No.70 Second Exchange Check for $50.00 payable to Amelia Mills, signed Birdseye & Co. by Dawley. Printed by Marvin and Hitchcock, datelined Nevada, Cal. Little is known of the Birdseye Company. This is a typical name of one of the many mining companies around Nevada City in the 1850’s and 1860’s. In 1874, the Birdseye Company was operating a placer gold mine at You Bet near Nevada City, according to Raymond, 1874. Very Fine. $150.
Photo Courtesy of Stack’s, Lot 3503, John J. Ford, Jr. Collection Part XX & XXI, October 2007 Sale.
The W. L. Berry ingot here is from Nevada City, California. In the 1860’s, Nevada City was routinely called “Nevada” by locals in the same manner that Virginia City, Nevada was called “Virginia” in the early years of both mining districts. The ingot is made in the style of an early to mid-1860’s silver ingot, but the date cannot be correctly ascertained without further research.
Not much is known of Berry in Nevada City or in Virginia City. He is not listed in Bean’s Directory of Nevada County (1867) or any of the Pacific Coast Business Directories (1867, 1871, 1875). What we do know is that Berry moved to Tucson, Arizona in the spring of 1876 and opened an assay office for F. W. Blake, according to an article in the Arizona Weekly Miner (4/28/1876). Four months later Blake opened an assay office in Prescott. Berry was not with him, and apparently the Tucson office closed. An individual known as William Berry (possibly the same man) was active in mining in both Virginia City and the Grass Valley region. His name is readily found in local directories, and the Berry Pit at Flowery near Virginia City may be named in his honor. More research is needed to unravel Berry’s background.
This trapezoidal shaped gold and silver ingot measures approximately 2 x .75 x .5” and weighs 206.5 grams. The face reads: SILVER 854 F[INE]/GOLD 15FIN[E]. The back reads: W.L. BERRY, ASSAYER/NEVADA. The top side reads: GOLD $1.46. The bottom side reads: SILVER $7.34. The left side reads: OZ/6.65 and the right side reads: No.3. Both faces of this ingot are polished.
This ingot is from the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection .The Stack’s Catalog labeled this ingot as “The Only Bar by Berry Known to the Cataloguer” and “ex Art Kagin Collection, as well as ex Newcomer’s Collection, according to Mehl’s 1931 inventory”. Very Fine. $52,500.
Advertising Card reads “Drafts for sale on Atlantic States & Europe in sums to suit.” Bought of Richardson & Co. for 33 2/3 oz Gold Dust, totaling $621.23. Signed by H. Mackie & Co. Mackie & Co. were successors to C.W. Mulford. Mulford was a gold dust buyer and banker in Nevada City around 1861. Mackie & Co. was run by a father and son combination through 1869 when they incorporated as the Bank of Nevada County. Unfortunately they were not successful for long, according to Cross. From the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection. Very Fine. $1,750.
Unissued receipt for gold dust for assay. Ott had an assay office of long standing in Nevada City, California. He is perhaps best known as one of the first assay offices to assay Comstock ore in June of 1859. On a special day in June 1859, when word got out of the high grade assays, a virtual stampeed of miners left Nevada City and Grass Valley for the Comstock. It is rumored that a single ingot bearing his name still exists, though its location cannot be verified today. The assay office remained intact until a few decades ago when it was purchased by an advanced gold rush collector, and most of its contents are now at the Oakland Museum. Uncirculated. $150.
Unissued receipt for gold dust for assay. Uncirculated. $150.
Unissued receipt for gold dust for assay. Uncirculated. $150.
Unissued receipt for gold dust for assay. Uncirculated. $150.
Unissued receipt for gold dust for assay. Uncirculated. $150.
Unissued receipt for gold dust for assay. Uncirculated. $300.
Certificate of assay for sample bullion. Rare assay certificate for short lived assayer in the heart of the northern Mother Lode country. Fine. $75.
2 x .75 x .5” ingot containing 4.09 troy ounces of silver. This is a distinctive trapezoidal ingot. This Unique commemorative silver ingot is from the Yuba Mine 1897. The Yuba mine is on the south Yuba River three miles above the mining camp of Washington. The Mine was found perhaps as early as the 1850's but major development did not take place until the 1880's. By 1887 an 1,100 foot long tunnel exposing 800 feet of the vein had been driven along with a 600 foot winze sunk down on the dip of the vein. Clean white quartz contained native gold with pyrite and some zinc minerals. The company had a 15 stamp mill and the ore was worth an average of $8 a ton in the late 1880's . [Ireland; 8th Annual Report of the State Mineralogist 1888 pp 435-6] This ingot is probably a byproduct of the silver-zinc minerals associated with the gold, and may commemorate the 10 year anniversary of the new period of mining. $14,500.
Assayer's Business Card probably dated 1900-1920 period. This firm was in business during the 1860’s. No ingots are known. Very Fine. $75.
Wells, Fargo & Co. exchange receipt #78439. Endorsed to McWilliams & Tymeson, Agents. Datelined Oroville, California, April 17, 1857. The value is either $50 or $500. This is an Extremely Rare certificate being the only example we have ever seen at Holabird-Kagin. Slight chipping, folds, trimmed tight at left. No photograph. $300.
No.12 Stock certificate for 6333 shares issued to Henry Allen, trustee. Signed W.H. Allen (same person). Also signed by W. August Knapp as Secretary, Printed by Harrison, San Francisco. This important, rare certificate, the first we have seen for both the company and the mining district, is from Palm Springs in San Bernardino County. The company was formed by one of the great Nevada mining promoters, Mr. Buell and partners, according to Raymond in 1874. Not much is known of the mine or the district but obviously the associated mining camp later became one of the most important desert communities in California. Many folds, clean, Fine. $575.
This lot consists of a pair of gold rush era receipts from Auburn, the Placer County seat. Auburn is located in the heart of the central Mother Lode region. Payment to Matt Finley for $43.50 for jury duty and Wm. Turner for $48.00 signed by Deputy N.A. Johnson and Clerk Mitchell. Scarce. Retains nice bright red ink on blue paper. Extremely Fine. $150.
Bar 369. This is a bullion assay for the famous Yellow Aster Mining Company in Randsburg, San Bernardino and Kern Counties. Dated Feb 1904 for a 499 oz ingot of .795 fine gold and .187 fine silver signed by the Assayer W.A. McCombs. Yellow Aster was easily the largest and richest of the southern California gold mines. The company was managed by John Singleton, though the business aspects were managed by a woman, Mrs. Rose Burcham, who ruled the company’s finances with a steel fist. She was so successful that she upset all the competitors because she would not cut friendly deals for stock and made the original founders millions. $150.
Two piece lot from the Yellow Aster Mining and Milling Co. at Randsburg, California. The Yellow Aster was the largest gold mine in southern California. The first is an assay receipt for bar #363 weighing 568 oz. The second piece is a Memorandum of Gold Bullion Deposited at the San Francisco Mint on 01/27/1904 for the same exact bullion bar sent from the Yellow Aster and noted as such on the San Francisco Mint receipt. Both are in Very Fine condition. $400.
Red printed Wells Fargo Express receipt for J.M. Nelstorm who sent one bag containing 22 oz of gold dust to the U.S. Mint in SF. This receipt is from the Rattlesnake Bar in California for $22 with instructions to “forward to San Francisco for coinage and send the returns to S.M. Nelstrom at Rattlesnake.” The receipt is signed Baldwin & Co. (unknown if related to the California Gold Coiners of the same name). Rattlesnake was the first name for the Sierra County Gold Camp later known as LaPorte. Sierra County was one of the richest gold districts in the northern Mother Lode country. LaPorte contained a portion of the original “Blue Lead” and a fortune in Placer gold from that tertiary channel was mined. Very Fine. $1,000.
This is a detailed letter regarding the invention of the Arastra and patents, written by Loresh. Fine. $250.
Enormous fire on Sacramento’s Front Street, showing people, barrels and boxes on the levee in the foreground with J & K Streets at center, left to right. This view is from before Blake started doing business. Flames are shown reaching high into the sky. Lithograph illustration measures 8 ¼” x10 ½.” Trimmed tight at right with some slight creasing. Very Good. $1,450.
Blake and Waters were in business in Sacramento beginning in 1855. D.O. Mills, whose name appears on many of the Blake receipts in this catalog, came to the gold rush from New York, and after trying mining and selling merchandise to miners he opened a bank in Sacramento making a fortune buying gold. He sold his bank in 1862 and became president of William Ralston's Bank of California. After Ralston's suicide following a bank panic in 1875, Mills pledged his entire fortune to restore the Bank of California. In 1878, once confidence was restored in the bank, he retired to his home in New York. The City of Millbrae was the site of his family estate, and today the San Francisco Airport is built on land he owned.
For an extended history of the Blake cousins, please see the Blake ingot story under Unionville, Nevada Section.
No. 9710 Certificate of Gold, deposited by D. O. Mills & Co. This receipt is printed in black ink on thin buff colored paper and measures 8 1/8 x 7 ½.” It has a somewhat fancy vignette as far gold deposit or assay receipts are concerned. Below the company’s name, which is curved at the top of the page, is a vignette of an equal arm balance scale held by a hand that is extending below a cloud with the rays of the sun in the background. The printer’s name is not known. This receipt is for “Mixed Dust.” Weight before melting: 175.87 oz. After melting: 169.69 oz. Fineness: .892, Value per oz: $18.43. Clippings: $11.05. Net amount after all costs and fees: $3,125.26. Very Fine condition with normal folds and foxing. Extremely Rare R7. $4,500.
Please see Nevada. Overland Stage and Express Agent’s (Supplier) Personal Log Book 1860-1863 for a related lot.
1859 receipt and letter datelined Sacramento. This receipt and attached letter are for goods delivered by Strobridge and Collins who were boot and shoe dealers in Sacramento to Samuel Cunningham. Unfortunately, Cunningham died immediately after receipt of the goods and this letter concerns payment from his estate. Fine. $200.
Teschemacher & Company handwritten, two page reconciliation of gold dust transactions by Representative, Joseph Grant. This receipt details fourteen separate shipments of gold dust sent by Sacramento Merchant Joseph Grant to Teschemacher & Company in San Francisco. Teschemacher was an early resident of California arriving about 1842. He owned lots in San Francisco as early as 1846 and was later Mayor of San Francisco and a prominent merchant. Bancroft said, “I have a few of his early letters, but for so prominent a pioneer there is a remarkable lack of information about him.” Joseph Grant may be the same J.Grant, Merchant of San Francisco who was burned out in a fire. This is an Extremely Rare gold rush piece with some creasing, but in otherwise Very Fine. [Ref: Bancroft, History of California Vol XXII pg 745] $1,250.
Mercury Cyanide test on ore from the Mossback Mine, located in Gold Road, Arizona. Fine. $75.
This Unique and appealing medal reads: Agricultural and Horticultural Fair/(Seal with floral border)Awarded to (not engraved)/Ball, Black & Co. N.Y./Sacramento City//Designed Arranged and Prizes Presented By Warren & Son/(Allegorical figures of a man presenting flowers to a woman)/F.B. Smith & Hartmann. F/Sept R 18/Sacramento City Cal. White Metal. 50.8mm, 1,041.9 gns.
James, L.L. F. Warren, a successful Boston area horticulturist and businessman who migrated to California in 1849, has been referred to as the “Father of California Agriculture.” This great horticulturalist was committed to human and societal improvement with journalistic, educational, political, diplomatic and philanthropic contributions throughout his lifetime. He was even enlisted by the State Department for two years to assist with international agricultural problems including the Ireland Potato Famine.
Upon his return to the states, when mostly unmarried “Forty Niners” began migrating to the gold fields of California, so did 44 year old married father of several children, James Warren, as the business manager of Sweden Mining Company. Unfortunately the company quickly failed due to employed miners reneging on the agreement to work in exchange for passage to California and leaving to seek their gold fortune independently. Undeterred, Warren quickly established a letter carrying service, and in November 1849 founded the general provisioning firm of Warren & Company in Sacramento.
By 1852 Warren's store had become so important to the state's expanding agricultural economy that it became the site of the first California State Fair. However, in 1853 he moved to San Francisco and thereafter operated the enterprise in association with his son, John Quincy Adams Warren. Historian Walton Bean wrote of Warren's many contributions to California agriculture: “One of the greatest needs of the frontier state's slowly and clumsily developing agriculture was the introduction and adaptation of new crops, and it was here that Warren rendered one of the greatest of his services. His office served as a clearinghouse for the exchange of information, specimens, and seeds, not merely within California, but with other parts of the United States, South America, and the Orient.”[Ref: Article by Dr. William P. Marchione, “James L.L. F. Warren: 'Father of California Agriculture'“, Brighton Allston Historical Society website] Choice. From the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection. Extremely Fine. $750.
[1] Elisabeth L. Egenhoff, The Elephant As They Saw It, State of California, Divisions of Mines, p51, Letter form Colonel R.B.
Mason to General R. Jones, Adjutant General, U.S.A., Washington, D.C. dated August 17, 1848.
[2] Mason’s Letter, The Elephant As They Saw It, p51
[3] Mason’s Letter, The Elephant As They Saw It, p50
[4] Mason’s Letter, The Elephant As They Saw It, p57
[5] Kenneth Bressett, The Official Red Book of United States Coins 2007, p227.
<[6] James Polk, State of the Union Address, December 5, 1848.
[7] “Asher B. Durand’s Career as an Engraver” by Wayne Craven; The American Art Journal, Vol.3 No.1, Spring 1971, page 39.
[8] See Longworth’s New York Directory, 1832-3, and 1834-5 for entries of the firm under both names.
[9] Carson City Silver Age, 10/20/1861
[10] Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 1, 1853-1866, p208-9, 212.
[11] Carson City Silver Age, October 2, 1862.
[12] The Silver City Assay Office is not listed in the 1863 Nevada Territorial Directory.
[13] Doten Journals, p1453.
[14] Clark, editor; The Journals of Alfred Doten [Doten Journals.jpg">, 1849-1903; 1973. Pp 1241, 1368, 1382, 1391, 1453, 1860.
[15] After the Territorial Census, Irvin is absent from US Census data. He may have died shortly after.
[16] Mining & Scientific Press May 21, 1864. p341. 391
[17] 1862-1874 San Francisco Directories
[18] 1875-1877 San Francisco Directories. Chalfant. The Story of Inyo, 1933.
[19] 1881 San Francisco Directory
[20] Owens. California Coiners and Assayers, 2000
[21] Kagin, p305.
[22] San Francisco Herald, November 19, 1851.
[23] Kagin, p167.
[24] Hittell, Mining in the Pacific States of North America, p208, 1861. Interestingly this important
reference is also titled “Bancroft’s Hand-Book of Mining for the Pacific States”.
[25] San Francisco Herald, January 8, 1852.
[26] [Ref: Hittell, p208.jpg">.