An old wooden box stored in the attic of a Seaside home, and the items found inside it, offer a rare link to Astoria’s most famous family.

The Clatsop County Historical Society recently acquired some unique artifacts courtesy of a California family. They include an authentic beaver-fur top hat and a bottle of “medicinal” whiskey, both found stored in an old wooden packing box from France.

A label inside the box has “P. Flavel” written on it, an apparent reference to Patricia Flavel. That has the staff of the Clatsop County Historical Society wondering whether the hat belonged to Patricia’s grandfather, Capt. George Flavel.

“This is a real find,” said society executive director MacAndrew Burns.

The items came to light recently when Chuck and Scott Quillin, two brothers from California, were showing their family’s Seaside house to staff of Northwind Vacation Rentals, whom the two had hired to manage the property. During the tour, they asked “do you know who the Flavels are?” and showed the Northwind people the collection.

A bottle of whiskey “for medicinal purposes only,” complete with a prescription label made out to N. Flavel was in a wooden box with the top hat.

LORI ASSA – The Daily AstorianThe group included Northwind owner Kent Easom, a member of the historical society board of directors, who certainly knew about Astoria’s most famous family. He immediately got the brothers in touch with Burns and the historical society, and after some discussion the Quillins arranged to loan the items to the society for five years.

The items are a significant addition to the historical society’s Flavel collection, because while it has many items from that era, artifacts directly linked to George Flavel and his descendants are rare finds these days, Burns said.

According to the Quillins, the items were originally found in a house in Beach Lane in Seaside owned by their stepgrandfather. In the 1970s they were brought to another Seaside home owned by their grandmother, and remained there until now.

Scott Quillin told Burns he remembers the bottle of “Mattingly and Moore Old-Fashioned Whiskey” kept on display for years in a curio cabinet, but he wasn’t aware of the hat until his grandmother brought it out one day and showed it to him.

Tracking originsAlmost as much fun as receiving the items has been the process of tracking down their origins, Burns said. In particular, he, curator Liisa Penner and other historical society members are trying to uncover information about the hat, which contains a label identifying its manufacturer as Boyd and Company in San Francisco.

“There are so many different clues,” he said.

One of the more famous portraits of Capt. Flavel shows him in a beaver top hat, but it appears to be shorter than the one from the Seaside house. Burns said he’s no expert on headwear, but given the hat’s style, and its excellent condition and little evidence of wear, he guesses it dates from around 1900, “give or take a decade.” Since George Flavel died in 1893, that would make it more likely that it belonged to his son, also named George.

“I don’t think it’s from the 1860s,” he said. “We would see more wear and tear if it were 150 years old.”

‘For medicinal purposes only’The whiskey was easier to research. The bottle, which carries the warning “for medicinal purposes only” on its label, comes with the original box that has a doctor’s prescription attached to the back. The prescription was filled for Nellie Flavel, Capt. Flavel’s daughter, in 1930 in San Francisco by a Dr. Hull.

Nellie Flavel’s diary indicates she was diagnosed with an inflammation of the lungs a couple of months earlier, Burns said, and she may have obtained the whiskey for that ailment.

The bottle remains about two-thirds full. No one has uncorked it, but there’s a potent aroma still noticeable when the cork is sniffed.

The wooden box is still a mystery, Burns said. A label inside shows it came from a French company, Emile Bertrand, a maker of packing containers. Although the label lists hats as among the items the company packed, Burns isn’t sure the hat originally came in that particular box.

The society is also trying to determine how the items ended up in Seaside. It’s known that members of the Flavel family owned property in the town at one time, and it’s suspected that the Quillin house on Beach Lane was one, possibly owned by Patricia Flavel.

“I’m guessing Patricia Flavel threw the hat and bottle in the box, put it in the attic, and forgot about it,” Burns said.

Once the research is complete, the hat and box will be put on display in the captain’s bedroom in the Flavel House museum, Burns said. The whiskey will also be displayed – but under glass to prevent any curious visitors interested in sampling it, he said.