1034
Reno Saloon, J. Barra Prop., Tonopah, Nev Clay Whiskey Jug [197034]
Currency:USD
Category:Collectibles / Bottles & Insulators
Start Price:750.00 USD
Estimated At:1,500.00 - 5,000.00 USD
CURRENT BID
750.00USDby S*******3+ applicable fees & taxes.
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Live Online Auction Starts In
2025 May 02 @ 08:00 (UTC-07:00 : PDT/MST)
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Reno Saloon, J. Barra Prop., Tonopah, Nev Clay Whiskey Jug
By Fred Holabird, c2025
Introduction
A new discovery was made this year, coming from the Midwest. A clay whiskey jug with Joe Barra’s name. The story is remarkable, and you “cant make this stuff up!”
This article will discuss two important aspects: the history and biography of Joseph Barra, and the physical aspects and discussion of the jug itself.
Joe Barra Biography
Joseph Barra was born in Torino, Piemonte, Italy in November, 1868, according to his family tree and immigration records. He married Marquerita Tappero when he was 19, with whom he had six children. He had another son by a second marriage. The first record I can find of Barra in America is in 1888 at Canon City, Colorado. He moved around Colorado a bit, landing in Leadville in 1900. His formal immigration year was 1891, according to census data.
By April, 1902, Barra was in Reno, Nevada, as owner of the Weiland Saloon on the corner of Plaza and Sierra Streets. Barra placed ads in the local newspaper soliciting customers. The saloon wasn’t on one of the two main streets of Virginia Street or Commercial Row, but was on the corner of Plaza and Sierra, 301 Sierra St., a block west of Virginia Street.
Barra chose the name “Weiland Saloon” because of the popular western beer brand, “Weiland’s.” The brand had its start in San Francisco during the Gold Rush, and remained popular for decades. It became so popular that other breweries were built in distant Western cities to manufacture their unique beers.
Owning a saloon in a western town that was a terminus of sorts for all things related to the mining business could be difficult, especially with the huge numbers of miners coming in and out of town from California to the West, and from the eastern states and eastern Nevada mining camps via the Southern Pacific Railroad. More miners and merchants came through Reno from southern mining camps accessed by the Carson & Colorado Railroad. With an influx from the Comstock, the “saloon crowd” was thus potentially a wild and tough bunch.
Barra in Nevada
Perhaps Barra’s first encounter with the rough Nevada crowd was in the first week of February, 1903, when Weiland’s Saloon was robbed.
Al Meyers, night bartender, was at the bar. From the side door two masked men entered and at the point of a revolver lined those present up against the wall and then turned to Meyers and told him to get out from behind the bar and get in line.
The bandits took the contents of the cash register, leaving only the nickels and dimes, a total of $57.50.
In December, 1904, a drunk miner from Tonopah was confronted by Barra because he owed the saloon owner money. The drunk, W. B. Ellis, reported to police that Barra pulled a gun on him. When he was called to Court, Ellis was a no-show, and several witnesses stated that Barra had no gun at all. The charges were dropped.
All this activity at his Weiland’s Saloon was a prelude to what was to come that forced Barra to leave the Northern Nevada country. Barra appears to have sold his Weiland’s Saloon after these events in 1906.
In January 1906, Barra encountered too much of “Western Justice.” Barra was playing pool with customers at one of his billiard tables when his bartender sold liquor to an Indian. This was technically against the law, but was, nonetheless, a common practice, particularly for a saloon that was a block off one of the main streets. Unfortunately, one of the customers was policeman Mefley, who told Barra he’d “Have to put up $30 if he didn’t want the case prosecuted.” Barra paid the policeman the $30 he asked for so that his bartender wouldn’t get in trouble. The next day, Barra formally made a police report of the bribery incident. All hell broke loose, as Mefley denied any such action, and the situation got reversed, with an attempt to prosecute Barra. The legal action went on through at least June.
Meanwhile, in March, 1906, another drunk, this time a Mill City man, had cashed four $100 money orders, gotten black-out drunk, and had the money stolen from him. He charged Barra, but had no proof, and admitted he was so drunk he had no idea who took the money.
By May, 1906, Barra had sold out, but had not yet left Reno, pending the Police bribery litigation. Soon, he was off to Tonopah. It is a mystery what took place between late May and November. The only slice of data found was that a letter written to Barra’s wife was still unclaimed at the Tonopah post office in November, perhaps indicating that the pair was in Tonopah for a few months of the fall of 1906, though there is no mention of him in the few digitized Tonopah newspapers found in newspapers.com and the Library of Congress Chronicling America archives during this period.
Barra Heads South to the Goldfield-Tonopah Gold/Silver Country
Barra made his northern Nevada exit in 1906 and headed south to Tonopah, then nearly immediately to Goldfield, where he opened the Reno Saloon.
By early 1907, Barra had become the proprietor of the Reno Saloon in Goldfield, a place that suited him so well that he remained there until he died in 1929 of a heart attack at age 60. The Goldfield directories of 1906- 1907 listed Barra’s Reno Saloon at 610 Broadway, a relatively centralized location in the booming gold mining camp that ultimately produced more than eight million ounces of gold!
While there were certain to be scuffles and questionable instances at the Reno Saloon, none were noted until 1910, when Barra was arrested.
Joe Barra has been arrested in Goldfield, charged with making threats to dynamite his wife. Barra used to run the Weiland Saloon.
Barra probably got divorced shortly after. In the 1920 Census, he listed himself as a divorced “Laborer.” He died in 1929 from a heart attack.
Western Jugs
There are not many whiskey jugs from the West, particularly Nevada. But there are two known from Nevada: one from Ely (Marcotte) and one from Goldfield (Gioga). It is interesting to note that only one is known from each of these merchants, and no bottle or artifact diggers have come up with pieces from other Nevada Jugs.
This is, in itself, an anomaly. But there is an answer.
These jugs may be an advertising item. Advertising items of varying kinds were made by companies that employed salesmen that traveled from town to town. A perfect example are the advertising pocket mirrors of the West, also known as “good for” mirrors because they were made for specific merchants by a small handful of companies. In the case of these “good for” mirrors, the salesmen worked towns (and mining camps) located along specific railroad lines. I presented a paper on this fact years ago, identifying which companies worked which specific railroad lines. The patterns were obvious.
Here, we have to look in a different direction, but look at other similar items. In this case, we can look at beer glasses, hotel china, embossed bottles and so forth. Once we look into these items, and where they came from, the picture emerges.
Specific companies contracted with jug manufacturing houses in the same manner as a company would contract with a glass manufacturer for embossed bottles from his own establishment. The surprise came when researching this end of the business. It was a surprise because out West, particularly here in Nevada and California, there are a number of glass manufacturing houses. There is no need for the clay jug. In the South and Midwest, it is a different matter because of the lack of a pure quartz supply for the glass. Today, with rail access everywhere, we have glass houses all over America. But not so in old times.
It was a surprise to find that whiskey jugs were available out of Reno. The biggest advertiser in the Nevada region was clearly Gray-Reid Wright Co, who advertised specialized whiskey jugs from at least 1906-1910. Another source was in Ely at Bishop’s in 1908. While these were the only two companies I found advertising whiskey jugs, there may have been more. It is more than coincidence that these two companies directly correspond in location with two of the three known whiskey jugs.
Were these jugs made as single items? Were they made as examples of what could be made for the retailer? We may never know.
The Reno Saloon Jug
Physical attributes:
This is a classic half gallon jug with a single colored glaze, sloped shoulder/neck above a narrow flat rim that tops the vertical sided base that held the whiskey contents. It is made in the correct style for the period.
We consulted with two professional potters. The consensus is that the piece was fired too hot. They did have other opinions as well. There is an excellent You Tube program illustrating and discussing the making of whiskey jugs. It clearly shows the various steps of manufacture. This site, and others, also discuss the difficulties and defects of manufacture, and the resultant physical characteristics of the jug with defects. Using these internet sites, physical anomalies of this jug become easily explainable.
The jug displays some manufacturing defects:
1. An accumulation, or rough spot, on the bottom and bottom edge, hardened by glaze.
2. Burst Surface Bubbles. There are numerous “bubbles” below the surface, that in some cases burst, causing a surface defect, an “artifact” of the original below-the-surface bubble.
3. Other bubbles are visible on the surface, but have not been damaged by surface pressure. One such large bubble is clearly visible above the “EN” in “RENO.”
4. Small, short cracks are visible in the top of the neck and handle, as well as concentric linear cracks visible along the flat junction of the sloped top and base.
The questions surrounding of the Reno Saloon whiskey jug are many. First, a discussion of the manufacturing defects:
1. On the bottom surface, to the left of “Tonopah”, is an accumulation of glaze causing a rough spot. There is a near-corresponding irregularity further left on the bottom of the vertical wall. All of this is caused by excess glaze application prior to firing, in conjunction with the jug not being perfectly level in the furnace, so that it dripped by gravity to the lowest spot, and was never cleaned off.
2. The bubbles are generally caused by excessive heat, particularly at the front end of the firing process. The temperature of the furnace is very important. It is thought that the bubbles are caused not by air, but by water, which when heated turn to steam, and have no where to go, but out. The fact that these bubbles are only on the outside is a testament to this temperature problem. On this jug, two burst bubbles were “painted” gray by a collector. The original clay color is clearly visible in spots the paint missed. Other spots missing clay are not divots or chips, but are exploded bubbles.
3. The presence of “unexploded” bubbles are evident all over the jug, somewhat uniformly, again evidence of firing at too hot a temperature.
4. The small cracks are an anomaly. One advanced collector stated that he had no such cracks in any of his jugs of the same reported time period. The small cracks at the top are shallow. This is in the same exact manner as cracks in glass that have undergone a problem in the final annealing process. The Jamaica Champagne blob soda bottles of the 1870 period are a perfect example. These small cracks are not through-going.
The Company Logo
The company logo here presents interesting attributes and observations with perhaps some differing conclusions.
A. The large round oval with a double circle enclosure is consistent with the period. It’s application is perfect with respect to the special way in which the logo is applied.
B. The name “Reno Saloon” is an unusual name, possibly only used by Barra in Nevada, and reflects his early roots in the saloon business.
C. Barra is a name not known to collectors. He did not advertise in Goldfield or Tonopah to my knowledge. He had no tokens made.
D. The Reno Saloon listing in the cited directory is also an anomaly. This directory was unknown until very recently. The only known copy is missing most of the front portion.
E. Why does this jug say “Tonopah?” There is no record of Barra with a saloon in Tonopah. Could he have ordered this jug in anticipation of such a place when he left Reno from Gray-Reid, Wright?
F. Since the jug is poorly made, was it just a sample for Barra?
Provenance
This jug came to us out of the Midwest. It was stated to have been purchased at a flea-market from a booth selling whatever they had cheaply, with no knowledge of anything.
Barra had seven children. Did one of them inherit his holdings when he died in 1929?
Certainly it didn’t go to his ex-wife who he threatened to blow up with dynamite.
Conclusions
This jug appears original, but made in a furnace that was too hot, and came out too hot, causing the tiny cracks at the top.
The mistake in the town name is unexplained, except for possibilities discussed. Mistakes are well known on tokens, bottles, letterheads and everything else. Is this just another mistake like the “Minnemucca” soda bottle (Winnemucca), circa 1890, or the “Phyolite” token (Rhyolite), circa 1906, where obvious mistakes were clearly distributed?
We may know more when newspapers from Goldfield and Tonopah are eventually digitized and placed in the public domain. For now, the information presented here is what we have.
^
Date:
Country (if not USA):
State: Nevada
City: Tonopah
Provenance:
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