Here is your average decent example of a "One Name Bear". At first observation is appears the same as any other example in color, top, and embossing. The examples I have seen all have the multiple "rivet patch/ repairs" to the mold, especially on the reverse.
Take a look at this one though...it only has a small square shaped repair area on the lower reverse. I have not seen this before, and there are no other signs of the typical mold patches commonly found on this bottle. I looked at my "Two Name Bear", and it has a crude irregular spot in the exact location, but not a nicely defined square patch.
Is this common on this bottle? I know there are many versions of the "Bear" so perhaps I have simply missed this on other examples. It just seems odd that this area is irregular on the earlier "Two Name Bear" and cleaned up on the later version. I know it is not strength of embossing as the rest of the bottle is well struck.
Dale M.
It looks like your Bear is also missing the large circular vent mark on the front like most have, is it there? When the den is out of hibernation we'll have to compare notes in May.
ReplyDeleteIt seems a little odd that for as far, wide and long as the "Old Pioneer" brand was distributed that more of these bottles don't turn up. What else seems odd is that in my travels rarely have I found the one name and two name Bears overlapping or found in the same areas.
www.oldwestbottles.com
old bumstead say's, there was some small patches on a bear whiskey that was the same color as dales,and had the few small patches repaired before the long single patch.in having six at one time there was different patches on most all of them.
ReplyDeleteThese fifths all look pretty much the same except for the very subtle differences in the color of the glass - and perhaps the "strike"...to a 35-year bottle enthusiast who collects mostly "fire aqua" medis and clear glass Bay Area bottles. Of course the mold repairs are noticeable on any bottle pretty much. The mold repairs certainly add to the character and crudity (or lack thereof) of a given specimen. But frankly these fifths all look the same. Do they not? Same height, same color with slight differentiation. Maybe it is just the same situation with any category of bottles...
ReplyDeleteTrue observation by GP regarding the lack of distribution overlap between the 2-name and 1-name Bears. I'm also aware of that and have always thought it was odd. One possible explanation might be, that when Fenkhausen and Braunschweiger parted ways, some type of agreement was made that neither of them could work the previous towns....
ReplyDeleteAs for the slug marks on the reverse, my 2-name does have a strong square patch on the reverse. I think the repair for the mold that was used for both of the bottles, was a work in progress. Dale's 1-name might be an early example of the 1-name before the mold had the longer more commonly seen rectangular patch added.
AP
Does anyone have an account of any amber example Fenkhausen Bears being found or dug in the lower 1/3 of California (So Cal)?
ReplyDeleteI did find my clear tooled top example in an antique store down here & a friend of mine dug a broken clear applied top example south of Los Angeles, but I don't know of anything besides that. I know real, living-breathing, bears are practically extinct from nearly all areas of SoCal, and not a ton of them (even prior to the turn-of-the-century), with the exception of mountain areas like "Big Bear," where they ran rampant. Perhaps a bear whiskey was more marketable to old loggers and the like, those who were in closer quarters with the fearsome critters. I just wonder what is a rarer sighting down here, a real bear or a Fenkhausen bear? I sure would like to find a bear den....and I don't mean the kind at the San Diego Zoo!
J.F.
ReplyDeleteI checked the database from my 1995-96 survey, and the farthest south I have an entry for an amber Fenkhausen, was in San Miguel. A clear example has also been found there, but of course no 2-names. Sounds like there might be a little den there....
Good bear hunting !
AP
Thanks for the info, A.P.
ReplyDeleteMy goal for 2011 will be unearthing the most elusive Fenkhausen Bear from the curse of SoCal! I can think of a number of other great bottles that have also likely never been found here, but I'll shoot for the bear first....
JF
ReplyDeleteTo complete the mission in that region, you will need the most advanced Bear hunting rifle/gear... mainly a roto-hammer and concrete saw !!
AP
Very true, A.P.
ReplyDeleteIn fact SoCal concrete is sometimes easier to probe than the natural (petrified) soil....haha!
Sledgehammers, picks, and breaker-bars are like bb-guns and slingshots for real bear hunting, it really takes concrete saws, roto-hammers, & jack-hammers to land the big trophy bears. It may have been over a decade since the last embossed, applied top fifth was unearthed in San Diego, maybe closer to 20 years from what I know about...it almost makes me want to cry, or just get out and dig more to reverse the SD whiskey curse!
Getting closer to a one name Bear in SoCal....Dug 2 clear Fenkhausen Monogram fifths a few days ago. They are to tooled-top variants and have a few damage issues, but always a good day when any embossed fifths pop out. More details & pictures in a future post...
ReplyDelete