D 102 – Arabesque Drakes Plantation Bitters – Meyer Collection

One of the Crudest Drakes You Will Ever See

18 December 2011

Rick DeMarsh over at RicksBottleroom.com asked me to send him a picture of one of my favorite Drakes Plantation Bitters. This is darn near impossible. I did send him a neat, soft, straw yellow example as one to consider for his Bottle of the Week post instead of one of my green examples. Well anyway, I was looking at my run and remembered this special Arabesque Drakes. It really is a heavy, crude monster.

I have posted a series of photos that I received from a prominent collector and dealer in the northeast five years ago this month. He stated that none of pictures quite nail the color but I think you will be able to get a sense of the crudity. The bottle is one that Don Keating sold at Skinners in the 80s (when he was acquiring the three blue bitters) and reacquired in the 90s. The early tags on the base include reference to Charles Gardner. This is a piece that you really need to have in hand in order to fully appreciate its beauty, as the color is maddeningly difficult to capture and it’s impossible to fully portray its heft, crudity and beauty through photography.

D 102 – Arabesque Drakes Plantation Bitters – Meyer Collection

The Carlyn Ring and W.C. Ham listing in Bitters Bottles is as follows:

D 102  DRAKE’S PLANTATION BITTERS, Circa 1862 – 1870

// s // motif arabesque / DRAKES / motif arabesque / PLANTATION / BITTERS enclosed in a rectangle // 3 tiers of thatching // tier of thatching
/ PATENTED / 1862 / tier of thatching // 3 tiers of thatching //
10 x 2 7/8 (6)
Square cabin, LTC, Applied mouth, Amber, Puce and Amethyst-Rare; Green-Extremely rare
17 logs including the base, 6 logs over the label panels

D 102 – Arabesque Drakes Plantation Bitters – Meyer Collection

D 102 – Arabesque Drakes Plantation Bitters – Meyer Collection

D 102 – Arabesque Drakes Plantation Bitters – Meyer Collection

D 102 – Arabesque Drakes Plantation Bitters – Meyer Collection

D 102 – Arabesque Drakes Plantation Bitters – Meyer Collection