LEDIARD’S
CELEBRATED
STOMACH BITTERS
Circa: 1860’s
Charles Lediard from New York City was the originator of the stomach bitters which bears his name. These bottles come with an iron pontil and also a smooth base.
Relation to Sierra County:
To my knowledge the only example of the Lediard’s Stomach Bitters discovered in Sierra County I watched being broken. A Goodyears Bar digger and I were putting a test hole in the back of a cabin site when he put his shovel through a beautiful teal blue, iron pontiled example of this bottle. The cabin site, above Indian Valley and on the trail to Indian Hill, is one of several cabin sites that were discovered while walking the area.
Recent extensive logging operations in the area of the trail and townsite of Indian Hill have pretty much destroyed any traces of the trail and cabin sites that were located alongside of it.
Although this is not a western manufactured bottle, collectors believe it was distributed and marketed exclusively on the Pacific Coast. Western, bitters and gold rush collectors rate this bottle as rare and consider it a very desirable addition to their collection.
Has anyone out there ever dug a whole or broken one of these Lediards East of Salt Lake City?
ReplyDeleteThese things really seem to be in all parts of Northern Ca. I have dug 2 whole examples, and several broken ones. I also know several other diggers that have found them both whole and broken in Ca. Could these be only distributed in the West?
AP
AP,
ReplyDeleteI have not heard of the Lediard's being dug east of Nevada. Ring - Ham says possibly only marketed in the west. Pretty weak statement, but one more piece of the puzzle. The other broken bottle at that site was a Catawba Wine Bitters.
g.o
I have personally dug two IP examples of the Lediard's. One was dug in Sacramento and the other
ReplyDeleteat Bryant's Meadow, a site in El Dorado Co. The Sacramento specimen went in one of Dale Mooney's Western Glass Works auctions, the other was sold privately. Neither made anything like they would today. Numerous damaged Lediard's have been found over the years, but those do not count.
OldCutters.... Nevady has always seemed to be more "Bittery" than Cal. Have you heard of any Lediards (broken or whole) coming from Nevady?
ReplyDeleteAP
No, I have not, but that really doesn't mean anything. Out of all my wanderings around Nevada, I have never so much as seen a "chard of ona dem tings" Of course, most of my attention is on N.A. artifacts, but we do look for glasseousness.
ReplyDeleteOne of these days, soon, I must return to a place I haven't set foot opon since '79. Nobody else has, either, 'cause a Basque sheepherder told me about it and it's WAAAAY off the beaten path. Quite a serious hike, but the bottles are just under the piñon needles. It's where I got my gnarly yellow OK Cutter. You can see a mining camp far below. Nuff said.
OldCutters.. Let me know if you need someone to ride shotgun when you go baaack to rake the needles and rocks !
ReplyDeleteAP
i dug a non pontil lediards about 10 years ago in western nevada a very nice example
ReplyDeleteWestern Nevada, I assume is the Comstock, and you may as well call that place "San Francisco North", when speaking of bottles and Western Glass !
ReplyDeleteWe dug an improved pontil Lediards in an outhouse in Mendocino, California, circa 1968. Most of the other bottles in the hole were open or improved pontil medicines, some embossed.
ReplyDelete