Another Recent Find

 

 

 

Here's a couple of pictures of a recent find from an anonymous email I received this morning. Is that what I think it is?

Yep, it sure is! A crown shoulder J.H. Cutter fifth!

 

Super find from a Top Secret Digger. Love these anonymous emails with your recent finds. Keep digging! - rs -

WHOA!.............Make that two Crown Shoulder Cutter's in this pit.... DOUBLE the fun!
 

Yummy Medicine

 I am sure every collector has paused at some of the wild names early patent medicines used to lure the sick in to purchasing their products. King of Pain, Last Chance Liniment, Oil of Gladness, Royal Balsam, Blood Purifier, etc...the list of crazy brands is endless. Here is one fresh from the ground that takes the cake in my opinion. "Essence of Pancreas"???? Really? I would much rather consume essence of Jamaica Ginger any day! This is an 1880s medicine that I have never seen before. I understand it was from New York and I would be surprised if anyone was attracted to it's delicious name. My wife is trying to get me to take omega fish oil every day and it is disgusting. Better than this however.

 How about posting your most wild named patent medicine? I see that there are virtually no active posters lately but it would be fun to see some other crazy meds. DM

From Dale and Barbara Santos

Hi Rick,
hope you and Cherry are doing well. I wanted to share with you a photo of a very unique demijohn that I acquired, I believe it is of Western origin, orange amber in color,18 plus inches in height,

it has air vent bumps on the base and sides ( dimples ) and a seal ! The seal appears to have an image of the

 

 

American Flag, it is embossed R & D and under that it looks like it says March, wanted to share it with you,

kind regards, Dale and Barbara Santos

 

 Dale and Barbara collect demijohns and early American flasks and it is always nice to hear from them and post their new finds. I can't recall ever seeing a demijohn with a seal on the top

- rs -



Western flasks

Here are two recently dug western flasks that came out of the same pit. As you can see both flasks are from the same mold but have different top treatments.

The flask on the left has a double roll collar and the example on the right a single roll collar

 

 

 

Both flasks came out of the same glass house but may have been finished by different workmen.

Even though the top treatments are interesting what really caught my eye were the bases of the flasks

 

 

 

Yep....they both have the "western" star and both flasks do have some ground stain.

Sparkling out of the ground western glass....Nope!

Western blown....Yep!

 

Anyone out there have any star base flasks?

rs

 

 

Another Ferro Quina Bitters Surfaces

As you would expect after a Ferro Quina Bitters sold on ebay for over 2K up jumps another.

 

 

This new example has a "buy it now" option for over 2K

 

 

Hmm.... Don't think I will be the one throwing 2500 at a cracked bottle

rs

Post script to this post...The buy it now price on this bottle was lowered several times from the original asking price down to 1250. Later the same day the auction was ended without any info on why. I don't know if the bottle was purchased or the seller just pulled the listing after receiving several emails from some prominent western collectors straightening him out of the value of damaged bottles. Your guess is as good as mine...........

Post Post Script.......Looks like this bottle is back online for a buy it now price. The listing is HERE

A Recent Acquisition

Hi, Rick,

Here is the scoop!  Bottle find in Northern California in a consignment shop.  Bottle was obviously dug recently.  There was still dirt in the neck which had not been cleaned out! The digger (unknown) consigned the lady's leg fifth and was described as a young man.  I'm pretty sure he had no idea of the importance of the find, or it's value.

 

 

I have dug bottles for over 40 years and never ever as much as seen broken pieces of a Mills Bitters. I'm still pinching myself to have a nice find as this on my shelf!  Hope this poor person,  that gave away this mills,  soon joins a bottle club and learns about western bitters.  Wilsons' book places  this bitters as made in 1874. The bottle shows very little staining and will remain as found.Further research indicates the most specimens being found are in  Arizona and all are in need of professional cleaning.  Only  a few Mills Bitters have been dug in California.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Western Ferro Quina Bitters on ebay

A rare variant of the Ferro Quina bitters that just ended on ebay literally just about broke the bank.

 

 

Two or three bidders were slugging it out to put this possible unique bottle on their shelf.

 

 

When the dust settled the winning bidder shelled out over  2K for this rare bottle 

This Weekend

Time to start thinking about 2016 shootout , Three items a whiskey a bitters and a ?? Give me your thoughts .

The winning bottles from the Auburn 2010 IXL shootout