Discovering Gold Rush History through Sodas
An Evolving Site by The People
Discovering Gold Rush History through Sodas
An Evolving Site by The People
BOLEY & Co.
Vision
The vision for this site is to be the location where BOLEY & Co enthusiasts can learn, share and support the hobby. In the next couple months, the social elements will be included. Diggers can submit images and stories of their best finds. Collectors can get questions answered and will be able to trade or sell Boley & Co bottles with no fee. There is the opportunity to purchase logo'd hats, stickers and other items. 100% of revenue will be used to enhance this page and keep it going.
Boley & Co. (1850-1862)
Blob Top Gold Rush Era Soda Bottle
During the early Gold Rush period soda bottles from east coast glass companies were shipped in great quantity to California for use by fledgling soda and mineral water companies. Many of those bottles were embossed with just the name of the company and included examples of the Hamilton Glass Works, Lancaster Glass Works, Millville Glass Works, Superior Glass Works, and Union Glass Works. At about the same time came many bottles embossed with eastern company brand names to be filled and used with a paper label applied over the business on the bottle. Some collectors count these Eastern bottles as a true part of any western soda collection due to their massive use in the 1850’s.
According to research from Markota’s book the earliest Gold Rush sodas are the Boley & Co. (Sacramento), The Excelsior Water (San Francisco), Lynde & Putnam (San Francisco), Taylor & Co. San Francisco & Eureka (San Francisco), Taylor & Co. Valparaiso Chili (San Francisco) and W & B (Shasta). Two of the earliest soda ventures in California came as a result of Asher S. Taylor and brothers Lafayatte and Addison Boley arriving in 1849.
The late Sacramento digger Mike Dolcini, reported in Western Bottle News in 2011 that the first soda manufacturing works in Sacramento was opened by the Boley’s in 1849 on 1st (Front) Street between H and I. They were producing 500 dozen bottles of soda per day. This information was gathered in The History of Sacramento County. Dolcini believed this was a thriving business as he dug up dozens of Boley bottles over the years in and around Sacramento.
According to the late Rick Simi, his research showed the company was first mentioned on August 1, 1852 as
Boley & Avaline in the Sacramento Daily Union. On August 11, 1852 the Sacramento Daily Union informed
the public that Boley & Avaline have placed large sign cards in establishments that sell their soda water product
and the bottoms of their bottles were painted with Venetian red paint for identification purposes.
By 1853 the company was now located on Front Street “above the slough.” In March of that year city records
show that Boley & Co. were on the delinquent tax list, and by November of that year the company is selling all of their soda water machinery. The company must have survived as Markota states that in 1854 and 1855 they were now located “on the levee above the water works.” Markota further states that Boley & Co. had moved back to 1st Street in 1856 where they remained until 1862 when there was no further mention of the company being listed in business in Sacramento. Dolcini says that the Boley’s maintained their works until at least 1857 and he also states that by 1860 there is no mention of them in the soda business. Markota’s information lists them in business until 1862.
Variants of the Boley & Co. Gold Rush Era Soda Bottle
All Boley & Co. Sac City Cal bottles have graphite pontiled bases and color shades of blue to dark cobalt.
There are a few examples that have open pontiled bases. Of all Gold Rush soda bottles the Boley & Co. examples probably have more potential variants due to front and back embossing patterns.
Front Embossing
1) The embossing on the front is either larger or smaller letters (font). Larger font embossing has the two
lines closer together. Small font embossing has the two lines further apart. This is easy to see.
2) All embossing on the front of the bottle comes in a slug plate. All embossing on all variants comes in two
lines and all in Capitol lettering. The first line reads “Boley & Co.” with the O in company small font and raised. The second line reads “Sac City Cal” with the C in Sac either a capitol letter or in small font and a raised letter. The L in Cal is always small font and raised.
3) There will be many variants of Boley’s. You will have the “large, straight C” and you will have the “small font raised C” in the word Sac.
4) The two key variants is to look closely at the letter “Y” in Boley in the first line and at the letter “Y” in City in the second line. You will have variants where the “Y” in Boley is to the LEFT of the “Y” in city. You will also have the variant where the “Y” in Boley is to the RIGHT of the “Y” in city. These are the 2 “Y” variants.
Back Embossing Variants (3)
1) BLANK A slug plate with no embossing
2) UNION GLASS WORKS First line arched regular capitol font
PHILAD. A Second line Philad. Is regular capitol font
Second line the A is small font and raised
3) SAME AS ABOVE (2) First line is the same as variant 2
Second line is the same as variant 2 except in serif font
Collecting the Boley’s
With such embossing possibilities, the Boley & Co. Sac City Cal bottles remain hard to tell just how many variants of this bottle might be out there. When you factor in such things on the front like large or small letters, floating or straight C’s, the Boley Y and the City Y you have many possibilities here. Throw in the 3 different type of backs that this bottle comes in it is easy to see that there could be a couple dozen possibilities.
A way to look at variants might be to take the small letter bottle and investigate any front and back differences.
Then look at the large letter bottle and do the same. It may be found that some variants may be associated only with one or the other font sized bottles.
Files coming soon.
BOLEY & Co. Gallery (Constantly In Progress)
01/14
Copyright © 2024 Boley & Co. - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by GoDaddy
This website uses cookies.
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.