Jefferson State Bottle & Insulator Show

Loaded Liquor Pit

Every once in a while you hit a pit that is absolutely loaded with liquor bottles. Sometimes they have whiskey, and sometimes they are full of champagnes, blacks, case gins, and wines........... It takes a special pit to produce this volume of liquor in the form of whiskies !

Picked up this 1/2 Pint Flask, Saw one kinda like it in the Washington Whiskey Book by Thomas, but, it just said OUR HOUSE, same bottle form, saw a Dandy Flask Corker with the Same Embossing OUR HOUSE CAFE, SEATTLE, WASH. a Different Variant I guess?

It's Millers time !

Here is a rare western flask from a recent West Coast dig. While the large design Millers are considered common by most, the small design variants are much rarer is any color, especially amber. Less than 4 examples known in straight amber ?

Sac National Dig Report

Here is a dig report in from a local digger: "We had fun at the National Show, but had even more fun Saturday afternoon. We were fortunate enough to find a fresh demolition near the show and located an 1890s and 1870s privy. The 1890s privy produced a local Sac hutch soda, and the 1870s privy contained 4 lime green star based whiskies, a cobalt Dickies and an aqua Billings Soda. Fun show and fun dig!"

2016 FOHBC National Antique Bottle Convention & Expo

Only 54 days till the largest antique bottle event happens in the western U.S. Four days of antique bottle activities among bottle collectors from 21 states! All happening at Lions Gate Hotel and McClellan Conference Center, August 4th thru 7th. Get the details at FOHBC.org  or Warren Friedrich, (530) 271-5757 or warrenls6@sbcglobal.net

50th Annual - "Northwestern Antique Bottle Collectors" - Show!

 

 

Come shop or sale at our 50th annual show this year. We still have a few sales tables left for anyone interested. There is the “Farmers Market” Saturday  & “Collectors Flea Mkt.” Sunday all the the same location and time. We're expecting a good turnout, these two events draw lots of people to the Venue.

There will be an old time collection hit the market this year in addition to many dealers from all over with new additions.

 

Come celebrate our 50th show at the Saturday night dinner for dealers.  We have once again reserved the Garden Room at the popular “Union Hotel” restaurant next to Santa Rosa creek. Great food, full bar, raffles, good times. 

 

Hope to see you there!

info. http://www.oldwestbottles.com/THE_SANTA_ROSA_SHOW.php

Old Valley Resting In Peace

Kane, O'Leary Trademarks

Here are a few of the Kane, O'Leary & Co. brands that were trademarked in 1880. In addition to these, "Old Judge" and "Paragon" were trademarked in 1881.

From Peachridge Glass

Love this color run of Barkhouse Brothers Gold Dust Kentucky Bourbon bottles from a prominent anonymous western collector.

 

 

Kane O'Leary

Speaking of OGW bottles, here is a recent find that was resting next to two OGW half pint flasks, a half pint Roth flask, and a CP Moorman flask. Surprisingly the Kane O'Leary was the sole survivor.

Whiskey In Layer

Here is a great layer shot of a classic western whiskey.

Hotaling Portland T-55

Here is a glop top fifth that does not seem to get a lot of attention. Thomas indicated that these were distributed between 1875-80 which seems a tad early to me. I believe it was made about the same time as the Portland Hotaling amber coffin style flasks and date to the mid 1880s. I have seen these in light yellow amber to dark chocolate and every shade in between, with the dark chocolate example exhibiting millions of champagne bubbles and heavy whittle effect. The remainder seem pretty neatly made even though they are not air vented. To my knowledge, this fifth has been found from Alaska, to Southern Oregon with the latest find coming from Portland. These are open face whiskies with the ever important "Sole Agents" and of course the Hotaling name. I am not certain if these predate the Portland "Rick Rack" fifth or are from the same time period. The T-55 only comes with an applied top and are pretty scarce. Thomas indicates only 2-4 known examples, but I know of 9 of these in collections. Oregon just does not have very many glop whiskeys, and none are common. Have any of these been dug in California?

Bear Grass

Here is one of the strongest embossed examples of the Bear Grass that I have ever seen. These are pretty tough to find as it is, with  maybe 12-15 in collections. For some reason these bottles are usually fairly light in the embossing pattern. They

come in this lighter orange amber in most instances, but one was dug broken several years ago in Idaho with strong olive tone. I have also heard that a mint example in an olive color was in a well known collection in Washington many years ago, but it is not known where this bottle now resides.
 Of the 7 Bear Grass fifths I have handled, all but two had relatively weak embossing. These are very underrated in my opinion as they have it all...except whittle effect. The base exhibits a large "X" identical to the Fleckenstein & Mayer fifth. I believe the amber Bear Grass was produced about 1884. I have not heard of any examples being dug since the Idaho pit with 5 found.

Back to the jungle with my buddy Jessie.

This place is a tough nut to crack but every once in a while we do get lucky. This pit produced more liquor bottles only this time it was of a mixed age.

These guys drank the good stuff, the pieces have been something else.

 

Lots of roots in this one and about 20 or so bottles dating from the late 1870s to about1900.