Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Stray Horse Gallops In...





I have always loved the Gold Dust whiskeys. They are one of the stereotypical Western bottles with everything going for them. I have not been fortunate enough to extract one of these beauties from the ground, but I am grateful others have been. Here is a very light and heavily whittled N. Van Bergen Gold Dust. It was dug in Virginia City, Nevada in the early 1970s, and only recently found it's way to Oregon.
The N. Van Bergen examples (T-155) are a bit later than the "John's", but seem to be equally as beautiful, with color, and character rivaling their earlier brothers. As far as numbers in collections, I believe there are about twice as many John Van Bergen's as N. Van Bergen's, with perhaps 13-15 of the latter known. It is probably a good thing that the aqua versions began being blown in the early 1880s or there would probably be alot more of the "N"s out there! To me, both of the amber Gold Dusts are equally desirable.

15 comments:

  1. OH YEAH!! That's a horse we'd all be proud to ride. You are absolutely right about the "Ns" vs "Johns".

    Now, lay that Cutter on the right on me and we'll both be happy.

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  2. karl//old bumsteadJune 30, 2010 at 6:46 PM

    the cutter on the right was a fun dig,under a foundation of a building that was built in about 1910 cut off most of the out house, but a bird cutter, o.k. and that circle cutter,15 embossed coffins,one being a nevada max obberfelter,all with corks in them and mint.There was only one and a half ft. of the hole remaining and wonder what was dug off it long ago oh a star on base j.f. cutter was in it too.

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  3. karl//old bumsteadJune 30, 2010 at 6:54 PM

    I dug that circle cutter,j.f.,o.k. and a bird cutter a few years back,and in only foot left of a outhouse,15 coffins ,clear embossed,with some being max oberfelter from nevada. Always probeing every square foot of a site sure payed off, most of the deeper holes never have quality ,in quantity.

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  4. jaaaaaah baby, I'd ride that horse. woooh, cheya man.

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  5. dam sista, this bottle gives me an boner.

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  6. heavy, but GP has a glow in the dark John that will knock the sox off this one. Did you pay over 11K for this ?

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  7. GP may have a nice "John" but this "N" is nothing short of spectacular and one of the best I've seen. Most "N"s are a little plain and nothing like the one pictured here. Great bottle M.E. !!!

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  8. Could you say this is the top N. Van Bergen ?

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  9. WOWOWOWOWOW. F-ck that is a hot bottle.

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  10. thats it, im marying dale's daughter.

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  11. That might just be the top example of the "N" !

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  12. Did you win the Oregon lotto or something? Good score !!

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  13. god dam, best gold dust I've seen. Only way it could be better is if it were GREEN ! are any of the green ones this crude ??

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  14. I've bred many horses, yet never seen one as fine as this. Congrats.

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  15. Such an exciting example, I think the Horse on that bottle has a boner !

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