Pair Antique Gaskell & Chambers Optic Pearl Whiskey dispensers - Helena Montana

Description

Pair of Optic Pearl Whiskey Shot Diapensors
Excellent condition, no chips. Found during renovation  work at t
he Montana Club in the 1980s.
Helena Montana
The Montana Club was founded in 1885 by a group of 130 men from the Territory and throughout the United States for "literary, mutual improvement & social purposes."
[1]
Members assembled in various locations throughout downtown Helena until 1891 when they purchased a triangular-shaped plot of land owned by
Samuel Thomas Hauser
for a clubhouse. The first Montana Club, designed by architects
John C. Paulsen
and
John LaValle
, was built in 1891-1893 and followed the strict hierarchical and spatial requirements of London's private clubs first established in the 1700s.
[2]
The building was gutted by an arson fire in April 1903 set by the bartender's son and was declared a total loss by the club's Wall Street, New York City insurance company.
[2]
[3]
Members hastily contracted with St Paul/New York City architect
Cass Gilbert
, assisted by
George H. Carsley
, to replicate the old clubhouse's floor plan but to add a rathskeller and dining room or banquet hall. Contrary to popular myth and erroneous information, the granite arches were totally dismantled, inventoried and set aside for potential incorporation into the new structure. The new building was constructed using brick manufactured by the Western Clay Mfg. Co. (Kessler Brick Co.) west of downtown, recycling some of the granite from the razed clubhouse, augmented with new granite from the nearby Baxendale quarry