For many people, a cold beer on a warm evening is a favorite summer indulgence. But if you look back far enough in history, beer wasn’t an indulgence; it was part of a healthy diet. There are written records of beer brewing from as early as 5,000 years ago.
Before reliable sanitation systems, beer was safer to drink than water; in addition to the antiseptic properties of alcohol, brewing beer requires boiling the water. Beer was also considered a source of nourishing starches. Like bread, it is made from grains and yeast.
In fact, beer is sometimes called “Liquid Bread,” as seen on this Anheuser-Busch bottle from about 1890. It isn’t just any malt drink; the label states that “Combining the most palatable qualities of a refreshing drink with the invigorating and wholesome properties of the finest malt tonics, thus presenting a desirable beverage, suitable alike to invalids and persons in perfect health.”
David Nicholson, a St. Louis physician, created Liquid Bread to be bottled by Anheuser-Busch. It had a very low alcohol content, 1.9%, making it, at least at the time, appropriate for “nursing mothers,” “children naturally feeble,” “convalescents suffering from malnutrition,” and even “ladies of the most fastidious palates,” according to advertisements.
Today, the nutritional value of the drink pales in comparison to the collectible, not to mention the monetary value of its cobalt blue bottle. This one, with its label intact, sold for $1,440 at Potter & Potter Auctions, more than quadrupling its high estimate of $300.
Q: I have an old iron scale that is marked “Detecto-Lette Junior” and measures up to 24 pounds. What can you tell me about it?
A: The Detecto-Lette Junior is a pediatric scale for weighing babies. Detecto was a brand of the Jacobs Bros. Co., founded by three brothers in Brooklyn, New York, in 1900. They made and repaired food service and medical scales. The company was acquired by another scale manufacturer in the 1980s. It is still in business today as Detecto and makes many types of scales, mostly digital, for home and industrial use.
There are several varieties of the Detecto-Lette, including a version with an enamel coating and one with a wicker basket for a scale pan. There are collectors who specialize in antique scales, and antique or vintage baby scales are also sought as decorations for nurseries. For more information about yours, you may want to contact a collectors’ club like the International Society of Antique Scale Collectors (isasc.org).
TIP: A paper beer bottle label reacts to wet and dry like hair does. If the label is curled, cover it with water to wet the fibers, then dry it flat.
CURRENT PRICES
Toy, car, roadster, open top, gentleman driver, cast iron, 1920s, 4 x 8 inches, $ 110.
Furniture, easel, artist’s, oak, adjustable shelf, rectangular frame, H-shape stretcher, caster feet, France, early 1900s, 72 x 26 inches, $800.
Auto, sign, Quaker State Motor Oil, Ask For, round, green ground, white lettering, convex, porcelain, 24 inches, $1,320.
For more collecting news, tips and resources, visit www.Kovels.com. http://www.Kovels.com
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Beer or health food? 'Liquid Bread' sold by Anheuser-Busch in the 19th century promised both. Collectors prize the bottles with intact labels.
