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l
Our
quest has so far yielded nothing of relevance regarding our unlisted shot
glass. So what next? Well, luckily for us, the
old liquor wholesalers, distillers and rectifiers produced copious amount
of advertising materials, much of which included information that can we can
use in our quest to learn more about a company. The most obvious
vehicle for advertising was a bottle; bottle labels not provide us with
information about brand names, they often contain an address also.
But bottles are only the beginning - there were also jugs, flasks,
decanters, corkscrews, stirrers, plates, teapots, clocks, thermometers,
calendars, cardboard and glass signs, bar displays, tip trays, ash trays,
beer trays, mirrors to hang on the wall, pocket mirrors, penknives,
paperweights, playing cards, bag handles, business cards, trade cards, billheads,
letterheads, flyers, drink tokens, and shot glasses. I'm sure I
missed something - the bottom line is that they could brand it, they did
(within certain legal limits). |
| So
what's available from our friends Humphrey and Martin? There's a decanter with the name "Bouquet
Whiskey" etched in gold (not shown), there's a nice jug with
"Bouquet Whiskey" on it that also shows the brand owners on
it. There's a corkscrew, again with brand and owner. There are
undoubtedly other items, but these are the only ones that I've run across
as of now. All of these items have appeared for auction on eBay, so
if you know you're interested in shots from a particular city or area of
the country, it pays to search eBay for items with "Philadelphia
Whiskey" or "Philadelphia Advertising" in their description
(using Philadelphia as an example). You don't have to bid on or buy
the items, just take a note of anything you see in the item
description or the photo. You may also want to keep a copy of the
photo (click on the photo using the right mouse button, and then choose
"Save Picture As" to save to a convenient location) or ask
the seller to describe more fully text that you can't quite make out from
the picture. |
|
The most
useful relic from Messrs Humphrey & Martin turned up at a
"local" bottle show. I had to drive out into the
Pennsylvania boonies for this one - a trip that lead me 2 hours north of
Philly. When I finally arrived, the show turned out to be three
sellers huddled in the corner of a large and very-recently-used cow
barn. One actually did have a shot glass, but it was a Hayner, and a
faded, cracked one at that. The second table contained only
bottles, the third cardboard trays filled with old postcards, plus a couple of
binders. The binders turned out to contain a collection of old
letterheads and billheads and among them was one from Humphrey & Martin. It
was tagged at $7 but the seller dropped the price to $3
without my even asking -- and it was mine.
|
 |
Not only did
the billhead provide me with the Company's street address
(401 & 403 North Third Street), it also told me the nature of
the business (Wholesale Liquor Dealers) full names of the
owners (Samuel Humphrey and John W. Martin), the year the business
was established (1860), at least one date of operation
(1898). |
| It also
told me that Humphrey & Martin were sole proprietors of
"Bouquet" and also "Anchor" Pure Rye -- it even
shows the trademarks. The billhead alone made the trip
north worthwhile, because it told me that somewhere out there
is probably a glass that reads "Anchor Pure Rye Whiskey,
Humphrey & Martin, Philadelphia" ! |
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