# buffalo bill bottle



## pdier (Jan 11, 2013)

i have a grape soda bottle,height 7 7/8 inches,mold stops at lip,bottom indented embossed 284,no pontil mark,shape is round,embossed without label,color clear,condition slightly stained,embossed on the side Buffalo Bill,Pawnee Bill,Vin Fiz.Anybody know about age,history,rarity,value.Believe it was distributed by Armor meat packing company of chicago,paid Del Rogers a pilot to advertise on his wright bros biplane that he flew across trancontinental us in 1912 plane was called vin fiz.


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## Plumbata (Jan 11, 2013)

Very nice bottle you have there! It seems that you have pretty well answered most of your own questions, but if memory serves, those bottles were sold exclusively to spectators at the Wild West Shows (and probably returned when empty), so the historical/collector interest for that piece is quite high. I think they are 100-200 dollar bottles, perhaps more. Hopefully some resident soda experts can offer you some better information.


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## TJSJHART (Jan 12, 2013)

A PIC WOULD BE INTERESTING...I'D LIKE A LOOK SEE.


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## frozenmonkeyface (Jan 15, 2013)

ditto


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## RocketRay (Sep 3, 2015)

Sorry for the delay, I just found this forum and tripped over your thread...I also have one of these I found at a flea market about 20 years ago and it took quite a while to find out about it:It was a deal between the Two Bills & Vin Fiz (of Armour Meat Packing) to market the grape soda for publicity at their shows.  It was sold off a large horse-drawn wagon in the year 1913 only, which proved to be ill-fated for both the soda and the show.  There was a Vin-Fiz ad in the super-rare 1913 Buffalo Bill Pawnee Bill magazine and review, but I've always missed them when they come up for sale.  In 20 years, I've only heard of four examples: mine, yours, one that sold on Ebay in 2007 to a museum for $5,560 and one that sold in 2009 at Jackson Auctions in Cedar Falls, IA for around $300.If you still have it, I recommend Ebay for selling due to the much larger audienceIncidently, they say Vin Fiz failed immediately because the syrup went rancid as it was distributed and the soda jerks kept mixing it anyway because it was a new drink and no one knew what it was supposed to taste like... Too bad!Cheers


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## westKYdigger (Sep 3, 2015)

Would love to see a picture.


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## RocketRay (Sep 4, 2015)

Borrowed this pic from the web, but mine is the same minus the emboss painting.Tim


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## RocketRay (Sep 4, 2015)

This was the catalog photo for the example sold at the Iowa auction.


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## nhpharm (Sep 4, 2015)

I have an amber figural gun with a label for Buffalo Bill's Bay Rum.  Patent date of 1888 and I believe put out by Tappan but I'll have to pull it out and look.


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