04/18/2026
There’s something about great barware. It changes the whole ritual.
A tapered old fashioned glass with a heavy base. Old-school proportions. A custom leather cuff. Good whiskey. A slower pace.
And then there’s the artwork.
The Bobwhite Quail and Mallard you see here come from original pen-and-ink drawings by C.E. Monroe, one of the great American sporting artists and illustrators of the mid-20th century. A Huntsville native, Monroe studied at Pratt in New York and spent much of his career in the artist colony of Bridgewater, Connecticut. His work appeared in Field & Stream, Life, Collier’s, Progressive Farmer, and more. At one point, he appeared on the covers of five national magazines in the same month.
Later, after returning to North Alabama, he became a dear friend and a kind of grandfather figure to me. In 1994, when we published our first Sportsman’s Den Catalogue, he generously gave me his blessing to help bring his work back into the world of sporting art.
These leather pieces feature two of his original drawings that had never been published.
So when you pour your favorite whiskey and take a sip, perhaps it carries you back a bit—to wild coveys rising, mallards flushing from southern swamps, and the kind of memories that only get better with age.
And yes… it just might make the whiskey taste better. Try Mersey Spirits, we private labeled our own single barrel for our customers! Cheers! 🍹
Barware
