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SPRUANCE STANLEY : AFRICAN STOMACH BITTERS In March of 1881 the Sacramento Daily Union Newspaper had an advertisement claiming that a Spruance Stanley & CO filed for a trade mark with the Secretary of state for African Stomach Bitters. This company was located at 410 Front Street. San Francisco, California. The Spruance Stanley & Co. claim that it was the greatest blood purifier in the world and that they were solo agents for this product. There would be another company claiming that they were the sole agent also. The Wilcox Powers & Co. from Sacramento also advertised that they were not only special agents for African Stomach Bitters but also the "sole" agents. (Does this mean that the variant of this Bitters bottle could have been from two different companies, I am not sure). There are three variants of this bottle that I know of. The first one is embossed AFRICAN / STOMACH / BITTERS SPRUANCE / STANLEY & CO. The second bottle is embossed AFRICAN / STOMACH / BITTERS // SPRUANCE, STANLEY & CO. and photo below is a AFRICAN / STOMACH / BITTERS. These bottles come in either a two or four piece mold with a applied or tooled lip and is around 9 5/8 inches tall. Below are two different African Stomach Bitters thermometer.
Below is a letterhead. courtesy of ebay.
Here is another letterhead & envelope. Photo courtesy of Lou Holis. Both letterheads appears to be wrote by the same person.
References: The Sacramento Daily Union March 1881. www.westernbitters.com article by California Kid Nov 2009. Bitters Bottles by Carlyn Ring & W. C. Ham. Frank & Frank Jr. (Wicker) Bottle Collection. |
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