Check out the latest comments and posts! All good! Sacramento FOHBC Expo 2016

 

Now that the dust has settled, I'd love to hear how the show was. Sleepers? High points of the weekend? Auction? 

Shoot me an email or a comment, and I'll be happy to pass on your thoughts as an update to this post. 

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OK gang, here is the first "guest opinion". 

Let's keep them comin'!

#1)

Hi Bruce.

The Sacramento National was a good show overall. The entire event from Thursday was jam packed with activity and had something for everyone. The "General's Reception" was nice with hamburgers and great socializing. There were seminars too with my favorites being conducted by John Shroyer and Tom Jacobs.

The line to get in the show on the first day was huge and attendance by the public on Saturday was unbelievable. This had to be a record turnout for a National.

I bought extremely well but actual sales were disappointing. Maybe my prices were too high but most tables had bargains which sat for the entire show. Had my money not run out, I could have really loaded up. 

Forgot to mention the displays...they were amazing and well presented. I particularly liked the Gold Rush artifact and Benicia glass displays.

The auction was kind of odd with conflict between bidders and the auctioneers, a very late start time and painful cadence. I left at 11:00 pm and the auction was only a little more than half completed. The alcohol was flowing and did not mix well with glass. The bids were super strong though, and I am sure a few bidders woke up the next morning trying to justify the expense for damaged or common bottles. Pretty surreal event. 

Regards,

Anonymous

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Here are a few results of the whiskey portion of the auction mentioned above;

 










 





















 




 













 




 









 





 

 
 


























 

 





 










 
 

             

 A darn respectable showing, if you ask me, when the hammer price and the "juice" are added together!

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Back to the comments:

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Bruce,

     I attended the FOHBC show in Sacramento and sold from part of a table generously offered me by Dale Santos, major demi-john collector. The overall planning and operation of the show were just about perfect. The Bottles & Extras ads, the Facebook ads,  the reception, the breakfast, the seminars, the opening, the auction, the exhibits, the banquet all went perfectly.  The only aspect which wasn't perfect was local advertising. I didn't see any ads in the Sacramento Bee, in which all the stamp, coin, gun, rare book, paper, and antique glass shows (in fact, glass show will be at the same venue as the Expo this weekend) advertise. Tip O'Neill, former Speaker of the House, once said, "All politics is local."  While that may not be true of bottle shows, since people from all over the nation come, it is true that if bottle shows don't alert locals, including newbies, flea market hawks, and bring antique collectors, they won't be there. I hear all the time that we are in a dying hobby and we need new people. If we don't put the carrots in front of their noses, they won't be motivated. The few locals I saw heard about the show by word of mouth. Nevertheless, I did hear that the show broke all early looker fees, so advertising among serious collectors was effective.

    

 I think too much praise cannot be given to the FOHBC, Ferdinand and Elizabeth for the efforts,  Likewise Richard and Beverly Siri who spent an enormous amount of time and effort to run the show, pretty much flawlessly. The exhibits were all well done. What else to say?  A great weekend.  

Steve Abbott

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And another view

Hi Bruce,

I attended the FOHBC show Saturday morning. Didn't have an extra $60 for the Friday afternoon early lookers. We got there early waiting in the restaurant adjacent to the show entry hall.

Saw people starting to get up before 9am to buy tickets and get in line. Was in the first 20 folks in line. Soon after they opened the doors and let everyone enter.

I made it through most of the aisles before even making an offer. Prices for scarce local clear-glass druggists were often $30-50+ !! Jakes and spice bottles were nice to see but nothing I couldn't leave on the tables for $35.00.

By 10am many sellers were ready to deal. I asked about Friday early lookers. Sellers usually said they did OK on Friday for the most part.

I came home with a "full face embossed" SF hutch from Astorg Springs, a tooled crown from Mayfield (seller also had a Mayfield hutch), and a tooled crown from Imperial Ginger Ale Oakland.

Jason P. from San Jose

 

The simple joys of collecting~

Funny how life seems to come full circle. 

In the summer of 1966, while deer hunting on one of my families ranches down in California, I spotted a sparkle in the distance as the sun was setting. That sparkle turned out to be an unembossed whiskey flask, purpled by the sunlight of a hundred previous summers. I was hooked. I started "hunting bottles" on the ranch and found more. Bottle hunting evolved into bottle digging. A whiskey bottle was always a jewel in the crown. 

The other jewel I cherished was the friendships with fellow collectors that developed over the years.

In the early 1970's, I started trading and selling the stuff I'd dug in order to purchase more whiskies. Back then paper labeled whiskies could be had for the same price as one without. I liked the graphics and picked up honest labeled S.F. whiskies whenever I could. Fifty years, and over seven dozen labeled western whiskies later, my collecting tastes haven't changed that much. Neither has my appreciation for the friendships that I've developed.

A couple of weeks ago, good friend Medina and I headed south to an area on private property that I've had permission to detect and dig on since the 1980's. We've never dug anything exceptional, but it's great to get out in the woods and explore regardless. The area was logged via narrow gauge railroad at the turn of the century and the trash left behind by both loggers and railroad men is always interesting. We always seem to find something  and this past trip was no exception. We had a photo of a logging camp / railroad spur that clearly showed the layout of the little community in the woods. It made detecting pretty simple, since we knew where the cabins and tents had once been perched on the hillside. Sure enough,  brass buttons, lace up loggers boots, tin cans and a myriad of other metal "treasures" made their appearance.

Just as we were ready to pack up, my detector went off at the base of a tree. Swell, another tobacco tin... But wait, a sparkle appeared in the duff, just to the right of the tin, about a foot down. Well I'll be~ Nearly fifty years to the day, I'd dug another whiskey flask.

And the thrill was still there!

Recently, a friend of mine up north came up with a neat labeled S. F. "whiskey" (well actually a cordial / Rosenblatt & Co.) with full body and neck labels, plus the tax stamp; still corked with the lead seal fully intact. I touched base with him, and we struck a deal. I was going to have a friend pick it up for me, to save him the postage, at the Sacramento Expo since I won't be able to attend. Imagine my surprise when a few days later a parcel appeared for me at the post office from Tommy. Yep, he'd gone ahead and sent it anyway. A friend indeed!

An appreciation for neat but common dug bottles, labeled whiskies and treasured friendships molded my love for this hobby. 

A half century later - some things never change!

Happy Independance Day!

 

Artwork courtesy of Brownell's - Serious about our 2nd amendment rights since 1939.

2016 FOHBC National Antique Bottle Convention & Expo

 

 

2016 FOHBC National Antique Bottle Convention & Expo

 

Only five Less than THREE weeks 'till the largest antique bottle event happens in the western U.S. Four days of antique bottle activities among bottle collectors from 21 states! 
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All happening at Lions Gate Hotel and McClellan Conference Center, August 4th thru 7th. 
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Get the details at FOHBC.org  or Warren Friedrich, (530) 271-5757 or warrenls6@sbcglobal.net

2016 Sacramento National Antique Bottle Convention & Expo - FOHBC auction

From Fred Holabird: 

 

Hi thanks for the calls and all the help over time getting the word out on the FOHBC auction. I forgot to mention something important and need your help. I would greatly like to add some bottles from western states that help define bottle collecting in the West. Here’s what I’d like to see: Some western bottles that help define the state: Arizone: something like one of the Rattlesnake oil bottles. And a bottle marked “A.T.” or mining camps – Bisbee, etc. I will put in my own tombstone soda. Colorado: bottles from the mining camps that aren’t dirt common. I have a good selection from New Mexico now. Looking for Montana and Oregon pieces! We probably have California covered, unless I can find a Manzanita Cure, which would be great. Nevada – as I mentioned, I’ll pull from my collection. Washington – I’ll call a major collector I know. I need stuff within a week or so, if at all possible. 

 

MORE INFO

 

Paper labels and packing crates!

Royal Miller Whiskey

I hadn't heard of this one, and am betting that you haven't either.

Would you believe that it's a western brand? San Francisco to be precise. Nope, it's not listed in the California trade mark database that just became available either... 

Of course, none of us had heard of Sappho Brand either, until a few years ago when I acquired a label and contents bottle that had been found in a mine shaft in Nevada. 

The Royal Miller Whiskey brand was recently re-discovered while a gentleman "was helping a neighbor with cleaning out a house and came across a box that looked cool".

Yes, cool indeed!

 

Oh, and did I mention that the Sappho and 
Royal Miller Whiskey brands have a common denominator?

 

I'd date it post TOC based on the 25 oz. capacity and the style of the box construction (round nails and butt joints instead of dovetailed corner joinery). The brand must have been a total flop since it was never even recorded. I'd sure like to see what the paper labels looked like!

 

Ahh, the beauty of paper labels and packing crates!

Great find Dan!