Ferraro Collection – Auction Review
It is not often that such a great assembly of rare bitters and whiskey bottles end up in the same room. A collector needs to spend decades putting together a top-shelf collection. Bob Ferraro did just that, putting together a grouping of great bottles, many of which are rarely available for sale.
Glassworks Auctions recently sold the Ferraro collection in a three-part auction, the final section closing on January 9th. A total of 141 lots racked up a total of $482,305 not including the auction house buyer’s premium.
Bitters bottles comprised the top three lots.
- Part 1 – Lot 4: A Crow’s Celebrated Tonic Bitters, thought to be the only known example – $20,000
- Part 2 – Lot 82: Saphire blue W. Wolf Pittsburg barrel. One of two known examples. – $20,000
- Part 3 – Lot 114: People’s Favorite Bitters barrel with diagonal rings. This example, with a great provenance, is thought to be the best of the 3 or 4 known. It closed at $30,000
One could go on endlessly about the quality of many lots in this sale. A stunning brilliant yellow olive figural Fish Bitters with Carlyn Ring provenance swam away at $5000. An authentic, original E.G. Booz cabin whiskey bottle brought a very strong $4750.
There were several dozen barrel bitters in total, many in rare and unusual colors. Lot 50, a Bourbon Whiskey Bitters described as a light pinkish topaz closed at $4250. A Roback’s Stomach Bitters in a highly unusual and rare olive green coloration undoubtedly say strong bidding, ending at $13,000. However, perhaps the barrel highlight of the sale was the Highland Bitters and Scotch Tonic of lot 107. In a rare and unusual deep but translucent olive green, this barrel rolled up to a $13,000 closing price. The 13,000 dollar mark could represent a record or near-record price for a barrel bitters.
Lot 114, the Peoples Favorite Bitters, is an extremely rare barrel mold with diagonal ribs on the body reminiscent of the George Eagle soda bottle. It is an ex. Carlyn Ring bottle and its provenance helped drive it up to a closing price of $30,000
Prices Realized Lists
We captured the Ferraro prices realized lists from all three parts of the sale after bidding and callbacks had ended, and have posted these here on the site in PDF format. Note that the prices do not reflect the 15-18% buyer’s premium.
A Tale of Two Jacobs Demijohns
Applied seal 19th century American bottles are not all that common. Add a label and a ground stopper to the list of features and one comes up with a very short list of possibilities.
Recently closed on ebay was an auction for a 12-1/2″ tall blue-green demijohn bottle bearing an applied seal marked “THOS. H. JACOBS & CO.” The bottle also retained what appears to be its original label, black print on a red background from the same company. Collectors are no doubt grateful to Mr. Jacobs for including the date 1844 on that label, allowing us to accurately date the bottle. Adding even greater amazement to the bottle is the intact ground stopper.
The seller described the bottle as having a body of 5 inches in diameter. One photo shows a large pontil scar on the base, consistent with glass blowing techniques used in the age displayed on the label.
The bottle sold for $2425.
Also at auction this week at Glassworks Auctions is a nearly identical Jacobs bottle except it is in aqua. Same ground stopper. Same pontil scarred base. The catalog describes the seal as “THOMAS JACOBS & CO.” (without the middle H). It is hard to see the exact seal marking on the single photo posted on the auction but it seems the middle initial H. may be present in the picture. The embossing on the seal may in fact be the same but is mis-cataloged. Glassworks describes the height as 11-1/2″. Once again we see a similar label with similar markings. Note the different address here which is 233 Dock Street.
At the time of this writing, no bid had been placed on this lot. The opening bid is $200.
The Glassworks sale closes January 30th at 10PM Eastern Time.
Auction link: http://www.absenteeauctions.com/glassworks_1/cgi-bin/CATALL.CGI
Glassworks Summer Sizzler Auction – July 2010
Glass Works Auctions closed up their summer sale on July 17th of 389 lots. Typically, the mid year sale does not contain their best offerings – this sale was an exception with a number of top notch items in several categories.
The highlight of the sale was undoubtedly Lot 119, a clear (amethyst tint) figural BROWN’S / CELEBRATED / INDIAN HERB BITTERS brought $20,000. Thought to be one of only 3 examples, this rare bottle was recently found at a yard sale in the Seattle, Washington area. Most are familiar with the not uncommon amber “Indian Queens” but other colors are scarcely seen.
Lot 1, a F. BROWN DRUGGIST bottle in emerald green with open pontil brought $6,000 despite cracks around the pontil scar. This bottle is noted by the auctioneer as unique. The description also states that Frederick Brown ran a drug store at the corner of Chestnut and 5th Street in Philadelphia and later became famous for his F. Brown’s Essence of Jamaica Ginger. The Jamaica Ginger bottles are quite common and known to most every bottle collector.
Lot 2 was a beautiful deep emerald green DR GUYSOTT’S – COMPOUND EXTRACT / OF YELLOW DOCK – & SARSAPARILLA in perfect condition which closed at $5,000, a strong market price indicative of the overall auction results. Recession, what recession? There seems to be no decrease in antique bottle prices, except at the very low end (below $100) of the market.
The sale included a good number of aqua pontil medicines which fared well. Also of note was the great offering of mineral waters from the Robert ‘Bob’ White Collection. A yellow olive Hanbury Smith NY (Tucker M-20-A) mineral water brought $1900, a blue green Deep Rock Spring quart (N-13-A) formerly in Norm Heckler’s collection brought $2000 and a GARDNER & LANDON / SHARON / SULPHUR WATER in olive brought $2750. Mineral water bottles, at least the good ones, are alive and well.
The sale also included six Willington, Connecticut cathedral pickle jars, included a damaged example of the large mold in the extremely rare olive amber color. Prices ranged from $2300 for an example in greenish aqua to $3500 for the aforementioned olive amber piece to $5500 for a perfect condition large mold example in cornflower blue.
Perhaps the only bargain of the day was the sparkling perfect yellow National Bitters which closed at just $2400, well under its estimate. Overall, it was however a strong sale.
Prices quoted do not include the 15% buyers premium.
Glass Works Auction – The “Colors of Fall” – October 19th
Glass Works Auctions big fall event comprises 375 lots with an substantial offering of historical flasks, rare soda bottles, pontil medicine bottles, bitters, fire grenades and much more.
Of special note is the rare California Fire Extinguisher in amber with embossed bear. It’s one of the most desirable fire grenade bottles out there, and not surprisingly, it attained a high bid of $5,000 long before closing day.
Another very exiting bottle is the GXII-15 “Union” / Clasped Hands – Eagle with Banner / “E. Wormser & Co / Pittsburgh in a deep blue green color. Examples in unusual colors (besides aqua and amber) in Group 12 are unusual, and this one is just amazing. Several days before closing, the bidding had achieved $19,000.
Bidding closes Monday evening, October 19th.