More on the Rare Peruvian Bitters

A while back we posted a short piece on the Peruvian Bitters that auctioned on ebay. This particular example is a  rare variant that does not have a monogram on the reverse side of the bottle.

Promotional Advertisement for Peruvian Bitters

 A.L. Bancroft & Co.: Birdseye View of San Francisco – 1880 - The aerial view, a true birds eye looking at San Francisco toward the West from a flying pigeon above, carrying a Peruvian Bitters advertising piece in it’s beak, issued as a color supplement from a San Francisco newspaper supplement.

 

According to comments that we received from that short post we believe that there are possibly two or three known examples of this bottle. One of these examples changed hands at a bottle show last year. It is not known if this bottle is the same example that sold on ebay recently.

The ebay auctioned Peruvian without the monogram

The second example was unearthed about eight years ago by a prolific San Francisco digger in the San Louis Obispo area.

 

"I have an example of this variant that I dug in San Luis Obispo about eight years ago. It is the same color as this one"

Numa G

"Western Bitters website notes that there are three known examples. Very possibly this is the first bottle used for this product before any of the distributors had their monogram put on the reverse side".

Bill Ham

 

"I believe it is the very first variant of this bottle. It is the only one I have ever seen, and if one is going after RARE and not only the beautiful, this example fills the bill. From a foot away, it looks like a $75 Peruvian, but is an important piece of western bitters history."

 Dale M.

 



 



Reverse side of the Peruvian without the monogram



Beautiful applied top on the recently auctioned Peruvian

 



 

Congratulations to the new owner of this rare Peruvian

 

Thanks to Peachridge Glass, Bill Ham, Dale M and Numa G for the information and photos - rs -