The "Mutha'" of all bottles?!? "Gold Dust Whiskey"??

[Black_Boogers]

There's been a story going around the bottle folks here in the San Francisco Bay Area for a number of years about a guy who happened to find 7 "Gold Dust Whiskey" bottles in the old oyster-shell dumps near Bair Island, in the S.F. Bay.

As the story goes (the way I heard it, anyway) he kept one for himself and sold the others for $7,000.00 . . . . . each.

I don't know which type of "Gold Dust Whiskey" bottles they were, in fact, I have never seen a whiskey bottle embossed "Gold Dust".

Anyway, I've got a friend who has a whiskey embossed "Barkhouse Bros.&Co. Gold Dust Kentucky Bourbon, John Van Bergen & Co. Sole Agents" in a slugplate, and wants to know more. Looks gloppy-topped, whittled, and honey amber.

Anybody heard of these? Any info on value??

Thanks,

Rick

 

[maxbitters]

Sorta reminds me of a big fish story, everytime it's told it keeps getting bigger. I know the guys found them and saw 5 of the seven aqua Gold Dust that were found in the S.F. Bay and purchased two of them. They were sold for 700 each not 7k.

 

[ilovejake24]

Well let me start off by telling you that if this particular whiskey you are mentioning is an amber coloration (which you say it is) then the value is about 5-8 times what an aqua example would fetch now-a-days. It needs to be mint of course. I believe there are about 20-26 examples of what you are describing known in collections. I let one of the older collectors tell you exactly how many are know, but i think i'm pretty close. I KNOW maxbitters would know (cause he owns a whole 'stable' full of horses himself.....lol). If mint, it is definitely a good fifth, but i don't know about "mutha of all bottles"hahaha. Good title though[] . Just better than your average one. If you want a legit value on it, post up a picture and i'll give you a better guesstimate. A good friend of mine just bought one for around $7,000 so that should put you in the ballpark depending on the condition, character, color and crudity...we can go from there after the picture.

 

[nailem63]

I own an aqua Gold Dust whiskey and really liked the above thread about them

 

[RICKJJ59W]

Its called whisper down the bottle alley.
Hey did you hear about the whatchmacallit bottle? its worth 5 bucks.Two years later its worth 50 cents [8D]

 

[jays emporium]

We been waitin 5 1/2 years and still no pic of that bottle?

 

[CALDIGR2]

OK, here 'ya go. Photo from "Whiskey Bottles Of The Old West" by John L. Thomas. It's sort of the "bible" of western whiskey collectors. There are more bottles of this mold available than the later Gold Dusts, but this is the earliest, dating to the early 1870s. it also brings the most "golden grickels".