Has anyone seen this c1880 “Noble Catcher” baseball player bottle?

[CarltonHendricks]

If anyone has seen this bottle before and/or have knowledge what the original cap looked like please contact me.

12 inch tall


















A week ago today I found the 12 inch tall bottle above in an antique mall in Sacramento….I see the dealer of the booth around at shows and was chatting with him earlier that morning at an antiques fair. Recently he told me he drove from California to Cooperstown N.Y. and bought the contents of a sports collectibles store of some kind. He was excited all the baseball mits he got were selling readily. I speculate this bottle came out of that haul.


Similiar figural bottle of a cobbler

Finding it caught me by surprise…I saw it in a locked case and gradually fixated on it. It seems like I may have seen it before…like maybe in a grouped lot of an auction, years ago….nevertheless I knew it was very rare. It was seriously priced with “firm” noted on the tag. At the bottom front it says “Noble Catcher” I’m pretty sure it’s from about 1880. The catcher has no catcher equipment or glove…..but most of my dating is from the patina of the top where years of dust and oxygen seem to have left a mottled finish.


c1930ish three sided bottle, showing Ruth side, shot on location 2009 National

Some may not be impressed with it, and I can understand that. Figural bottles don’t have a lot of definition like a statue….but take it from me….any bottle from 1880 shaped like a baseball player would be rare. I believe I’ve seen a figural bottle of John L. Sullivan…and I did once have a similar bottle of a cobbler….and I have seen a three sided 1930ish bottle with Ruth, Thorpe, and Sullivan that Gregg Rudd had at the 2009 National.


Only on line reference found from a 2008 auction, with "Noble Pitcher" mate

I feel confident it was a Cyrus Noble Whiskey bottle. I can only find one reference to it online. There was one that sold at an auction in Feb. 2008 along with a mate “Noble Pitcher”….The listing refers to them as cologne bottles, but 12” tall seems big for a cologne bottle. There was and still is a Whiskey called Cyrus Noble Whiskey. From what I can ascertain Cyrus Noble Whiskey first appeared around the late 1870’s and was most famous in San Francisco and the west.

It was supposed to be just a quick run thru the mall as I was supposed to shortly meet up with friends at a nearby movie theater…So I sort of had to buy it in a hurry…run to the movie and dinner afterwards…by the time I got home it was late and I finally got a chance to look it over. Phew!...It was one of those purchases where after the dust settled I was very I glad I pulled the trigger!!...

I found a guy online in Seattle that does artistic glass restoration…After some discussion and photos to show him what I wanted he quoted me $800.00 to $1,000.00 to create a glass top shaped like a pill box cap…He explained the process he’d have to go thru …including matching the frosted finish…and that he anticipated he would need to make several before getting it right if he could do it at all…He wasn’t positive he could match the finish but was willing to try….so his price made sense…..and could even be a bargain!

On the other hand I was perplexed what the original cap looked like and was made of….I would be using artistic license by creating a pill box cap top since I’ve never seen the original and would only be guesstimating….After I got the $800.00 to $1,000.00 estimate I started thinking it thru and wondered if the top was originally glass after all. I speculated a fine decorative decanter would have been glass but a production bottle wouldn’t have.



In my mind’s eye I could easily envision a worn nickel plated pill box cap top. One friend said just have one carved of wood for $100.00….another friend said he felt the frosted finish would have had a matching frosted glass top…But a clear bottle would not have. The only thing close I’ve seen is a Tappan’s baseball bat perfume bottle I got in 2008. It’s clear glass and has a nickel cap.

I emailed photos to Keith Schneider of Gasoline Alley Antiques in Seattle who speaks figural, and Josh Evans of Leland’s…neither has seen it before. Again if anyone knows anything about it please contact, thanks.
-Carlton