Press Release
Pennsburg, PA, USA, November 14, 2025 — A circa 1862-1875 “S.T. Drake’s 1860 Plantation X Bitters” bottle sold for $19,890; a circa 1865-1875 “Old Dr. Townsend’s Celebrated Stomach Bitters” bottle realized $16,380; and a circa 1840-1860 “Green’s Aqua Mixture Jackson Mississippi” bottle garnered $8,775 in Glass Works Auctions’ online-only Premier Auction #187 held Monday, October 27th.
The auction featured 272 lots of various antique bottles, historical flasks and early American blown glass. There were 147 winning bidders, with all online traffic driven through the Glass Works Auctions website (glassworksauctions.com). Overall, the sale grossed $372,000. Phone and absentee bids were accepted. All prices in this report include a 17 percent buyer’s premium.
The “S.T. Drake’s 1860 Plantation X Bitters” (Ring/Ham, D-108, “Patented 1862”) was the first bottle up for bid and the top achiever of the auction. It was a visually clean, near perfect example with a very bold impression. Even the typically weak “S.T. Drake” stood out.
It was the color, though, that captivated bidders. “All Drake’s collectors know that the green coloration is the rarest and most sought after of all Drake’s bottles,” said James Hagenbuch, the owner of Glass Works Auctions. “It has that highly desirable lighter density of color, so light you can read a paper through it. This was a truly exceptional example in a real dazzling green color.”
Glass Works Auctions’ next big online-only auction event is Premier Catalog Auction #188, slated for Monday, November 17th. It will feature 125 choice examples from the Richard and Elma Watson Collection. The sale opens for bidding November 10th at glassworksauctions.com.
To learn more, please visit www.glswrk-auction.com.
