In this October 11th, 1871 advertisement Drs. Bliss & Keene claim that an article is being advertised and sold as Cundurango, and I assume, that according to the doctors is not the genuine article. Could they be refering to ol' George Chesley as the scoundrel that was pushing that spurious article?
Geo. Chesley & Co. started running advertisements for the Cundurango Bitters on November 18th, 1871 in the Sacramento Daily Union. (pictured below) The ad states "None genuine without the word CUNDURANGO blown in the bottle" and documents that the Cundurango bottles were manufactured as early, if not earlier, than the November date.
Oldcutters previous post on the trademarks of the Cundurango bitters document that they were manufacturing the product possibly as early as April of 1863. The trademarking of the Dr. Place's Cundurango Bitters in December of 1871 was defiantly after Chesley was selling the product in embossed bottles.
Perhaps Chesley's earlier involvement with Bliss went sour and he aligned with Place to market a questionable product. Nothing would surprise me, those times were filled with money making schemes that lined the proprietors pockets and did nothing to relieve the aches and pins of an ailing population. G.W. was first and foremost a business man, so I feel relatively safe in assuming that his ventures were self serving.
ReplyDeleteAnother shining example of this is the 14 year battle through the California Courts between A.P.Hotaling and E.J.Martin. Both made numerous claims to have the right to market the J.H.Cutter Whiskies. Of course, Hotaling was in the right, but Martin got away with his shenanigans for all those years, continuing to pass an inferior product onto the willing public. In this case, though, collectors are thankful for that marketing scheme.
I'm studying the cundurango history, specially its relationships between Ecuador and the United States and Europe. THe information you found is really interesting. Do you know until when this bitter was sold in the United States?
ReplyDeleteI'm studying the cundurango history, specially its relationships between Ecuador and the United States and Europe. THe information you found is really interesting. Do you know until when this bitter was sold in the United States?
ReplyDelete