By Hunter Oatman-Stanford — At a time when obscure new whiskeys are appearing on cocktail menus from Savannah to Seattle, it's hard to imagine the American whiskey industry was ever under threat. For starters, the grain-based spirit is as American as apple pie, or at least George Washington—in fact, the first president’s Mount Vernon estate was once the site of the country’s largest distillery, specializing in the Mid-Atlantic region’s famous rye whiskey. But despite its noble foundations, America's whiskey industry...

Historical Flasks, American Primitive Portraits in Glass

By Helen McKearin — The popular feeling for men and the events they bring to pass which profoundly influence a nation's development — politically, economically, and culturally — always has found expression in the arts and crafts. These embodiments of history-in-the-making form part of the cultural heritage of a nation. Furnishing, as they do, a thread of continuity with the past they have an intangible appeal independent of their value as objects of fine art, folk art, craftsmanship, or mere antiquarian...

The Metal Flask, Successor to the Powder Horn

By Dr. George P. Coopernail — When I was a boy in my teens, I well remember the first time I went hunting. Along with a breech loading gun I carried a leather flask for shot and a copper powder flask. The latter was embossed on one side with a hunting dog and had a beautiful blue carrying cord with tassels on both sides where it went through the lower rings of the flask. This interesting accessory really belonged, of course, to the era of the percussion cap, muzzle loading firearm which ended with the Civil War...

Rare Flasks from Early Glass Houses in Pittsburgh and Monongahela Districts

By George S. McKearin — Stiegel – Wistar – Amelung – are all names associated with romance and glamour in the early development of glassmaking in America. Many others, whose achievements were just as outstanding but who have not been so well publicized, followed these "immortals" in the early and mid-years of the 19th Century. To this latter generation of glassmakers the collector owes a major portion of the finest examples of the glassmaker's craft which grace his cabinets and delight his eyes. To the...

Bill Lindsey on How To Read a Bottle

By Maribeth Keane — My maternal grandfather and uncle got into bottles in about 1965 or ‘66 when I was in high school, and we started digging. My uncle was in Arizona, near some of the old mining camps there. Those were the glory days of bottle digging. People had access with four-wheel drive vehicles and gas was cheap and time-off was more abundant. Then years passed and people started really hitting the ghost towns and mining camps and logging camps of the West. Anyway, we started by digging some of the...