W.S. WRIGHT

Here is a nice old Nevada soda that is worthy of a post.   As I was reading Warren Friedrich's new book  EARLY GLASSWORKS OF CALIFORNIA,   I was particularly interested in a reference to a soda water manufacturer in Virginia City, N.T.   

Several newspaper articles that Warren documents indicate a "heavy demand for California made bottles".   Quoting from an article appearing in a San Francisco paper on July 24, 1863, and used by Warren in his book -

"Pacific Glass Works Company have just received two very extensive orders.  One for 20,000 wine bottles from a large California wine firm in this city,  and the other for 24,000 soda water bottles for a firm in Virginia City, N.T., who have already received 600 dozen from the works".

Warren indicates that the first ad appearing for the Pacific Glass Works was on June 22, 1863.   So, in approx. the first four weeks,  the fledgling glass factory has delivered 7200 bottles to the soda water firm in V.C., Nevada,  and has an order for another 24000.   That's a lot of bottles!   Were they all embossed?     

We don't know if more orders for bottles followed up these first two groups,  or if 31000 bottles were enough to carry on a soda business in Virginia City.


I guess we might be able to conclude that the W.S. Wright soda bottles are some of the very first bottles blown at Pacific Glass Works.



Most of the examples I have seen of the W. S. Wright soda bottles are this rich "western aqua" in color.   Other colors exist but are very rare,  and usually damaged.   Many years ago I seem to remember a story of a privy or maybe just a big trash pit being dug in V.C. that was loaded with broken and severely damaged Wright sodas.   I heard many of these broken Wright bottles were in some extreme colors.   Anyone have the rest of that story? 

William Wright was doing business at the corner of Mill and B Streets in Virginia City.   His first two orders of  bottles in 1863 may have carried him through the 5 or 6 years he was in business. 

ANDERSON BOTTLE SHOW

The 35th Annual Superior California Antique Bottle Show (otherwise known as the Anderson Show) will take place on Saturday Jan 22, 2011.      9 am to 4 pm.    Shasta County Fairgrounds - Anderson, California


I have just received a list of bottles and shot glasses for sale from Ken Schwartz.  He is planning on setting up a sales table ... tables.... at the show and will have approx. 100 whiskies and 100 shot glasses for sale.  Some very rare tools and globs will be available for collectors.   These are duplicate bottles and glasses that Ken has accumulated over the years as he has upgraded examples in his collection.    That collection,  sometimes referred to as the "whiskey museum" on this site,  is the most spectacular grouping of antique whiskey bottles, flasks, shot glasses, advertising signs and related stuff that exists... anywhere!    

Ken will hold an open house for collectors to visit and enjoy viewing this unbelievable collection of western whiskies and related items.     

Just a small sampling of the museum.

Lilienthal & Co.

Dale's recent "Red & Green" Lilienthal Christmas post inspired me take and share a few pictures of the Lilienthal & Co.bottles my dad and I have been able to put together so far....

Here's a representative sampling of about half of the different shapes and embossing patterns found on the various Lilienthal & Co. bottles. I can't think of another set of early whiskey bottles (other than Cutters) featuring so many uniquely different shapes, styles, and sizes as the Lilenthals.



Left to Right: AT Banded Cognac-style flask, AT Large-pattern fifth, AT Banded Pint flask, TT Banded 1/2 Pint flask.

Here are some pretty rare flasks to find; and I haven't heard of any of the following having been dug recently....

Left to Right: Green colored High S.F. variant (with partial "Blue Lick" whiskey label on reverse), Amber colored High S.F. variant, and a orange toned Low S.F. variant.

Palm tree blues

Sometimes the soothing sounds of waves and trade winds, along with tropical temperatures needs a little opposition. Rick's post got me to thinking of the other "soothing sound" we hear while at our Sierra cabin. The snow is arse deep now, but wait until it begins to melt in the Spring. The river roaring by makes outside conversation nearly impossible, but lulls you to sleep in the evening.

Aloha~

This time of year, the relentless Oregon winter gloom, accompanied by rain, snow and pogonip (ice fog), turns my thoughts to Hawaii.

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.

Walter Chamberlain Peacock, abbreviated to W.C., was another successful wholesale liquor magnate whose success spanned many years. W. C. was originally an English businessman. Upon his arrival in the islands in 1881, Peacock entered into the Hawaii wholesale liquor arena with George Freeth. Later, Freeth took leave and the firm of W. C. Peacock & Co. was born. In 1890, Peacock had the Royal Saloon Building built in Honolulu’s Chinatown district at Nu‘uanu and Merchant Street. As his liquor fortunes continued to pile up, he branched out and had the 75-room, 4-story Moana Hotel constructed, which opened in Waikiki on March 11, 1901.

Each room featured a bathroom and telephone (luxurious amenities at the time). The hotel also boasted Oahu's first electric elevator. The bottles produced for the Peacock empire range from the red whittled "German Connection" glop tops of the nineties, through the neatly tooled era. Most of the later bottles look as though they could have been blown yesterday.

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

Lovejoy & Co. can be positively dated as far back as 1899. The Honolulu Republican announced that one parcel had arrived aboard the S.S. China on Jan. 4, 1899 and another on the S.S. Alameda on Dec. 6, 1899, destined for Lovejoy & Co., but was being held pending receipt of duties to be collected by the U.S. government customs house in Honolulu. Hawaii had been added as a US territory in the summer of 1898 and an ongoing battle between the feds and the local merchants had been simmering for months (sound familiar?). A lengthy search of the archives revealed that David H. Lewis and John D. Holt were the principals doing business under the firm name of Lovejoy & Company. Interesting to note that both Peacock and Lovejoy sued the Republic of Hawaii on March 29, 1899, in an attempt to recover their goods. The disposition of the case is not known although all indications are that they lost the suit since the classified ads announced an upcoming auction of their goods some months later. Regardless, Lovejoy & Co. continued to prosper well into the 20th century. Although not, common, the amber tooled cylinder is a mainstay in most western whiskey collections.

Last, but not least, enter Hoffschlaeger & Co. I found one reference to Ed Hoffschlaeger & Co dating as far back as 1889, although there was no indication of whether he was involved in the sugar business or in retail goods at that time. I was able to trace the firm proper, as liquor dealers, back as far as 1895. The (Honolulu) Independent posted an advertisement on Nov. 7 for Ed Hoffschlaeger & Co, located on King St. opposite Castle & Cook, dealing in Wines, Liquors & Beers of the highest grade. He also boasted a large selection of carpets and rugs, along with sewing machines, baby carriages, pianos, organs and guitars. Sounds like a 19th century version of Wal-Mart if you ask me... A like ad, that appeared in the Daily Bulletin dated October 30, 1893, is virtually identical, but lacks any reference to liquor. Hoffschlaeger too, was a victim of held goods by the Customs House having one package withheld from the shipment that had arrived aboard the S.S. China on Jan. 4, 1899.

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.

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:

The Colors of Christmas-Green and Red

In order to spread a little Christmas spirit, here is some green and red decorations for the shelf.

I hope everyone is having a nice Christmas season!

Dale M.

Auburn Report- Whiskies and Other Stuff...

The Auburn show was a cornucopia of vessels this year. In addition to the sweet Western Bitters available for sale ( and some not), there were some great whiskey bottles on tables, and behind them. I saw a spectacular John Van Bergen, and Chalmer's ( sort of a whiskey), a top example of a Snowflake, a PMSS, a Blakes, Non-Crown Cutter, Choice Old Cabinet, Old Gilt Edge, Bird Cutter, a few OK Cutter's, and a nice Teakettle. Early flasks were well represented with a Star Shield, Castle Bourbon, two Miller's large design, and one Miller's small design ( which I took home.Could not resist a green small Miller's) , two AAA Old Valley flasks, a Brickwedel, and a few different Lilienthal's. All in all a strong showing of quality fifths and flasks. The prices were also pretty "affordable" if that can be said for Western glass these days...the Snowflake with nice whittle and character was $3850. I thought that was a great value, but I am not sure it sold at that.

It is interesting that this particular show, and perhaps Reno bring out so much good stuff that one could really get into some financial trouble if not careful. Usually you might find one good piece for the collection at a show, but Auburn had me deciding between several pieces in several categories. I suppose this is a nice "problem" to have! I look forward to next year, and had better start saving my $$$$ now!