The proprietors were Alphonse Dryfoos and Eugene Blum.
Alphonse Dryfoos first appeared in the NYC Directories around 1876. In the late 1870’s He, along with Jacob (sometimes Julius) Dryfoos ran a retail liquor business and/or saloon under the name Dryfoos & Co. at 737 Second Avenue. By 1880, Jacob was not included in the listing and the company name was dropped from the directories. At this point Alphonse was listed individually at that address apparently operating the business as the sole proprietor.
By the mid 1880’s the Second Avenue location had moved to 654 Second Avenue and another location at 61 Warren Street was added. It was around this time that Alphonse apparently established the business of A. Dryfoos & Co., which was listed for the first time in 1886. Two years later, the Warren Street location moved to 150 Chambers Street.
It was at 150 Chambers Street that Dryfoos Blum & Co., was listed for the first time in 1896. The 1897 NYC Trow Business Directory listed them as a “wholesale liquor dealer.” They moved to 42 West Broadway/65 Park Place (northwest corner of West Broadway and Park Place) around 1900 and remained there until the early 1920’s. They are listed in the 1920 Directory but not in 1922, apparently a victim of nationl prohibition.
Dryfoos was also active is applying for patents and two in particular indicate that he had quite the imagination.
1894 – Applied for a patent (serial no 502538) to provide a new and improved composite bottle that was designed to hold a variety of liquids and arranged to permit pouring them individually or two or more at one time to form a mixed drink.
1895 – Applied for a patent (serial no 553608) to provide a decorative bottle design that featured niches and figurines (statues) set within the niches.
The West Broadway/Park Place location is now within the footprint of 75 Park Place, a large office building that takes up the whole block. According to streeteasy.com, 150 Chambers is a 19th Century building built in 1915 so it doesn’t date back to the business either.
The bottle I found is an 8 oz flask with a tooled brandy finish that fits the earlier half of the 1897 to 1922 time period.