Early American Whiskey Bottles
E G Booz Old Cabin Whiskey 1863-1870
These are some of the most desired and pricey bottles available in the bottle collecting world.It is also the most reproduced antique bottle on the Market.The Clevenger brothers made the best copy in 1930 of the straight roof version and have fooled quite a few people myself included.
Only one GVII-5 original BOOZ exists and that is in the Corning Museum of glass. While not extremely rare the GVII-3 is none the less comparatively rare and has a high percentage of roof and corner damage because of the thinness of the glass in those area's of the bottle. It was difficult to blow the glass into the bottles corners and crevices thus the bottles were weak at those points.This is why the roof variant on the GVII-4 with the beveled roof was changed. Metal plugs were added in the corner peaks of the roof in the mold to achieve this.
The bottle was manufactured at the Whitney glass works in Glassboro New Jersey in the years 1858 through the 1860s and right on up to 1870. The Whitney glass works had a retail office in Philadelphia at 118 Walnut street and right next door to them Edmund G. Booz had his store front where he was selling his cabin shaped Booz bottles to liquor merchants and tavern owners through out the Delaware Valley.There was speculation that the bottles manufacture date was in the year 1840 but that has since been disproved as Edmund Booz would have been only sixteen years of age at that time,an age probably a little to young to be a Liquor Merchant.
The original bottle had a paper label wrapper that depicted an early American cabin. On the rear of the bottle on the roof is the date in bold font 1840.This led many to believe that the bottles date stamped on the roof was from William Henry Harrison's presidential Campaign Log cabin and hard cider in the year 1840. Early in the 20th century Edwin Attlee Barbers book titled American glassware and the book by Stephen Van Rensselaer's American Bottle's and Flasks only fueled the myth regarding the Harrison presidential campaign.
The bottle was blown in a hinged mold which opened and closed diagonally.A treadle mold was used applying foot power to the mold which allowed the master blower to close the mold around the gather of glass when blowing into it and than opening it when he was finished blowing the bottle. When the bottle was released from the mold it sat on a steel pedestal 2 7/8s in diameter. With the bottle now resting on the pedestal the slight circular depression seen on all of the Booz base's was left impressed. The pedestal had been designed to move independently resting on a large pin. When the glass blower was finished blowing the bottle he was able to move the bottle towards him for easy removal from the mold.With the bottle now removed from the mold the blow over portion of the glass was cracked off.Now it was the gaffers turn to place the the applied top to the bottle. Once that task was completed the bottle was placed into the annealing oven which had a lower temperature than the main furnace which allowed the bottle to gradually cool.
I cant find one example of Edmund Booz advertising his whiskey only another gentleman's Golden Bitters.
Only one GVII-5 original BOOZ exists and that is in the Corning Museum of glass. While not extremely rare the GVII-3 is none the less comparatively rare and has a high percentage of roof and corner damage because of the thinness of the glass in those area's of the bottle. It was difficult to blow the glass into the bottles corners and crevices thus the bottles were weak at those points.This is why the roof variant on the GVII-4 with the beveled roof was changed. Metal plugs were added in the corner peaks of the roof in the mold to achieve this.
The bottle was manufactured at the Whitney glass works in Glassboro New Jersey in the years 1858 through the 1860s and right on up to 1870. The Whitney glass works had a retail office in Philadelphia at 118 Walnut street and right next door to them Edmund G. Booz had his store front where he was selling his cabin shaped Booz bottles to liquor merchants and tavern owners through out the Delaware Valley.There was speculation that the bottles manufacture date was in the year 1840 but that has since been disproved as Edmund Booz would have been only sixteen years of age at that time,an age probably a little to young to be a Liquor Merchant.
The original bottle had a paper label wrapper that depicted an early American cabin. On the rear of the bottle on the roof is the date in bold font 1840.This led many to believe that the bottles date stamped on the roof was from William Henry Harrison's presidential Campaign Log cabin and hard cider in the year 1840. Early in the 20th century Edwin Attlee Barbers book titled American glassware and the book by Stephen Van Rensselaer's American Bottle's and Flasks only fueled the myth regarding the Harrison presidential campaign.
The bottle was blown in a hinged mold which opened and closed diagonally.A treadle mold was used applying foot power to the mold which allowed the master blower to close the mold around the gather of glass when blowing into it and than opening it when he was finished blowing the bottle. When the bottle was released from the mold it sat on a steel pedestal 2 7/8s in diameter. With the bottle now resting on the pedestal the slight circular depression seen on all of the Booz base's was left impressed. The pedestal had been designed to move independently resting on a large pin. When the glass blower was finished blowing the bottle he was able to move the bottle towards him for easy removal from the mold.With the bottle now removed from the mold the blow over portion of the glass was cracked off.Now it was the gaffers turn to place the the applied top to the bottle. Once that task was completed the bottle was placed into the annealing oven which had a lower temperature than the main furnace which allowed the bottle to gradually cool.
I cant find one example of Edmund Booz advertising his whiskey only another gentleman's Golden Bitters.