3 Dr J Hostetter's

[Aerated]

Hi all,
Heres a pic of 3 Dr J Hostetters Stomach Bitters bottles that I dug a few years back.
From this dig I got a total of 13 of these plus a yellow/green one that had a hole in the corner (cry!). These 3 are all different, I read in another post that depending on makers marks, embossing some are rarer. ill list the differences-
Bottle on left- L&W 14 on base
Middle bottle- L&W 10 on base, bolder embossing
Bottle on right- small dimple(bare iron pontil?) on base, cruder looks older
The dump these came from was around the mid 1870's.
Id appreciate any info anyone could contribute about these as I dont have any up to date American info books.

Thanks for reading,
Aerated

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[BRIAN S.]

Hi Aerated,
Looks like you have some nice Hossi's there !
It is my experience that the L & W and the J & W base embossed Hossi's are the most collectable and sought after of the common mold variants. Hostetter's ( except for the larger Olive and the rare variants such as the pontiled ones). The L & W and J & W mold variant seems to run a little bigger in size then the other molds( except for the older Olive ones).
Hostetter's was a company that sold many,many bottles of there product. So , it is the most common Bitters bottle out there. And they usually don't command a big price .....unless you have a unusual rare coloration. Or an extremely rare mold such as the H 194 iron pontiled examples ( that bring in the thousands when sold at auction) Or the ultra rare H 193 sample bottle , the H 196 reveresed J , H 199 misspelled HOTSETTER'S . It is my experince that a good L&W or J&W in a good light amber usually will bring in the 30.00 - 40.00 range. A almost Yellow example in this mold will usually bring 75.00 -150.00 + range.
An exoctic colors in any of the Hostetter's molds will definetly command a high price as they are very collectible . If your ever at a Show in the U.S. of A. and you need some info on Hostetters look up David Beadle or ( ) Hostetter's ( I have forgotten his first name) but he is a direct decendent and usually is set up with lots of Hossi's on his table. They can provide just about any info on the Hostetter's bottles and the company that you might have. Hope this helps , Brian

Your dimple based Hossi's looks to be larger in size than your L & W is ? Is it ?

 

[drjhostetters]

Hey Aerated...

Nice pics of nice bottles...as you can tell by my "nom de plume"..my first dig and my first find was a Dr J Hostetters..it is a little darker than the middle one you show..so I think mine is not so rare..I found it in Oregon City, Oregon..(about 20 miles SE of Portland, Oregon) about 30 years ago..I went "home" recently to visit Mom and I drove by the "dig" to see if by some chance it was still a vacant lot...didn't expect it too because of the growth of Oregon City..but was I surprised to see it was still a vacant lot....my brother who still lives in the area is trying to find the owners names for me so I can try to gat permission to dig it again ..I know there has to be more buried treasure there..it used to be an old dump over the side of a steep bank....I found a whole "case" of 12 those bottles..the wooden box was rotted away but the shape of the box and the rusted bands that used to hold it together were there...there was only the one embossed one and three or four clear ones and the rest were a dark amber...I gave away all but one amber..one clear and my favorite the embossed one..it started me on my coleection of six or seven boxes of bottles..most stored because of lack of display space. I am going to find my Dr J bottle and check it out...maybe it's rarer than I think...but I don't expect it to be...priceless to me...Thanks for showing me your bottles...good digging...[]

The Doc..Dr J...[X(]

 

[Aerated]

Thanks for the replies.
That bottle is a bit taller than the other 2, but its not that noticable (about 1cm).
The dump these bottles came from was once a Brewery/Soda water works.
We must have dug at least 800 bottles from this site all dating from 1870-1875.
Along with the Hostetters there where torpedo bottles,stone stout bottles,square case gins,essence bottles.Plus broken Drakes & Dr Soules.
It was a great dig, previous to this Id never dug a complete Hostetters.And ive never dug one in the 10years since!.[]

Aerated

 

[pkokich]

nice bottles, whereabouts in nz are you, do ya need a hand digging[]