A TALL ( 12" tall ) deep PURPLE AMETHYST color antique ILER'S WILLOW SPRING DISTILLERY Omaha Nebraska MALT WHISKEY bottle. This is an ORIGINAL ANTIQUE blown glass Cork Top whiskey bottle, dating over 100 YEARS OLD, over ONE CENTURY OLD !
According to my personal experience as a bottle digger (young age) and a bottle dealer/collector (mid age) this is scarce pre-Prohibition whiskey bottle from Omaha, Nebraska. This bottle was made around 1915 in Alton, IL at the old Illinois Glass Factory (I.G.Co.) and to this date, FEW OF THESE BOTTLES have been found as they enjoyed a very short run-time. In depth research tells us that the Willow Springs Distillery was located in Omaha, Neb. The distillery actually began in Iowa, but moved to Omaha in 1866. It was seized by the federal government in 1869 for taxes not paid and at that time, was sold to Peter Iler and James McGrath, who operated as Iler & Co. Though Peter Iler got his start much earlier, as a whiskey merchant in Tiffan Ohio (and was the maker and sole agent of such brands as his American Life Bitters {which, incidentally came packaged in a figural log cabin styled glass bottle}) he and McGrath were incorporated in 1871 as The Willow Springs Distilling Co., Omaha, Nebraska. They were located just south of downtown Omaha at 4th & Pierce Streets. At that time many of Omaha's merchant's were focused on the unique trade opportunities that had opened up along the upper Missouri River, in essence, the headwaters of navigation at Fort Benton, Montana Territory, the jumping off point to the lucrative Montana's gold fields. It was there that Iler too focused his market. Iler & Co. continued to market his American Life Bitters in the same log-cabin shaped bottle, including some of his old stock of bottles with the Tiffan Ohio embossing, but with the excitement of the new move, he had the mold reworked to reflect his new business venture and from this time onward his log cabin bottles were marked "Omaha Nebraska". These facts were summarized by my own experience as a bottle digger and collector in Montana. Evidently the American Life Bitters lost its share in the market with the move, and the brand died out or went to a plain paper labeled bottle as Iler focused more on the demand for good whiskey in the new American west. By the 1880's, Iler & Co. were distilling 1200 gallons of whiskey DAILY! Towards the end of the century, Iler again directed his effort towards the bitters market, and instead of branding his efforts with the new found freedoms in America that were so prevalent and fought for when his AMERICAN LIFE BITTERS hit the market, he looked towards the refreshing allurement of the Progressive Era and branded his new product as "ILERS EAST INDIA BITTERS ... ILER & CO. OMAHA, NEB." Though the Missouri River trade had given way to the Rail Road in the 1880's, he had his products transported RR instead of riverboat, along the same trade routes. As a result, the Iler's East India bitters bottles are not an uncommon find here in Montana. As the Pure Food and Drug Administration came into being and gained momentum, by 1906 many cure-all products, such as the East India Bitters, were given an ultimatum, to put up or shut up. In other words, quit all the fancy quack 'cure' claims and start to invest the time and energy into R & D (research and development) to meet and list the criteria for products that don't just make you feel like you are cured, but products with contents that are known to be useful in the treatment of such diseases. At that time most of the patent medicine companies and alcohol based tonics and bitters failed the test. Like the prohibition that was soon to follow, many of the quack cure companies could read the writing on the wall and either put up or shut up (down) and, instead of investing the R and D into the cause, companies such as Iler and Co. either went away or went back to doing something that was a sure thing, like distilling 1200 gallons of whiskey a day! Yet as with the formation of the Pure Food and Drug Administration, the prohibition writing on the wall was getting louder all the time, and by the late date of 1915 (late teens) there was born THIS product that THIS bottle carried therein; Iler's MALT Whiskey. Unlike most whiskeys and bottled alcoholic beverages of the day, Iler's MALT whiskey was not an intoxicating spirit produced by laborers plunging grains into a swimming pool sized vat and applying heat to it. No, this MALT whiskey was supposedly formulated by scientists in the laboratory who painstakingly reduced their blends of selected medicinal hops and grains (flotsam and jetsam) into a MALT tonic, a Medicinal-Purposes-only PURE and UNADULTERATED concoction, which targeted, not only the plain public sector, but also the teetotaler's, those whom could not - would not possibly cross the line and consume any alcohol related nostrum no matter how promising an outcome was guaranteed. Yet they could imbibe themselves of THIS Malt Whiskey and in return it would not only institute new life into their 'beings', but also "purify the blood", "cure scrofula and epilepsy", "cleanse the palate", "restore the constitution", "redden the cheeks", and positively introduce the vigor of life back into any salvation seeking soul no matter what error ridden state of affair the would-be-user was accosted with. Shortly after the product hit the shelves and a few small order of bottles were filled, prohibition stormed the market, the company went belly up and all that is left of this Fountain of Youth, Elixir of Life, Mystic Life Renewing formula is a few cases of these emptied old bottles that were left buried behind an old bordello on Rodney Street in 20th century Helena, Montana. And here is one of them, a pure purple on at that! You hear about old glass turning purple ... this purple color is the result of having manganese in the glass. Manganese is a mineral, a rock, that was mined, crushed, and pulverized into a powder, then added to vats of molten liquid glass, and acted as a decolorizing agent to turn the natural aqua-tinted glass into a pure crystal clear colorless glass. Then it was blown into a mold to create bottle or object. But when exposed to the ultraviolet rays of the sun or other sources of UV rays, it triggers a chemical reaction and the manganese starts to oxidize and slowly turns a lavender or amethyst color. The end result is what collectors refer to as SCA (Sun Colored Amethyst) glass. The longer it is in the sun the purpler it becomes. This bottle was exposed to some concentrated UV rays which had the same affect as the sun, but a lot faster. It has not been colored, stained, or altered. No matter how a bottle like this has turned purple (direct sunlight or UV rays in controlled environment) they all turn the same purple color as it is the same chemical reaction taking place. The only difference is the time it took to turn purple. What is important is that an item is old enough to turn purple as with few exceptions, only clear glass from before 1915 have manganese in them and will turn SCA. After this, with the start of WWI, manganese was no longer available as foreign imports decreased and domestic resources turned towards the war effort. Selenium sulphate then replaced manganese as a glass de-colorizer and when exposed to UV rays, it turns a yellow / straw color, and a dark burnt amber color. Generally speaking NO MORE purple glass after 1915! Not only does this deep purple/amethyst color make this a great looking antique bottle but it also authenticates it as being truly antique, check it out!, check it out!
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