"A Western Distributed Product"The Catawba Wine Bitters was manufactured by the Longworth and Grew Company of Cincinnati, Ohio and marketed on the west coast by sole agent George Grimes of San Francisco.
I believe, but can't be positive, that the Catawba product was bottled in Cincinnati and shipped to the west coast as case goods. Early western newspapers reported the ships that put into the port of San Francisco and listed the cargo they off loaded. I just haven't found a listing for the Catawba Wine Bitters yet.
The Catawba Wine Bitters comes in various shades of green and amber colors and the earliest examples have an iron pontil. These bottles are considered rare with possibly only twenty to thirty examples known in any color.
The Catawba was marketed up here in the northern mines area of the gold country and I, personally have dug several broken examples of this bottle. I found a beautiful iron pontiled medium green Catawba broken in place at the old settlement of Chaparral Hill. Another dark green iron pontiled example was crus
hed by a large champagne bottle at a cabin site above Indian Valley. Other broken examples of pontiled and smooth base Catawba's have been discovered at Morristown, Downieville and Monte Cristo..
To date I haven't scored an intact Catawba..... but there's always tomorrow!
In March 1860, a ship bound for San Francisco port foundered off the coast of California. The cargo listed on the shipping manifest by the insurance company for claim was listed 1100 cases of Catawba Wine Bitters.
ReplyDeleteSo somewhere off the coast of Northern California are 13,200 bottles lying on the ocean floor.
That's my mantra, too. For the life of me, I can't seem to dig that majorly elusive bottle. Had a chance to dig one some years ago, but blew it off and others scored it. DOH!! A few have come from El Dorado Co as well, in particular Bryant's Meadow. One that I am aware of was dug at 21st and M Sts in Sacramento by Craig Gildart, a local digger from the past.
ReplyDeleteOne was just dug in Marysville last month by Lou
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, before spreading false information & rumors you may want to re evaluate the source of your second hand information because it wasn't dug there.
ReplyDeletewww.oldwestbottles.com
a very hard bottle to find dug many broken one ar Aurora
ReplyDeleteIt would appear that Geo. Grimes was the SOLE, "sole agent". While Not based on research, throughout decades of collecting Bitters and doing Eastern/Midwestern shows, I've never heard of one being dug out East. I consider it a WESTERN Bitters!
ReplyDeleteHoooo raaay,
ReplyDeleteI love Western bitters!
rs
GP, don't you understand that some folks thrive on rumors and innuendo? So and so dug a killer bottle in Whatever town. No s**t?! We better head there pronto. LOL
ReplyDeleteI, for one, have always considered the Catawba to be an exclusively Western product. Froggy has reiterated what we locals have determined to be the case.
Warren, what exactly are the coordinates of the shipwreck you alluded to?
Where can I buy a wet suit, Can't seem to find one of them darn Catawba's on land.
ReplyDeleters
OLD CUTTERS, It's for that very reason that we don't disclose where we've been and give the same ol heavily dug safe answer when interrogated, good luck finding something un-dug there my friend. Any well seasoned digger knows that it's the wanna be's that can screw things up for you, it's been a hard lesson well learned by us long ago.
ReplyDeleteI will say that it's been my experience that these bottles are found throughout much of the Gold Country, Sacramento Valley, extreme Northern Cal Coast & the Bay Area here in California. Most all evidence I've encountered from those zones were iron pontiled and dark green. It seems like the majority of the non pontiled ones are not dug in the West and come in a wider variety of colors.
The treacherous rocky coast line off the shores of Point Arena saw more ships go down there in the 19th century than perhaps any other place along the coast and may be a good place to look. Lets set the Fox man up and get him out there !
www.oldwestbottles.com
you said it g p
ReplyDeletemole man
We seen them guys digging a few times with their backhoe on a property in our area recently and has one of the holes pictured on his website. They dug a long skinny trench down at least 15 feet, it was scary, you wouldn't get my old bones down that deep. They let us detect their piles once, found a few tiny bottles, three coins a Civil War buckle and other junk. I'm new to bottles, live in the East Bay and will help others dig if I can detect and have a few of the finds.
ReplyDeletePaul
I have done a fair amount of diving off the North Coast and it isn't a venture for the faint of heart. One time, my buddy and me were dragged into a rockpile by the extreme current and the situation was not good. That was in water less than 60', so anything deeper out there is beyond my limitations.
ReplyDeleteRick, you sure stirred up a SEA of interest here. I note with interest Roger Terry's "GREENOMETER" on the Western Glop Top Whiskey site...Roger how 'bout developing a seaworthy CATAWBA-OMETER!
ReplyDeleteFRIGID FROGGY EATIN'WISCONSIN CHEESE
(Which has obviously gone to my head)
A very nicely textured (lots of "orange peel" and heavily whittled), shiny and damage free early smooth based Catawba was found today in Williamsburg Brooklyn on the waterfront. Thought I'd put it on record for those of you who keep track.
ReplyDelete