08/16/2026
Long post alert.....but well worth the read!!!
**TWO PIECES OF GLEN ROCK HISTORY — COMING SEPTEMBER 12TH**
Before we get into the history behind these pieces, let’s start with exactly what will be crossing the auction block at our **September 12th Auction**.
The first is a small two-tone stoneware advertising jug with a cream-colored body, dark brown glazed shoulder and neck, applied handle, and chained metal closure. Lettered across the front in red is:
**“Compliments of
Wm. Foust,
Distiller,
Glen Rock, Pa.”**
The second is an amber glass whiskey flask boldly embossed:
**“WILLIAM FOUST
DISTILLER
PURE RYE WHISKIES
GLEN ROCK PA”**
Both pieces carry the name **William Foust, Distiller, Glen Rock, Pennsylvania**, rather than the later William Foust’s Sons company name.
We are deliberately not assigning an exact production year to either piece based solely on that wording. Dating individual Foust bottles and advertising pieces can be difficult, and we would much rather leave a date open than turn a possibility into a fact.
What we **can** document is the remarkable history represented by the Foust name.
# # # THE WILLIAM FOUST DISTILLERY
The Foust family’s distilling history in southern York County dates to around **1840**, when John S. Foust operated a distillery near Glen Rock.
In **1858**, William “Billy” Foust took over the operation, rebuilding and expanding it into what would become a substantial commercial distillery.
This was no small backwoods still.
By **1907**, the Foust operation was producing approximately **3,000 barrels of whiskey each year**, including its well-known Pennsylvania rye whiskey.
The business became large enough that an entire little community grew around it.
That community became known as **Foustown**.
Employee housing, a railroad station, a town square and fountain, telephone service, warehouses and other facilities developed around the spring-fed hollow where the distillery operated.
For southern York County, the distillery represented more than whiskey. Distilling was an important way of turning locally grown grain into a valuable commercial product, connecting area agriculture with manufacturing, transportation and trade.
William eventually retired, and four of his sons continued the operation under the name **William Foust’s Sons Distillers**.
Then came **Prohibition**.
When national Prohibition took effect in **1920**, legal whiskey production at the Foust operation came to an end.
And the story became even more colorful.
In **1921**, the Foust warehouses were targeted in a major attempt to steal pre-Prohibition whiskey stored there. Historical accounts describe a Baltimore gang attempting to remove nearly **300 barrels of whiskey** before authorities intervened and recovered at least part of it.
But whiskey production itself is only part of the reason the Foust name remains so well known among collectors today.
# # # THE FAMOUS FOUST FLASKS
William Foust became associated with some of the most imaginative whiskey containers connected with early Pennsylvania distilling.
Documented Foust novelty and figural forms include a:
**Banana
Pretzel
Ear of Corn
Sweet Potato
Fish
Turkey
Cigar
Ham
Pig
Shell or Clam
Horn of Plenty
Billy Club
and even a Pistol**
Some were made in glass. Others were produced in pottery or ceramic, and some appeared in different colors and variations.
That tremendous variety is one of the things that continues to make Foust pieces so interesting to collectors today.
# # # AND THEN THERE ARE THE “HIDDEN FLASKS”
This may be one of the most fascinating parts of the entire Foust story.
Collectors use the term **“hidden flask”** for certain novelty liquor containers whose appearance helped disguise the fact that they contained alcohol.
Several of Foust’s food-shaped containers fit beautifully into that tradition.
Think about it.
A conventional whiskey bottle looks exactly like what it is.
But a ceramic **banana, pretzel, ear of corn, sweet potato** or other food-shaped object?
At a glance, that could be something entirely different.
There are long-standing collector stories...from some of the old timers but not proven fact....that these food-shaped flasks could be carried among other provisions — including being tucked into something such as a **picnic basket** — where they would attract far less attention than an obvious whiskey bottle.
But the broader concept of the **hidden flask — disguising liquor inside an object that did not immediately appear to be a liquor bottle — is well established.**
And here is where the Foust story gets especially interesting.
**These unusual Foust containers actually existed BEFORE national Prohibition.**
A surviving Foust pottery pretzel flask is documented with the wording:
**“Patent Applied for 1908.”**
That was approximately **12 years before national Prohibition began.**
So the novelty shapes were not originally invented because of Prohibition.
Before Prohibition, they appear to have been imaginative, attention-getting packaging — a clever way to make Foust whiskey stand apart from the countless ordinary whiskey bottles competing for a customer’s attention.
A whiskey container shaped like a banana, pretzel, turkey or pistol was certainly memorable.
But then Prohibition arrived.
And suddenly a container that **didn’t look like a whiskey bottle** had an entirely different practical appeal.
That is one of the wonderful ironies of the Foust story.
The company was already producing some unusual containers while whiskey was perfectly legal.
Then the country prohibited alcohol, and a whiskey flask disguised as a banana, pretzel, ear of corn or other familiar object suddenly became much more useful for something beyond advertising.
Whether every one was actually used for concealment is impossible to know.
But it certainly helps explain why the term **“hidden flask”** has become associated with these unusual forms.
And that brings us right back to the two pieces pictured here.
Neither needs to be shaped like a banana or pistol to have a wonderful story.
One is a small stoneware advertising jug proudly reading:
**“Compliments of Wm. Foust, Distiller, Glen Rock, Pa.”**
The other is an amber glass flask boldly advertising:
**“PURE RYE WHISKIES.”**
Both survive as tangible reminders of a York County distilling operation that once produced thousands of barrels of whiskey annually, helped create an entire community around its business, survived into the dawn of Prohibition and left behind some of the most imaginative whiskey containers associated with Pennsylvania distilling.
**Both of these William Foust pieces will be offered at our September 12th Auction.**
For the bottle collector, whiskey advertising collector, stoneware collector or anyone who simply appreciates **Glen Rock and York County history**, these are two pieces worth taking a closer look at.
Sometimes an old bottle isn’t just an old bottle.
**Sometimes it’s a piece of home.**
