Over the years I have collected several bottles that were embossed so cryptically that it is very difficult to ascertain their origin. This is a prime example...there are half pint and pint flasks from Concord, New Hampshire that are just embossed "1865/G.H.A./Concord, N.H.". The pints have an applied lip and the half pints have a tooled lip, so they date to the mid-1880's. The examples I have were both advertised as "Civil War" flasks, which of course they are not.
I am sure there are more knowledgeable collectors out there that know who put these out, but they were a mystery to me. I finally pulled one down yesterday to do some research, and it ended up being pretty easy. Using an 1883 Concord, New Hampshire directory, I looked for anyone with these initials, and I didn't get far before I found the answer. George H. Adams (the same fellow that put out the nice Adams Ale House blob beer bottles). He ran the ale house at 45 North Main and a restaurant on Railroad Square in 1883. In 1867 he was running the ale house with his brother (Charles G. Adams) and it appears that the ale house was founded in 1865, hence the date on the flasks.
George H. Adams was born around December 26, 1838 to John and Rebecca Adams in Nashua or Manchester, New Hampshire and died of a cerebral apoplexy on October 1, 1888 in Concord, New Hampshire. He married Mary Higgins on February 22, 1866. The 1880 census lists him as a saloon keeper.
I am sure there are more knowledgeable collectors out there that know who put these out, but they were a mystery to me. I finally pulled one down yesterday to do some research, and it ended up being pretty easy. Using an 1883 Concord, New Hampshire directory, I looked for anyone with these initials, and I didn't get far before I found the answer. George H. Adams (the same fellow that put out the nice Adams Ale House blob beer bottles). He ran the ale house at 45 North Main and a restaurant on Railroad Square in 1883. In 1867 he was running the ale house with his brother (Charles G. Adams) and it appears that the ale house was founded in 1865, hence the date on the flasks.
George H. Adams was born around December 26, 1838 to John and Rebecca Adams in Nashua or Manchester, New Hampshire and died of a cerebral apoplexy on October 1, 1888 in Concord, New Hampshire. He married Mary Higgins on February 22, 1866. The 1880 census lists him as a saloon keeper.
