Udolpho Wolfe's Aromatic Schnapps Bottle

Green glass schnapps bottle. Square in section, with stopper seal. Embossed on three sides with the words: 'UDOLPHO WOLFE's' / 'AROMATIC SCHNAPPS' / 'SCHIEDAM'

Udolpho Wolfe (1809-1869) was born in Richmond, Virginia to German parents. In 1826 he moved to New York and began importing wines and spirits.

In 1848 Udolpho and his brother, Joel, imported 'Aromatic Schiedam Schnapps' into the US. Schnapps was 'Holland Gin', distilled from barley and juniper berries and bottled at the Wolfe's factory in Schiedam, Holland.

In 1857 Udolpho wrote a paper promoting his schnapps titled 'Elucidations or Imposition in the Imitation and Adulteration of Holland and English Gin - A Brief history' (Udolpho Wolfe, John A Gray Printers; New York, 1857).
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Cases of Schiedam gin were imported into the colony of New South Wales from the early 1800s. Australians were first introduced to the medical tonic of 'Russ's Schedam [sic] Aromatic Schnapps' in 1853, when Melbourne merchants Thomas McDowell & Co. became the sole importer. Russ claimed his schnapps was "a superlative tonic, diuretic, anti-dyspeptic and an invigorating cordial' and it was particularly recommended to 'persons residing or travelling in the Australian colonies as a preventative for derangements of the stomach and bowels produced by the water of these Colonial regions'.

Wolfe's Aromatic Schnapps was imported into Australia five years later by Wilkinson Brothers & Co., shipping merchants who had bond stores in Sydney and Melbourne. Wilkinson advised Australian physicians that Wolfe's Aromatic Schiedam Schnapps was a 'medical diet-drink ... manufactured expressly for medicinal purposes'. He claimed that in the US Wolfe's Schnapps had been shown to cure "gout, rheumatism, obstruction of the bladder and kidneys, dyspepsia, sluggish circulation of the blood, inadequate assimilation of food, and exhausted energy'. Wilkinson assured Australians that Wolfe's Schnapps would be available from all respectable druggists and merchants, and that in order to avoid cheap imitations and counterfeits, Wolfe's would only be sold in quart and pint bottles wrapped in yellow paper, with the proprietor's name on the bottle, cork, and label.

By the time Old Smithfield township was established there were other aromatic shcnapps being imported into the colony of Queensland, including J.H. Henke's Prize Medal Schiedam Schnapps, H.J. Hart's Aromatic Schiedam Schnapps, Herwig's Aromatic Schnapps, and Kiderlen's Aromatic Schnapps. In 1879 Udolpho took court action against H.J. Hart, and the case was heard in courts in Australia, Holland, Germany and the US.

A label from a bottle of Udolpho Wolfe's Aromatic Schiedam Schnapps sold in the US.