Dana Charlton-Zarro & Joe Zarro
In case you have not noticed, Jim Hagenbuch and Glass Works Auctions has an incredible collection of strap-sided flasks from the late Joe Zarro. Wow, what color and forms! Super photography too. I thought I would gallery these images. You can visit the ‘Cabin Fever’ Potpourri Auction for more descriptions and information.
The post(s) on Gary Katzen’s remarkable white milk glass collection (Read: Why White? or How the %$#@! did you choose that Category?) were fascinating and I was also lucky enough to see Gary’s display in Baltimore. What was not evident in all the pictures was a milk glass soda bottle. They are not common, and especially rare with a label. Of course there is one my collection . . . ginger ale, naturally. (See photo below)
Country Club Co. of Springfield, Mass. is the only soda bottler I am aware of that used milk glass, and very few of those bottles survived with a full label. Three examples have surfaced to my knowledge; two ginger ales and one Lime Rickey flavor. Mine was found pre-internet days through a response to a want ad in Antique Bottle and Glass Collector. The other ginger ale was on eBay years ago and the Lime Rickey was in some distant auction in Australia (really!).
But here is the question: “Why would a soda bottler use milk glass when nobody else was, and why did they get the idea to make bottles in that slender, tapered form?” The answer could be in the combined history of milk glass, Springfield, Mass., women’s golf, and a ginger ale competitor.
Country Club first registered their name for use in trade in 1901. The bottle in my collection has no maker’s marks; and nothing substantial on the company history turns up in research. But there is a massive amount of information on Springfield. In the 19th and early 20th century Springfield was a center of industrial innovation, precision manufacturing, and business success. From rifles, revolvers, and ice skates to automobiles and motorcycles, Springfield led the way. The city’s reputation for excellence in manufacturing even attracted Rolls Royce to establish its only factory outside of England, and between 1921 and 1931 several thousand Rolls Royces rolled out of Springfield, including this 1923-26 Silver Phantom. (See photo below).
With burgeoning wealth and prosperity, Springfield offered luxurious, ornate homes not just for the upper class, but also for its rising middle class. As mentioned in the milk glass post “Pieces made for the wealthy of the Gilded Age are known for their delicacy and beauty in color and design. . .” The “Gilded Age”, ended in the early 20th century, but its influence lingered. Milk glass was the mark of an elegant home with genteel taste and would have been a popular item in Springfield in the Gilded Age and beyond. (See photo of F.W. Lathrop house, 1899). This might partially explain why Country Club chose to use milk glass bottles even though the timeline of the bottle is circa 1929, after the Gilded Age.
The label on the bottle features a woman golfer from the late 1920s. Why a woman golfer? Massachusetts led the way in womens’ golf with an organization founded in 1900 which eventually became the Women’s Golf Association of Massachusetts in 1929. The scene on the Country Club label reflects the prosperity of Springfield, which afforded leisure time for golf, for both women and men.
That only leaves the question of the curious, tapered shape which is unusual in a soda bottle. Some of the most elegant pieces in Gary’s collection are tall, tapered examples (see image from Gary Katzen original post below). One might think this was the inspiration for the Country Club bottle shape, as elegance was certainly an objective in the 1920-30’s in Springfield. Perhaps, but maybe not. Clicquot Club Ginger Ale Company in the eastern Massachusetts town of Millis was an immense corporation with probably the largest bottling plant in the world at the time. Competing with Clicquot Club, especially in Massachusetts, was like Uncle Buddy’s Pop Works competing with Coke today. You had to find a unique angle to compete, and it had to be locally oriented. So, how did Country Club compete with Goliath?
During prohibition, around 1928, Clicquot Club produced an upscale brand called “Sec- Ginger Ale Supreme”. (See below Clicquot bottle). The shape of the bottle and the slanted neck label are remarkably similar to the Country Club bottle. I can just hear Country Club’s ad man advising: “Put up your ginger ale in the same bottle form and label type as Clicquot, but make ’em in milk glass and add a woman golfer on the label.” Did it work? Well, Country Club survived until the 1960s, but I don’t think it was because of the milk glass marketing scheme. If it was, why didn’t many, many more of the milk glass soda bottles survive? Maybe the country club set in Springfield just didn’t buy into elegance and mystique being in a milk glass bottle of ginger ale. However, this post does. . .
Read more below on Ginger Ale from authority Ken Previtali. This will join the very popular Ginger Ale Page on Peachridge Glass. See Ken’s Ginger Ale display at the FOHBC 2013 Manchester National Bottle Show – Manchester Display Photo Gallery
Don’t Bogart that Gin . . . ger Ale
The Diamond Ginger Ale Bottle House
Working on the “Bitters Please” post, I used a picture of Carrie Nation, that adorable leader of the Temperance Movement. It got me thinking, did she ever smile in any of her pictures? Granted, less people smiled back then when posing, with the intimidating photography equipment, by wow, girl, did you ever smile? Maybe when you have an ax in you hand it is difficult to relax those facial muscles.
A smile seems to have a favorable appeal to us and makes one likable and more approachable. You relax when someone smiles. Among humans, it is an expression denoting pleasure, sociability, happiness, or amusement. This is not to be confused with a similar but usually involuntary expression of anxiety known as a grimace which is a type of facial expression usually of disgust, disapproval, or pain. Smiling is something that is understood by everyone, regardless of culture, race, or religion; it is internationally known.
Carrie Amelia Moore Nation (first name also spelled Carry; November 25, 1846 – June 9, 1911) was an American woman who was a radical member of the temperance movement, which opposed alcohol before the advent of Prohibition. She is particularly noteworthy for promoting her viewpoint through vandalism. Nation frequently attacked the property of alcohol-serving establishments (most often taverns) with a hatchet.
Nation was a relatively large woman, almost 6 feet tall and weighing 175 pounds with a stern countenance. She described herself as “a bulldog running along at the feet of Jesus, barking at what He doesn’t like” and claimed a divine ordination to promote temperance by destroying bars.
Responding to the revelation, Nation gathered several rocks – “smashers”, she called them – and proceeded to Dobson’s Saloon on June 7. Announcing “Men, I have come to save you from a drunkard’s fate,” she began to destroy the saloon’s stock with her cache of rocks. After she similarly destroyed two other saloons in Kiowa, a tornado hit eastern Kansas, which she took as divine approval of her actions.
She began her temperance work in Medicine Lodge by starting a local branch of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and campaigning for the enforcement of Kansas’ ban on the sales of liquor. Her methods escalated from simple protests to serenading saloon patrons with hymns accompanied by a hand organ, to greeting bartenders with pointed remarks such as, “Good morning, destroyer of men’s souls.”
Nation continued her destructive ways in Kansas, her fame spreading through her growing arrest record. After she led a raid in Wichita her husband joked that she should use a hatchet next time for maximum damage. Nation replied, “That is the most sensible thing you have said since I married you.” The couple divorced in 1901, not having had any children. Go figure?
Alone or accompanied by hymn-singing women she would march into a bar, and sing and pray while smashing bar fixtures and stock with a hatchet. Her actions often did not include other people, just herself. Between 1900 and 1910 she was arrested some 30 times for “hatchetations,” as she came to call them. Nation paid her jail fines from lecture-tour fees and sales of souvenir hatchets.
These two pictures are the best I could do without turning one of the top ones upside-down looking for that smile. Like most anyone, I suspect she was warm to some and was different within her photographic shell. I sure would run if she marched into a bar or tavern I was frequenting.
There are some big time bitters listed in this 1882 notice in the Chicago Tribune. Alcohol tables were pulled from the Temperance Advocate. It is interesting that they classified the bitters in three classes, First Class: Those apparently manufactured for a Beverage, Third Class: Those whose medicinal properties or bitter taste render them unfit for a beverage. Second Class: Those occupying a middle place between a medicine and a beverage. These are not as palatable as No. 1, though they may be drunk as a beverage and like No. 1, are intoxicating.
I wonder who grouped and taste-tested these bitters?
Bitters article within the 21 December 1882 Chicago Tribune
In May 2012, I did a post on The Celestial Dr. Planett’s Bitters and came across various newspaper advertising centered from 1848 to 1863. I did not include the advertising in the post because it always bothered me that the advertising excluded the “DR” that is embossed on the bottle. Who was this Dr. Planett? Was he the original proprietor? Was it just a brand name. I still do not know.
The 1860 Fisher & Winston advertisement below says, “The Celebrate Tonic has been used successfully for the past twelve years” putting an origin date of 1848 on the brand. The location must have been New York City though this brand was also sold in many places such as Virginia, North Carolina and California. A bottle was even found off the coast of southern Florida (pictured at the top of post).
I believe the later advertising may have been for unloading excess, dated inventory such as the “25 Cases of Planett’s Bitters” for auction in San Francisco.
Planett’s Bitters advertisement – New York Daily Tribune, May 29, 1850
Planett’s Bitters advertisement – The Newbernian and North Carolina Advocate
24 September 1850
Planett’s Bitters advertisement – Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, New York, December 10, 1850
Planett’s Bitters advertisement – New York Daily Tribune, May 29, 1852
Planett’s Bitters from New York being sold by Fisher & Winston – Richmond Daily Dispatch, 17 March 1860
25 cases of Planett’s Bitters for Auction – Daily Alta California (San Francisco), 27 February 1863
I have had some conversations and correspondence with Frank Bishop (South Carolina) the past year or so and was intrigued when he sent me this picture of a pontiled, Fisher & Winston medicine (top of post) from Richmond, Virginia. Fisher & Winston were listed in 1860 as Wholesale Druggists at 125 Main Street in Richmond.
James R. Fisher and Edmund T. Winston partnered together in Richmond, Virginia in October 1857 and advertised heavily in Virginia and North Carolina within the Richmond Dispatch and other Virginia newspapers of the period. They were Druggists, sole agents and sold many products such as Tyler’s Compound Syrup of Gum from Baltimore, Planett’s Bitters from New York, Baker’s Premium Bitters from Richmond, Spalding’s Rosemary and Castor Oil from Boston, Burnett’s Superior Extracts, Hartshorn’s Buchu Compound, Rockbridge Aluminum Water, Mrs. Daw’s Cough Elixir and London Club Sauce, among many others.
Fisher & Winston advertisements stopped in late 1860. James Fisher was listed as a druggist in the 1870s and later shows up as Fisher & Conrad in 1874 in Richmond.
A few advertisements and pictures of interest have been culled to support the post.
Broken Fisher & Winston Driggists, Richmond, Va. bottle – antiquemedicines.com
Fisher & Winston advertisement – Staunton Spectator, February 14, 1860
Fisher & Winston advertisement – Richmond Daily Dispatch, 16 March 1860
Planett’s Bitters from New York being sold by Fisher & Winston – Richmond Daily Dispatch, 17 March 1860
Baker’s Premium Bitters from Richmond being sold by Fisher & Winston – Richmond Daily Dispatch, 10 August 1859
Fisher & Winston advertisement – Richmond Daily Dispatch, 28 March 1860
CoPartnership of Fisher & Winston in October 1857 – The Richmond Daily Dispatch, October 15, 1857
Crenshaw & Fisher (George D. Fisher) Dissolution notice in 1858 – Richmond Dispatch July 1, 1858. George must have retired, moved on or passed on. There must be a relationship.
Interesting bitters bottle closing on ebay tomorrow that being the S.O. Richardson’s with the attached Civil War letter. See Listing. The description by nqac (99.7 Positive Feedback):
Wonderful piece of American History Bitters Bottle, South Reading, Mass, S.O. Richardson’s. Embossed on four sides of this early (1840s or early 1850s) bitters bottle from New England. Large and small air bubbles, What appears to be original cork. No chips, No fractures. Hand applied letter about why and who used this bottle which is amazing! This bottle containing French Brandy was used during the sickness of _ulton Ballard who died Feb 7th 1866 after several months illness with chronic diarrhea contracted in the Army during the war. He was a member of Co. D 34th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer. Aged 21 years 11 months. Amazing bottle and amazing story!
Read More: Dr. S.O. Richardson’s Jaundice Bitters – South Reading
Read More: W.L. Richardson’s Bitters – South Reading
Read More: 34th Regiment, Massachusetts Infantry
I did search online in a couple of areas and could not find a record of Ballard in the Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the Civil War – compiled and published BY THE ADJUTANT GENERAL in accordance with Chapter 475, Acts of 1899. I will keep looking.
Yesterday on Daily Dose and PRG Facebook I posted the above picture and said, “Whew, been away since Tuesday. Very busy. How about a dose every three days? It is nice to be back for the weekend, especially when there are three bottle boxes at the office waiting for me to open when I get home to Peachridge! One from the East, one from the West and one from the North. Nothing from Mexico.”
I received a few emails and comments on Facebook like, “Don’t keep us waiting for too long!” so I thought I would give you a tease and test out my iPhone X-ray Ap. Here is a clue and a few pics….
Elizabeth took a picture of me taking my new Drakes to the window. Obviously still had the X-ray filter on.
Wow, if I had X-ray eyes and saw my Drakes in inverted colors I would have lots of blue ones!
You may remember the Catedral do Whisky virtual museum link back in October 2013 (top of post). I was looking at it again last night in relation to the FOHBC Virtual Museum project. This prompted some online searches where I came across the Scotch Whiskey Experience in Edinburgh, Scotland. One of the collections is the Diageo Claive Vidiz Collection. This must be the same guy for the virtual museum. Wow, would I like to go to Scotland and see this.
The Diageo Claive Vidiz collection is the largest whisky collection in the world. It consists of 3,384 bottles. The collection was built up over the course of 35 years by Brazilian Claive Vidiz. Vidiz began his collection in 1973 after receiving a number of bottles from fellow directors of pharmaceutical companies. The collection includes one of only 100 bottles ever produced of Strathmill single malt, which celebrated the distillery’s 100th anniversary in 1991. Also in the collection is a limited edition scotch, Dimple Pinch, bought by Mr. Vidiz in 1969 for $1,000. It was the most expensive limited edition whisky on the market at the time.
Claive Vidiz Beverages company Diageo bought the collection in 2008 for an undisclosed figure. Each bottle was individually packaged by fine art specialists and the entire collection transported by ship from Brazil to the UK. Mr Vidiz said at the time: “To split up a collection which I have devoted more than 35 years of my life to would have broken my heart so I am truly thrilled Diageo has purchased it in its entirety.” Bryan Donaghey, managing director of Diageo Scotland, commented: “We are delighted to have worked with Claive to bring this wonderful collection safely back to Scotland and to play a part in preserving its legacy and historic significance.” The collection is currently on display at Edinburgh’s Scotch Whisky Experience. [wikicollecting]
Diageo Claive Vidiz Collection – Scotch Whiskey Experience – Edinburgh, Scotland – Flickr – Simon BP
Diageo Claive Vidiz Collection – Scotch Whiskey Experience – Edinburgh, Scotland – Flickr – Simon BP
Diageo Claive Vidiz Collection – Scotch Whiskey Experience – Edinburgh, Scotland – Flickr – Simon BP
Diageo Claive Vidiz Collection – Scotch Whiskey Experience – Edinburgh, Scotland
Diageo Claive Vidiz Collection – Scotch Whiskey Experience – Edinburgh, Scotland
Diageo Claive Vidiz Collection – Scotch Whiskey Experience – Edinburgh, Scotland
Diageo Claive Vidiz Collection – Scotch Whiskey Experience – Edinburgh, Scotland
Diageo Claive Vidiz Collection – Scotch Whiskey Experience – Edinburgh, Scotland
Diageo Claive Vidiz Collection – Scotch Whiskey Experience – Edinburgh, Scotland
Dear Mr. Meyer,
I am writing you in your capacity of president of the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors. I have a scholarly question. The caveat is that it’s about a bottle in a painting–but it’s a great work of art, so worth looking at. This is Manet’s well-known 1882 painting “A Bar at the Folies-Bergère.” (As you likely know, the Folies-Bergère is a French bar, a famous one at the turn of the century, which may matter to an assessment.) I will include a link to it as it is hung London’s Courtauld Gallery, which allows one to look very closely by zooming in, here: Virtual Tour Courtauld Gallery
My question is this: Do you have an opinion as to the likely contents of the bottle on the farthest left side of the canvas–the one which Manet has signed on its label? Does it look more like a bottle for a wine, an aperitif, a brandy, a cognac, or something else? Any thoughts you have would be appreciated, and you are most welcome to pass the question on to colleagues. Given the painting’s prominence, there may be existing literature on the bottles in this image–I have found none other than that to do with the Bass Ale bottles, and the champagne bottles.
Too, if you have any insights–or references to literature on–its cork, or capsule, or method of sealing (like all the others, this bottle appears unopened)–that would be of great interest. And as I say, if you have any references that deal with how a bottle containing such an alcohol in the late 19th century would be sealed that you can pass on, such a guide would be welcome.
Thank you for your time, and your indulgence. And again, do please feel free to pass this email on.
I set aside entirely the question of the label, but….Thank you again for your time.
Best, Jessica Burstein
—
Jessica Burstein
Associate Professor, Department of English
Adjunct Associate Professor, Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies
A101 Padelford Hall
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington 98195-4330
Interesting question. Quickly, and without enlarging the bottle or studying the painting, I guessed ‘Absinthe‘ which I understand may not be correct. To help with identification, I isolated and enlarged the subject bottle below.
In a follow-up e-mail, Jessica added “You can add that Bill Lindsey from the SHA/BLM Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website has just proposed red vermouth based on a 1906 USA bottle, and if I could find that the same bottle shape and alcohol was around in Paris in the 1880s, that would be good.”
Can any of you help here?
[From Marianne Dow] Discussions of this painting generally refer to the red bottles as being GRENADINE (red because it’s made from pomegranites) I cannot find a brand referenced. See Manet’s Last Painting
A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (French: Un bar aux Folies Bergère), painted and exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1882, was the last major work by French painter Édouard Manet. It depicts a scene in the Folies Bergère nightclub in Paris. It originally belonged to the composer Emmanuel Chabrier, who was Manet’s neighbor, and hung over his piano.
The painting exemplifies Manet’s commitment to Realism in its detailed representation of a contemporary scene. Many features have puzzled critics but almost all of them have been shown to have a rationale, and the painting has been the subject of numerous popular and scholarly articles.
The central figure stands before a mirror, although critics—accusing Manet of ignorance of perspective and alleging various impossibilities in the painting—have debated this point since the earliest reviews were published. In 2000, however, a photograph taken from a suitable point of view of a staged reconstruction was shown to reproduce the scene as painted by Manet. According to this reconstruction, “the conversation that many have assumed was transpiring between the barmaid and gentleman is revealed to be an optical trick—the man stands outside the painter’s field of vision, to the left, and looks away from the barmaid, rather than standing right in front of her.” As it appears, the observer should be standing to the right and closer to the bar than the man whose reflection appears at the right edge of the picture. This is an unusual departure from the central point of view usually assumed when viewing pictures drawn according to perspective.
Asserting the presence of the mirror has been crucial for many modern interpreters. It provides a meaningful parallel with Las Meninas, a masterpiece by an artist Manet admired, Diego Velázquez. There has been a considerable development of this topic since Michel Foucault broached it in his book The Order of Things (1966).
The art historian Jeffrey Meyers describes the intentional play on perspective and the apparent violation of the operations of mirrors: “Behind her, and extending for the entire length of the four-and-a-quarter-foot painting, is the gold frame of an enormous mirror. The French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty has called a mirror ‘the instrument of a universal magic that changes things into spectacles, spectacles into things, me into others, and others into me.’ We, the viewers, stand opposite the barmaid on the other side of the counter and, looking at the reflection in the mirror, see exactly what she sees… A critic has noted that Manet’s ‘preliminary study shows her placed off to the right, whereas in the finished canvas she is very much the centre of attention.’ Though Manet shifted her from the right to the center, he kept her reflection on the right. Seen in the mirror, she seems engaged with a customer; in full face, she’s self-protectively withdrawn and remote.”
The painting is rich in details which provide clues to social class and milieu. The woman at the bar is a real person, known as Suzon, who worked at the Folies-Bergère in the early 1880s. For his painting, Manet posed her in his studio. By including a dish of oranges in the foreground, Manet identifies the barmaid as a prostitute, according to art historian Larry L. Ligo, who says that Manet habitually associated oranges with prostitution in his paintings. T.J. Clark says that the barmaid is “intended to represent one of the prostitutes for which the Folies-Bergère was well-known”, who is represented “as both a salesperson and a commodity—something to be purchased along with a drink.”
Other notable details include the pair of green feet in the upper left-hand corner, which belong to a trapeze artist who is performing above the restaurant’s patrons. The beer bottles depicted are easily identified by the red triangle on the label as Bass Pale Ale, and the conspicuous presence of this English brand instead of German beer has been interpreted as documentation of anti-German sentiment in France in the decade after the Franco-Prussian War. [Wikipedia]
