I've always had a soft spot for "the islands". My father lived on the big island (Hawaii proper) forever. My daughter and her family resided on Oahu, just outside of Pearl Harbor off and on for several years. I've spent my share of time on these islands, as well as Kauai and Maui. There's just something about the warm sea air, tropical breezes and billowing white clouds that soothes the inner beast.
And of course, there's the history~ Lots and lots of history; much of it intertwined with the pre-prohibition San Francisco wholesale liquor trade. Molokai, Hawaii and Oahu are all well known for the quantity and quality of western tooled and glop top whiskies found there. The towns, cane plantation dumps and mountain ravines have in the past (and continue to) give up treasures. Treasures with names like Spears Pioneer, Cutter, M. Rothenburg (cluck - cluck), Lilienthal, and Spruance Stanley all abound in collections over there. Hilo, Kona, Lahaina, Wailua, Ewa, Kihea, and of course Honolulu, have all produced spectacular S.F. whiskey finds over the years.
And we can't forget to give due credit to the whiskies indigenous to Hawaii proper. A thriving liquor trade existed from the eighties through to prohibition. The oldest, C.L. Richards & Co. - Honolulu S.I. (Sandwich Islands) dates to around 1858, is olive green and should by all rights have a big ol' blowpipe or iron pontil scar on the base. As far as I know, there's only two in existence.
Next in the batting lineup is the slug plate MacFarlane & Co. I've spent countless hours in the archives, located on the Iolani Palace Grounds in downtown Honolulu. There's a wealth of information there, if one is patient and dogged enough to figure out how and where it's stored... MacFarlane (actually G.W. & Co.) dates back to the early eighties. He was first located in the Beaver Block, a two-story structure located at Fort and Queen Streets, which was completed in 1882. Progressive, his building sported the first elevator (albeit manual and not electrified) in the islands, allowing patrons easy access to the second floor, from the Beaver Saloon located on the first. Competition must have been stiff as the front page of the January 1, 1887 (Honolulu) Daily Herald has multiple advertisements for Hackfield, Lilienthal, Spruance Stanley, Martinelli, and of course, MacFarlane. Conjecture has long been tossed about that MacFarlane & Co. actually became part of the Lilienthal corporate umbrella and the slug cylinders bear more than a passing resemblance to the Van Schuyver and Crown Distilleries slug plates. If so, the merger occurred post 1887 as evidenced by this newspaper. The MacFarlane slug plate was made over a wide time span, and as such, the bottles evolved from the crude glop tops of 1882, into the neatly made tool top era, ca. 1910.


Sadly, prohibition spelled the end for the wholesale liquor portion of Peacocks financial success story.


The S.S. Kinau was part of the Wilders S.S. (steam ship) Co. fleet of mail ships that made a constant and revolving circuit around the island chain at the turn of the century, delivering goods and mail.
The preceding trade card announced to the inhabitants of the big island, that their orders from Hoffschlaeger & Co. would soon be filled.
The preceding trade card announced to the inhabitants of the big island, that their orders from Hoffschlaeger & Co. would soon be filled.
Since the firm does indeed date to the tail end of the applied top era, there could quite possibly be a globby floating around somewhere. At this time though, all are neatly made with tooled tops in shades of amber. Most are quite light, although I've seen one that approaches espresso in color. Like Lovejoy and Peacock, the firm prospered until being killed off by prohibition.
Aloha~
PS:
Great pile of info and very well presented. Thanks for sharing! Makes one yearn for another trip to the islands soon.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to the bottles found there, EC&M insulators can also be added to the list. I know of several that have been found there, including some nice colorful ones. These were likely made by Pacific Glass Works & San Francisco and Pacific Glass Works during the early to late 1870's...maybe even touching into the 1880's.
I agree with IXL - great information in a well wrapped package. Learned a lot about the "likker bizness' in our 50th state.
ReplyDeleteThanks-rs
IXL was spot on in regards to the EC&M's. One of the things that tripped my trigger while pawing through the archives last time over, was coming across incorporation documents for the Mutual Telephone Company. They became an entity on August 16, 1883 in Honolulu, and most certainly would have sought out affordable, spelled end of the run, EC&M's. It had been only 6 short years since the EC&M enterprise folded and odds are, there was a good supply of new old stock to be had for pennies on the dollar.
ReplyDeleteSee the attached stock certificate that I added to the article~
Great write up, K.G.!
ReplyDeleteI learned a lot about the Hawaiian whiskeys. You have a gift for writing in an informative, yet always uniquely colorful way.
~J.F.
Mahalo for the reminder, KG.
ReplyDeleteHawaii is special to us, too. We maintain a home in Kailua on the Big Island and were there for a couple of weeks last Easter. Danged airfare is outrageous these days. Not much rainfall under Mauna Loa, but VOG is an occasional smelly bother.
Aloha and Mele Kalikimaka me ka Hao'oli Makahiki Hou
Never been to Hawaii. Can you take a probe and shovel on board? I hear there is a couple of nice bottle shops over there. Besides the EC&M's the Castle shaped McLaughlin's were found over there also. Several of the rare Aqua colored Quart San Diego Brewery bottles too. Rick
ReplyDeleteI have not found a bottle on the Big Island, but know at least one digger over in Hilo(think LOTS of rain)who gets out often. He works at the big Fed Observatory on Mauna Kea and finds plenty bottles on the windward side.
ReplyDeleteI have dug bottles over on Maui and been "rousted" from Lahaina harbor for bottle "diving". Good stuff down there but too many nosy boat owners. Never dug in Honu, either, for that matter. Another local digs around Oahu all the time. Maybe one day...