Woodgate & Company – Club House Gin
18 September 2014
NO PLEASURE CAN EXCEED THE SMOKING OF THE WEED
Ken Edward had this cool Woodgate & Co., Club House Gin bottle at the Downieville Bottle Show this past weekend. Ken let me photograph it (see above) while I said I would try to track down some information. Apparently some shards and a few complete examples have been found on the west coast while another example, and maybe more, were found in the New York area.
1860 Woodgate & Co., New York City, token front – Heritage Auctions
1860 Woodgate & Co., New York City, token reverse – Heritage Auctions
If we look at New York City from around 1857 – 1860 or so, we find a Woodgate & Company on 83 Water Street who were importers of brandies, wines, and gins. They were obviously in to tobacco too judging from the puffing gentleman. An advertising token supports this information (see above). Previously, in 1852, there was a Woodgate & Roome who were wholesale wine and liquor dealers, and importers located at 46 Vesey according to a New York City Directory. So we can lean towards New York City as the primary source of this bottle. This looks like we are talking about John H. Woodgate who was born about 1802 in England and was listed as a grocer as early as 1835 in New York City.
I am really wondering if this is the same Woodgate as Woodgate’s Plantation Bitters?Read: The Mystery surrounding the Woodgate’s Plantation Bitters
There is also another similar Western gin embossed Woodgate & Co. Clubhouse Gin. I dug one with a few friends about 3 or 4 years ago in the bay area, and know of two other diggers that dug about 6 broken and damaged examples, 1 mint. I can only account for two mint examples, and 3 intact examples…2 of those have big lip chips and the other a blown out hole in the corner. I will try to post a picture of the example I have later in the week…. – J.F. Cutter Extra (Western Bitters News)
We dug this last week and are trying to put an approximate value on it for the split. I am guessing it is from NY – Antique-Bottles.net
I’m happy to see that Woodgate go to a good collection, and an even greater person — Congrats, Ken!
I had called Macintosh after the Santa Rosa show to try and buy it and he said that he didn’t see it laying around and must’ve sold it…to you, I’m assuming 😉
If so, Mac and I dug your example along with two other friends in the late Fall of 2007 in the East Bay Area. Mac ended up with it after the coin flip and picks took place. Oddly enough, about 2 weeks later, I saw a near identical example with a lip chip appear at the Auburn bottle show and quickly snatched it up. I traded that one to my younger brother a few years ago, so it’s not too far out of sight. The diggers I bought it from were the ones who found the Mint example (GoldenPlantation’s), two damaged examples, and pieces from about half a dozen others about an hour or so East of the Bay Area in another city.
Perhaps these are a New York bottle linked directly to that token? Nonetheless, they were certainly distributed to some extent out West. The only other Mint example I’ve seen was on eBay around 5 years ago. I think the pic from the Antiquebottlesforum is the same one Andrew posted after we all dug ours together (if I’m not mistaken)…We were attempting to find out if it was a bottle found exclusively in the West, or if East Coast diggers had unearthed them as well.
All for now,
Lance