First time I have had a chance in a while to post but just wanted to post about the unbelievable luck I had a couple of weeks ago! I had viewed a post on a local estate sale site about an estate of a lady whose aunt had lived in one of their ancestors' homes that was built around 1835. That is like ancient history in Texas as compared to other places in the US.
Anyways she also owned a well known antique shop back in the 60's to early or mid 1980's. I noticed in one of the pictures that it looked like a pint or half pint historical flask with what looked like an eagle. A lot of the estate sales and garage sales have trends now of starting on Fridays and since i have a 9-5 regular job I hate that because in the past I have missed out on some really good stuff by going early Sat mornings because the Friday before everyone else grabbed up most of the good stuff.
Well this time I guess it was my turn as I asked my boss if it were ok to take off on Friday and she told me you never take off and you deserve it. So I got there about 20 min. before they opened the doors and there was only about 15 -20 people ahead of me. I thought at least I have a fighting chance.
As soon walk into the carport I look towards the back of which was mostly books on bookshelves and furniture, mostly very nice antique pieces. I see a set of cobalt blue cathedral inks, I am thinking I need to make sure I get a good look at these as I know there are repros out there, well I nearly flipped when upon getting a closer look I see they are the real deal but they are priced incredibly low...$30.00 for the whole set. Only drawback is I still need the clover deskset inkwell to have a complete set but I was like the kid in the perverbial candy store as I grabbed those up so quick. Not sure why they were priced that low except no one with this estate sale did their homework and/or just wanted to get rid of this stuff badly. I was still in disbelief but noticed there isn't alot of stuff here and in the pictures there was several shelves. I quickly found out that the rest of the stuff was in an attached little cabin like building attached to the back of the carport but you had to walk out a side door and down a little path which is where everyone else had headed to. It was so packed with stuff that I was one person back from getting in and from my vantage point I could not see what I had really come for....that flask! When I was finally able to get in I saw some nice pickle and utility bottles but when I rounded the corner of this table in the center I saw the shelf on the other side of the room where the flask had been in the picture and I saw the bottles that were around the flask but no flask!?!
I was starting to get bummed and did a quick glance to see who might have it in their hands but no one did and as I was finally able to work my way through the crowd I see it on the same shelf but other end!! I tried to get there as quick as I could almost running into but managing luckily not to knock over this little old lady! And as soon as I get it in my hands on it I know this is no repro!!! and then I see the price on it and I am thinking omg how in the world can this be real and not a repro or fake. It is a GII-73 Eagle-Cornicopia with the "X" on the Cornicopia side, open pontiled with just some high point wear and base wear and for the price of $15.00!!!! Not at all what I was prepared to have to pay for it. This is my first historical intact flask and I am thrilled to have it. I am only mentioning the actual prices of these because I do not ever plan on selling them. I know that even in today's market I could put this on an auction or fleabay and sell it easily from 10 to 20 times or more what I paid for it.
On the same shelve I see something I have never seen before which has a seal on it and then I spot 2 almost identical bottles also with seals on them, one with a handle the other not but they are a matching set. All three are free blown and pontiled but the colors are slightly different from what I would expect bottles from that time period and extremely clean.The seal on the one ale bottle has a name of John Greehow and an abbreviation for Williamsburg, Va and a date which at first looked like 1776 but I found out later was 1770 and priced less than the flask as the other 2 were as well. And I am thinking even if these are repros they are still pretty cool looking and definately well crafted higher end repros and priced right. When I looked into the ale flask bottle I found out they were done as part of a contract back in the mid-1960s by a company called Blenko and based on fragments found in a well during an archie dig there and commissioned by the Department of Parks? I believe and sold in a version of the original shop of John Greenhow who was a merchant in colonial Williamsburg. The other two have a J with 2 stars below it and are a light green or apple green.
All in all I paid around $65.00 with tax for the whole lot! A banner day to say the least and I probably will never see another like it but I would of course definately welcome it!! I have attached some pics. All of these bottles are as near mint or mint as you get and other than the light wear on the flask and a little light cleaning nothing else needs to be done to them!!! Needless to say I had a grin on my face for at least 3 days afterward. Only thing better would have been to dig them but in Texas that really would have been a near miracle!!! HH all!! Ace
Anyways she also owned a well known antique shop back in the 60's to early or mid 1980's. I noticed in one of the pictures that it looked like a pint or half pint historical flask with what looked like an eagle. A lot of the estate sales and garage sales have trends now of starting on Fridays and since i have a 9-5 regular job I hate that because in the past I have missed out on some really good stuff by going early Sat mornings because the Friday before everyone else grabbed up most of the good stuff.
Well this time I guess it was my turn as I asked my boss if it were ok to take off on Friday and she told me you never take off and you deserve it. So I got there about 20 min. before they opened the doors and there was only about 15 -20 people ahead of me. I thought at least I have a fighting chance.
As soon walk into the carport I look towards the back of which was mostly books on bookshelves and furniture, mostly very nice antique pieces. I see a set of cobalt blue cathedral inks, I am thinking I need to make sure I get a good look at these as I know there are repros out there, well I nearly flipped when upon getting a closer look I see they are the real deal but they are priced incredibly low...$30.00 for the whole set. Only drawback is I still need the clover deskset inkwell to have a complete set but I was like the kid in the perverbial candy store as I grabbed those up so quick. Not sure why they were priced that low except no one with this estate sale did their homework and/or just wanted to get rid of this stuff badly. I was still in disbelief but noticed there isn't alot of stuff here and in the pictures there was several shelves. I quickly found out that the rest of the stuff was in an attached little cabin like building attached to the back of the carport but you had to walk out a side door and down a little path which is where everyone else had headed to. It was so packed with stuff that I was one person back from getting in and from my vantage point I could not see what I had really come for....that flask! When I was finally able to get in I saw some nice pickle and utility bottles but when I rounded the corner of this table in the center I saw the shelf on the other side of the room where the flask had been in the picture and I saw the bottles that were around the flask but no flask!?!
I was starting to get bummed and did a quick glance to see who might have it in their hands but no one did and as I was finally able to work my way through the crowd I see it on the same shelf but other end!! I tried to get there as quick as I could almost running into but managing luckily not to knock over this little old lady! And as soon as I get it in my hands on it I know this is no repro!!! and then I see the price on it and I am thinking omg how in the world can this be real and not a repro or fake. It is a GII-73 Eagle-Cornicopia with the "X" on the Cornicopia side, open pontiled with just some high point wear and base wear and for the price of $15.00!!!! Not at all what I was prepared to have to pay for it. This is my first historical intact flask and I am thrilled to have it. I am only mentioning the actual prices of these because I do not ever plan on selling them. I know that even in today's market I could put this on an auction or fleabay and sell it easily from 10 to 20 times or more what I paid for it.
On the same shelve I see something I have never seen before which has a seal on it and then I spot 2 almost identical bottles also with seals on them, one with a handle the other not but they are a matching set. All three are free blown and pontiled but the colors are slightly different from what I would expect bottles from that time period and extremely clean.The seal on the one ale bottle has a name of John Greehow and an abbreviation for Williamsburg, Va and a date which at first looked like 1776 but I found out later was 1770 and priced less than the flask as the other 2 were as well. And I am thinking even if these are repros they are still pretty cool looking and definately well crafted higher end repros and priced right. When I looked into the ale flask bottle I found out they were done as part of a contract back in the mid-1960s by a company called Blenko and based on fragments found in a well during an archie dig there and commissioned by the Department of Parks? I believe and sold in a version of the original shop of John Greenhow who was a merchant in colonial Williamsburg. The other two have a J with 2 stars below it and are a light green or apple green.
All in all I paid around $65.00 with tax for the whole lot! A banner day to say the least and I probably will never see another like it but I would of course definately welcome it!! I have attached some pics. All of these bottles are as near mint or mint as you get and other than the light wear on the flask and a little light cleaning nothing else needs to be done to them!!! Needless to say I had a grin on my face for at least 3 days afterward. Only thing better would have been to dig them but in Texas that really would have been a near miracle!!! HH all!! Ace
