SACRAMENTO, CA.- American Bottle Auctions’ next big sale – Auction 65, with bidding set to start on Friday, June 29th and end on Sunday, July 8th – will cater to collectors from coast to coast, with rare and important Western whiskies, rare bitters examples from East and West, soda bottles from Kentucky and Arizona, plus Western, early American and Masonic flasks.
Also offered will be a thorough selection of medicine bottles – Eastern and Western examples – as well as some great teakettle inkwells and master inks that are certain to garner attention. Most American Bottle Auctions online sales are weighted in favor of Western bottles, but Auction 65 will have an equal number of fine Eastern bottles. In all, around 250 bottles will come up for bid.
“Western whiskies have come on hard times but can still sell for decent numbers depending on the variant,” said Jeff Wichmann of American Bottle Auctions. “That’s especially true when you have the best of the best. We’ll try to oblige with Gold Dust Whiskey bottles in four different variants, a fine showing of Cutter bottles and dozens of other examples in excellent condition.”
A Gold Dust Barkhouse Brothers Kentucky Bourbon bottle (N. Vanbergen, Sole Agents), with applied top, boasts a mint grade of 9.5 out of 10. The bottle, produced circa 1871-1874, medium amber in color with lots of whittle, is one of nearly all of the variants known in this auction, all of which are in outstanding shape. Gold Dust was named after a famous race horse of the time.
Another whiskey to watch is a Turner Brothers (N.Y.) barrel-shaped quart bottle, reddish amber (or puce) in color and a strong example with an 8.5 grade. Turner Brothers also marketed bitters bottles, but this one is believed to be a whiskey. Fans of Western flasks will be wowed by the Goudie & McKeley Peppertree Saloon (San Pedro, Calif.) coffin-shaped amber flask, graded 9.9.
Other Western flasks will include some rare pumpkinseeds and amber flasks, plus an Arlington flask. Tops among the early American flasks is a beautiful Lafayette GI 86 bottle in the half-pint size, a nearly perfect piece of glass in a medium olive amber color. The flask, showing a bust of Lafayette (Coventry / C-T – Liberty Cap / S & S) grades 9, just for the wear, otherwise perfect.
The rare bitters bottles, representing both coasts, will feature a run of Drake’s Plantation Bitters, including a green example and a purple variant, both in mint condition; a run of National Bitters shaped like an ear of corn; and some lovely Western bitters, including the Henley’s IXL Bitters, an Alex Von Humboldt, a Lacour’s bottle, a dozen rare amber squares and other rare examples.
A Horse Shoe Bitters H 189 bottle (Horse Shoe Medicine Co., Collinsville, Ill.), with embossed galloping horse and tooled top, one of only a few known, is amber in color and graded mint 9.5. Also, a Baker’s Orange Grove Bitters bottle with applied top, smooth base, roped corners and a great name and shape, colored a nice orange amber and with light overall crudity, is graded 9.9.
An Original Pocahontas Bitters bottle, aqua in color, is graded a 9.8. Also, a Great Universal Compound Stomach Bitters bottle, patented 1870 (Professor Geo. J. Byrne, New York, USA), with applied top and an unusual flower design base, medium to deep amber, is graded at 9.5.
Sodas are a big hit with collectors. The sale features some rare bottles from Kentucky, to include the Garrison, J. Brosee Maysville and Lamppin’s Mineral Water, all from Kentucky. A genuine head-turner is the blue-green Geo. Eagle soda with applied top and iron pontil, an unusual bottle with a unique ribbed design having a beautiful color. It’s had a repair to the back top of the lip.
A J. Brosee (Maysville, Ky., formerly known as Limestone) Mineral Water bottle, circa 1848-1861, with an applied top and graphite pontil, was sold at a prior American Bottle Auctions sale, in 2008, for $7,500. Also, an early and rare J.W. Garrison Bullit (St. Louisville, Ky.) soda bottle with applied top and open pontil, covered with whittle and crudity, is a beautiful emerald green.
A Lamppin’s Mineral Water (Louisville, Ky.) bottle with applied top and smooth base, colored a brilliant medium green (not aqua, as in another example), has been cleaned and as a result is graded an 8.5. From the medicines category, a Wynkoop & Co. Tonic Mixture bottle (N.Y., “Warranted to Cure Fever & Ague”), 6 ½ inches tall, with applied top, open pontil, is graded 8.5.
Interested bidders may register for Auction #65 now, on the American Bottle Auctions website, at www.americanbottle.com. The lots will be numbered in consecutive order. Invoices will be issued after the auction unless American Bottle Auctions is instructed otherwise. A 15 percent buyer’s fee will be applied to all purchases. Inquires may be made to info@americanbottle.com.
Standard auction rules will apply. American Bottle Auctions does not do callbacks but, rather, has a 10-minute rule that applies to bids at the end of the auction. In essence, every bidder has a last opportunity to make a last winning bid. An online printable color catalog will be available soon, and all of the lots will be photographed and displayed in pictures and a streaming video.
Every effort will be made to present the items as close as possible to the real bottle. Additional pictures or videos are available on request. Potential customers are encouraged to come by the American Bottle Auction showroom, for an in-person look at all the bottles in the sale, although an appointment must be made in advance. To schedule an appointment, call (800) 806-7722.
