# Tillman Dispensary?



## Oklabottles (Sep 11, 2010)

I ran across a bottle digging forum called the treasuredepot not a very good forum, not even sure how to make an account to post anything on there was horrible format and hard to use. But I did run across something interesting I guy on there has a South Carolina dispensary crock flask that he does not know much about he said he took it on antiquesroadshow but they couldn't tell him anything about it I know there were many different varieties of these containers and it was opended un tillmans legislation but what do yall think about it. also when he went to antiques roadshow some one offered him $500 for it.


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## sandchip (Sep 11, 2010)

Can't shed any light on it, but it is interesting.  Maybe some Gamecocks out there can tell us something.


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## judu (Sep 11, 2010)

well i know ben tillman started the south carolina dispensary co back in the late 1800s. went out of buisness in 1907. i do know that pottery is sometimes found with the sc dispensary logo. thats a pretty cool bottle that looks to me to be an early version of the sc dispensaries...im sure others with more knowlege on them can help more.....


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## marjorie040 (Sep 14, 2010)

Hello oklabottles,

 I have a copy of Phillip Huggins', The South Carolina Dispensary a bottle collector's atlas and history of the system, and see no mention of any dispensary bottle like yours. At the time of publishing, 1997, Dr. Huggins was a practicing physician in South Carolina. Perhaps you should try to contact him in regards to your bottle....it appears very interesting.
 Please let us know what you find out.
 Regards,


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## mattatennis (Sep 15, 2010)

If you cant find any info on it, i think it is a repro or fake. Its spelled "Palmatto" on the bottle instead of Palmetto. But, im hoping that this is an authentic piece!


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## Poison_Us (Sep 15, 2010)

Perhaps someone was trying out his pottery skills.  It does look to have some age to it...interesting.
 Any mention of anything embossed/scribed in the base?


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## judu (Sep 15, 2010)

it almost looks to me to be like a "prot-type" bottle. maybe created to show the way he wanted his bottle to be.if its real and not a fake i would imagine it to very very valuable. wish i had it.......


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## GACDIG (Sep 16, 2010)

I live in NC and own server of the SC dispensary bottles. Never seen anything like that around here, and we have a good many and types in this area. Something about the patina does not look right to be as old as it should be. The neck and lip of the crock is too crude with no structure as a manufactured bottle would have. Good luck with you search for information. 
gac


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## whiskeyman (Sep 16, 2010)

It just doesn't look "right" to me.


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## Plumbata (Sep 16, 2010)

Doesn't look right to me either. If it was something intended for a decent level of production it would have been debossed with a stamp (I would think) and if it was to be created along the lines of scratch jugs, the potter would probably demonstrate far greater skill in the creation of the design and lettering. It looks amateur, and considering the boom of small-scale hobby potters in the 60s-70s, right when bottle collecting was also booming, it would make sense that someone fused their 2 interests in a rustic fantasy piece. Perhaps I am mistaken, but from the image I am leaning towards the evaluation that it is less than 50 years old.

 I would have taken that 500 bucks and ran laughing all the way to the bank. []


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## surfaceone (Sep 16, 2010)

Hey Justin,

 That is an interesting piece. Do you have it in hand, or is it over at that other place.

 I'm gonna throw out an alternate theory. It looks like it has the patina of age. I'm thinking it could be a piece of political folk art. 

 Pitchfork Ben Tillman was the Governator of South Carolina and later it's Senator. "The South Carolina Dispensary system was a state-run monopoly on liquor sales in the United States state of South Carolina which operated from 1893 to 1907 statewide and until 1916 in some counties. The system was the brainchild of Governor Benjamin Tillman, a farmer from Edgefield known as â€œPitchfork Benâ€ who served as governor from 1890-1894 and as a U.S. Senator from 1895 until his death in 1918. This interesting experiment had never before been tried at the state level, and proved to be the last time a state would require all liquor sold within its borders to be bottled and dispensed through state-run facilities.[1] The South Carolina Dispensary system came to be known as â€œBen Tillmanâ€™s Babyâ€.[2]" From Wiki-Dispensary.

 Pitchfork Ben was quite the orator and an unreconstructed agent-provacateur of the Sweetwater Sabre Club. You can get the Wiki-Tillman here.






  There's more Tillman History here. His "vision" does not translate well in this era.

 Here's an interesting picture of Pitchfork Ben 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 havin a shake with President Wilson. Notice the bulge in Tillman's right coat pocket.

 The little flask you showed looks hand scratched to me. The "Palmatto" spelling is a quaint touch. I'm thinking it might be a period piece with an editorial message. I betcha it was not a production whiskey. You, or that other guy somewhere else, may have a "one-of" there. Can you get any background info on the piece, or link to where you saw it?


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## scbottles* (Sep 19, 2010)

I have heard Harvey Teal talk about SC Dispensaries a couple of times and he has mentioned a scratch jug or bottle he had seen made by the Catawba Indians about the time of the Columbia Expo. He said he was going to put it in his book on Dispensaries but he could not get a picture of it. Maybe this what it is.


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## scbottles* (Sep 19, 2010)

Not the Columbia Expo but The Charleston Expo of 1901 and 1902


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