Carey’s Grecian Bend Bitters

Carey’s Grecian Bend Bitters

C 46

Michael Carey, Wholesale Liquors, New York City, N.Y.

Amber Tapered Rectangle

Provenance: Sandor P. Fuss Collection

Carey’s Grecian Bend Bitters is an extremely rare bottle as we know of only two examples in collections. Both are dark puce in glass color and embossed ‘CAREY’S GRECIAN BEND BITTERS’ in four distinct horizontal lines on one face of the bottle. The opposite face is mostly blank and is where a paper label would have gone.

The bottle shape is a highly detailed tapered rectangle with a 3-part embossed window motif on the upper portion of both primary bottle faces. There are also embossed roped ovals on the upper portion of the bottle sides. The bottle corners are roped and the mouth is rolled.

There is a very similar bottle embossed Rohrer’s Expectoral Wild Cherry Tonic put out by Jeremiah Rohrer who was the proprietor and manufacturer in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The bottle shape, windows, roped oval motif, and roped corners are basically the same. The glass color, embossed copy configuration, and mouth are different.

Our subject bottle was named after the Grecian Bend which was a dance move introduced to polite society in America just before the American Civil War. The “Bend” was considered very daring at the time. The stoop or the silhouette created by the fashion in women’s dress for corsets, crinolettes, and bustles by 1869 was also called ‘The Grecian Bend.’ Contemporary illustrations often show a stylish woman with a large bustle and a very small parasol, bending forward.

It is reported in Bitters Bottles that the brand was represented by Michael Carey who sold liquor in New York City from 1862 to 1875. Carey was born in 1838 in Ireland. There is little supporting evidence in regards to advertising, newspaper notices, directory listings, or a surviving label which would have confirmed the proprietor and specifics about the brand.

The Carlyn Ring and W. C. Ham listing in Bitters Bottles is as follows:

C 46 motif 3-part window / CAREY’S / GRECIAN / BEND / BITTERS // motif roped oval // motif 3-part window // motif roped oval //
Michael Carey, Wholesale Liquors, New York City, 1862-75
9 ¾ x 3 ½ x 2 ¾
Tapered rectangle, Puce, CM, Rolled lip, Roped corners, Extremely rare
An identical bottle is lettered: Rohrer’s Wild Cherry Tonic, Lancaster, Pa.
Grecian Bend was a rose popular in the 1870s.

Primary Image: The Carey’s Grecian Bend Bitters bottle imaged by the FOHBC Virtual Museum midwest studio by Alan DeMaison.

Support: Reference to Bitters Bottles by Carlyn Ring and W. C. Ham. Use of Carey’s Grecian Bend Bitters illustration granted by Bill Ham.

Support Image: Labeled Rohrer’s Expectoral Wild Cherry Tonic from Jim Hagenbuch and Glass Works Auctions.

Support Images: Legacy Carey’s Grecian Bend Bitters provenance examples from the John Feldmann and Carlyn Ring collections.

Support Image: Jeff Burkhardt assessing a Carey’s Grecian Bend Bitters from the John Feldmann collection, Amityville, N.Y., May 2013.

Support: Reference to The Grecian Bend and Carey’s Grecian Bend Bitters at Peachridge Glass

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