ARABIAN BITTERS

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Harry Pristis

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What can you tell me about this bitters bottle?

It is embossed ARABIAN BITTERS on one panel and LAWRENCE&WEICHSELBAUM / SAVANNAH, GA on the opposite panel. It has a smooth base.

It is one of the first bottles I ever recovered. I have never seen one for sale. Any info is appreciated.

---------Harry Pristis

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Gunsmoke47

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Harry, Nice Bitters. It is one of 20 different Georgia bitters recorded. It is considered Rare. There is one in the Museum in Savannah Beach Georgia. I got this info from Google. I tried to post the link but they said it could not be found. Type in Arabian Bitters on Google. I believe you can get a 1999 Kovels price if you go to their online free search. Hope this helps, Kelley
 

deepwoods

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Apparently someone found one at civil war site Fort Pulaski on the Savannah River in 1937-nice find Harry. How did you come about it?
 

Flaschenjager

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Harry -
Digger Odell's 1998 "Volume 2 Bitters" on page four lists this:

24. "ARABIAN BITTERS - LAWRENCE & WEICHSELBAUM / SAVANNAH GA., (A-80), amber, 9 3/4", smooth base, applied mouth, cleaned, $170, (1995-R);
about perfect (light inside haze spots), rare, $325, (1996). yellowish amber,
shallow polished open bubble, $175 (1997)

I just picked up a copy (it's downstairs at the moment) of the C. Ring book "For Bitters Only" and can check it also for more info., if you're interested.
 

Harry Pristis

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Thank you for doing that research for me. I should have done the search for myself.

For years before I had Internet access, I just resigned myself to having no info on this bitters. After I got a computer, it just never occurred to me to do a search. I would call that mental inertia.

I don't have Ring's book, Meech, so I would really like to know what it says about this bottle. Thanks.

I found this bottle (actually, two of them) on private property not too many miles from the mouth of the Suwannee River. They may have been from an early logging camp, or they may have been tossed onto the bank from a steamboat tied up for the night.

---------Harry Pristis
 

BRIAN S.

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Harry
Nice square !
I'm not familiar with it.....But , I do have a Ring & Hams if you'd like to know what it says ? And I also have a William Brown's auction report if you would like to know what auction prices were? Brian


It seems I have seen this bottle before ...... Have you had any pics on the web, ebay , or other places ? It looks so familiar to me , but I may be mistaken ! Brian
 

Harry Pristis

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I'd like to have that info, Brian.

That is the first time I have ever photographed that bottle. I showed the second bottle to Judge MacKenzie years ago, I'll never forget it. In that lethargic manner of his later years the Judge said, "Uh-huh . . . I think that everyone who needs one has one by now."

I pondered that statement for years (and still do) -- whatever does that mean! But, he was holding court at the bottle show, and I was a newbie so I didn't get to ask. I found out later that there are not many of these bitters bottles around.

Remembering this incident, I try to avoid being vague or cryptic when a newbie asks me a question.

-------------Harry Pristis
 

deepwoods

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It has that neat,kind of rubbery look about it that some really old bottles have.I wonder what if anything,was'Arabian' about it-maybe the scenes you saw after drinking a bottle.
 

Flaschenjager

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Harry-
Ring's book only mentions what deepwoods posted above:
Apparently someone found one at civil war site Fort Pulaski on the Savannah River in 1937

It also lists it as "Rare". Rare is defined earlier in this book as 6 - 25 known examples.
 

Harry Pristis

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Thank you for the info and comments, fella's!

I see from an Internet search that there was a German-Jewish family by the name of Weichselbaum that immigrated to Savannah in the 1860s. Any other information on the company?

A "rubbery look," John; maybe so. That's as good a term as any. There is something to the "look" -- perhaps construction details that come together for the experienced eye.

Here is a pair of "squares" (square bitters bottles - right, BrianS?) that I believe have a 25 to 35 year age difference. The WEST INDIA STOMACH BITTERS // ST. LOUIS MO. bottle is the more recent. There is quite a substantial difference (that may not be exclusively age-related, of course) between these bottles from the lip on down.

I bought this W.I.S.Bitters as part of a collection. Is it a good one?

Here is what I found from Antique Bottle & Glass Collector magazine, by Dr. Richard Gannon:

Joshua C. Michel of St. Louis, Mo., was in the wholesale grocery business for several years with Mathew Moody. Michel put West India Stomach Bitter on the market in 1873 and obtained a patent on February 8, 1876. That year Michel dropped out of the grocery business and became a broker for the bitters and apparently some other West India medicines that I have no information about. West India Stomach Bitters was in drug catalogs from 1882 through 1902.

--------------Harry Pristis

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