Join us in our journey to pick up the elusive Don Mullally Collection. We had talked to a number of people about Don and the collection he might have. We knew he lived in Granada Hills, California but as for what his collection had in it or even if it was a collection we would need to see for ourselves. My colleague Dennis Fox had gone by his place over the last number of years seeing if he could take a look and meet with Don. Each time he did see Don but with little luck on seeing any bottles. Don was a private man who didn’t want people going through his stuff. I had made a deal with Robert Frank many years ago for a collection of western fifths from Don and there were some great bottles back then. Did he still have any good bottles? Well suddenly we became aware that Don Mullally had died, January 5 of this year. It was sad to hear but at 91 he had a good long life. It wasn’t long after that we received a call from his wife of 45 years, Mary Patterson. She told us that Don had wanted the collection to go through our auction and we couldn’t have been happier. We set up a time to come down and I am now proud to offer a short video of our visit. Remember, we had no idea what was there but knew that Don had been a collector since 1956 and he went after good bottles. There could be some good stuff and then maybe not. What we found surprised us, we are showing just some of the items we collected and brought back that day. We are preparing an auction for just his items. I hope you are as excited about some of the items as we were. Just click on the link below and it’ll bring you to the You Tube Video. Thanks for looking.
Jeff and Dennis
Picking Up The Don Mullally Collection
Nice teaser video, Jeff. You are going to generate A LOT of phone calls from this! Look forward to seeing the rest of the collection.
I appreciate pretty glass but only collect jars.
I am so excited to see his collection . Althiugh I have never been a majir Bottle enthusiast over bottles Ihave slowly become a collector so perhaps I will find something to ruffle my feathers. Thank you Jeff for always bring back to life some old goid bottles
Thank you Vicki-I am at a loss. Why don’t you write? I wasn’t sure about your condition. Please say hello as you heal.
Don had quite the nice western whiskey and wine collection, as he did a talk many years ago at one the Los Angeles bottle club meetings. His knowledge and passion of the early California wine industries are so very amazing. He had many good crude and nicely colored western fifths to show and to talk about there this one special time. This really stuck with me, as it was one of the best talks, and a real treat to see many of his awesome examples at this meeting many years ago. So very fortunate to know this man, and to see what he had. Don will be missed, and he had this bellowing laugh which was so contagious. He will be dearly missed, as he was a true pioneer bottle collector and Friend, with great passion. R.I.P. our Friend !!
Hello,
My grandfather (my mother’s father) Fritz Brune was Henry Brune’s younger brother. My mother’s maiden name was Marion Brune. She was born in San Francisco along with her older sister Helen. My mother was born in 1905 and my aunt Helen in 1900. Henty Brune came to the US from Germany and brought his two younger brothers (my grandfather being one of them) to the US. Henry was an attorney and lived in San Francisco. After the earthquake sole his now famous home in the city (Brune mansion) and moved to Shady Lane in Ross. I think the last year he was a partner in Nabors and Brune was 1913. My grandfather bought land in Ross also but continued to live in the city and died in his 80’s. He kept all the financial notes for Max Schmidt of Schmidt Lithograph in San Francisco and worked exclusively for him as his assistant for over 50 years. I think there is a collection of advertisements/posters for Naber, Alfs and Brune that Schmidt did over the years. Schmidt Lithograph was one of the largest printing firms on the West Coast and and I think some of their work was for Naber, Alfs an Schmidt but I’m not quite sure how to find it. I am interested in acquiring some memorabelia from the Henry Brune era includine his association with his partners in the whiskey business.
Cordially,
Bob Cain