The Fish Bitters – Cobalt

The Fish Bitters

W. H. Ware

Patented 1866

F 46

Ware & Schmitz, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Cobalt Blue Figural

Provenance: Sandor P. Fuss Collection (Ex: Meyer, Keating, Shank)

In bottle collecting, one of the biggest fish tales is the story of how the legendary “blue Fish Bitters” was found. There are actually two examples extant and we will see and discuss both.

Read about the history and see more examples of museum Fish Bitters.

As the story goes, our subject fish bottle was discovered on a farm many years ago in Waupaca, Wisconsin. Apparently, the bottle was being used to feed liniment to a horse. It takes some good imagination to picture this. An established bottle collector, Bill Mitchell came upon this situation and casually purchased the bottle for $500 and then promptly enhanced his investment when he resold it for $1,600 to a bottle collecting acquaintance. The bitters next appeared at the 1976 FOHBC Expo in St. Louis, Missouri. A rumor circulated that it had been purchased for the princely sum of $5,000.

Howard Crowe of Gold Hill, North Carolina sent me a nice handwritten letter and two (2) photographs from Tony Shank’s collection. One of the pictures depicts the blue fish bitters with the Sazarac’s and Old Homesteads blue bitters in the Shanks den window. Howard as he notes, was a rookie collector in the early ’80s and was invited, along with his good friend, Tom Lines to see the Shank collection which included the three blue bitters. Howard further goes on to say ‘looking at all those beautiful bottles was a day I will never forget.’

Peachridge Glass

The fish bottle next went to federation member Tony Shank’s collection in Marion, South Carolina. There is an old photograph that shows the cobalt blue Fish Bitters with the blue Sazarac’s Aromatic Bitters and Old Homesteads Wild Cherry Bitters in his den window on the top shelf. Next, it is thought that Chuck Moore may have brokered the deal that passed the three blue bitters from Tony Shank to Don Keating. From there the bottle went to Pennsylvania, then Houston, and then Denver where it now resides.

Charles and Jane Aprill, from New Orleans, were the owners of the only other known blue Fish Bitters bottle, Charles confirmed that their bottle lip was sheared, offset, and cataloged as F 46, the same as the museum example. With good light and a magnifying glass, it was confirmed that there was no embossed copy reading “The Fish Bitters” on the gills. This bottle came from Elvin and Sherri Moody in Ohio many years ago and was purchased at a Skinner’s auction in Bolton, Massachusetts in the mid-1980s. Last year, this bottle sold.

Read more: Looking at Dr. Gottlieb Fisch’s Bitters and The Fish Bitters

The Carlyn Ring and W.C. Ham listings in Bitters Bottles is as follows:

F 46 THE ( ad ) / FISH BITTERS ( ad ) // W. H. WARE ( ad ) /
PATENTED 1866 ( au ) // // b // W. H. WARE / PATENT 1866
Ware & Schmitz, 3 & 5 Granite Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
11 3/8 x 3 ¾ x 2 ½
Fish, Mouth off-center, Applied mouth, and Rolled Lip, Scales like cobble-stones,
Amber-Scarce; Clear – Rare; Aqua – Extremely rare, Cobalt Blue – Extremely rare

Primary Image: The Fish Bitters bottle imaged by the FOHBC Virtual Museum midwest studio by Alan DeMaison.

Support: Second Example Lot 186: “W H Ware / Patent 1866” Base Embossed Figural Bitters Type Bottle, America, 1860-1880. In the form of a fish, brilliant deep cobalt blue, sheared mouth – smooth base, ht. 11 ¼ inches; (1 ¼ inch crack in neck, shallow ¾ inch area of roughness on edge of mouth, light exterior high point wear). Similar to R/H #F-46. Brilliant and beautiful color with great character. Extremely rare and important. Ex. Elvin and Sherri Moody collection, Dr. Charles and Jane Aprill collection. Estimate: $20,000 – $40,000 Minimum bid: $10,000 Price Realized: $39,780 – Norman C. Heckler Auction 180 (Session II) September 2019

Support: Reference to Bitters Bottles by Carlyn Ring and W. C. Ham. Use of The Fish Bitters illustration and photograph of The Fish Bitters, Old Homestead Wild Cherry Bitters, and Sazerac Aromatic Bitters in blue glass. From Bitters Bottles color plate section courtesy Bill Ham.

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