Item SW212, Figural Whiskey Flask Depicting an Octopus With Its Tenacles Around An American Silver Dollar, milkglass, 4 ½” high, ground lip with original metal screw-on cap, bold embossing, perfect condition. The coin retains most of it’s original gold paint, the octopus has traces of it’s original red paint, a great example of this rare and very unusual flask, America 1890 to 1910, $900

 

Note: This flask probably commemorates a dispute over land titles between some settlers in California and the Southern Pacific Railroad. This dispute led to the Mussel Slough Tragedy in 1880 in which 7 people were killed in a gun battle. In 1901 a novel entitled The Octopus was written about this dispute.