This submission is an absolute holy grail for West Coast spirits history. A reader recently reached out with an extraordinary piece of San Francisco history that has stumped local whiskey historians.
They uncovered an incredibly rare, intact A.P.H. Bourbon Whisky medicinal Prohibition pint, complete with its original prescription label block. The bottle is caked in decades of dust and patina, but remarkably, it still contains its original whiskey.
What makes this bottle highly significant is its direct tie to A.P. Hotaling & Co., one of the most legendary names in San Francisco liquor history. Let’s dig into why this specific pint is such an elusive and important find.
The Historical Blueprint
If the name Hotaling sounds familiar to West Coast history buffs, it should. A.P. Hotaling’s whiskey warehouse on Jackson Street famously survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fires, prompting the famous local poem: “If, as they say, God spanked the town for being over-frisky, why did He burn His churches down and save Hotaling’s Whisky?”
While the family’s pre-Prohibition history is well-documented, their survival during Prohibition as a medicinal distributor is shrouded in mystery. This bottle provides the missing link.
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The Rare Prescription Block: Look at the lower half of the main label. This bottle features a built-in, un-filled prescription template printed directly onto the paper by “The Exclusive Prescription Pharmacies” located right in San Francisco. During Prohibition (1920–1933), the Volstead Act banned commercial alcohol, but doctors could prescribe “medicinal” whiskey to patients. Pharmacies would affix or integrate these forms to legally dispense the spirits.
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The Timeline: While the prescription label on this piece remains blank, a matching bottle found by another researcher carries a government tax stamp showing a 1916 distillation date and a 1924 bottling date. This means the bourbon was distilled right before America entered World War I, aged in charred oak barrels through the onset of Prohibition, and was pulled from a government bond warehouse in 1924 to be bottled strictly for medicinal use.
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The Presentation and Closure: Notice the heavily weathered top and neck. The original cork and cap remain firmly in place, sealing the liquid inside. The heavy dust layer coating the shoulders tells a story of decades spent undisturbed in a dark, dry space.
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Ullage (Fill Level): Considering this glass pint has been sitting for over a century, the fill level is exceptionally high, resting just at the lower neck line. The cork seal has done an incredible job preventing evaporation over the last 102 years.
The Verdict
This is an exceptionally scarce artifact. While pre-Prohibition Hotaling bottles do surface from time to time, finding an A.P.H. branded medicinal Prohibition pint with this specific pharmacy layout is almost unheard of. It is an amazing physical record of how San Francisco’s most famous whiskey name adapted to survive the dark days of dry law.
To the owner: please leave that magnificent, historical dust exactly where it is! It’s a badge of honor proving this bottle’s untouched history. Thank you so much for submitting this incredible piece of California history to the site.
Do you have an old medicinal bottle hiding in a cupboard?
Whether it’s a doctor-prescribed pint, a pre-Prohibition local brand, or an old tax-stamped bourbon, I’d love to help you break down its history. Head over to our Whiskey Bottle Evaluation Page to send over your photos for a free look!
