / WILD GRAPE ROOT / IXL (in an oval) / BITTERS - These large (at least a quart in capacity) Western bitters bottles are quite popular with collectors since they are...large...have great embossing and found in a myriad of colors, though any color besides shades of aqua are very expensive.  A very popular product, these bottles are found all over the West from the mining camps of Utah, Nevada, and Montana to the big cities of the day - San Francisco, Portland, Sacramento.  In my experience visiting scores of the mining camps and ghost towns of the West, it is the rare location where one does NOT find fragments of an IXL - it was that popular. 

This example is just over 12" tall, a relatively rich "San Francisco & Pacific Glass Works" blue-aqua color (where it was made), the usual domed base, and an appropriately crude applied "champagne" style banded finish (click neck and lip image to see such).  This example probably dates from the late 1870s to early 1880s since it fairly crude (stretch marks, bubbles), not air vented, and from a mold that lacks the distinctive curved "R" of the earlier mold(s).  FYI...here is a copy of the original labeling that these bottles had:  Henley's IXL Bitters label

This offering is in very good condition with no chips, cracks, dings or repairs - only some light scattered haze inside and some minor scratching, scuffing/wear mostly on the back of the bottle.  It has lots of small seed bubble throughout as well as some decent whittle.  A nice example with a nice deep aqua coloration.  $225

 

WAIT'S WILD CHERRY TONIC - THE GREAT TONIC - There aren't a whole lot of  mouth-blown (not machine-made) medicinal tonic bottles that are embossed and from the West, but this is one of them.   The company also made Wait's Kidney and Liver Bitters among other products including this Wild Cherry Tonic. According to Ring & Ham's book on bitters, the product was made by the George Z. Wait Co. who were "Wholesale Manufacturing Pharmacists" located at 531 J. Street, Sacramento, CA."  I don't know if the Bitters or the Tonic was the biggest seller, though both seem to be scarce but "around" out West here at bottle shows which is likely where I got this fine example. 

The Bitters was also bottled in an identically shaped, medium amber colored bottle both of which were likely made in the late 1890s to at least the mid to possibly late 1910s.  They - the Tonic and the Bitters - were both almost certainly made by the Pacific Coast Glass Works as the noted Wait's K&L Bitters has the base makers marking of PCGW who used that marking from 1903 to about 1920.   Richard Fikes' "The Bottle Book" (1987) also notes and has images (third page of color plates) of the Bitters, brief information on the Bitters and Tonic as well as an image of another product bottled in the Bitters bottle that is labeled as containing "Wait's Horehound, Irish Moss, Honey & Balsam Tolu"...and was good for coughs, colds, etc.  Likely fairly high in alcohol I suspect.  Fike dated all the Wait's bottles to 1906 (because of the Pure Food & Drug Act became law?) to 1920 (National Prohibition?) indicating the product was high alcohol and largely ineffective for medicinal purposes?  Hard to say...

This bottle stands 8.75" tall, has a tooled "oil" style finish or lip, blown in a cup base mold and has a mold or catalog number of 147 / G embossed on the base.  Click base view to see such.  Interestingly the base has a moderately sharp 146 / G embossed with a "ghosted" version of the 14 part of it to the right of the more distinct embossing resulting in a partial "double stamp" of the base embossing.  This is a function of the blower ("gaffer" in glass maker parlance) of the bottle briefly touching the hot parison (gob of red hot glass on the blowpipe) to the base plate then lifting the blowpipe upwards to inflate the bottle to the conformation of the mold resulting in a sharper full embossing version of the base mold catalog code.  Interesting eh?  It is something that seems to really only show up much right near the end of the mouth-blown bottle era, i.e., 1890s to 1920 or so.  The vertical side mold seams both end just above the shoulder top with horizontal tooling marks visible from there up into the lip/finish.  Click view of the shoulder, neck and lip to see such.

Condition of this bottle is essentially sparkling clean and like new with no cracks, chips, staining or other post production damage.  There is a small in making rough spot at the base of the neck that didn't get smoothed out with the lipping tool; it is about a quarter inch by 3/8th inch and is obviously from the manufacturing process.  (It shows a bit in the THE GREAT TONIC image to the left right at the base of the neck on the right; click to enlarge.)  There are a couple very small areas of what appears to be content crust that is hard to see and probably just indicates that the bottle was never buried.  A period typical medium amber glass (see images) and some scattered bubbles in the glass and you have a fine specimen of a scarce - though not horribly rare - Western made and used medicinal tonic bottle.  $65

 

PIPIFAX - This is embossed large and bold on one side of this hard to find Western "bitters" bottle; the other 3 panels are unembossed.  These are somewhat of a mystery bottle but are reportedly only found in the West.  There were a series of distributors in San Francisco according to the two Western bitters bottles books by Bill & Betty Wilson (Wilson & Wilson 1969) and Jeff Wichmann (1999).  According to their research, the product was actually made in Germany and franchised to dealers in the US, being shipped in barrels with the labels supplied by the manufacturer for placing on the bottles.  

It was first distributed in SF by Walter & Schaeffer in 187o with the franchise sold to the James M. Gowey Wholesale Liquor Company in 1873.  In 1876, John Sroufe and Hugh McCrum bought out Gowey and (to quote the Wilson's), "...the first embossed bottles were ordered for the Pipifax brand.  By 1885 the mold wore out and they selected a smaller bottle (like Hostetter's) and it was paper labeled thereafter."  The product was advertized as "The Famous Rosicrucian Elixir" according to the label used by Goewey.  (Note: The label image in the Wilson's book shows the name spelled as Goewey, not the Gowey noted in the text of both books).  It was a "Magenbitter" according to the several labels pictured in the two books which was apparently German for bitters?

In any event, these bottles are fairly rare according to Wichmann and I've seen one now and then through the years indicating some level of scarceness.  This example is about 9.4" tall, about 2.7" wide on each side, and has a somewhat crudely applied "brandy" finish or lip.  The color is pretty well shown in the images - a light to medium yellowish amber.  As the full bottle image shows, it has quite a bit of wavy body crudeness (mold was not air vented) along with dimples in the glass, twist marks on the neck and some scattered bubbles.  The condition is good with no chips, cracks or dings of any kind.  It does have a nice glossy outside surface (as images show) with just a few minor scuffs and very small spots of staining.  The inside has an overall though fairly uniform moderate content haze which could easily be cleaned but isn't too distracting.  Nice example at a decent price.  $150

 

JOYNER  / UNITED DRUG CO. (in a shield) / TRADE MARK / SPOKANE / U.S.A. - This is a scarce druggist bottle from Spokane, WA. that is quite rare with the original label and string around the neck that probably had some tag attached at some point.  Click close-up of the embossing to see such.  This 7 3/8" tall (12 oz.) bottle from the early 20th century has a tooled, unusual two-part lip or finish - what is called the "reinforced extract" or "collared ring" depending on what reference is used.  It also has a large majority of the original label (see image) which notes that it contained "Ideal Blood Mixture and Tonic" with an alcohol level of 20%; it also notes all the maladies it would treat - from acne to "malarial poison."  The bottle is also embossed just above the label with "12 OZ.", has a smooth base, clear or colorless glass and is in mint condition with no chips, cracks, staining or other issues...reflecting it having never been buried.  It does have a bit of dirt inside which would certainly wash out easily, though I did not since I didn't want to possibly disturb the label integrity.  This bottle was acquired for use in helping illustrate some concepts on the Historic Bottle WebsiteNice item with bold embossing and a pretty nice original label.  $25

 

MEXICAN - TONIC - This is embossed boldly on the two narrow side panels of this big (about a fifth to quart capacity), 10.75" tall tonic bottle that is seldom encountered in my experience.  I traded for this one at a Western bottle show years ago, but I don't know where the product originated though the West is a likely choice (more speculation below).  The bottle most certainly dates sometime between the late 1880s to maybe 1910 or so given it's manufacturing features.  Specifically, those are a tooled finish (aka "lip"), several mold air venting marks on the two wide side shoulders and a cup-base mold conformation.  Click close-up of the tooled finish and base view to see images of such.  The body is 4.5" wide by 2.5" deep.  It is really almost 8 sided as the corner panels are about 3/4" wide.

As to the history of the product, that is an interesting question.  As noted, I acquired this example at a bottle show in California.  At that time I knew nothing certain about its origin.  I was aware of the late Bob Barnett having listed a different Mexican Tonic in his "Western Liquor Bottles" book though it was a colorless/clear glass, typical fifth cylinder "whiskey" shape with a tooled finish.  That really cool bottle was embossed in an oval with MEXICAN / TONIC below which it was also embossed with a friendly looking eagle holding an olive (?) branch.  Below that was JOSE GARCIA / MEX.  That got me searching for any more information about Mexican Tonic bottles which led me to this wonderful website which is well known to Western bottle collectors -   http://www.westernwhiskeytooltopgazette.com/2020/02/mexican-tonic.html   There pictured is the only known example (I think) of the Jose Garcia bottle and a wonderful bottle it is. 

Since those bottles are as rare as hen's teeth, I got wondering if this was an alternative (later?) bottle that the same product was bottled in?  The history found at the above website is quite interesting, but makes one wonder who Jose Garcia was?  They authors of that article speculate it was a fictitious name as the real proprietors were Los Angeles residents - Peache & Starin - who were producers of some Mexican Tonic during the same era this amber but much different Mexican Tonic was produced?  Lots of questions with no definitive answer making it at least somewhat likely that this bottle was also used for the product - possibly because dark amber glass protects the contents way more than colorless/clear glass would?  Maybe that was why the colorless cylinder was quickly abandoned and replaced with this amber bottle?  This Mexican Tonic bottle also holds about the same as the clear one.  The linked article also notes that the product was sold by the Goldschmidt Brothers (LA also) in the later 1890s.  The glass is a dark-ish amber with a touch of red; almost identical to the color of the Johnson's Pure Herb Tonic bottle listed earlier...a bottle that was almost certainly made at one of the California glass works of the early 1900s.  Could the product have been bottled and sold in this bottle at some point? You be the judge...

In any event, the condition of this interesting bottle is just about mint, with no staining to the glass inside or out nor cracks, chips, cracks, dings, or potstone radiations...there really isn't even any scratching. What "issues" there are all stem from the manufacturing.  Specifically, there is one small (5 mm x 2 mm) teardrop open bubble on one side which has no depth  (this shows barely on the side view linked above.   There is also a very small in-making rough spot at the edge of the lip which I'm certain was just a speck of partially melted sand that happened to be there.  Click on the finish close-up link above to see this spot.  In short it is a great big, great condition rare tonic bottle that likely was a Western product.   $125

 

THE OWL DRUG CO. / (owl on a mortar with pestle trade mark) / SAN FRANCISCO - A decent example of a very popular bottle with collectors due to the variety of colors and different molds allowing for some affordable but dramatic color "runs" and excellent window displaying.  The mouth-blown (aka "hand-blown") examples like this were probably made into the mid-1910s with crown-top, machine-made ones made after that through at least the 1920s. 

This example is the standard (give or take a bit) 9.5" in height, has the somewhat narrow tooled "blob" or "rounded ring" type lip or finish, smooth and slightly domed base, and dates from the late 1890s to around 1915 or so.  It is a medium, though rich and brilliant emerald green color; the images show the color accurately to my eye.  It is basically in perfect physical condition with no chips, dings, cracks, and little in the way of scratching or scuffing.  It does have some light haze on parts of the outside (most is on the front and shows in the close-up image) and some similar density content staining on the inside.  Displays quite nicely as the full bottle image shows and would be a good candidate for a cleaning if so inclined.  The embossing is average for these with the owl's body feathers faint though the rest of the trade mark is pretty bold as is the lettering.  Nice example priced to reflect the minor "issues."  $100

 

JOYS - SARSAPARILLA - THE / EDWIN W. JOY CO. / SAN FRANCISCO - I sold one of these some time back, but found another in box I didn't know I had.  The embossing is scattered on three sides of this rectangular medicine bottle from California; the remaining (back) side is a typical plain, indented label panel.  Actually, all of the sides are indented and the embossing is bold and distinct - sometimes these are not that boldly embossed in my experience.  (For a better view of what both side panels embossing looks like, see the previously sold example images in the "sold" section below.)  This is also a very nice example in a "Western" bluish aqua, tooled single collar ("patent" finish), smooth slightly indented base, almost 9" tall, ca. 1880s to 1890s.  A scarce sarsaparilla from the West which didn't produce very many embossed sarsaparilla bottles it seems (and most of those are quite rare).  Condition is near mint with no chips, cracks, overt staining or other post-production damage besides a tiny "flea bite" on the middle of the outside edge of the back, unembossed panel and a little bit of very faint haze inside primarily in the lower back and one side panel; the outside is virtually spotless.  This example also has some body crudeness and bubbles in the glass adding to its visual appeal.  It is what I would call "about mint" and is also a very nice example - at least as good as the sold one.  $50

NOTE: I also have another example that is identical - a nice blue aqua (just a tiny bit less blue than the example to the right) - but is full of hundreds of seed bottles and has nice rude, wavy glass, stretch marks in the glass, and is a very nice example.  It is also in essentially mint condition but does have a couple small almost invisible "flashes" at the edge of the base; pictures on request if desired.  A beautiful example and priced accordingly given the small flashes.   $30

 

 

 

 

Oregon Druggist Bottles & Related
Offered below is an assortment of hand blown (aka "mouth-blown) Oregon druggist/apothecary bottles largely from small Oregon towns and cities.  In recent years, collecting an example from every town in Oregon (or any state) that had such has become more popular since it can be a relatively inexpensive endeavor compared to collecting other genre's of bottles (like Hutchinson sodas) from every town/city that produced such.

 

(LCE monogram) SUMPTER DRUG CO. (in banner) / L. C. EDWARDS, PROP. / SUMPTER, ORE. - That is the embossing on this scarce druggist bottle from a very small town in NE Oregon.  It is also one of the only (?) druggist bottles I know of from a true, 19th century Oregon mining camp. 

I don't know anything about the history of Mr. Edwards drugstore, but the bottle is also embossed on the base with PARIS which indicates the bottle was made by Dean, Foster & Co. - a Boston, MA. glass maker.  The "Paris Square Prescription" was a proprietary line that the company apparently produced only between 1901 and about 1904...pegging the date of these bottles down pretty narrowly.   (Information on the history of that glass company, its predecessors, and the Paris style prescription bottle is available on my Historic Glass Bottle ID & Information Website at this link:  http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/DeanFoster.pdf )

This nice example is 4.75" tall as are all the examples I've seen through the years though they may have been made with different capacities?  Like the vast majority of same era druggist bottles this is of a colorless/clear glass (which will turn a bit purple if exposed to enough sun) with a tooled "prescription" style finish or lip.  Click view of the upper body, shoulder, neck and finish to see another view of the bottle.  Click view of the reverse to see such.

It is in very near perfect condition except for some very light/faint and hard to see wisps of internal haze it essentially has no external staining.  There are also no nicks, chips or cracks or other issues; it is the finest example I've had (I've sold a couple others).  Nice example and fairly hard to come by these days...and a key bottle if one is putting together a collection of druggist bottles from different Oregon towns, which seems to be popular.   This is the only druggist bottle from Sumpter that I know of.  $100

 

...more to list in the future.

 

SODA/MINERAL WATER & BEERS
 

IMPROVED / TRADE MARK / (crescent moon with three stars) / MINERAL WATER - C. A. REINERS & CO / 723 / TURK ST / S. F. - These type of earlier, pre-Hutchinson, California soda bottles used to "be around" frequently, but that seems to have changed over the past 5 or so years in that the prices/values have gone up proportional to their less abundant availability.  Supply and demand I guess.  I've accumulated a fair number of Gold Rush era California "blob" or (more accurately) "pony" style soda bottles over the years and this one with the cool moon and stars is a favorite although not really "Gold Rush" era...but from shortly thereafter.  It is also a favorite with many Western collectors though not as rare as the earlier, colored and often pontiled "true" Gold Rush sodas from the 1850s in particular (many to be offered in the years to come).

Specifically THE book on the subject "Western Blob Top Soda and Mineral Water Bottles" by Peck and Audie Markota (1994 revised and final edition) notes that C. A. Reiners was a German immigrant who came to the US at age 18 in 1854.  He migrated to California in 1863 after living in NYC for 8 years.  He was apparently a butcher among other forms of employment during the years prior to getting in the soda/mineral water business. From 1873 to 1875 he was in partnership with a John Breig as the Eureka Soda Works which was located at 541 and 543 Bryant St. in S.F.  He was the sole proprietor of the soda works at the embossed address from 1875 to 1882.  After 1882 he moved to Sonoma County where he lived out the rest of his life...doing what isn't noted in the Markota's book...maybe in the wine business? 

The earlier variant of this bottle was blown in the same mold as this example during the partnership days (1873-1875) but had no address embossed just SAN / FRANCISCO below Reiners.  One wonders why the other partner's name wasn't on the original version of the mold?  In any event, the 723 TURK ST / S.F. embossing was added by Reiners using the existing mold by "slugging out" the SAN FRANCISCO and adding the new address.  This created two variations of this bottle with the first version being much less abundant. (Didn't do much business?)  Upon close inspection, the new plate edges can just barely be seen on this TURK ST example.

Given that this bottle has the well known "curved R's" of a still (?) unknown mold engraver on both sides, the original 1873 mold was altered around 1875 with the new address which also contains the curved R (in TURK) and was almost certainly done by the same mold maker/engraver.  Some of the most iconic Western bottles were done by this unknown mold maker/engraver from the late 1860s until sometime the first half of the 1880s when his mold artistry ended and the embossing only sported the straight leg "R".  (Would certainly be an interesting story if anyone ever comes across a name for the guy.)

Anyway, this bottle is a nice SF&PGW "fire aqua" in color - a beautiful variation of aqua that is closely identified with that company and it's predecessors (San Francisco Glass Works and Pacific Glass Works) though certainly this intense aqua glass does show up in other bottles blown in the Midwest and Eastern Seaboard.  It is 7.25" tall, has an applied "blob" finish or lip and was blown in a period appropriate "post-base" type mold.  Click image of the base to see such.  The bottle has stretch marks and other crudeness in the neck and finish where the bottle was detached from the blowpipe and glass applied to create the finish.  Click upper neck and finish to see a close-up of such.  There is also some whittle to the body and scattered bubbles here and there including some stretched out ones in the neck.  The bottle is in near mint condition with very little staining or scuffing.  There is a tiny bit of very faint sediment line inside at the shoulder on one side which may come out but is almost invisible as well as a small patch of wear just to the right of the address.  There is also a tiny iridescent mark (a few millimeters wide) at the edge of the lip which is essentially invisible and hard to find.  Since it isn't associated with a nick in the glass it may possibly be in-making?  (I try to describe everything in regards to a bottles condition which makes it sound much worse than is.)  Overall this is a superior example which I've had for decades having picked it up at some CA. bottle show long ago.  $200

 

EAST SIDE BOTTLING CO. / PORTLAND / ORE. - This is a pretty rare (first I've seen or had) soda bottle from East Portland (east of the Willamette River) which was at one point a separate city in competition with Portland (west of the river).  Yes, it is "just" a crown top soda, but is hand blown (aka "mouth blown") and is a genre of Oregon mouth-blown bottles that have yet to be discovered...maybe?  The company was, according to period business directories operating for only one year - 1912.  This according to Ron Fowler's great book on Oregon soda bottles.  It was located in the "Brentwood Addition" (there were lots of "additions" in that area in the 1890s to 1920s) at the NW corner of Cooper and Spring Avenue.  This bottle has a hand tooled crown finish, is embossed in a "slug plate" (really a "plate mold" according to bottle makers), and is a nice greenish aqua color. 

It is also embossed at the reverse heel with O - S  A B Co. What does that mean?  Well, it indicates that the bottle was produced by the American Bottle Company (various plants in the Midwest).  More specially the "0" is a certain date code for 1910 and the "S" the plant code for the companies Streator, IL. plant; the old Streator Bottle and Glass Company.   (For more on the company see the very recent article available on my other educational website at -  http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/AmericanBottleCo.pdf   Fowler's book does note that some bottles have the same heel codes but with a "9" instead of a "0" (i.e., 9 - S A B Co).  In fact, this particular bottle appears (with magnifying glass) to have the "0" cut over a "9"!  So this indicates that East Side Bottling ordered at least two batches of bottles - one in 1909 and one in 1910....cool!  Apparently, the company was in business earlier but it wasn't picked up in the business directories until 1912, then likely disappeared by 1913.  (Isn't this history sleuthing fun!)  The bottle is in essentially mint condition with very little wear (even to the embossing), some very faint wisps of internal haze, and a couple very tiny peck marks which all adds up to very fine shape for a a re-used soda bottle.  Rare item from Portland!  $30  SOLD

 

FREDERICKSBURG (arched) / (dashed line) / BOTTG Co / S. F. CAL. - That is all etched on the body of this medium olive green, "Apollinaris" style beer bottle.  These etched San Francisco beer bottles seem to be pretty rare in my experience.  I remember seeing images of a few etched "export" style beer bottles in Grace Kendrick's book from the early 1960s, but had seen very few in real life.  Until this example I had never seen this style etched though I have had and sold several of the similar shaped but embossed Fredericksburg Bottling Co. beer bottles in past years (see SOLD BOTTLES below).  I picked this one up years ago at a California bottle show to illustrate the style on my other educational "Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website."  The Apollinaris style of bottle was used extensively for both beer and mineral water - particularly in the West. 

These, like the embossed examples, were likely blown in Germany although American bottle makers listed these in their catalogs implying they made them.  See the following linked page from the 1906 Illinois Glass Company catalog I have scanned and posted on the noted website:   https://sha.org/bottle/Typing/IGCo1906/IGCo1906page250.jpg   The right page at that link shows these available in several sizes including this offering which is the "quart" size which really only held about 25 ozs.; what was called a "scant" size.  The catalog also notes that the company did sell "Full Measure" 32 oz. quarts also.  I believe that the offerings in those catalogs were actually imported from German and sold as though they were actually produced by the American company.  But who knows...

Anyway...this example, like those noted in the catalog, was produced in a turn mold which is very evident as the horizontal spinner rings are pretty noticeable - they can be seen on the enlarged examples of the images to the right.  (The guys that produced these bottles were called "twister" blowers in the trade.)  This example has an applied "blob" finish (lip) with the usual short conformation typical of these bottles and likely dates from the 1890s to maybe early 1900s.  It has no chips, cracks or other post-production damage but does have some wear and scratching on the outside indicating that it was reused many times.  This is also obvious on the base which has a lot of wear around the resting surface; click base view to see such.  It also has a sediment stain ring inside (visible in the close-up shot above) which is a bit detracting but not too bad.  In any event this is still a nice example of a rare and historic type beer bottle that as far as I can tell, was only used in the West.  $45

 

 

MISCELLANEOUS WESTERN BOTTLES & RELATED ITEMS

 

CRANE & BRIGHAM / SAN FRANCISCO Florida Water bottles - These two bottles are excellent examples of scarce/rare Florida Water bottles produced (blown) and used in San Francisco in the 1870s.  Both are pictured to the right (click to enlarge).  The following is from Bill & Betty Wilson's 1971 book 19th Century Medicine in Glass - "This firm started as Crowell, Crane and Brigham in about 1856.  It was originally established by Eugene Crowell several years earlier as a retail drug store.  In 1859 Crowell & Crane pulled out and started their own business, which lasted for only two years and Crowell sold his interests to William H. Brigham.  The firm of Crane & Brigham became one of the largest in San Francisco.  Henry A. Crane retired in the early 1880s but lived on to the grand old age of 82 when he died in 1922."

The earlier company (Crowell, Crane & Brigham) was responsible for two of the great and extremely rare (I've never seen either in person) 1850s Gold Rush era embossed bottles from San Francisco: the cobalt blue, mug based, iron pontiled soda bottle embossed C C & B / SAN FRANCISCO and the rectangular, blowpipe pontiled medicine bottle embossed on three sides with CROWELL, CRANE & BRIGHAM - SARSAPARILLA & - YELLOW DOCK - both of which date from the 1856 to 1858 period.  As there were no glass makers in the West (or even west of the Mississippi) at the time these bottles were blown somewhere in the east and shipped around the horn to San Francisco.  Then they were filled, used and eventually tossed with few of the extant.  In any event, these two Florida Water bottles date from the 1870s with the smaller one possibly being from the very early 1880s.  Both were found in the downtown urban renewal areas in Portland, OR. back in the late 1960s.

Although neither are embossed as to contents, the shape of them is of a type that was used about 100% of the time for that particular product - a type of inexpensive perfume/cologne which some claimed to have medicinal properties.  Typical of the style, the neck is about as tall as the body in both sizes. 

The larger bottle has three of the distinctive curved "R's" in the spelling which are firmly attributed to an unnamed mold maker/engraver working in the Bay Area from the late 1860s into the early 1880s.  This person created scores of - maybe several hundred - molds for embossed bottles that have this type "R".  Click on the image to the immediate left to see a larger version showing the embossing.  Most of the bottles attributed to this mystery mold maker/engraver (don't know if he did both or not) were clearly embossed as being from the West (typically California, Oregon, & Nevada) like both of these bottles or used by companies historically known to be operating in the West.  The smaller example has no "R's" in the embossing to curve though the "look" of the embossing is identical to its larger brother so it is certainly a product of the same mold maker.  Both were blown in the type of deeper blue aqua glass commonly seen with bottles blown at the San Francisco Glass Works or Pacific Glass Works or the combined company (San Francisco & Pacific GW) after merging in 1876.  The larger example is very much the "fiery" deep aqua color with the smaller one being a bit more muted but still of the same look in general.

The larger example is very scarce but more abundant than the smaller size in my experience.  It is embossed CRANE & BRIGHAM / SAN FRANCISCO vertically inside a deeply indented panel.  It is 9" tall, has a crudely applied "oil" style finish or lip, and smooth somewhat indented or domed base.  Click close-up of the applied lip to see such.  This bottle is a beauty and one of the finest example I've ever seen.  It has no post-production issues, i.e., no chips, cracks, pings, nibbles or even really any staining as the "fire aqua" glass from the Bay Area during that era was quite resistant to staining or patination.  There are even a few specs of the original foil capsule showing on the upper neck! The glass is fairly crude with decent whittling, a few bubbles and neck stretch marks.  Great example!  $85

The smaller and rarer example is also embossed vertically inside a deeply indented panel in a much more abbreviated manner (not as much room as the big bottle) with  C. & B. / S. F. although that says enough to make it certain to have been Crane & Brigham.  It is 6.25" tall, has a tooled "oil" style finish or lip, and a more proportionally indented domed base than the larger example.  The glass is a medium blue aqua and the neck is crude and a bit wavy on the inside from the use of the lipping or finishing tool.  The bottle is in very good condition though does have a bit of staining inside the shoulder, a bit of outside light dullness and a small flake at the heel on the backside.  Click close-up of the heel to see the latter issue.  Overall a nice example of a very rare SF Florida water (a recent sale of a mint one on eBay was for $280+).   $100 

 

...MORE TO COME IN THE FUTURE!

 


 

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