New Paterson Pickle....

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3 days ago this great pickle jar showed up on Ebay, the seller spelled New Jersey wrong so I'm guessing the short time period and the error in the listing made for only a handful of views( he had no view counter). What I can tell you is that this is only the second one to ever be found, the other is owned by the Paterson Bottle Guru, which is lucky for me because it would have been much more expensive than the $9.99 I just paid for it. It's stands 8-1/2" tall and is embossed on the bottom R. P. Co. Paterson New Jersey and there's an area that looks like it would have had a paper label, I am stoked to add it to my collection...

RECKHOW PRESERVING CO.

They were in business from 1875-81 and then they were bought out by the Paterson Pickle Co. in 1882.

 

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Company writeup in an 1882 book on Paterson and it's businesses...

 

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It appears that Israel Reckhow was in business in NYC for a number of years before opening up in Paterson, according to this article found online he was listed in a 1851 directory in NYC near where the World Trade Center would later be built...



The shape of what would become the World Trade Center site indeed of all lower Manhattan did not change from around 1840 until th nineteen-sixties, when landfill began on a whole new scale. The New York City Street Directory for 1851 shows a neighborhood still catering to th commercial waterfront. The Northern Hotel is at 113 West Street, Henry Bicks runs a boarding house at 139-141 Liberty Street. Next door is a stable a cooper; Israel Reckhow, a pickle merchant; Bass Clark & Dibble, grocers, and a tobacconist selling “segars.â€

 

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I also found this ad from a NYC business directory for 1845, it seems Mr. Reckhow had a partner at one time...

 

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I love the color of that thing JIM.

 

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Rechkow also had an exhibit at the 1876 Centennial in Philadelphia, which led to this little blurb...

 

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Thanks Gordon, I had serious doubts of ever finding my own example, I was happy to have the Guru wish me good luck in my bidding on it at our bottle club meeting last night.[]

 

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I love how a bottle like this can open up so many new avenues and tie together loose ends. I found this writeup in a California newspaper from 1878...

'MONTICELLO'​

We desire to call the attention of the trade to the pickles, sauces and salad cream put up by the Reckhow Preserving Company of Paterson, New Jersey, under the trade mark, "Monticello.'' It is gratifying to observe the success which has attended an industrial enterprise set on foot only a few years ago, designed not merely to drive out from the market poisonous Pickles and Condiments, which are known to be consumed in large quantities, but to introduce a quality of American goods fully equal to the most popular imported brands. It has been shown by chemical analysis that the use of poisonous ingredients is resorted to in numerous instances, in order to impart to pickles the brilliant green hue seen in the vegetables when freshly gathered. In this way a tincture of copper, for appearance sake, with an addition of sulphuric acid to impart greater pungency, works endless mischief. In England, too, the "copper contamination," as it is called, widely prevails. The Reckhow Preserving Company are a firm of American manufacturers of high character for probity and enterprise, working to build up a permanent reputation, and have adopted the surest course to permanent success by restricting itself to the manufacture of goods of the strictest integrity. Every article that is put upon the market is fully guaranteed, and no inferior goods are sent out. This policy has gained friends to this Company, and will ultimately give them a most enviable reputation all over the world. The Reckhow Preserving Company are fast gaining ground, and are today supplying a large foreign trade as well as our own. In style, they are conceded by all to be superior to the foreign goods on sight, while to the taste they are found to be superior in flavor. These goods have real merit, and we are glad to say that the prejudice at first encountered is fast disappearing, and are now met with special favor by the trade here. We are agents for the Reckhow Preserving Company.​

I have seen a trade card for Monticello Pickles & Olives a few times over the years and now I need to make sure to acquire one to go along with this jar.

 

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Here's the trade card showing Monticello Queen Olives and Lilly Brand Mixed Pickles, so I'm thinking the jar is actually for olives considering it looks close in form to the bottle of the left, the bottle on the right appears to be more straight sided...

 

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I think the jar on the blanket might be a 'Salad Cream' and the jar in his hand is a 'Chow Chow' bottle.