The early aqua French square druggist bottle pictured in the upper left corner is embossed vertically with SMITH & DAVIS / PORTLAND OREGON and was used by the same company as the round druggist bottle pictured first in the previous section. (See that section for a brief history of the company.) These particular bottles have the thin early style flared finish and much crudeness to the body commensurate with the absence of mold air venting evidence and early manufacture. These bottles were also blown in a cup-bottom mold and do not have pontil scars. This thin, crude style of flared finish almost certainly dates these bottles to no later than about 1870.
Antique Opium Medicine Bottles 2 Aqua 1 Clear Collectible Bottles
The best place to start is with knowledge of production techniques and strategic markings. We’ll teach you how to tell the age of a glass bottle, so you can browse through your next estate sale with confidence. The numbers molded in the base of the bottle also show the type, shape, style, manufacturing date, and factory location dates.
Coca-Cola Bottles
A series of articles by the muckraking Adams, originally published in Collier’s Weekly in 1905 and combined into a book in 1906, viciously but intelligently attacked the gross malfeasance of the patent medicine industry. The outcry and government action taken after the furor catalyzed by the Adams articles led to the passage of the “Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906” and ever increasing government regulation and enforcement in the decades following passage. Classic work on the subject of patent medicines, medicine shows, and the state of medicine in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Cures & Remedies – Medicinal bottles that tout themselves as a cure or remedy were outlawed in the United States under the Sherley Amendment of 1912, which prohibited the libelous use of the word cure in medicinal packaging. In Public History, Megan is fascinated by vintage & antique items.
Note that all machine-produced bottles have their mold seams go completely upward over the bottle’s lip. Whether the manufacturer wanted a uniquely designed bottle https://loveexamined.net/scruff-review/ or desired embossing embellishments, every glass company was happy to oblige. In fact, it was around this time that embossed bottles became very popular.
They have filters such as condition, price, and refinements to help to get the exact one you’re looking for. Antique medicine bottles that have these number sequences are hard to date because it is not easy to find major information about them. However, this doesn’t change the fact that these number sequences give accurate information about it. Many of the more permanent glass containers used by apothecaries…were ornately labeled by painting, enameling, and so forth. The best source of information on this class of medicinal bottles is in Phyllis Shimko’s 1969 book entitled “Sarsaparilla Bottle Encyclopedia” which includes extensive histories on hundreds of different sarsaparilla bottles produced throughout the U.S. .
The bottle displays an enclosed ‘EVERFRESH’ in chevron style above the word ‘MAGNESIA’ and we have found no photos or documentation for this ‘EVERFRESH’ logo or brand anywhere. Instead, any reference to ‘magnesia’ bottles made by Owens include a ‘Citrate of’ and doesn’t match the style or have the ‘EVERFRESH’ letters. Known as Owens Bottle Machine Company beginning in 1903, and based in Toledo, Ohio, the official company name was changed to “Owens Bottle Company” circa 1919. Dean’s bottle was never mass produced — its bottom was smaller than the middle — but with a few tweaks, his design became the bottle we know and love today. Enter Earl R. Dean of the Root Glass Company of Terre Haute, Indiana, who found a sketch of a cocoa pod in a local library and designed a prototype based on that. There are sometimes glasses and labels that come up for sale and are more accessible to collectors.
It also has the other usual machine-made characteristics as covered on the “Machine-made bottles dating” page. The smaller bottle is embossed with LYRIC on the base which was a proprietary name for the Illinois Glass Company’s patented “graduated oval.”The base also has the “I in a flattened diamond” marking for that company and a distinct suction scar. It appears that by far the most popular style of rectangular druggist bottle was the “Blake” style and its variations. The Blake was a standard offered by most glassmakers that produced druggist bottles from the 1880s well into the 1920s and beyond.
This section on patent/proprietary medicine bottles will likely be expanded on in future years to include more categories and more information and examples within the categories. Some good early history and illustrations of early pharmaceutical and patent medicine bottles. All pontil types are possible on early medicinal bottles, though blowpipe and iron pontil scars are the most frequently observed.
This bottle also shares the same general shape and proportions as the bottles pictured here and was available in 19 different sizes ranging from 1/2 to 40 ounces. 1903 catalog – page 26 to view the entire page from this catalog showing all of the round prescription bottles offered by the company in 1903. DR. E. G. GOULD’S / PIN WORM / SYRUP – (Left image.) This is embossed vertically on one side of the bottle which was produced in a two-piece hinge mold and has a crudely rolled finish dating it from around 1865 to 1870. Examples which were most likely produced in the same mold have been observed by the author with blowpipe pontil scars also.
This continues to be an issue with the sheared top wine bottles in use today. To remedy this issue, inventors have developed non-destructive cork-removing implements. I’m not exactly 100% sure of bottle #2’s purpose, but the shape seems to suggest extract. The first and last of the six bottles are wine bottles, and the first is older than the second. Viewers are encouraged, for personal or classroom use, to download limited copies of posted material.
Some manufacturers reproduce glass bottles, and the value of such bottles isn’t high. So, if you will be collecting antique bottles you should avoid such. Another online resource is Bottle Book.It has lots of pictures of various mold lines, machine markings, and pontil marks. It also supplies information about the manufacturer, age, and market value of various bottles. An antique glass specialist is one who is knowledgeable and resourceful about antique bottles and how to identify them. These specialists can give you all the information you need about an old medicine bottle, its origin, use, and its value.
13 years later, both smaller and bigger bottles had notable design changes. The grain texture disappeared from the bottle’s side and remained only on the bottom as well as the shoulder. Several shapes of the bottle were also brought like bulbs as well as other shapes, but the 1960 marked the transition into white polyethylene plastic, which also marked the end of brown glass bottles. AntiqueBottles.com has a wealth of information about pricing and collecting antique glass, including a page of photos of various types of pontil marks and manufacturer marks on the bottoms of bottles. Mold lines – Mold lines and machine marks appear on many antique bottles that were made during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
“Salt-mouth” was a term used by glassmakers for the wide bore shop furniture – which were usually used for the more solid materials, with the narrow bore versions for liquids called “tincture” bottles. Both terms – salt-mouth and tincture – in reference to shop furniture date back to the 18th century England (Whitall Tatum & Co. 1924; Griffenhagen & Bogard 1999). Later examples of all shapes of druggist bottles made by machines can have cork accepting prescription finishes and by the mid-1920s, external continuous screw threads.
