AAA Old Valley

 The AAA Old Valley Whiskey flask is one of the most beautiful of the western flasks. These flasks have been found throughout the west and while not rare by any means, exhibit characteristics indicative of early San Francisco glassmaking. I believe these were made from the early 1870s to about 1878 or so. I know of one site which was only active from 1867-73 and know of several broken examples found there. These run the color spectrum from dark chocolate amber to light green, and every color in between. When I seriously collected early western flasks, I had AAA's in virtually every color. Often they are very crude with strong whittle effect. I have not seen an AAA with a label or a double roll top.
 There have been some AAA flasks dug as recently as the 1990s but I have not heard of any new finds since then. Like the Teakettle fifth, the key is to find an AAA with bold embossing, nice character, and good color...not always the easiest thing to do. I believe there are about 75 examples in collections...maybe more, but these impressive flasks remain very desirable to western collectors. I personally have never dug a mint AAA but it is on my wish list of bottles to dig before I keel over. Click on the photo to enlarge.