Messenger for the Palace

The third time will not be the charm for this bottle. While working on this one, I had a vision of a Russell label to match the cigar box pictured below. Might be a nice combination.

There's also a square top box label that is pretty close to the same design as pictured below. My thinking is I should make a Bateman & Switzer Whiskey label of my own.

To me, either one of them is not really a very good likeness of Charlie. I can do better.

J. H. Owings, The Great Rocky Mountain Remedy

A year ago, I was chasing a bottle. The bottle I was chasing is a sought-after and very collectible bottle that Dr. J. D. Eastman had produced for an herbal remedy formula called Oregon Grape Root Bitters. When Owings purchased the business from Eastman, he also obtained all of the business paper. Included in the business was a very well done letterhead which included a paper label for his product, which went unused once he had the embossed bottles produced.

While attempting to locate a collector willing to give me a photograph of this bottle, I was told of the existence of an Eastman letterhead with the label.

The bottle this label was applied to may or may not have been embossed, but once I saw this letterhead, I knew exactly what I needed to do to add a labeled bottle to the Owings letterhead. The embossed bottle was placed on a bill of lading, and I posted it here.

J. D. Eastman, Oregon Grape Root Bitters

A Montana Union Railway Bill of Lading

J. D. Eastman of Deer Lodge, Montana Territory, was granted a patent for Oregon Grape Root Bitters in 1886. He sold out to a fellow by the name of J. H. Owings in 1887, as I have  a piece of Owings letterhead dated April 18th of that year. A fascinating letterhead depicting an Oregon Grape leaf:

J. H. Owings letterhead

This is a commissioned piece by a patron who first purchased a National Biscuit Company piece of paper on which I pictured the Uneeda Biscuit Boy back in 2012.

Yemassee Pure Rye Whiskey

Bateman & Switzer

The document is a letter from Dan Sullivan on his letterhead, to Bateman & Switzer, a Great Falls, Montana business that provided Wine, Liquor, Cigars and Billiard supplies to a great deal of Montana saloons and bars. The letter is dated July 9, 1904. The little vignette in the upper left hand corner is fascinating to me.

The bottle itself is a dug bottle from Unionville, a small mining community near Helena. It was given to me by a fellow here in town - a patron, actually. I used this bottle in November of 2011, and posted it HERE.

A month ago, I removed the Last Chance Whiskey label that was affixed to the bottle, and glued a good copy of a Yemassee label which I obtained from a bottle collector in Bozeman. I then had a Vietnam veteran friend of mine take a photograph of the bottle with whiskey in it. I worked from his photograph with his permission. I was told yesterday of a different Bateman & Switzer label with a different Indian depicted. I love these labels! 

Sody-Licious Too!

Back in 2009 when I was just getting my feet wet with this old paper business, I found two sheet of this letterhead in a large Priority Mail envelope filled with paper from a business in Spokane, Washington, called Northwest Chemical and School Supply. I began researching the company using the fabulous web resource called Google.

I found a gentleman in California who collects this type of bottle. It is called an ACL, which stands for Applied Color Label. These bottles are usually only one applied color, but some may have multiple colors. I had not seen what the bottle looked like, so I contacted the gentleman to see if he could supply an image. My request was answered in short order. Although I offered to pay for the photograph, he agreed to give me several photos in exchange for a scan of the letterhead that led me to him.

I had intended to portray the reverse side of the bottle on the second sheet of letterhead, but after considering my options, I decided to portray the front side as I had back in 2009. 

No matter how small or intricate the subject, you always discover something different the second time you approach it. This was no exception. My first attempt, I really abused the paper. This time I did not, and I'm happier with the color this time around as well.

And for the record, the reverse side has the following: "Famous Brands of Kittitas County and Sody-Licious Beverage Company".

AYER'S Patent Medicine With Lead!

You may have realized by now that one of my favorite subjects is glass. This is no exception.

We'll start with a description of the document since it is too large (8" X 14") to fit on my flatbed scanner. I have a number of pieces of Montana Drug Company paper that I have used before, and I've put glass bottles on all of them. The first piece I did can be viewed HERE, and the second one is HERE. Both of them were patent medicines. This one is no different.

There are four of Ayer's products listed on this billhead, and they are Sarsaparilla, Hair Vigor, Pills, and Cherry Pectoral. I used my trusty research tool (Google) to look at the glass containers for all four of these products, and the Hair Vigor was by far the most eye-appealing. From there I had to either get a photograph taken or obtain permission to use an already existing photograph as a model. To that end, I contacted Mr. Don Fadely, who has put together a web site called Hair Raising Stories, which describes many patent medicines and their containers. It was constructed to primarily aid the collectors of the glass containers and the labeling. The bottles are collectible.

The following was taken directly from the product description on Mr. Fadely's web site: 

(1) Dissolve 9 pounds of lead acetate in water; (2) add 9 pounds of cream of tartar, dissolved in water (as little water as will take it up); (3) wash this precipitate in water twice; (4) dissolve the precipitate in 30 pounds of solution of caustic soda (specific gravity 1.07); (5) add sufficient water to bring quantity to 13 pounds; (6) add 6 1/2 gallons of glycerine.

 The description was a rewording from the patent. An exact date for the sale of Hair Vigor in this bottle is a bit vague, and although the original bottling is still to be found, I believe this bottle was headed to a barber shop, as many barber bottles are very beautiful with good reason. 

The above is an example of an Ayer's Hair Vigor advertisement from 1900. Almost psychedelic. Don't look at it for too long...

Goodkind Brothers Metropole Whiskey

We'll begin this post with a little history.

Brothers Abraham L. and Edward I. Goodkind, and Meyer and Charles Wise operated a wholesale wine, liquor, and cigar business in Helena, Montana, from 1890 or 1891 until 1896 when the Wise brothers left the business. The Goodkind brothers continued their operation until Edward died on May 11, 1916. The preceding is directly from the Montana Historical Society Research Center.

This is my first finished piece of 2016, and I intend to submit this piece for the Lobby Show at the Western Heritage Artist Show and Sale beginning on March 16, 2016, at the Holiday Inn in Great Falls, Montana.

It is a back bar bottle with fluted shoulders and base, and although I have not seen this particular bottle, I have seen a similar bottle belonging to one of my first patrons. I used a photograph as a model for this piece, and the image was borrowed from another patron and original owner of this bottle.

The letterhead is dated 22 April, 1914, and the letter concerns the shipment of whiskey barrels to be returned to Goodkind Brothers from a Mr. E. M. Smith. I am not certain how this letterhead was acquired, but I assume it came from ether the C. W. Rank or S. R. Buford establishment records in Virginia City.

The Goodkind Brothers building still stands at the corner of 6th Avenue and what is now known as Last Chance Gulch. When this letterhead was originally printed, the street was called Main Street, and was indeed THE main street of downtown Helena. The building is now the beginning of a two block long walking mall that extends South on the gulch to Broadway, which roughly parallels 6th Avenue East and West.

Urban Renewal frankly decimated downtown Helena, and eliminated some of the rich historical buildings. This one survives.

Kickapoo Indian Oil

This is the second of two billheads from the Montana Drug Company in Butte, Montana, to C. W. Rank & Company in Virginia City, Montana, this one dated October 1st, 1904. If you will notice the second line item from the bottom is Kickapoo Indian Oil for the princely sum of $2.00. Unlike the Kickapoo Sagwa, I have no idea what the Indian Oil actually consisted of as far as ingredients.

This piece of paper is brittle on the right edge, and appears to have been water damaged at some point in its life. I found this piece, just as I found the Kickapoo Sagwa piece in a bound ledger from C. W. Rank & Company.

The image I used was provided to me by a lady by the name of Bertha Rowe, who also is a member of the Bottle Collectors Group on facebook. I became a member and posted an inquiry looking to find someone who could provide a sharp photograph of the Kickapoo Indian Oil bottle. She has a Thank You coming from me!

GOOD MEDICINE - Kickapoo Sagwa

A billhead from the Montana Drug Company in Butte, Montana, dated the 6th of May, 1903. The second line item grabbed my eye immediately when I found this billhead. The recipient of this order was C. W. Rank & Company, in Virginia City, Montana. This business was the first 'drug store' in the territory and hence in the state, and is still in business in this restored historical landmark. Virginia City was not the site of the first gold strike in Montana, but it was one of the richest. The image of the bottle is from a photograph by Elaine Selene, and I found it by doing a Google search for Kickapoo Medicine. "For the Relief of Biliousness, Constipation, Sluggish Liver". I have some serious questions about the cure of sluggish liver, since the alcohol content is 9 and 1/2 percent. This should probably be classified as Snake Oil, but we have a hung jury on that one. This piece of paper will go with me to Great Falls, Montana, for the Western Heritage Artist Show and Sale in March

Uneeda Biscuits and Last Chance Whiskey

It's taken me well over a week to get all of my Thank You's done for those whom I consider patrons. These folks like what I hung on the wall at the Western Heritage Artists show in Great Falls, Montana, last month during Western Art Week. Not only did they like it, they decided to hang it on their walls instead of mine. You can follow the story of the Biscuit Boy in this previous post, and this one as well.

As I've been doing the Thank You's in the order in which they were purchased, I'm also doing the same with the images I post of the Thank You's themselves. This one was particularly sweet. It hung in the Juried Lobby show with a little RED dot on it the entire time. I've also posted about this piece as well.

As I hear from the folks who received their Thank You's, I'll post more of them. It'll keep me busy for a bit.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did doing them!

Last Chance for the Goodkind

Last Chance for the Goodkind

Some history would be appropriate at this point.

Brothers Abraham L. and Edward I. Goodkind, and Meyer and Charles Wise operated a wholesale wine, liquor, and cigar business in Helena, Montana, from 1890 or 1891 until 1896 when the Wise brothers left the business. The Goodkind brothers continued their operation until Edward died on May 11, 1916. The preceding is directly from the Montana Historical Society Research Center.

This particular billhead is dated October 12, 1903. I have seen (and have in my possession) some Wise & Goodkind paper, but this piece was of particular interest to me because of the label.

I've had in my possession, albeit not for very long, two pieces of Goodkind Brothers billhead.  I had the good fortune of finding a local patron who willingly sold me a piece of Goodkind paper, and then loaned me a small whiskey bottle that still had the label affixed. I took it home, shot photographs of it, and then returned the bottle. A week later, I completed the art work, showed it to him, and he purchased it. It never made it into a frame.

While at a brick and mortar antique shop in Chinook, Montana, several months ago, I was shown two original Goodkind Brothers labels. The shop owner was willing to make copies of both of the labels, but I had to commit to NOT sharing the copies with anyone, especially on the web. I returned home with the copies, and contacted the fellow who had the bottle I had already used, and he provided me with a pint bottle (a flask) that had a pewter screw-on cap. He also gifted me two other bottles, one in amber and the other a beautiful fluted shoulder bottle, both of them dug locally.

The studio process involved more than one step: I had to do some touch-up work on both of the labels, and I had to size them appropriate to the bottles. I finished and published the results of the Royal Club Rye Whiskey flask which you can see here, if you haven't seen it already.

The second was a bit more complicated. The provenance for both of these labels is impeccable, although I have no idea, nor does anyone else, if these labels were ever used. Bottle collectors, or even collectors of lithographic labels would probably be able to determine if there are any other copies of these labels out there in private hands. They both came from a printer's book which had numerous labels pasted into it. From the additional markings on the label, my guess is that the label was used, or at least printed.

I've tried to stay as true to the original label as I could, because I did want to give the viewer the impression that the label indeed is a real label on a real bottle.

This piece may be a keeper. I have one other piece of Wise & Goodkind paper, and I know where there is at least one other piece of Goodkind billhead that is the same size as this piece. I also know where there is a smaller piece of their paper with a vignette of their building on the corner of Sixth and Last Chance Gulch (now known as Main Street) here in Helena, and the building still stands. I have forty hours of work on this piece, and that's no joke - I kept track. Working on it was like working on one of my cacheted covers, but I also had to make it look like the real thing. The label really does tell the story of placer mining as it was done, and I wanted to make certain that it looked right. The artist that did this label knew what placer mining was about, and depicted it quite well. The background also looks like a local stream, which makes the whole thing seem to shout MONTANA.  Enjoy. It was a labor of love.

Goodkind Brothers Whiskey Bottle

In November of 2009, I posted an image of a piece of Goodkind paper upon which I had depicted a small bottle with a Goodkind Brothers label still affixed. Usually with bottles this old which had paper labels on them, the labels don't survive.

I have in my possession scanned images of two different Goodkind Brothers labels. The provenance for these labels is unquestionable, but to say that they were ever used on whiskey bottles is an entirely different story. They came from a sample book of a lithographer who not only produced labels of this type, but also labels for various other products as well.

This bottle should probably be called a flask. It does not stand on it's own all that well. It's a 'dug' bottle which was recovered locally. The owner graciously allowed me to borrow this bottle and the pewter cap, and he also gifted me two other larger bottles upon which I'm going to place the second of the Goodkind Brothers labels. Just like this one, I'll fill it with Ancient Age whiskey, take photographs of it to use for models, and then I'll post the image of the finished product.

Lab RATIN

In my last post, I included an image of this piece of paper before I touched it.

I touched it. For about sixteen hours.

There is not much to give you in the way of history as far as Ratin Laboratories. I can't find one single reference to this company anywhere, and believe me, I looked - hard.

I was very lucky and found an image of this bottle on an Antique Bottle site called Antique Bottle Mysteries. The reason the image was included there was because it is a perfect example of what is called Cold Mold Ripple, and is sometimes referred to as "Whittled" or "Hammered" glass. The effect is caused by the mold in which the glass was produced, and in particular, when the mold is made of Iron. Impurities in the iron caused the glass to cool at differing temperatures, and hence caused the glass to vary in thickness. It is a wonderful sight to see when you hold one of these bottles (most produced in the late 1920's) as the light passing through the bottle and what you can see beyond the bottle is distorted - in a good way!

My spouse suggested a rat - in the bottle, but I thought that it was more important that the bottle be seen for what it is - beautiful, even if it contained poison.

Ratin Bottle, No. 2

Guess what I found on eBay? A piece of paper from the RATIN Corporation which discusses the breakage of a bottle of Ratin. Oh yes, by the way - Ratin is Rat Poison.

I've done the bottle once before, and now that I've found a piece of Ratin paper, I'm going to do it again. Actually, the Ratin bottle that I did was the very first piece of old paper that I posted here, and rather than look back at that post (for which I got zero comments), I'm posting the image of the finished piece that found a new home during the Western Heritage Artists show in March of this year.

The bottle is an example of what is called 'whittled' glass. The color is spectacular, and I'm headed to my desk to work on it.

ORIGINAL - Christ Lived in Anaconda in '31

The most recent old paper and the very first piece of old paper I purchased. Did you know that Christ lived in Anaconda in 1931 and got his perfume from LA?

I am going to be showing this and every piece I have not sold at the Western Heritage Artists show in Great Falls, Montana, during Western Art Week. This is going to be a huge opportunity for me to obtain some exposure that I'd not be able to get any other way. I'll have a gallery/room at the Holiday Inn from Wednesday the 17th, through Sunday the 21st. I'm also participating in the Quick Finish on Thursday evening, and I'll be doing a piece of mail art complete with a hand-drawn card that can be used in the envelope. I'll also be doing mail art in my room and taking orders for old paper and mail art as well. My first love is the old paper, however, and I think I've got that base pretty well covered.

Gimme a shot of The Goodkind

Bottle collectors will love this one!

A piece of bill head from Goodkind Brothers of Helena, Montana, who had their business at Main Street (known as Last Chance Gulch) and 6th Avenue. This is an image of what their bottle of Sour Mash Whiskey looked like complete with one of their in-house labels. The bottle itself stands about six inches tall.

Christ Lived In Anaconda (Part #2)

When I had color copies made of the original document, I made two - copies. I visited the local antique shops looking for perfume bottles (I found only one), and the photographs I took were of the (one and only) bottle in the preceding post. This bottle is an alabaster bottle which I found on the web, which is what I was looking for locally and could not find. Alabaster bottles and jars are a bit hard to find in this neck of the woods. Christ Marchion got his perfume in glass bottles. I have the original document, and one of these days, I'll put an image of an alabaster bottle on it. I simply haven't found one I could take pictures of that would serve as an appropriate model.

Christ Lived in Anaconda

Well, at least this billhead says that He did - in 1931. Not only that, but he got his perfume from L.A.!!! This is a color copy of the very first piece of paper that I purchased. It is very light, thin and a carbon copy at that, so I got scared about putting my art work on it. I went to our local print shop and had them make color copies of the original, and then I put my art work on the copies. I then 'aged' the paper with an emory board and light sand paper. I have a portfolio of all the pieces that I've done - actually copies, and this is the first piece in binder. It's an opening when I go looking for old paper in places I've never been before. I ask if they have any old paper, and they ask "What kind of old paper"? That's when I open the binder... This is a perfect example of a textual hook to hang a visual fish on.

STARTUP With A COKE!

The Startup Candy Company has been in business in Provo, Utah, since 1875. The company is listed in Ripley's Believe It Or Not as the very first candy company to make a filled chocolate candy bar in America. The Startup family still makes that filled candy bar, called the Opera Bar, and still uses some of the same molds and equipment as they did when the company went into business. They were also an early distributor of Coca-Cola, and hence the sale of that product to Mr. L. C. Ford Junior, of Lima, Montana. Mr. Ford's father was the railroad doctor for the Oregon Short Line Railroad. When the Oregon Short Line was purchased by Union Pacific, Dr. Ford was out of a job, and moved himself and his family to the first real settlement of any size on the North side of Monida Pass, which was Lima.

According to the Historical Society in Lima, his kitchen table was also his operating table. Patients were brought in the front door, and if they didn't make it - they were taken out the back. His son opened a Drug Store/Pharmacy directly across the street, and I would bet that among the various glass fronted cases and lidded jars on his counter was an assortment of the candies made by the Startup family.

When I first was given this piece of paper, I thought it would be an easy task to find the right 'ingredients' for a visual fish to hang on the "Startup" hook. It took almost a month to finally find someone who could give me an image of the 'right' Coca-Cola bottle and the 'right' label to go with it. A gentleman from Atlanta, GA, by the name of Mr. Bill Baab was kind enough to send me not only a bottle that is proper for 1908, but also a copy of an original paper label, also proper for the period. And he sent them both to me on HIS DIME. I was blown away by the willingness of a total stranger to send me all the right pieces to put the puzzle together.

Thus, Mr. Baab, this Coke is for you!

Sody-Licious!!!

This is one of the first pieces of old paper that I 'altered'. I contacted a fellow in California who had a filled bottle, and I traded him an image of the filled bottle for an image of the letterhead I was going to put it on. The back of this bottle is yet to come, as I have a second sheet of this letterhead.

The back of the bottle in red lettering says "Famous Brands of Kittitas County and Sody-Licious"! The bottling company was located in Ellensburg, Washington, and I found the bottle absolutely fascinating.

I also sent an inquiry to the Washington State Brand Inspector to determine if there are any of the brands on the bottle that are still active. Just an added bit of interest to an already interesting bottle.

This piece was juried into the Blackfoot Valley Art Auction to be held on August 8th, in Lincoln, Montana.