I have a large julep strainer marked “Hausmann. 4 4th Ave. N.Y.”.
It has a very faint mark and there might be more to it but that is all I can see.
The size and design are identical to a Luther Boardman strainer I had years ago. That strainer was well used still functional after 125 or so years. And it started me on my fascination with antique julep strainers. Following is a link to a post I wrote on that strainer:
I believe this Hausmann strainer was made by Luther Boardman.
Research shows that ‘Hausmann’ was Julius Hausmann (1849-1951) who first appears in the 1878 Trow’s New York City Directory at 350 Bowery dealing in glass.
In 1883 he was still at the same address but called himself an importer.
I tried to find an image of his storefront at 350 Bowery and discovered that 1878 was the year that the elevated railroad began operation on that street.
The noise and pollution emanating from the overhead trains must have been terrible.
In the early 1800s the Bowery was rural and lovely. Pastures were dotted with farms back then.
The upper class was drawn to this beautiful area.
Exclusive shops and theaters appeared. And over time as more and more people moved to this area, the wealthy moved farther north on the island of Manhattan and the Bowery steadily declined. And the elevated railroad basically killed it.
But the Bowery was home to many restaurant, hotel and bar suppliers. It still is. Rents must have been cheap back then. This combination of factors must have drawn Julius Hausmann to this area. I could find no advertising for Hausmann except for a block ad in a German publication called ‘Amerika’:
Then in 1884 Trow’s shows he moved to 4 4th Avenue, N.Y. This was only a very few blocks north from his Bowery location. But it was out from under the shadow and filth and noise of the elevated railroad which followed 3rd Avenue north.
In 1889 he switched back to showing glass as his trade. In 1889, still at 4 4th, he switched to crockery, then china a few years later, then glassware, crockery, then importer and back to glass.
In 1890 however, he did appear in a NY directory under the heading “Glassware (Hotel & Bar Room)” as follows :
Trow’s showed Hausmann at this 4th Avenue address until 1902 when the address was changed to 46 Cooper Square W. Naturally, I thought this indicated Hausman had moved again but, no, the street name changed. The beginning of 4th Avenue had changed to Cooper Square for a few blocks and 4 4th Avenue changed to 46 Cooper Square. As it turns out, Julius Hausmann’s store was right next to Carl Fischer’s music store on Cooper Square.
This postcard shows the Carl Fischer building on the left, 48 – 54 Cooper Square. Julius Hausmann is at 46 and you can see a little bit of that four story building to the left of Fischer’s. You can also see the elevated train tracks to the right of the postcard with the Cooper Union building in the middle of the square, really triangle.
Carl Fischer’s business was extremely successful and he expanded his building over the years. In 1911 Fischer expanded to 46 Cooper Square.
The last year Trow’s shows Julius Hausmann in business in New York is 1911.
The 1912 Crockery and Glass Journal shows that Hausmann had liquidated his business. Note they mention his address as still at 4 4th.
Years ago I noticed a page in the 1886/87 Meriden Britannia catalog that included eight varieties of what they called “Bar Strainers”. Some had longer handles and some had more of a cup type handle with a flange built into the design. This is the page from that catalog:
That same catalog had three different varieties of what they call julep strainers:
I believe the inclusion of eight different “bar strainers” indicates this type of strainer was relatively popular in 1886.
Over the ensuing years I kept my eyes open for “bar strainers” and nothing similar to these Meriden Britannia bar strainers appeared. Were they perhaps called something else? I decided to search other catalogs.
In the 1867 Meriden Britannia catalog on their “Bar Fixtures” page was a similar looking strainer with a flange around its middle and a cup type handle. This strainer was positioned above what they called a “Toddy Strainer” which resembles a julep strainer:
The 1885 Reed & Barton catalog had three “Bar Strainers”:
A close-up of two of these Reed & Barton strainers:
The 1894 Farrow & Jackson catalog had one “Strainer” on their “Sundries for American Iced Drinks” page. Note that they also have a julep strainer next to it that they call an “Ice Spoon”:
The 1894 Pairpoint catalog had one “Bar Strainer”:
And the 1894 B. A. Stevens catalog had a page entitled “Silver Plate Bar Strainers “:
1894 B. A. Stevens Catalog
Four of these strainers were identified as “Cup Strainers”. So I searched “cup strainers ” and again, nothing similar to these type strainers appeared.
There was an additional page from this B. A. Stevens catalog that had two more strainers. One was a Lindley and the other was known by me to be a C. J. Hauck:
I then found an actual C. J. Hauck strainer that was the same as the one pictured on the upper right of the first page of the B. A. Stevens catalog:
The diameter of the bowl is 3 and 5/8ths inches wide. I have it pictured here next to that Hauck flat strainer:
As you can see, both of these strainers have been well used.
As far as bar strainers / cup strainers go, David Wondrich said in ‘The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails’ “Perhaps just as old as the julep strainer is the cup strainer which is nothing more than a handled cup with a perforated bottom, and sometimes a flange around its middle so it can rest on top of a serving glass. This was used with some frequency in the nineteenth century, briefly revived after Prohibition, and then was seen no more”.
I’ve been avoiding this topic for a long, long time. I just could never make sense of all the various Sheffield marks out there. And I’m not talking about Sheffield, England, I’m talking about U.S. companies using Sheffield marks.
The following article discusses various marks used by Derby Silver Co. The last paragraph mentions Derby trade marks used on ‘cheap’ hollow ware and flat ware, four of them with “Sheffield” in the name, ” Sheffield Plate Co.” being one of them.
There was also a Sheffield Plate Co. In Tainton, MA
Was this another “Sheffield Plate Co.” totally unrelated to Derby? I have no idea.
Then I came across this 1923 Jewelers’ Circular article:
There were fourteen traders, as they call them, in the U.S. using “Sheffield” in their marks.
The following article comes from a 1925 issue of Brass World and relates to the 1923 article above.
Davis and Deibel show flatware patterns for four different companies with “Sheffield” in their names.
Who these companies really are, I have no clue.
Now I know why I didn’t tackle this subject before. It gives me a headache.
I’m writing this so that I will remember it and be able to refer back to it in the future. If this post is of interest to anyone else, good!
I came across a three piece cocktail shaker that had the American Thermos Bottle Co., Norwich, CT mark. It was a standard style shaker but the fact that it had the Thermos vacuum insulation intrigued me, and I wondered when it was produced.
I found a 1939 Thermos ad with multiple items pictured, and there at the top, second from the left, was this shaker.
I found reference to a Thermos brand cocktail shaker as early as 1937 but only in text, no illustrated ads.
I did discover that Norman Bel Geddes had designed a Thermos cocktail shaker which is quite attractive. Picture follows.
However, in my Thermos and cocktail shaker search I found a postcard dating to 1909.
It looked like the woman in the ad was pouring coffee from a silver pot. Under the illustration it said “Thermos Tea and Coffee Pot the Ideal Cocktail Pitcher”. This was in 1909, pre prohibition but alcohol consumption was a pretty sensitive subject.
So, with scant information, just a blurry illustration, could I find that same pot? Yes, my friends, I could.
It was American Thermos Bottle Co. model No. 52.
It was made in England and apparently it came in both white metal and chrome finishes.
It appeared that American Thermos was appealing to the wealthier class.
It targeted automobile owners and even mentioned champagne in the above ad. Nothing like drinking and driving.
They also targeted the yachting set. Sure looks like that guy is pouring a cocktail. Maybe it’s just me.
I’ve seen patents and examples of many cocktail shakers over the years. Each time that I had the opportunity to handle a shaker I’ve considered how effective the design was and how easy it would be to use. For me, it would definitely have to have some history to it.
Shakers have been fabricated in tin, glass, sterling silver, silver plate, nickel silver, copper, solid nickel, aluminum, chromium and bakelite. And then there is also stainless steel, which I would never consider because I viewed it as mid-century at most void of history.
One of my favorite shakers isn’t really a shaker, it is a mixing tin with strainer. This mixer was patented by Thomas Miller in 1882. It certainly was functional and easy to use.
I would be perfectly happy mixing up a batch of martinis in this vessel.
Then there is the first three piece cocktail shaker designed and patented by Edward J. Hauck in 1884. A classic design that is still being used today. Manning Bowman made some of these shakers and I would have no objection to shaking up some cocktails in one of these.
Then there are shakers made by Joseph Heinrichs which are truly works of art.
His patent for a shaker dates to 1910. He used various metals, copper, nickel, bronze, sterling silver and he produced various designs all based on that 1910 patent.
But then I came across a stainless steel shaker and I was attracted to its design. It had a domed lid with a stubby little spout. To my surprise, there was patent information and the manufacturer’s name faintly printed inside the lid.
The manufacturer was Derby Shelton Silver Co. of Shelton, CT. Patent No. 2091604, dated August 31, 1937.
The patent was obtained by and assigned to Raymond R. Luben who was the owner of the Derby Shelton Silver Co. and President of both Stelray Products and Shelby Silver Co. The patent was for a vented container. Raymond Luben was born June 1, 1888 in Kyiv and arrived in the U.S. on June 16, 1893 with his mother and siblings. He died September 20, 1965.
This venting mechanism is somewhat similar to that contained in Edward Hauck’s design. For me this provided some sense of history that I was looking for. Stainless steel was coming on the scene in the 1920s for commercial use. In 1928 it was touted for its hygienic properties and the first fermenting vessel used to brew beer was fabricated from it. Stainless steel has been used by the food and beverage industry ever since.
This stainless steel shaker is on the left in the photo above. It stands next to a silverplated shaker manufactured by Bernard Rice’s Sons / Apollo. Although the stainless steel shaker is taller, it is lighter in weight weighing 7.92 ounces verses 11.28 ounces for the silverplate. It is easier for me to pick up and use. So this is my new favorite shaker. It has history as well as a pleasing and effective design. Who would think I could be this fond of a stainless steel shaker? And it is hygienic too!
P.S. I’d like to add that this same patented vented lid was used on the “shake a leg” cocktail shaker, a collaboration between West Virginia Glass Specialty Co. and Derby Shelton Silver Co.
The photo above came from a Christie’s auction website. I have been unable to find a catalog or advertisement with this shaker. Was it really called “Shake A Leg” shaker? Certainly would have been appropriate.
Stephen Visakay (and others) referred to this glass manufacturer as “West Virginia Specialty Glass Co.” but it is actually “West Virginia Glass Specialty Co. “
Noel Turner and Eileen Woodhead both indicate in their books that Bristol Plate Co. is a backstamp of Pairpoint Mfg. Following image from Turner’s book:
I hold both researchers in high esteem and normally I wouldn’t question their findings. But I recently received an inquiry regarding the Humbolt pattern. I have a sugar shell in this pattern marked “Sterling Plate < B >”. The following screen shot came from my blog post “Some 19th Century Flatware Patterns”:
You’ll see Humbolt is the last pattern on this page.
It was quite a few years ago that I identified this pattern name as Humbolt and I believe my source of identification came from Davis and Diebel’s book “Silver Plated Flatware Patterns”:
The Humbolt pattern is shown under Sterling Plate < B >.
The inquiry I recently received was regarding this Humbolt pattern however the backstamp was not Sterling Plate < B > but Bristol Plate Co. I looked at the patterns under Bristol Plate in the Davis and Deibel book.
There was no Humbolt there but there was a pattern that resembled Persian, called Bristol Four by Davis and Deibel. They also said that “information regarding this imprint (Bristol Plate Co.) is unavailable.”
I had done research on the Persian pattern a while back. Reviewing earlier posts, I found that Charles D. Hall had patented this pattern in 1870. And guess who they assigned it to? Bristol Brass! Following is a page from my post ” Persian versus Jewell”.
So Humbolt has been found with both Sterling Plate < B > and Bristol Plate Co. backstamps. Sterling Plate < B > is an acknowledged Bristol Brass backstamp but Bristol Plate is said to be a Pairpoint backstamp. However I had my doubts. Especially because now I knew that the Persian pattern assigned to Bristol Brass has been found with a Bristol Plate Co. mark.
Also the 1894 Pairpoint catalog reprint that I have does not mention Bristol Plate Co. as being one of their marks.
If anyone has evidence that Bristol Plate Co. Is truly a Pairpoint mark, I’d be happy to hear from you.
I recently came across an aluminum three piece classic style cocktail shaker with the word “Toddy” on the front.
It had no maker’s marks or other identifying marks, just that word “Toddy”.
The following photo shows the three components including the integral strainer.
If it didn’t have that word “Toddy” on it, I wouldn’t have given this shaker another thought. I had seen that stylized “Toddy” on other shakers but they were two piece shakers with no strainer and the word “Toddy” was on the top cap.
“Toddy” was a registered trademark of Maltop, Inc. of Buffalo, NY. They registered this trademark in August of 1925.
The product was a malted milk powder that, when added to milk, became “a meal in a glass”. The 1926 ad shown above includes an illustration of the two piece “Toddy shaker” available for only 89 cents.
In the earliest ads they state all you have to do is mix the powder with cold milk. Then they suggest shaking with ice.
They began offering a glass shaker with twist off top. Still, there was no strainer incorporated in this version of the shaker. The ad below shows this glass “Kant-Leak” shaker.
And the following ad shows a glass shaker with an agitator / ice breaker.
I have not been successful in locating another three piece aluminum “Toddy” shaker with integral strainer. I believe it was manufactured in the 1920s or early 1930s, prohibition era. Perhaps it was actually a pseudo cocktail shaker? I don’t know..
I haven’t really given much thought to malted milk powder before researching this post. Carnation still makes it in both chocolate and vanilla flavors. I think it might be interesting to add a couple of scoops to vodka, Kahlua and light cream and shaking it up with some crushed ice in this tin. A malted White Russian. Perhaps even Labowski would like it.
It occurred to me recently that two common bar tools had been fashioned many years ago based on implements used for sugar…sugar tongs and sugar sifters. When ice became a popular component of mixed drinks, ice tongs as well as ice strainers, commonly called julep strainers, appeared on the scene. Innovative silversmiths fashioned larger tongs to accommodate lumps of ice and modified the shape of a sugar sifter, making the handle shorter and the bowl a little wider, for ease of straining ice from mixed drinks.
Ice has been around forever. The earth has experienced multiple ice ages with the oldest being 2.4 to 2.1 billion years ago. Yet the use of ice to cool a drink is a relatively new phenomenon here in the United States.
Frederic Tudor was the individual responsible for bringing ice to the masses. Supposedly Frederic and his brother, William, were sitting outside sipping cool iced drinks on a warm summer day. The year was 1805. Frederic was 22 and from a prosperous Boston family. William joked about the business opportunity of providing ice from a frozen New England lake to the sweltering Caribbean. But Frederic wasn’t laughing. He thought it was a great idea.
The following year Frederic shipped a boat load of ice to Martinique but lack of proper storage facilities upon arrival presented a problem. Frederic was determined to succeed and he persevered. He also spent much of his energy creating demand for his product by promoting the concept of putting ice in drinks instead of only using it for food preservation. He instructed his sales agents to give a year’s supply of free ice to bartenders at social clubs and hotels across the West Indies and southern states. Frederic personally taught bartenders how to properly store ice and make cocktails with it. He felt that once someone had become accustomed to iced drinks, there would be no going back. And he was right, if course.
At one point Tudor owned ice houses in Havana, Jamaica, New Orleans, Charleston, Mobile, Calcutta, Madras, Bombay and Singapore.
Tudor died in 1864 and left a fortune which was said the be the equivalent of $20 million in today’s dollars.
I had been researching early American ice tongs and came across coin silver ice tongs that were said to date to 1809. I thought that date was a little early as Tudor was still trying to build his business at that point. But then I realized that the wealthy Americans were using ice to preserve food, make ice cream and even cool drinks much earlier. The Robert Morris house in Philadelphia, formerly owned by Richard Penn, had a huge ice house believed to have been constructed in 1871. George Washington was a frequent houseguest of the Morrises and was fascinated by the ice house. Washington had an ice house constructed at Mount Vernon.
Thomas Jefferson had become a fan of ice during his travels to Europe. The Italian and French ice houses amazed him. In 1792 Jefferson subscribed to the ice service offered by James Oeller’s Chestnut Street Hotel for a shilling a day. Oeller’s Hotel had a tradition of serving punch with a lump of ice in it to the delight of customers. Jefferson had an ice house constructed at the White House when he was elected president in 1802. He also had one built at Monticello.
Sugar usage began roughly 2000 years ago and sugar tongs arrived on the scene in the late 17th century. When I found these J. O. & W. Pitkin coin silver ice tongs I researched these silversmiths and dated them to approximately 1826 – 1840. Located in East Hartford, CT, they were so successful that they opened a second location at Vicksburg, Mississippi.
These tongs are 7 inches long.
Tongs had progressed from sugar to ice and would later progress to pickle, olive, bon bon, sardine, asparagus, salad and more.
The sugar sifter also served as the basis for the julep strainer.
The shell shaped pierced bowl design that worked beautifully for sifting sugar was modified to strain ice in early cocktails.
I have not been able to find a patent for the shell shaped julep strainer. The earliest julep strainer that I have found is this coin strainer with the J. Pooley of Memphis, TN mark. I date this to the late 1850s to early 1860s. Note that this strainer is more flat in design than later attempts. You can read about this Pooley strainer here: https://queenofsienna.wordpress.com/2017/06/27/james-pooleys-julep-strainer-for-j-baum/
A sterling julep strainer that I date to the early 1870s was made by Whiting Manufacturing.
The bowl is fairly deep. It measures 5 inches long and the bowl is 2 and 1/2 inches wide. At this point I think the silversmiths were still experimenting with julep strainer design. A few years later the majority of shell shaped julep strainers were approximately 5 and 1/2 inches long with a bowl measuring 2 and 3/4 inches across.
The photo above shows the Whiting strainer as compared with a later Olive pattern strainer. Note the later strainers had a more pronounced bend where the handle met the bowl.
I’ve written posts on jigger spoons, roll over jiggers and various types of novelty jiggers. But I have not addressed the basic tool itself. The workhorse of the bar. The simple jigger.
It is my understanding that bartenders used a sherry glass to measure liquor in the early 1800s. At some point someone developed a metal version of a jigger. A silver plated jigger appeared in the 1886 Meriden Britannia catalog. I can find no patent for this jigger. Note that the picture of the section from the 1886 Meriden Britannia catalog shown below also includes a “wine thimble” which I would think would have been used to sample wine and not used as a liquor jigger at that point.
A similar version of the jigger appeared in the 1894 Pairpoint catalog.
The 1894 B.A. Stevens catalog included the same jigger as shown above and a pony liquor jigger. It also mentions and absinthe jigger but I was unable to find an illustration.
and 1896 Busiest House catalog…
Note that the Busiest House catalog included an aluminum version of a jigger (shown below) as well which sat on a little foot, right side up whereas the other jigger sat right side down.
So if you were looking for a jigger in the late 1800s, this is what you would find.
However, a patent had been filed and obtained for a conical shaped double jigger. The patent number was 22768, obtained September 5, 1893, The design was by Cornelius P. Dungan of Chicago. The patent description didn’t provide much insight into his thoughts regarding the jigger.
Mr. Dungan joined Meriden Britannia as a salesman in the Western division, based out of Chicago in 1881. He had been born in Ireland in 1855. As he moved up the ranks at Meriden Britannia, he also became prominent in the Chicago Jewelers Association, becoming president in 1917.
By 1925 he had been promoted to manager of the Western territory and Chicago salesroom located at 147 State Street (earlier at 154 State Street).
But there is a mystery involving Mr. Dungan. What prompted him to design this sleek, double jigger? It appears that this is the only design patent he ever obtained. And in 1893 he had long been affiliated with Meriden Britannia. Why wasn’t his patent assigned to them, or to anyone for that matter? I have an example of Dungan’s jigger, stamped with the patent date.
So I know some of his jiggers were made. But who made them?
There is no maker’s mark. I have not been able to locate a catalog or advertisement with the Dungan jigger. Was this jigger ever marketed?
It doesn’t appear that this design caught on at that time, at least within the United States, as the squat more rounded version became popular. The lead photo in this post shows a Cartier rounded, squat double jigger next to the Dungan jigger.
What’s in a name…
The Japanese, however, found and embraced the Dungan jigger. Perhaps they found it while visiting the 1893 Columbian Exhibition held in Chicago. After decades lost in Japan, Mr. Dungan’s jigger has finally became popular in the United States, and is now commonly referred to as the Japanese jigger. I think Cornelius P. Dungan should be acknowledged for his contribution to bartending history and this jigger should be referred to as the Dungan jigger.
Update:
I recently came across a sterling jigger which resembles the jigger in the 1886 Meriden Britannia catalog only the stem is not quite as long. Actually, this sterling jigger somewhat resembles the aluminum jigger shown above.
It is monogrammed and marked “Sterling” and “25”. But no maker’s mark!
It is 3 inches tall. The photo below shows it next to the Dungan jigger.
In his 1882 book, Harry Johnson described a jigger, or has he called it, a gigger, as follows:
Mr. Johnson described the “gigger” as looking like a sherry glass with not quite as long a stem and made of silver plated metal. Aside from this jigger being sterling, it looks like what was described by Harry Johnson. Perhaps this was a precursor to the silver plated model. I have not been able to find another like it.
Additional thoughts:
I’ve been somewhat obsessed with the metamorphos from wine glass / sherry glass to the metal jigger as a bar tool. For the most part the wine / sherry glass was the tool used for measuring liquor for most of the nineteenth century. The problem is, wine and sherry glasses varied in size. They were much smaller back then than they are today and they weren’t consistent in size or volume. The following illustration from the 1890 L & M Goldsticker catalogue shows a variety of sherry glasses available from 1 1/2 ounces to 2 1/4 ounces.
In his 1862 “Bartender’s Guide”, Jerry Thomas used the wine glass for liquor measurement for his cocktail recipes. In 1882, Harry Johnson mentioned a “gigger” as a measuring device (see above) but used a wine glass for measuring in his individual recipes. This held true in thec1888 edition of his book. In the 1884 “The Complete Bartender”, by Albert Barnes, a wine glass is used to measure. The New York Bartender’s Association also used a wine glass for measurement in their 1895 “Official Hand Book and Guide”. But that same year, 1895, C. F. Lawlor of Cincinnati used a higher for his recipes in ” The Mixocologist”. Charles Mahoney 1912 Hoffman House Bartender’s Guide, mostly uses a wine glass but also mentions jigger in a few recipes and even “gigger” in his list of tools. It seems the late 1800s and early 1900s were really betwixt and between when it came to cocktail measurement.
During the nineteenth century in America it seems measurement wasn’t a precise science. The measuring cup and measuring spoon didn’t come around until 1896 when Fannie Farmer mentioned it in her “The Boston Cooking School Cook Book”. You would think that Dungan’s double jigger would have become very popular, but no. Or even the earlier version of the jigger shown in the 1886 Meriden Britannia catalog (a version of which is now being sold by Cocktail Kingdom), but apparently it wasn’t since cocktail books were still using wine glasses for measurement well into the 1900s.
There was an 1879 New York Herald article stating “A jigger is a conical metal cup in which to mix fancy drinks”. Was this really the jigger as we know it? You didn’t mix drinks “in” it.
Why was there resistance or reluctance to move from the wine glass to the silver plated jigger. Was it simply a marketing problem?
And it also appears to me that people might have been drinking out of something called a jigger.
The snippit of the above article came from an 1868 Irish publication “The Shamrock”.
And the article shown above came from a June 1870 issue of the Firelands Pioneer. It seems that they might be drinking from the jigger itself.
If I unearth any relevant additional information, I’ll post an update.
Update: Curious thingamajig.
I found an item that I suspect might be a jigger.
It is made of brilliant cut glass and sterling silver and marked with the Wilcox sterling mark. The base of the handle is rounded…you can see that in the photo above. It cannot stand on its stem, it has to sit upside down. What else can it be? It has an ornate monogram on that rounded top. A jigger for a wealthy man?
it holds 1 and 1/2 ounces as does the large side of the Dungan jigger next to it (small side holds 3/4 ounce). The jigger on the right holds a generous 1 ounce.
Monogrammed or personalized pieces of silver or silverplate are often deemed less desirable by certain people. Frequently the monogram, name or details of a personalization or presentation piece are barely mentioned in an auction listing, if mentioned at all. In those instances, hopefully the photos can provide details the listing description does not.
I have found that highlighting that information is an advantage. There are people out there looking for that monogram, name or historic reference. I have found many homes for just such pieces; sometimes the item has returned to the original family. I am always on the lookout for silver like this. Personalized silver that somehow got separated from a family or those that value its importance.
Such is this julep strainer. It has “Mañana” inscribed on the handle. Certainly nonot a family name but perhaps the name of an establishment or a word that conveyed a special meaning to a special person.
This strainer has a large so-called “draped” star cut-out in the handle. The strainer holes are positioned differently than any other antique julep strainer that I have seen and the bend in the handle is opposite to other star julep strainers that I have come across. And I have seen many, many star julep strainers. Reverse bend, as I call them, julep strainers were manufactured but they were always made with a clover cut-out not a star. So this is an unusual julep strainer just for those reasons alone.
The strainer is marked “Burley & Co., Chicago”. Afrthur G. Burley began in business in Chicago in 1838. His biography follows as reported in the Crockery & Glass Journal.
Mr. Burley wet into partnership with his brother-in-law, John Tyrrell in 1852 at which time the company became Burley & Tyrrell. The following illustration shows the company building located at the Averill Block in Chicago.
A nephew bought the retail and hotel supply end of the business in 1883 and opened a retail store on State Street just in time for the Columbian Exposition.
Over the years, the store relocated to several different addresses but always on State Street.
The 1904 Hotel Monthly contains an article (shown above) describing a Burley & Co. catalogue. Unfortunately, I have been unable to locate the actual catalogue itself.
In 1907 the two companies rejoined and once again became Burley & Tyrrell.
In 1919 Albert Pick & Co. expressed an interest in buying Burley & Tyrrell. Discussions continued until the sale was finalized in 1923.
So what significance does “Mañana” have? Did it relate to a person or place in Chicago? I found that a young man by the name of Robert Raymond Jackson joined the National Guard as a drummer in the 8th Regiment of Illinois volunteers and that these soldiers fought in Cuba during the Spanish American War. They came to be known as the “Famous Eight Illinois” infantry because if their African American commanding officer. Jackson was noted for his organization of the “Mañana Club” to improve relations between Cubans and African American officers. Jackson moved through the ranks and eventually became a major.
He was elected state representative and alderman for the City of Chicago. He was employed by the U. S. Postal Service for 21 years. He owned a printing business which was said to be the largest printing establishment in the U.S. owned by “any member of the colored race”.
Certainly, the word “Mañana” had special significance to him. It was the Mañana Club and the Spanish American War that brought him to prominence and resulted in a very successful military, political and business career.
I could not find any businesses, bars, restaurants or hotels in Chicago in the late 1800s or early 1900s with the name Mañana.
In 1924, a resort hotel opened in LaJolla, CA called “Casa de Mañana”. An order for julep strainers could have been placed with Burley & Co. in 1923 just before the sale was finalized with Albert Pick.
But Casa de Mañana ooned during Prohibition. Did they even serve cocktails? The following briefly describes the resort.
“Mañana” was even more popular in the 30s. Prohibition ended in December 1933. The Texas Centennial was held in 1936 and Billy Rose was hired to produce shows in a 4,000 seat amphitheatre/restaurant called the “Casa Mañana” in Fort Worth.
It remained operating even after the Centennial celebrations had passed.
Billy Rose decided to bring the Casa Mañana to New York City and it opened on January 18, 1938.
There was a well known Casa Mañana, too, in Boston in the 1930s.
But Albert Pick had owned Burley for a decade by then and I can find no evidence that Puck continued to use the Burley mark on his Silverplate. Some companies, like Meruden Britannia and International Silver after them, continued to use the marks of those companies they had acquired, like 1847 Rogers Bros., Rogers Smith, Derby Silver, etc. as I believe the thought was that people had grown comfortable with these companies throughout the years and wanted to continue to do business with a company they knew and trusted. But I do not find that Albert Pick followed that train of thought. If true, that eliminates the Fort Worth, NYC and Boston Casa Mañana’s.
I thought perhaps there was a liquor called “Mañana” and did find a label for a rum bottled by Jos. S. Finch in Lawrenceburg, Indiana (1873 – 1918) but that was it.
So what this all boils down to is I don’t know what “Mañana” refers to or who owned this strainer. I do note the word “Mañana” is not stamped but instead engraved and most likely only one, or very few, were made. Major Jackson was in Chicago atvthe right time to purchase it receive this strainer. He owned a printing company so the importance of the lively script coincides with his profession. And “Mañana” had special significance to him. I’d like to think he owned it. But I just don’t know.
And another thing I don’t know is who actually made the strainer with the Burley mark. The 1904 Hotel Monthly article mentions that Reed & Barton manufactured silver plated wares for them. I’ve seen Reed & Barton julep strainers and they look nothing like this one with the backward bend and oddly spaced holes.
queenofsienna 