EARLY BOTTLE "DUFFY MALT WHISKEY" 1886 ROCHESTER, NY

Description: EARLY BOTTLE "DUFFY MALT WHISKEY" 1886 ROCHESTER, NY For your consideration, a Duffy Malt Whiskey Company amber whisky bottle dated 1886, probably made in the early 1900's. This is a cork bottle with a nice detailed embossing in a circle on the front that reads "The Duffy Malt Whiskey Company, Rochester N.Y. U.S.A." The bottom embossing reads "Pat'd Aug.24, 1896", with a 34 in the center. Bottle measures approximately 10 1/2" tall with a 3" base diameter. There are no chips, cracks, or dings. Some air bubbles are present in the glass. Overall a really nice, clean bottle that displays very well with great color and clarity. The Duffy Malt Whiskey Company has a very storied past and much is written about the false claims made in their advertising. From:Rochester Public Library/Local History & Genealogy Division One of Rochester’s most successful businessmen was also one of its most successful swindlers. Though Walter B. Duffy had his hand in a number of reputable entrepreneurial enterprises in Rochester and was at one time the president of the Flower City National Bank, his name might be better known beyond our borders as a peddler of a dubious product. Born in 1840 in the delightful town of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, Walter B. Duffy emigrated to the United States with his family when he was about a year old. His father, Edward Duffy, set up a grocery and liquor store on the corner of State and Vincent Streets shortly thereafter. Edward then expanded from liquor sales to liquor refining and manufacturing, specializing in cider, whiskey, and vinegar production. In the 1860s, Duffy established a proper cider mill at the corner of White Street and Lake Avenue, just a couple blocks away from his original storefront. During that decade, Edward’s son Walter B. Duffy, joined, and eventually took over, the family firm. The younger, more ambitious Duffy set about expanding the business, first by constructing an addition to his distilling facility. Noted local astronomer Lewis Swift was a familiar site atop the flat roof of the Walter B. Duffy & Co. cider mill, from which he observed six comets over the course of several years. Duffy then rebranded his business as the Rochester Distilling Company and established a second branch in Baltimore. The Maryland venture quickly faltered and went bankrupt in 1886. That same year Duffy took a sign from the times and did some creative rebranding. The 1880s marked the heyday of the patent medicine fad, during which crafty charlatans made fortunes peddling a variety of curiously-named cure-alls. Two major players in the patent game were Rochester-based: Asa Soule, who sold Hop Bitters (“The Invalid’s Friend and Hope”), and H.H. Warner, who manufactured and bottled his Warner’s Safe Cure in the St. Paul Street building that now bears his name.Soule, Warner, and a legion of other patent medicine kings purported that their formulas contained a secret ingredient guaranteed to have a host of health benefits. More often than not, it was alcohol. W.B. Duffy joined the dubious dispensary craze, but unlike his colleagues, he made no mystery of his product’s activating ingredient: whiskey. He claimed that his Duffy’s Pure Malt Whiskey remedy had actually been devised decades before by one of the greatest chemists in the world. Duffy featured an image of the scientist in question on his label and further linked his malt beverage with medicine in the minds of potential consumers by including a dose spoon with his bottles. Duffy would bill his Pure Malt Whiskey as a panacea capable of both curing and preventing a myriad of diseases including pneumonia, dyspepsia, consumption, the grip (influenza), and, perhaps most curiously, “habitual drunkenness.” But while Duffy’s potent potable proved immensely popular, it would eventually land him in a spot of trouble. We saw in a previous post that local distiller Walter B. Duffy developed a curious variety of whiskey in the late nineteenth century. In the midst of the patent medicine craze, during which enterprising entrepreneurs across the country peddled magical elixirs that were often secretly nothing more than alcoholic concoctions, Duffy chose instead to overtly brand his Pure Malt Whiskey as having medicinal properties. The decision would have mixed results.Most patent medicine purveyors advertised their products as panaceas, but Duffy went a step further, claiming that his whiskey was capable of curing a number of specific ailments such as bronchitis, pneumonia, malaria, and dyspepsia. He further boosted the beverage’s medicinal image with the dose spoons that accompanied his bottles. We saw in a previous post that local distiller Walter B. Duffy developed a curious variety of whiskey in the late nineteenth century. In the midst of the patent medicine craze, during which enterprising entrepreneurs across the country peddled magical elixirs that were often secretly nothing more than alcoholic concoctions, Duffy chose instead to overtly brand his Pure Malt Whiskey as having medicinal properties. The decision would have mixed results. From: Democrat & Chronicle, April 4, 1901. Most patent medicine purveyors advertised their products as panaceas, but Duffy went a step further, claiming that his whiskey was capable of curing a number of specific ailments such as bronchitis, pneumonia, malaria, and dyspepsia. He further boosted the beverage’s medicinal image with the dose spoons that accompanied his bottles. The Grip (influenza) was among several specific maladies Duffy claimed his whiskey could cure. From: Democrat & Chronicle, February 24, 1901. This marketing choice would have a major impact on his future business. In 1898, the country was embroiled in the Spanish-American War. Seeking much needed funds to support the effort, Congress passed the War Revenue Act, which levied hefty new taxes on a variety of products including liquor as well as a novel stamp tax of two cents per bottle on patent medicine products. The identity crisis of Duffy’s Pure Malt Whiskey thus needed to be resolved for tax purposes. The deputy commissioner of Internal Revenue ultimately ruled that because of “the manner in which it is presented to the public,” Duffy’s product should be considered medicine rather than liquor. This decision not only meant that Duffy would be exempt from spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in State and Federal liquor taxes, but it also allowed him to advertise his product as being the only whiskey recognized by the U.S. government as medicine. Duffy landed in trouble, however, when he sought endorsement from a higher power. In 1905, he circulated an ad featuring the images of three men of the cloth with the headline: “Clergymen Endorse Duffy’s Pure Malt Whiskey.” Their enthusiastic testimonials indicated that the potent potable had cured them of their dyspepsia, stomach issues, and throat maladies. Samuel Hopkins Adams, a journalist with Collier’s Weekly, was doubtful that such spiritual men would become shills for a spirits distiller and launched an investigation into the ad. He discovered that one of the gentlemen pictured ran a get-married-quick business, and had agreed to have his photograph used for a mere $10. Another member of the testifying trio was a racehorse owner and internal revenue collector. The third was in fact an actual clergyman, who was later forced to resign by his congregation in light of his newfound infamy. Adams further pursued Duffy, inspiring an investigation into his product’s supposed medicinal qualities. It was eventually determined that his wares were nothing more than sweetened whiskey. Samuel Hopkins Adams’ 11-part patent medicine series in Collier’s not only exposed Walter Duffy’s fraudulence, but had a much broader and lasting impact on the American food and medicine industries as well. His muckraking efforts helped lead to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906, which mandated that companies could no longer conceal product ingredients–especially alcohol content–from the public. The law effectively sounded the death knell of the patent medicine industry and Duffy’s involvement therein. Walter B. Duffy passed away in 1911. His son, Walter J. Duffy, carried on his liquor distilling and distribution business until 1918, when the inevitability of impending Prohibition rendered the future of the enterprise futil duff#2 bx15btl

Price: 9.95 USD

Location: Havertown, Pennsylvania

End Time: 2025-01-24T00:51:49.000Z

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