The well-known pontil marked bottles from druggist Henry Fess that are embossed “HENRY FESS FR. / JAUNDICE BITTERS / MILWAUKIE”. Fess came to Milwaukee in 1846 and started a druggist business that lasted into the 1890’s.

This article by Ferdinand Meyer V of Peachridge Glass provides a detailed look at the man, his business, and the bottles he used.

Click on the photo to read the article.

 

The well known aqua bitters bottles embossed "HENRY FESS JR. / JAUNDICE BITTERS / MILWAUKIE WIS." shown here are some of Wisconsin's first embossed glass bottles. Fess came to Milwaukee in 1846 and was in the druggist business for many years.

This article by Ferdinand Meyer V from Peachridge Glass provides a detailed history of the man, his druggist business and the bottles he used.

Click on the photo to see read the article.

A recent discovery of an unusual bottle in the Lake Geneva area adds an amazing footnote with a mysterious but strong Mukwonago connection.
  
Mukwonago had its own patent medicine manufacturer!  Quite a creative one too in terms of the fanciful branding of his product.  The bottle shown was recently found in an old collection of pharmacy items, and to the author, a collector of local bottles for half a century, a quite significant one.  The aqua glass bottle exhibits glass blowing technology of the late 1880’s to about 1905 and is 8 5/8” tall. 

Click the photo to read the article.

A newly discovered variety of a Wisconsin early 1860s smooth based medicine was dug mixed in with turn of the century bottles in Lacrosse - apparently a late throwaway. It is important because there are very few embossed medicines that are this early known from Lacrosse. The bottle was made for the Uriah Perry Jr.’s wholesale druggist business in Lacrosse, probably around 1859 or 1860.

Click the photo to read the full article.

While sorting through some of the ephemera I have collected over the years related to bottle collecting, I recently ran across a scrap of paper that I acquired at a farm auction south of Sussex, Wisconsin.   The hand writing style and quill or fountain pen ink indicate it probably dates to the mid-19th century.  While interesting enough for me to save it at the time, it takes on additional relevance as I deal with the aches and pains of arthritis in my advancing years.  As many of our club members are in the same general age bracket, I thought I would share with you the old recipe that is on this piece of paper.  You might find it quite useful but probably pretty dangerous as well.

Click the photo to read the article.

When we go out hunting for antique bottles, we hope to mark the spot. We hope to remember it with all of the early, rare, and crude artifacts we find. This story describes how one spot left its mark on me.

I started collecting antique bottles because of another hobby; scuba diving. While diving with my buddies, we found bottles and eventually got hooked on collecting them. There are, of course, other ways to find bottles. You can buy them or dig them from the ground. Privy digging has been refined to an art form nowadays. There are collectors who dig for bottles with machine-like efficiency. However, don't let that fool you. It is not an easy way to find things. You need a whole new skill set.

Continued... Click the photo to read the full article.

A recent addition to my collection spurred an investigation with surprising results and proved once again that the history behind the glass and ceramic containers that we collect can be absolutely fascinating. The bottle is a clear quart cylinder whiskey embossed in a bold slug plate, “Fred W. Pawinski Marble Hall Milwaukee.” It is pre-machine made and I judged its age to be in the 1900 to 1910 age. I wondered who was this Fred guy and what was “Marble Hall.” It also intrigued me that in my nearly five decades of collecting I had not seen any other bottle from Pawinski. I presumed his business must have been an obscure, short-lived venture. My assumption proved to be wrong on several levels.

Click the photo to see the full article.

A well known amber medicine bottle from Milwaukee is embossed Sherman Primley Iron and Wahoo Tonic. Less well known is an aqua Sarsaparilla from the same company and an extremely rare bottle from the same firm embossed Primley's Speedy Cure for Coughs and Colds. Another rare variety is this gorgeous olive green variant from the Jones & Primley partnership in Elkhart, Indiana that sold in a Glassworks auction.

The fact that there are also similar bottles from Sherman Primley from Elkhart Lake Indiana leads you to surmise that Mr. Primley operated out of both cities or had a main office plus a branch. Questions about the company are well explained in this article we found on the Bottle Pickers web site. According to the article, Sherman Primley moved from Elkhart to Milwaukee in 1897 and later moved to Peoria, leaving a trail of clues in the form of embossed bottles from all three cities.

Click on the photo top see read the article.

This bottle was part of an old collection and recently came to light. Neither the brand nor this particular bottle was previously known to collectors. A. Breslauser was a large and successful Milwaukee whiskey dealer. Many bottles and advertising shot glasses are known, as well as quite a few brands that he promoted, including:

• Old Hickory
• Graham Club
• Cheddington
• Connet
• Henry Van Erden Gin
• Kilbourn
• La Belle
• Old Chessy
• Palm
• Standard Club
• Top Cliff Gin

Simon Jung was a wholesale liquor dealer in Milwaukee that operated from 1889 until prohibition in 1918. He partnered with his father-in-law Abraham Breslauser for his first year of business. A Breslauer was a large and well-known Milwaukee liquor dealership. Simon later also partnered with M. Wiener for a year. His business was initially located at 425 Chestnut St but later moved several times. From 1908 to 1918 his business was located at 244-246 E Water Street. That building still stands.
S. Jung brands include Mountain King Rye, Homer Club Whiskey, Ole Bull Bourbon and Underhill Whiskey. Some of the advertising items known today include several varieties of shot glasses and backbar bottles. There are probably many other S. Jung advertising items not yet known to collectors.
Jack Sullivan posted an article on his “Those Pre-Pro Whiskey Men!” blog entitled “Simon Jung Gave Milwaukee His Best Shots”. Click here to read the full article.

Thinking of selling a collection of antique bottles or advertising? You’ve come to the right place. The Milwaukee Bottle and Advertising Club is an association of many of the top collectors and dealers of these types of items in the Midwest. We have experts about many types of old bottles including beer, soda, medicine, whiskey, bitters, historical flasks, seltzer, pharmacy, pontil marked bottles and food containers. Also antique advertising – from tin signs, lithographs, trays, tins, paper to label under glass advertising signs we have expert who can help. To see our member profiles go to the Members tab on this page or click here.

If you would like to get an idea of the value of your item(s) check with one of our members. Member profiles include their contact information. They can make you a cash offer or give you estimated values of one items or a collection. Member profiles will give you an idea of the type of items they collect or are looking for. And if they’re not interested or don’t know about your item(s) they can refer you to someone who can help. Selling directly to collectors is faster and easier than selling by auction or consignment. You avoid the fees and time and for the right items can get the best price for your items.

I found this bottle at an estate sale in Antigo, Wisconsin about 10 years ago. It is a machine made corker about 5 inches tall with a label reading from the top of the label downward, “Genuine Jean Batiste’s SQUAW SMOKE in liquid form As Effective Safeguard Against the Bite of Mosquitoes and Other Insects, DIRECTIONS Apply to Exposed Parts, SERVALL LABORATORY, Antigo, Wisconsin.
This little bottle with the now politically incorrect brand name on the label seems to date to the 1920-40 decades and is still half-filled with what is presumably the concoction produced by Servall Laboratory. The cork is quite tight and I have not tried to open it for fear of destroying the original seal and unleashing what today might be a potential chemical spill Even if it is not that lethal, I have no interest in applying some and testing it on the mosquitoes the size of sparrows that we get here out in Mukwonago. But here’s the rub of a different sort, I have completely struck out on finding anything on Jean Batiste, Squaw Smoke, or even Servall Laboratory. Presumably Servall was some small, fly by night, or from-home operated business in Antigo.
Does anyone know anything about this company and other products it might have produced?

About 20 years ago, I was lamenting the time I had spent driving to a small, start up flea market on the Union Grove fair grounds on a nice early Sunday morning. After skimming past rows and rows of tables covered with dumpster fodder, I was startled to find a dealer putting out beer flats filled with hundreds of small old bottles of every description. Inks, perfumes, medicines, doll nursers, you name it. My arrival to this table was perfect as the boxes were just coming out of the trunk. A guy was selling a long time accumulation of small bottles, none more than 4 inches high, that had caught someone’s fancy for eye appeal, interesting labelling, with a few modern bottles mixed in. “$3 a piece!,” said the dealer. At that exorbitant price, I would have to choose carefully, but since I seemed to have a monopoly as a customer, I could take my time in making my selections. Click on the photo to read the full article.

The history of infant feeding is quite interesting. Babies were usually breastfed. Infrequently an attempt might be made to feed an infant artificially (by hand) from a bottle or from an animal's horn with the tip cut off and a bit of skin or rag tied to the neck. Pickled cow's teats were used as nipples. Hard nipples of glass, pewter, ivory and occasionally silver were common before the rubber nipple. In 1845 the first rubber nipple was made of black rubber that tasted bad, smelled bad and went to pieces in hot water. Babies were fed pap from discarded bottles. Pap consisted of whatever they could lay then hands on which they thought was nourishing. Sometimes ground up nuts mixed with water, other times bourbon or beer. Fish when available was mashed into a liquid pap. Animal milk was not used very often, due to the fear that the infant would take on the characteristics of the animal along with the milk. Occasionally an infant was suckled directly from a goat, donkey or cow. A bottle was used as a last resort and even then only one bottle sufficed. It was simply rinsed out, reused and eventually discarded.

Click the photo to read the full article.