Reno Brewing Company Sign

This sign was found by Ted and Richard Siri in Nevada some years ago. They tell me everytime they went to Nevada they stopped by a store to purchase drinks and food, and on the ice-box was this sign nailed to it. They tried for sometime to be able to purchase the sign, but no luck then one day, they offered the women who owned the establishment an offer she could not turn down, someone had made her an offer and richard said he would double it and he did - he owed her something like $180.00. The sign is a great remainder of Western Brewing History, and I am proud to hang it in my collection. The Brewery was established in 1903 and ceased operations in prohibition. I would date the sign as somewhere in the 1903-1910 range. It is the only existing sign I have seen in this style and I love the Sierra Beer gold lettering.

Philadelphia Labeled Bottle

This is an interesting bottle in that it just emphasizes that the brewers and bottlers utilized whatever was at hand to put their product into. This is the Deucher and Kalban who bottled Philadelphia Lager while at 245 Second Street, San Francisco, CA in the mid 1880's. This specimen was found in the foothills of the gold county years ago, but I though it might ve of interest to those who have not previously seen it. An early survivor in fairly good condition.

Split Size Seal Rock Bottling Brings $325.

Now even the most advanced collector will have to admit this was a very nice color on this split. I think this is a strong price on a nice piece, and the single factor that drove the price was the yellow color. I doubt this would have brought $75. in regular amber. Nice top shelf piece....not sure what the hell this really means ....as the higher the shelf the smaller the pieces when it hits the floor, but i see the term used on flea bay all the time. I guess I need to increase my allowance if I am going to compete in the future, must be in a heavy funk, as I did not even bid on this one either. Its nice to be back on line feeding the blog though.

Sample Size Fredericksburg Beer Brings $$$$$

An e-bay offering on Sunday night closed with a bid of $1325.00 on a miniture sample size Fredericksburg Beer with full label bottled by Oakland Bottling Works with embossed Oakland Bottling Works amber bottle. Nosebleed territory, I did not bid on this one, but it shows interest is still strong, for minitures and sample sized bottles. With full label this made it a drooler, but knwoing what the last one went for, even I was shocked at the going price....whoever bought it congratulations. Maybe the attraction is in a recession collectibles seem to offer enjoyment as well as a hedge.

Pomona National Show Report 2009

The show is over and here is the total for my spending....best find $25.00 for a whiskey barrel tag from John Morrison of Clubhouse Whiskey Fame. You can see photos of it posted on the glob top whiskey blog by Roger Terry. It was dug in Nevada of all places many years ago. $65.00 for a copy of the trademark from Roger for this whiskey, which had really nice graphics. $45.00 for early admission and $400. for a Will and Finck Shaving Mug from San Francisco from Bobby McDearmon. He paid $350. for it in 1998, as I found the receipt for it, so $50. more over the ten year period seemed fair. Total expenditure at the show itself $535. but the memories are priceless. Actually thats the least I have spent at any show in recent memory, and the feeling of going home with your pockets full ain't too bad either....... Dave Guthrie purchased a nice Postel from Ken Morrill and I sold Dave a split applied top John Fauser, US Bottling Co., S.F. Cal. Ken also had a Beer Steam bottling Goepert in Amber Quart one of the early 1880's beers. Ken purchased a pint Lemps Bottling San Francisco from Mike Henness, so everyone seemed to pickup at least one item to bring home. The show was a smaller show for a National Show, and I will personally look forward to Reno next year, as I always seem to come home a winner from that one. While I fully support the FOHBC, I think the hobby has a lot of grey hair, and we really need to mentor younger collectors to perpetuate the hobby, otherwise we all stand to lose what is a terrific way to appreciate history and build a collection. I finally got to meet Warren Friedrich, who spoke on Western Bitters and his forthcoming book on Western Glass Manufacturers, which appears to be a very well researched volume of work. My hats off to you Warren, as I can appreciate the amount of work and research that goes into something like this. The worst part of the show was the sound of an entire table of glass crashing to the floor which made all attendees go silent...the legs of the tables had not been secured and the announcement came immediately for all dealers to check their legs to insure they were locked and could not collapse. Several others found their legs also unsecurred. Whose responsibility will this be? The show or the seller, position unclear at this juncture.........time will tell. The showed also lacked a significant number of regulars, many of whom are solid diggers, buyers and others who add to the inventory, Lou& Leisa Lambert, Ken Salazar, Mike Dolcini, Marty Hall, Tom Quinn, Judy Miyasaki, Louie Pellegini, Mike Mcintosh, Steve Abbott, The Bell Brothers, Tom Jacobs, etc.... all on vacation or digging I guess.

Metzler Motivation for Everyone

Hermann Metzler is listed in the San Francisco Directory as a Bottler of Beer in the year 1887 only. His place of business is listed as 2110 Taylor Street, San Francisco, CA. This is a little pre-pomona national bottle show motivation for all of us to realize that the white whale is still out there. The amber is from my collection as well as the lime green coloration. The top left green photo is a more true respresentation of the actual color, the the lower right photo shows the embossing better. This piece was dug by Vince Sierras in Oakland, CA and he said it got his blood pumping so much he dug the backyard of the home throughly to see if he could find any othe pieces, but it was not to be. There was a Charles Metlzer listed as propreitor of the Golden Gate Brewery as early as 1862 at 713 Greenwich through 1881 at 717 Greenwich, which probably changed as a result of error or street renumbering. A great bottle with lots of character and appeal, to early beer collectors this says it all with the Eagle sitting on top of the Beer Barrel. I dug a small pit of these all broken in the early 1980's in Cow Hollow on Steiner off of Union Street, and never saved a piece, even though some were fairly whole. There are probably less than ten wholes specimens known of this bottle, I can count four that I know of which includes mine. Let me know if you have one so we can get an accurate representation of how many whole ones exist. Sorry, I have not been posting regularly, but work has been very busy lately, and alas this is a hobby.

Applied Lip Label-only Fredricksburg Bottle

Here is an applied-lip quart Freddie with a San Jose label. Some foil remains as well as part of the small label around the neck. I picked this up years ago at a monthly antique show in Sunnyvale, California.