Bottle Digging: Rock & Roll

Earlier this Spring, my younger bro and I set out for a weekend dig in Southern Cal to see if we could locate some old privies and find a few noteworthy old bottles. We never would have foreseen or predicted what would happen on our weekend adventure....In this episode we bring to you an unexpected digging experience, Rock & Roll!

Summary of Day One...Can you say ABD-ed, circa 1985??

Time to catch some sleep after a long hot day at the local luxury motel. Check out the air conditioning unit....I can't wait til someone lists this thing on eBay as being in "MINT" condition right??? The rest of the room and amenities were in similar condition, yikes! We should've slept on a dirt lot somewhere. We felt lucky enough to avoid catching any bed bugs.

Some of the features on this house looked pretty "late," but an old looking porch, architectural style, and windows...

Our 1895 Maps told us it was at least that old, with the side of the house suggesting solid 1880's....

After an hour or more of probing we finally poked out floater hole with a layer around the 6 foot level. It was time to open it up and see what we could find....

Lots and lots of huge boulder rocks from the 6 to 9 foot level....

We figured out what people mean by "hitting rock bottom," and NO bottles. A non-ABD floater hole with no more than a few broken shards.

But wait! While peeling one of the walls high up at the 4 foot level...boo-ya! A totally rad 1880's-90's champagne bottle, NOT! But seriously, we've never been this excited about finding an unembossed champagne. Bit hey, at least the hole kicked us one large-sized intact bottle....

Then the real fun began, as Rob & Gerty (the homeowners) made us ribs, chips & guacamole, and cold beer! To our surprise they also have a full-blown Karaoke set up in their backyard, so we sang the bottle blues....Out with the ROCKS and in with the ROLL!

Two brothers, Two days, a few outhouses, one champagne, gracious hosts, free dinner, beer, and karaoke....PRICELESS!

We can't wait for our next bottle adventure. Rock On!

New Western Glass Works Book

I just wanted to let all of you fellow bottle collectors know that Warren Friedrich's new book on Western Glass Works is being published later this month and will be available at the Auburn California 49er Bottle Show on December 3rd & 4th.

This new book takes a factual look at the development of the Western Glass industry and the beautiful glass containers it produced. If you are interested in the development of Western Glass I highly recommend this new publication.......rs

More information on this new book on Western Glass Houses is listed below:
A Book on Early California Glass Works: 1859 through 1899

I have recently written and will publish a comprehensive book on the above subject matter. This book is 230 pages and will contain 290 illustrations. It will be printed on 80 lb or 100 lb gloss paper in color and have a sewn binding with hardcover. Unfortunately this will not be as reasonably priced as I had hoped for. The price will be $100 for each book and the publisher will have the books ready for me by December 3rd. I plan on bringing these books to the Auburn Bottle Show and will be sharing a table with Roger Terry for distribution of them.

These books will be published 1 time only, and I have a deadline of October 18th to let the publisher know exactly how many to order. For those that are interested in purchasing a book, please call me at (530) 265-5204 anytime to discuss anything further. Because of the cost I am requesting that these books be pre-sold.

Please send payment of $100 by check to:

Warren Friedrich
11422 Ridge Road
Nevada City, Ca. 95959

Swirly Flask

Neat looking Knife Edge Pint Flask, a Crude Tool Top, has a Nice White Swirl running through the body, it also leans heavily, barley stands up. Thank You Swapmeet God's. DB

DOWNIEVILLE 2010 What-a-show !!!

A "good time was had by all" may best describe this years show in the little Gold Rush town on the Yuba River. The show kicked off Saturday morning with steady traffic throughout the day and saw about 40 sales tables holding quite a few surprises. We noted folks attending from 7 different Western States. On display were several killer Western bottles that have never previously been seen by the public. It's amazing how many good Western bottles for display & sale continue to pop up here year after year. This is the area lots this stuff has come from and the connection between that and this show just doesn't get any better.

Several key Western bottles were offered with some changing hands, a portion of what I noted: 3 Jockey Gins, Rosenbaums Bitters, 3 Tea Kettles, Jockey Club, two name Bear, one name Bear, 2 Choice Old Cabinet, multipal Cutters, OPS, N.Grange, 2 Pride of Kentuckys, Livingstons Black Berry, 3 Blakes, 2 Clarks, 4 Phoenixs, Dr. Millers, 6 Nabobs, 2 Gold Dust, Kentucky Club, 4 McKennas, 6 AAAs, 3 Lacours, Bennet's, Catawba Wine Bitters, 4 Renz's, Excelsior Bitters, 7 IXLs, E.G. Lyons, Moon Plant, 3 black Hostetter's, Western meds, sodas and a bunch more........

Friday nights excellent BBQ & Produce Exchange was attended by about 80 guest and was once again a huge hit among show goers. The Simis gracious hospitality and effort they put into this event is second to none. Ahhhh then there was the food, unbelievable, those mountain folk & the rest of the crew sure know how to do it up and the BBQ masters Rick & Tim did a fabulous job. An incredible bounty of delicious fresh produce was provided by prepared by Bob K. (Hoss) from the Ponderosa. Local business man Will Clark who owns and operates "49 Wines" wine shop in town provided tasting of some killer Gold Country reds, what a gentleman. There was Leisa's "Western Round-Up" theme cake, creative and quite yummy, just ask Warren. Definitely no shortage of good food and fun throughout the entire weekend.

You can put a value on any bottle but good times & friends like this, priceless.

A few pictures, enjoy!

Miller's Extra Flasks

My dad and I caught the Miller's bug a few years ago after being inspired by another collector who has long admired these attainable, yet classic, beautiful, and colorful western flasks. Miller's Extra was an old bourbon very popular amongst the old miners during the 1870's. At that time they were coveted for the whiskey "inside" that would gladden rough and tumble mountain-men after a long day of physically bruising work, help to fight off the bitter cold in their small tent cabin, or to perhaps celebrate and share the success of their most recent gold or silver strike....nowadays they are admired more for their "outside" aesthetics. From what I know these have primarily come from mining camps in California and Utah, some from Northern California towns, Oregon, and Nevada. Any other reports out there as to their popularity in any other Western states?

Pictured below from Left to Right:
*Small Design, Single Roll Applied Top in Olive-amber with dose of olive coloration.
*Large Design, Single Roll Applied Top in Yellow-green.
*Large Design, Double Roll Applied Top in an off-amber color.

A full line-up of Miller's Extra flasks:

The Wormser Bros. Strike Back

Miller's Extra recently posted a nice write-up on the differing lip and color variations found on the vertical Wormser Bros. flasks. These sure are classic, early, and nowadays tough to find flasks. I've never dug a whole one, just a bust Green colored one that would have been an arguable top example, right along with the nice Green one pictured in the Thomas whiskey book. I've also found a broken golden-yellow example of the Wormser Barrel in the Nevada desert (as pictured in the Downieville post prior)...and that's all I think I've ever managed to find from The W-Bros....

Pictured below is the "bay area" example found about 1-2 years ago. This one has a strong strike, very heavy whittle, super green color, and that sparklematic western glass....it has it all (except for the glue holding half of the pieces together and a few more missing pieces to the glass puzzle).

Bottom & Backside view:

Pictured between a few Western companions for color comparison:

My dad's current Wormser trio (below). From Left to Right: Yellow-Olive with smaller-sized double roll top, (Former R. Simi collection), Amber with olive tone, fat & large double roll top (Former J. Lawson collection), Amber with slight yellow-olive tone, flat top/over-sized double roll top (Former J. Lawson/Blake from Utah, collections).

Wormser Bros. San Francisco

The Wormser Bros. of San Francisco produced some of the earliest Western flasks. Actually, all of the Wormser Bros. variants are earlier than the vast majority of flasks produced and distributed throughout the Western states. I have posted "vertical" Wormsers before, and there have been some amazing colored examples posted by other collectors...but the single roll type top is one that you just do not see every day. Here is an example with nice olive tone, and every specimen I have seen has been this color. I am curious if there was only one batch blown, and they are all this olive toned golden coloration? Also, this single roll top is virtually identical to several of my Miller's Extra large pattern flasks. They were quite possibly made at the same place, and used the same lipping tool. Compare to the very large double roll top example. Quite a difference. This particular flask is also very whittled, which is not the norm for a Wormser. Have there been any of these flasks dug in the past 10 years? I have not heard of even one. I know they have come from the Bay Area, and Sacramento, and of course Nevada, and Utah. I am not sure if any have been found in Oregon or Washington, but I do know the extremely rare "horizontal" version has come from Oregon, Just not by me!