Orizaba Bitters

Orizaba Bitters

J. Maristany Jr.

O 88

J. Maristany & Co., San Francisco, California

Amber

Provenance: Steven Hubbell Collection

Here is a rather interesting, odd-shaped bitters bottle that is embossed ‘ORIZABA BITTERS’ on one side and ‘J. MARISTANY JR’ on another. The ‘R’ in ‘JR’ is smaller, raised, and underlined. We believe there to be only three or so surviving intact examples.

Not much is known about the bottle or its name which may have been a reference to the volcanic Pico de Orizaba mountain in southeast Mexico or the city Orizaba near the foot of this mountain, which is the tallest in Mexico. It could also reference an old mine named the Orizaba or the ship SS Orizaba in the Pacific Mail Steamship Company fleet that had the route between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 1874.

The inspiration for the ship’s Orizaba’s name is lost to history, but it seems probable that it is connected to Pico de Orizaba or the nearby town of Orizaba. Both are near Veracruz, one of the ship’s first regular destinations. It is also possible that Joseph Maristany may have taken this New York built steamship from New Orleans to California, or on a leg up the California coast.

It has been written that one of the revealing details of this interesting bottle is the curved legs of the letter “R’s” which are a trademark of a mold maker for San Francisco Glass Works. The color is also right in line with the amber coloration of the period, known by collectors as ‘Old Amber.’

What is puzzling is that 210 cases of Orizaba Bitters were being auctioned off in 1875 by S. L. Jones & Co., auctioneers in San Francisco. As we will see, Joseph Maristany would not complete the move from New Orleans to San Francisco until 1876.

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

O 88 f // ORIZABA BITTERS // f // J. MARISTANY JR //
9 ½ x 3 ¾ x 4 (6 5/8)
Rectangular, Amber, LTC, Applied mouth, Extremely rare
California State Directory 1875-1876
A western brand.

See Top 25 Western Bitters Survey.

Of French blood, Joseph Maristany was born in Barcelona, Spain in April 1835. He would immigrate to America in 1846, so he may have come with his parents, of Jewish ancestry, who were also born in Spain.

Joseph Maristany Jr. was considered a capitalist. He made a fortune in his career in the liquor and real estate business but unfortunately, he would die penniless. A couple of his wives would take care of that.

With his French heritage, we first see Maristany in New Orleans, Louisiana as a grocer in the wholesale wine and liquor business located at 302 Old Levee from 1865 to 1868. In 1873 and 1874, Maristany was listed as a wholesale liquor dealer, rectifier, and agent for bourbon and rye whiskey distilleries. He had relocated to 90 Tchoupitoulas Street in New Orleans.

Joseph Maristany Jr. would pull up stakes in New Orleans, possibly due to legal problems, and head to San Francisco, California, as we can track him in steamship travel and hotel stays in California in the first half of 1876.

A newspaper notice on April 10th, 1877 states that the Copartnership between L. J. Webster and J. Maristany, doing business as Webster & Co., at 321 Clay Street, has been dissolved by mutual consent. Hyacinth Gil took over Webster’s interest and the new firm was called J. Maristany & Co. They were wholesale liquor dealers. Maristany was residing in Oakland, California and Gil was residing in San Francisco where they had their office.

We suspect that Joseph Maristany, when he partnered with L. J. Webster, had the Orizaba Bitters bottles made in San Francisco before his arrival. Notice how he used his J. Maristany Jr. name on the bottle and not Webster & Company (L. J. Webster and J. Maristany Jr.) or J. Maristany & Co., the resulting name after he took on Hyacinth Gil as a partner in 1877. A bit confusing. All this and 210 cases of Orizaba Bitters being auctioned in 1875.

Though his business was in San Francisco, Maristany would move to Alameda which is a city in Alameda County, California. Alameda is located on Alameda Island and Bay Farm Island adjacent to and south of Oakland and east of San Francisco across the San Francisco Bay.

Sometime around 1885, Maristany would focus on real estate using his nest egg from the liquor business. He invested and built about twenty residences in the choicest portions of the city and was easily worth $100,000. About this time, his first wife, who had been in a private insane asylum, died.

Sometime after 1895, Maristany would marry a widow by the name of Caroline Sperry from San Francisco. Saying that she wished to be protected in the event of his death, she secured deeds to some of his best properties with the unwritten understanding that the instruments were not to be recorded except in the event of his death. Well, the deeds were recorded, and shortly after a cause for divorce was found. She took half of everything Maristany owned.

Maristany must have not had enough because, in 1901, a Madame Annette Harbidge came to Alameda and rented one of Maristany’s stores for a cloak-making establishment. Maristany would fall for this younger woman and they would get married. His new wife would soon leave for Chicago. After her departure, Maristany discovered thousands of dollars in bills she had contracted and she took the $30,000 deed to his prime retail property. As it turned out, Maristany was her fifth marriage. She had made it a habit to bilk her husbands, which in some cases, she was still married to.

Now at sixty-five years of age, Maristany was left penniless and died alone five years later on August 10, 1905. In the last few years of his life, he tried to eke out an existence in the commission business and selling lottery tickets. He had gone from being a prominent wealthy citizen of Alameda to dying alone in poverty.

Support: Second Orizaba Bitters example from Peachridge Glass archives. A third example from American Bottle Auctions.

Support Image: Auction Lot 41: ORIZABA BITTERS J. MARISTANY 1870’s. The Orizaba Bitters is undoubtedly one of the odder western bitters we’ve come across. Most definitely a western bottle as noted by the curved “R’s,” we still don’t have much information on who Maristany was or where they were located. Included in our book on western bitters, at the time there was only one known and this example is one we haven’t seen before. So, with maybe just a couple known in any condition, we can’t help but think this is one of the most interesting bitters out there. Grades an 8.5+, just about dead mint. – Jeff Wichmann, American Bottle Auctions, Auction 70, Part 1 of the Don Dwyer Collection

Support: Reference to Bitters Bottles by Carlyn Ring and W. C. Ham. Use of Orizaba Bitters illustration courtesy Bill Ham

Primary Image: Orizaba Bitters imaged on location by the FOHBC Virtual Museum midwest studio led by Alan DeMaison.

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