Digging Into Charlie Bacon's 12oz Cans...

[menke]

Saturday's 6/3 Lebo Auction will be the first major chunk of Charlie Bacon's 12oz cans... focused on NY/NJ/New England, with sidelights of Pabst and Washington State and a few other oddities. There will be one more auction of this size and that's it.

https://auctions.cansmartbeercans.com/c ... ctionid=69

While there are a good number of eyebrow-raising cans here (Golden Rod! Tally Ho Ale! patent pending Waldorf Ale from Raquette Lake!) that create their own excitement, I appeal to collectors to have a look at the rank-and-file: Ballantine, Krueger, Rheingold, Utica, Schaefer and so on. Not the most exciting stuff, but if you have unchecked boxes in those lineups this is a great opportunity to pick up a bunch of them in a single box.

Charlie's eye for detail is really on display here. Tons of can company and mandatory and patent differences abound.

There are a number of cans in this group that Charlie dumped while I was with him in the woods: the first Clicquot Club cone from Dave's Hilltop Dump in NH, the flat bottom Hanley's also from there, the Piels lo pro wedged between two rocks on the shore of Upper Richardson, the Horton from his Mid-Twentieth Century Dump, that Waldorf lineup from the Adirondacks, and many more. He's the only one who remembered them all, and he's gone so the world will see only a wall of cans. It's kind of like attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, no one else knows all those moments. It's something to think about as the investor class builds its internet-purchased collections. What does your collection stand for? Just that some old dude showed up with some great stuff? Maybe it's better to have a few memories in there with the metal.

[fallscityfreak]

Not the most exciting stuff, but if you have unchecked boxes in those lineups this is a great opportunity to pick up a bunch of them in a single box.

I've got my eye on no less than 27 cans! I won't win them all, but I keep a matriculas record of all my can purchase history & the lineage of each can. From Rusty Buncher's to shows, auctions & the internet, where the can came from is just as important as the label itself. I'll be honored to have a few of Charlie's treasures among my shelves.

-fcf.

[menke]

Yeah, if anyone is looking for more sentimental cans please don't hesitate to ask. The next round will have a ton of Brooklyn Schlitz cans, for example, prized by Charlie (and many likely dug by him) because the brewing water in NYC was so good. Everything he kept had a hook like that, of some sort, for some reason, that made it interesting to him. There's so much to learn.

I met Charlie here in MD almost 20 years before he moved to Boston, yet never dug with him until he teamed up with Mr. Lang up north. And never in the Adirondacks, either. So many cans.

[Farmer]

Got my bid in on a couple cans so far

[Uncle Jackson]

Matt, Charlie’s’ common tabs that I bought from you at Spring Thaw had a few of the odd variation I had never seen. It was an eclectic mix.

Thanx again for those.

[kb]

My ADK rock star ! I will be glad to chase some !


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mtracy64]

Saturday's 6/3 Lebo Auction will be the first major chunk of Charlie Bacon's 12oz cans

Thanks for the reminder that this is a Saturday auction. I'll likely be working Saturday, so I put my bids in early.

I can't tell you how many Waldorfs I spun in people's totes looking for the 1935 variations over the years. I had never seen the Ale available until Charlie dug them, and the only ones I've seen available since then are the can pictured in USBC-OI and the couple indoor offgrade cans in recent Morean auctions. I sort of wish I had hung onto my downgrade but at least it went to a really good home. The Beer is a little more obtainable, especially since "bantam" (Ted) dug several a few years ago here in Michigan.

Do you know if Charlie dug the white Pilser's J-Spout? I had it in my head that he was part of the find, but in digging through this website and old issues of Rustlings all I found was a find of eight by Dwight Barbacci and Paul Chappie. I only knew of four examples of the can prior to the find, so it's still a very rare can.

Marc

[menke]

Unfortunately for us all, Charlie traded away the Waldorf Bock that I believe came from the same dump. gotta love a loyal drinker... Charlie showed me his shelfer Ale and I don't know that HE knew what it was, given the rust bubble locations and eyesight and all.

I don't know any history on the Pilser's J. If Dwight hooked him up, I bet he'd remember. Charlie had a way of remembering cans for people that got him some good cans in return over the years.

[mtracy64]

The Bock has a good home. Charlie definitely knew what the Ales were - Chris Taylor and I fussed over them appropriately at Blue/Grey, so he found out then if he didn't already know.

Perhaps I associated the Pilser's find with Charlie from simply knowing that he picked one of them up from Dwight. The condition of Charlie's is consistent with that find.

[kb]

Pretty sure the bock was dug at horseshoe lake as many have tried to relocate the dump .. here’s his pic of save the ales


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jim Romine]

Charlie traded the Waldorf Bock to the Lewendowski's. Must have been a deal he couldn't refuse. They are the ones who grafted a Waldorf to it to make it a whole can again, and did the touchup. When the twins sold out, the can passed through one collector's hands and then to mine. It's one of my favorite cans. Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder.
Jim

[menke]

Woe be unto those who don't take some mystery cans home every time... thanks for the correction. My best mystery can as a Star Banner Ale cone, all I could see was a teeny spot of red and I knew none of my cones had red there. Or a Mule Head Beer OI, was hoping for a kent ale but it was cool since there weren't any other Mule Heads in the whole dump.

[menke]

that waldorf is probably the very best can that shouldn't exist.

[Joe Older]

There is a least one good one out there. No, I don't own it.

[Jim Romine]

There are only two examples out there of that can. My Frankencan, and that ongrade example, that's been residing in a collection for a long time.
Jim

[mtracy64]

A few things about the Waldorf Bock are interesting, even aside from the fact that it's a full-length opener Bock and one of six Bocks from the inaugural class of 1936.

The configuration of the three panels left of seam matches the 4th Waldorf Ale and Lager, but the panel right of seam doesn't come close to matching any of the other Waldorf cans, even if you discount the large 'Brewed in America' text near the top of that panel.

I've always heard that the two examples pictured above are the only examples known to the hobby, but USBC-OI rates it R-10/R-9 with the note "a few very poor examples exist also". A careless slip perhaps, though it does make me wonder. Kevin was very well connected in the world of indoor cans long before most of us began collecting, but dumpers weren't really his thing and there are instances where his offgrade ratings are off. However, it's very unusual for him to account for too many offgrade examples rather than not enough.

Below is a link to a discussion here regarding the man who originally collected the nice Waldorf Bock, along with the sequence of events that brought his cans to modern collectors in 1970.

viewtopic.php?t=51970&hilit=jung

Marc

[mtracy64]

The auction results look pretty strong overall to me. Certainly a few things could have done better, but the things that did really well more than make up for those as far as I can tell. I've bemoaned the lack of rare dumpers coming to market for probably ten years now, but the market responds when that type of can does come up. I did bid on seven cans but ended up not being a factor on any of them. I would have gone after something harder if I didn't already have a couple things from Charlie - most notably this extremely rare Cooper's, which Charlie offered to trade me off his shelf for quarts 25 years ago.

Marc

[menke]

Well there's a can you don't see often! What were the quarts? I love a good megatrade, like from the old days.

[mtracy64]

Yeah, you're not kidding . . . 25 years later and it's still the only one I've seen in person.

The Valley Forge quart flat was one of the cans I traded Charlie, and I've been trying to remember what the other can was since he passed away. I went through the auctions, and I think the Wehle Colonial Ale was the other one. I definitely had one of those around for a time and it wouldn't have been something I collected. I did have a few quarts at one time - a pair of English Lads, a few Kruegers and an Esslinger's Ale flat, and I'm pretty sure that was it.

Whatever the other can was, I told Charlie I felt like I was one can short and that I was looking for another one. He said "No, if you'll trade both of those for the Cooper's, we're done".