Rise and Fall of Back-of-the-Bar Bottles

           

 While never owning any, I have been fascinated by back-of-the bar bottles (BoBB), the line of fancy containers shown above.  Gifted by distillers and liquor wholesalers in the pre-Prohibition era to favored customers like saloons and restaurants, the bottles were among the most expensive giveaways, often featuring fine glass and gold accents.  They were expected to catch the eye of the patron  — and did.  Because the legislation that accompanied the rollback of Prohibition outlawed them, today most of these bottles are more than 100 years old.  Displaying well, they are eagerly are sought by collectors.

A good example of the value these bottles have achieved is the the one shown right.  It was issued by Julius Goldbaum, a pioneer whiskey man in Tucson, Arizona.   Although most such bottles are clear glass,  Goldbaum chose his in amber with white and gold accents.  The results are a stunning bottle of which only a few are known.  One recently sold at auction for over $22,000.

In featuring back-of-the-bottles, it occurred to me to feature one wholesale house that stood out for the variety of attractive items it issued — Rosskam, Gerstley & Co.  Isaac Rosskam and his wife’s kinsman, Henry Gerstley, both immigrants from Germany,  had settled in Philadelphia and in 1869 opened the doors of their establishment.  The company initially was located at 336 North Third Street but within a year had moved to larger quarters at 402 North Third, where it would stay until 1876.”  Their proprietary brands were “Old Saratoga,” “Monogram," and “Fine Old Whiskey.”

Reflecting the rapid and impressive growth of its business volume, the partners that year moved to two new buildings.  One was five stories at 226 S. Front Street that advertised “Rye & Bourbon Whiskies” on the storefront.  The other at 133-135 Dock Street of six stories proclaimed “Old Rye Whiskies.”  Both locations allowed the firm adequate space to undertake “rectifying,” that is, blending whiskey bought from multiple sources to achieve tastes determined to have broad public appeal.

As their business grew the partners branched out into other cities. In 1870 the partners opened an office in Cleveland at 100 River Street.  About 1882 they located an outlet  in Chicago at 79 Dearborn Avenue, one of the Windy City’s premier commercial locations.  That was followed a year later by their establishing a branch  at 38 Broadway in New York City.   This proliferation of outlets indicated the kind of vigorous national customer base Rosskam, Gerstley built over time.

Because Philadelphia, and indeed the U.S., was loaded with distillers, rectifiers, and wholesalers, the partners had to combat stiff competition for the business of  restaurants, bars and saloons to stock their liquor.  They also had to appeal to members of the drinking public to request their brands from bartenders.  One way of advertising was to provide giveaway items that contained the name of a Rosskam, Gerstley products.  Although the partners gave away tip trays and shot glasses, they specialized in elegant back-of-the-bar bottles.

These included bottles in fancy molded glass with stoppers,ornate gold lettering, and in one case a metal or pewter body.  Shapes varied from bulbous bases to ginger jar shapes to straight sided bottles. At least one was metal.  Lettering might be in script, squared-off letters or san serif, and colored black, gold or cobalt blue.  I have counted at least twenty-one varieties of Rosskam, Gerstley & Co. bar bottles.  Nine of them are illustrated throughout this post.  No other distiller or whiskey house comes close in number or variety.  Isaac and Henry were the kings of the back bar.

At the turn of the Century, things changed at thePhiladelphia liquor house.  In 1899, Henry Gerstley died at age 61 at his residence.  As Rosskam aged he turned over the reins of management to his son.  A 1900 Philadelphia business directory lists William Rosskam as president of the firm.   In 1904 Isaac died, age about 70.  According to the press, he left a large estate.  Although the company continued to prosper for a time under William,  eventually it was forced to shut down by the enactment of National Prohibition.

The banning of bar bottles after the end of Prohibition was the result of their  having been used for purposes that neither Rosskam nor Gerstley would have approved.  Bartenders had a tendency when “Old Saratoga” or another whiskey had been dispensed from its fancy bar bottle to refill it with an inferior brand and cheerfully pour it out to customers under false pretenses.  Today bottles behind the bar must be the container in which the liquor was sold, carrying an original label and tax stamps.

That leaves a treasure trove of back-of-the-bar bottles.  They steadily grow older and all of them will have achieved “antique” status by 1920.  No more will be made and I have seen little evidence of fraudulence.  Many can be bought for under $200.  Attractive and displaying well, they are certain to accrue in desirability and value in the future.

Bowser Selling Booze

In December of 2009,  I posted on this blog an illustrated article that was entitled “Dogs Playing Poker.”  It chronicled the work of Artist Cassius Marcellus Collidge who did a series of 16 paintings in 1903  and after for a Minnesota advertising firm that wanted something different in a campaign for cigars.  Over time the pictures have reached iconic status,  with two originals commanding as much as $590,000 at auction and spawning plenty of imitators.

In recent months it has come to my attention that a number of distilleries and liquor dealers, as well as an occasional brewery, both pre- and post-Prohibition, have picked up on this theme.  As a result, a number of artifacts can be found that feature “man’s best friend” in merchandising alcoholic beverages.  Or as I have entitled this post,  “Bowser Selling Booze.”

The first example is an image of four dogs play poker that is taken directly from a Collidge painting.  It appears on a metal color lithographed tip tray. In addition to the requisite cigar,  the image adds a bottle of what we must assume was “Old Saratoga Whiskey.”   The tray was issued by Rosskam, Gerstley & Co., a Philadelphia based liquor distributor founded about 1869.  The principals were William Rosskam, the president, Louis Rosskam and Isaac Gerstley.  They were rectifiers,  buying whiskey and compounding and blending it to taste.  They featured a blizzard of house brands, of which Old Saratoga was their flagship.

Rosskam, Gerstley also used the same doggy image on a trade card for Old Saratoga,  emphasizing that it “Beats Any Pat Hand.” “Pat Hand” was the name Collidge gave this painting.  Through vigorous and imaginative advertising like this,  the Philadelphia company built a clientele extending both  East and West,  opening offices in both New York City (on prestigious Broadway) and Chicago.   National Prohibition, however, put Rosskam, Gerstley “into liquidation.”

Another liquor outfit that saw a merchandising advantage in a Collidge painting was the Charles A. Grove Sons of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  On a framed wooden sign, given to favored saloons carrying Grove brands,  were two dogs both smoking cigars and drinking from lidded steins.  Strictly speaking, they were not playing cards but one senses that a game could break out at any time.  This liquor dealership featured a limited number of whiskey brands, chiefly the two advertised here,  “Golden Rod” and “Spring Grove.” The Grove sons,  Charles E. and George F., were forced to shut down their firm in 1919 after more than two decades in business.

The Lehnert Brewery of Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, focused in on one of the two dogs shown in the Grove sign to create a color lithographed, four inch tip tray.  Located in a town of some 6,500 residents near Allentown,  the brewery was founded in 1867 and had a series of owners until acquired by Charles L. Lenhart in 1906.  He made a series of improvements to the old facility,  building a three story brew house and bottling house, creating new storage cellars and updating machinery.  Although a small facility, Lehnert was able to produce 8,000 barrels of beer and porter annually.

The next bar sign is a British import.  Four collies are seen sitting around a table with a bottle of Black & White Scotch prominently displayed.  Although no cards are evident, all manner of smoking materials are.  In addition to the long clay pipes that each dog is puffing, the table holds cigarettes, a cigar and matches. This image apparently predates the use of the black and white scottie dogs that have dominated the Black & White Scotch whiskey ads and image of in contemporary times.  It is difficult to date an import item like this because Britain did not experience Prohibition but a guess is that it is a product of the early 20th Century.

Among the many post-Prohibition American imitators of the Collidge dogs was “Old Charter Bourbon Whiskey.”  This brand was established in 1874 by A.B. Chapeze who was operating a distillery on the Bardstown, Kentucky, branch of the L & N Railroad.  According to Internet sources,  sales were assigned under contract  to Wright & Taylor,  a Louisville wholesale house.   After Prohibition the brand name was sold to a series of large distilling outfits, among them Schenley Distillers, which appears to have marketed it from 1937 until 1987.  As a result, my surmise is that the lithographed tray shown here and the bar mirror that replicates the image can be attributed to Schenley.

At this point we leave the Coolidge dogs and their imitators to focus on whiskey men who used other representations of dogs to advertising their products.  One of the more bizarre  is a trade card for Phoenix Bourbon,  the product of a San Francisco wholesale liquor dealership named Naber, Alfs & Brune.  The illustration,  signed by A. Burk, shows two dogs in hats and smoking cigars contemplating a  bottle of booze while, apparently unnoticed by the pooches, a bevy of bosomy women emerge as flowers from a plant.  One dog has asked the other:  “Did you say Phoenix Old Bourbon?”

This firm began its life under completely different ownership in 1871.  Over ensuing years as other ownership came and went in 1880,  three partners got together and Naber, Alfs and Brune was formed, destined to become one of the West Coast’s largest liquor dealers. Surviving fire, earthquake and the departure of Naber and Brune, the firm managed to continue high profitability until the coming of Prohibition.

The “Chum’s Whiskey” lithographed tray depicts a man in a tuxedo toasting his dog,  a large shaggy canine who appears interested in imbibing a bit of liquor himself.  This artifact was issued by the Scranton (Pennsylvania) Distributing Co.  This firm, located at 509 Lackawanna Avenue, appears to have been a grocery supply house that also featured its own brand of whiskey.  A bottles of Chum’s is conspicuous on the tray.  The idea was, I suppose, that the man and dog were chummy.

The final dog image is a spoof of the iconic “His Master’s Voice” ads and is connected to the whiskey trade.  “Old Tucker Whiskey” was a lead brand of the Brown-Foreman Company in the pre-Prohibition era.  This Louisville, Kentucky, outfit was formed by George Brown and George Foreman in 1891 and has survived to the present day.  It chose the image for the label and other artifacts involved with its Old Tucker brand.  Note that the gramophone has been replaced by a whiskey jug and the horn by a funnel.  The bulldog:  “Suspects His Master.”

There they are, ten merchandising images of dogs being employed to sell whiskey and beer. For more than 100 years, it would appear, the idea of “man’s best friend” also being in favor of a an alcoholic beverage or two has captivated the minds of ad men worldwide.  To date there has been no outcry from animal lovers or Prohibitionists about the juxtaposition of doggies and drink.   As a result bowser can still be found selling booze.