Looking for a needle in a haystack.

I recently acquired a bottle that first surfaced in the late 1960's. It's nothing to look at. Just your basic tooled orange amber cylinder fifth, embossed Cunningham / Distilleries Co. Inc. / San Francisco / Cal.

 

 

Wilson showed a picture of the embossing  and dated it ca. 1900 - 1903. He said that it was extremely rare. Barnett also listed it in the Western Whiskey series. It appears on page 51 as #209 in the 4th edition, called it scarce, and dated it 1900 - 1904. But just how accurate was the dating, I wondered.
 

The bottle is heavily air vented at the shoulder with multiple fine dots present, and well made, making me lean toward the post earthquake era. There's no base mark, so no way to identify it's glass house of origin.
 

How either author was able come up with a circa date of 1900 - '03 or '04 is beyond me. Inquiring minds want to know, so I poured through the S.F. directories from the late 90's up to prohibition. I could find no listing, period. Nothing in the "white pages", nothing in the business listings for distilleries, and nothing under liquor wholesalers and or retailers. Finally, I located it quite by accident, in the Walter S. Fry Co. / S.F. - Oakland directory of 1907; Volume 3
 

 

 

on page 119 in the white pages only.
 

 

 
Here's a photo of their location;

 

 

 

 

Looks more like a bank than a distillery, doesn't it?

And so, mystery solved thanks to the needle in the haystack. Why the Crocker directories elected to ignore them is a mystery~
 

I don't recall ever seeing another, so will have to agree with Bill Wilson in his classification of extremely rare. Cunningham Distilleries Co. Inc. was yet another low budget preverbal flash in the pan of the San Francisco wholesale liquor game, lasting for, at most, one year; 1907.

It's a joke, son.

Seems to me that I remember a cartoon program from my childhood with that recurrent line. Huckleberry Hound, or some such nonsense.

 

I guess that applies to ebay as well.

I spotted this listing tonite for a nice meat 'n taters western whiskey that belongs in every entry level collection;

"Vintage Barner and Kehlenbeck San

Francisco Cal. Whiskey Bottle Liquor Brown

Item number: 231002979441

Great vintage piece. Condition is excellent. There are some bubbles. Please ask any questions and look at the pictures. "   Interesting camera angle. Seemed innocent enough, until I looked at the rest of the photos; HUH?   I guess it's one of those 9.8 condition offerings, (except for the "minor" this 'n that). But then I spotted the name of the seller; steviewonder2002     It's a joke son. At least I sure hope it is!

 

 

Coming up Next~ RRRRRRRReno!

50th Annual Reno Antique Bottle Show

 

June 28th and 29th (Friday & Saturday) 

 

Show Hours:

Friday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm, Saturday 9:00 am – 4:00 pm,

Friday Early Lookers 9:00 am for $10~

Saturday General Admission 9:00 am $5~

 

At the Grand Sierra Resort

 2500 East Second Street, Reno, Nevada

 

 

 

Info; Marty Hall rosemuley@att.net or 707-852-6045

Hope to see you there!

A real diamond!



The legendary Diamond Saloons

(Kennett & Hilt California)

Victor Eugene Warrens was born February 14, 1876 in Missouri. He was a son of an immigrant farmer, August Warrens, born ca. 1842 in Prussia, and Amanda Elizabeth Keller, born ca. 1850 in Virginia. He was known as "Slim Warren".

As you may know, Kennett Ca, is now at the bottom of the huge man-made Lake Shasta.

Back in it's heyday, it was one of several towns with large copper ore mining operations in the vicinity around the turn of the 20th Century. Mining, coupled with it's close proximity to the Southern Pacific Railroad, insured Kennett's success and it rapidly grew to become the largest (and friskiest) of these towns.

In the early 1900s, there were 40 saloons in Kennett.

The Diamond Saloon was known far and wide as "THE place to go" to get watered down. The atmosphere, ambiance, level of service and quality of goods were unsurpassed. The Diamond Saloon even distilled and bottled its own whiskey. Something that will be of interest shortly.

The saloon pictured was built in 1905 by Victor "Slim"

Warrens in Warren's Diamond Hotel at Kennett. It was named the Diamond Saloon by Warren because of his passion of diamonds. A passion that was a double edged sword; both providing a comfortable lifestyle, and nearly costing him his life.

It was said to have been the fanciest drinking spot between Portland and San Francisco. Furnishings included a "150 ft. long redwood bar", beveled glass mirrors, grape shaped Tiffany chandeliers, and revealing paintings of nearly nude women, courtesy of the liquor wholesalers who contributed generously to the cause. It even sported risque frescoes on the ceiling of equally scantily clad "ladies".

It was a very popular place and was frequented by the thousands of mining men who worked in the nearby copper mines and smelters in the hills above town. It was open 24 hours a day and employed 16 men on each of the three shifts to wait on the many customers.

When Shasta Lake began filling with water in the 1940s, the hotel and saloon still existed and were left standing. The photo below pictures the main street of town as the lake was being filled around 1940. Kennett now sits quietly in the deepest part of Shasta Lake.

His other saloon was located about 120 miles north, also alongside the Southern Pacific tracks, then the main arterial connecting Northern California and Southern Oregon.

Hilt was a large company logging town on the California / Oregon border, dating to just after the turn of the century).

This was the site of Warren's northern outpost who's claim to fame was such;

Daring Hold-Up at Hilt

One of the boldest and most daring robberies that ever took place occurred in his saloon at Hilt. On Saturday night November 16, 1912, two masked men entered the saloon of Victor E. Warren and with drawn revolvers, held up some fifteen men that were in the saloon at the time. The men were covered by the bandits and forced to line up against the wall and were then relieved of whatever cash they happened to have.

Warren, who had a diamond ring which is valued at $1,500, took the ring off and threw it in a corner of the saloon, thinking that the robbers would not see it, but they made a search for it and found it and took it along with the money that they had stolen.

The robbers went through the cash register and got $94.50 out of it. One man was relieved of $65 in cash and some checks on a Portland bank, various sums taken from other men, and it is thought that the amounts stolen would aggregate considerably over two thousand dollars. The hold-up occurred at 10:12 p.m., a bullet from one of the guns went through the clock which stopped at that time. The two men that did the job were thoroughly masked and there is no description of them, other than that one was about 5 feet 6 inches tall, and the other one about 5 feet 1 inches tall. The men were apparently smooth shaven and both wore new belts and pistols. Warren rushed behind the bar and got a revolver and commenced firing on the bandits and emptied his revolver, but without effect. The bandits also returned his fire, but there was no one hit. It is understood that seven shots were fired, and it is a mystery than not one was not killed. A mirror behind the bar was broken, and one shot went through the clock putting it out of commission.

The saloon at Hilt (at least the buildings shell) remained until just a few years ago. It had been relegated to the status of a warehouse and all interior furnishings had long since been removed. Sadly, it was consumed by fire and only the stone foundation now remains.

 Although not common, there are a few tokens in collections.

There are no reported examples of embossed whiskey bottles in existence, be they cylinders or flasks. However, a paper labeled example of a clear fifth, (rumored to exist since the 1950's), recently resurfaced after being squirreled away in a Southern Oregon closet collection for decades!

Talk about an extreme rarity! It is unique.

And look at the graphics!

And so, we are left with a few tokens, photographs,  postcards, memories, and (and one bottle) to remind us of the flamboyant

V. E. Warrens and his passion for The Diamonds.

___________________________________

A quick PS: Based on papers that accompanied the bottle, it appears that "Slim" not only distilled his own whiskey, but also "imported" hard cider from north of the state line.



W. J. Van Schuyver & Co. / San Francisco

I know, you think "he's finally lost it".

Everyone knows that W. J. Van Schuyver & Co. was located in Portland, Or. William J. was one of the "old timers" in the Portland liquor scene, having entered the "trade" with Levi Millard in 1866.

 

 

They initially located on First St., near Oak. Later, they relocated to Second St. Levi died in 1877 and William became the sole owner, changing the name to Van Schuyver & Co. They maintained the offices and warehouse at the same Second Street address for the balance of the firms tenure. It's also common knowledge that Van Schuyver entered into a partnership with Lilienthal & Co. of San Francisco. I've seen more than one embossed Van Schuyver with the neck foil for Cyrus Noble (a flagship brand of Lilienthal / Crown Distilleries). William J. continued to be a powerhouse in the Portland wholesale liquor trade right up until his death on January 7, 1909. Subsequent to Williams death, his son, William O. took over the reigns as manager.

Getting back to the San Francisco connection... No, I haven't lost it. I got a call a few days ago from a friend who occasionally comes across some off the wall whiskey items. He lives up north and has a nose for the good stuff, and the abstract. He asked if I knew that Van Schuyver had an office in San Francisco. The obvious answer was "no, they were a Portland firm". The package arrived in the mail today. So much for Portland...

 

(again, click on the images and they will open in a separate window as as high resolution full sized jpeg)

 

 

The question begs, why San Francisco? I found the answer in the Pacific Wine, Brewing and Spirits Review of 1916. Not an advertisement though; it was a narrative of a speech that William O. Van Schuyver  had given. The speech provided details of the disastrous effects that prohibition had effected on Portland during the first two weeks since it's enactment. Yes, Oregon had been forced to "go dry" on January 1, 1916. Immediately, all stores of liquor were subject to confiscation and destruction at the hands of police. And so, William O. Van Schuyver, under the guise of presenting an anti prohibition speech, arrived in San Francisco by train on January 18th "to attend to some personal business". He returned to Portland Oregon the first week of February after giving his speech.

I dug through any and all records I could come up with for San Francisco in 1916, that would link wholesale liquor interests in "The City" to Van Schuyver and came up empty. It appears that William covered his track well in terms of his "personal business". And so, I'll try and fill in the blanks with a little conjecture.

Rather than allow the wholesale looting of his warehouse by police, and suffer complete and total financial ruin, William made a trip to San Francisco, met with the principals of Lilienthal and or Crown Distilleries. He probably made arrangements to have his entire inventory transported by rail car / cars to their warehouses. He then secured a post office box and made the transition from a brick and mortar Portland liquor dealer to a mail order dealer based out of a P.O. Box in San Francisco. The idea wasn't new since several counties in Oregon had been dry as early as 1914. The Southern Pacific gladly transported "plain brown wrapper" cases of whiskey to thirsty Oregonians by rail and no one was the wiser. Starting in 1915, Fleckenstein & Mayer (later Mayers), also a Portland concern, maintained a huge liquor warehouse in Hornbrook Ca., just over the border from Oregon, for just such a purpose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so, the whiskey that had been distilled and casked in Portland, Oregon in 1911 was given a second chance at life, reborn as "Old Bailey Straight Whiskey 1916", and welcomed with open arms by the thirsty citizens of the Beaver State. All this despite the best efforts of the prohibitionists.

 

 

You just gotta love paper labels!

Well OK!

Henry Campe was a true survivor, lasting through at least three failed partnerships. In addition to stints with Wolters and Siebe (at different times), I found reference to a short lived partnership with a Henry Decker in 1880. It didn't last long though (a matter of mere months) and Decker died in September of that year. Campe also must have had a pretty pliable temperament considering the different personalities of two of his partners at various times; George Siebe and Henry Wolters. If one can believe newspaper accounts of the era, those two were as different as night and day. Maybe that's why Henry Campe decided to go it alone in either 1887 or 1888 (the first business directory listing for the firm was in Langley's 1888 edition). They located in the heart of the wholesale liquor district at 301 Front St. By the turn of the century, "& Co." included son Harry & George Harms, and the company was "on a roll".

 

(if you click on the following photos, they will open in a separate window as full sized high resolution images.

 

The paper graphics on his flagship product, Americus Club, are both ornate and colorful. The red, white and blue theme is patriotic, while the "OPS" at the top of the label let the buyer know immediately that this whiskey was something special at first glance. One of the labeled examples that I have on the shelf, a swirled shoulder square, states that the product is from an 1889 distilling.

 

 

 

Another, a half pint flask, states that the whiskey in this bottle was from an 1899 distilling. It appears that the Americus Club brand goes back further than previous authors and researchers thought, as most books state the age of the brand as being well post 1900.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not only were the bottles a work of art but so too, were the go-withs produced to promote the brand. These go-withs included shot glasses, tip and serving trays and even a pewter ashtray / match safe combination.

 

 

Rick just reminded me about one more go-with item that relates to the Americus Club brand; the miniature bottle. It's a "mini me" of the square squat fifth, right down to the swirled shoulders. They are rare.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Campe brand was "OK Extra". Although one text lists it as being ca. 1885, it could not date prior to 1887, which is when Campe established the firm of Henry Campe & Co.. Regardless, this was the earliest embossed mold made for the company. Embossed "Henry Campe & Co. / Old Kentucky / OK Extra / Bourbon Whiskey / San Francisco, Cal." it is the epitome of the western full faced fifth.
 

It was blown in clear glass and has a stippled glop top; another of the so called German Connection fifths. The embossing is rounded and chunky and the three examples that I've seen over the years have all been exceptionally crude and whittled. The clear glass is of a flint base, has an off caste (faint grey or straw) and will not turn purple. Thomas stated that he believed that there were a couple of dozen in collections when the 2002 edition of "Whiskey Bottles of the Old West" was published. If correct, this places the bottles rarity on a par with the SHM, John Van B / Gold Dust, and the J. Gundlach. Pretty heady company if you ask me...

 

 

 

 

What few collectors realize, is that there is a very similar bottle in existence which was blown here on the west coast at roughly the same time. Although the embossing pattern was cut to duplicate the glop top, (or visa versa), the actual lettering is crisp and extremely well defined, and the top is tooled instead of applied.




It is heavily air vented and neatly made when compared side by side with the glop.

Another anomaly is the presence of a distinct circle on the rear.

 

At first glance one might think that it was a half mold with the embossing slug plate removed and a blank installed. My thought is that it was actually a raised border for a paper label. The glass contains manganese dioxide and will turn purple if exposed to UV radiation (ie: sunlight). I would estimate that there are fewer than one dozen of the tooled tops in collections today; making it even rarer than the glop.

 

It took me thirty years to acquire the glop top that sits on my shelf, and another seven to add the tooled variant.

But alas, "it's just a tooled top". Such is life, It's still OK with me~

 Shot glass and tray photos courtesy of Robin Preston from the collection of the late great Ken Schwartz.