old bottles

No picture.

Originally Posted by kcscrapper

can't get it to work what's the title on it?

It's called "OT: Antique bottles? " opened fine for me, it's a thread.

One of the best places to find old bottles is on land that had their own trash pit and burn barrels. Bottle values stated with age of bottle, then condition and glass color. Embossing on glass bottles is more valuable than paper labels, things like special bottle shape raise value (syrup bottle that is shaped like log cabin - big winner). Most collectors look for a specific type of bottle, in fact 70% of most bottle collections are of a specific type . My collection is mostly beer and soda bottles. I have some pretty old fruit jars and medicine bottles. Value as with any type of collection is determined by what an individual wants, needs or desires and is able to pay to have it! Bottle values or way down from what they were in the 80's. Some of the most valuable bottles are old poison and drug bottles, any bottles that has "Cocaine" on it jumps way up in value (our sick minds). Bottles are a part of manufacturing, merchandising and american history. The United States was the leader in the development and use of bottles for products, especially 19th and 20th century, with almost anything and everything available in a bottle.

determining the age of the bottle starts with how the bottle was made. The first bottles were hand "free" blown, having no pontil or mold lines, ending about 1860. Pontil bottom bottles go from 1618 - 1866 and modern hand blown still!. Embossed raised lettering started in 1790 and still used, The three part mold bottles 1806 - 1889. Sheared lip bottles 1800-1830 (first machine use for bottle making). Crown top bottles started in 1895 (just like todays soda & beer bottles). Machine made bottles started in 1903.

Cleaning a old bottle can raise it's value and make it much easier to sell. Improper cleaning can make a bottle worthless! A nick or broken bottle has almost no value to a serious bottle collector. I have a small library on bottle collecting and so so on determining value. My best bottle is one I found on a private high school, we were putting in a new water main. I was watching my backhoe crew whlle they were trenching. I noticed a lot of broken glass on the most recent dirt pile. Stopped the digging, got down into the trench, looked into the dirt, about five feet below the surface, found a old "trash vein". We discovered a old dump site, found relics from the early 1800's. I salvaged a old (about 1840's) hand blown beer bottle. The only artifact I kept, we stopped working for about a week. The school and a museum hand dug that entire dump site finding many artifacts. The delay cost us money, but it was the legal, responsible and the right thing to do.

Post some pictures of your bottles, I'll help you with them or I can direct to the people who can! Don't try to clean them until you find out the proper techniques (very important).

Some more bottle info: The first machine made bottles started in 1903 with the invention of the "Owens" machine in 1903. This was mostly used for "Wide Mouth" jars with few exceptions. By 1906 the Owens machine was producing just about any type of glass bottle or jar. By 1908 there was wide use of other types of bottle making machines and just anything could be sold in a bottle!

1906 is a import year in bottle collecting, dating and for the American consumer. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was passed by Congress (Yea those guys). Because of this act on 1 January 1907 and for the first time labeling was required on all food and medicines. This required markings & labeling on glass bottles and jars (boxes too!) on any food, alcohol or medicine. The makers of these consumer goods now had to disclose of what were the ingredients in their bottles of "Cure All's". In fact the word "Cure" vanished from most labeling after 1907. This was also the birth of Patented medicines and the start of disclosure of harmful substance for consumer protection. Before that anything and everything was sold and consumed by all for better or worse (mostly the later).

Starting in 1907 bottles had labels with defined contents (lots of mislabeling and fraud too). List of ingredients on bottles of food and medicine now included some of the following substances: Alcohol, Morphine, Opium, Cocaine, Heroine, Alpha or Beta Euciane, Chloroform, Cannabis Indica, Chloral Hydrate and Acetanilide. Both Bayer & Eli Lilly corporation sold "Heroin Hydro-chloride" as cold medicines, no harm and no problem the ingredients were now on the label and perfectly legal! Both now highly sought after by bottle collectors and valuable. Lots of harm came in a bottle of medicine or your favorite beverage, with this act bottle collectors have a way of dating old bottles and we now have the FDA.

1914 the wise congressmen (no laddies just good old boys then) required volume quantities on bottles. So if your bottle has pint or qt., or maybe gal. for a gallon. You have a bottle made after 1914, there was few standards for abbreviations, nor industry uniformity and molds were expensive to make and they would wear out so bottle embossing was kept to a minimum. Also remember the government was mandating these requirements. Didn't make companies want to comply then, just like today.

The end of Prohibition in late 1933 became another means of dating some bottles. As a way of discouraging bootleggers, starting on 1 January 1935 congress required every bottle of liquor (not beer or wine) to have the following label: Federal Law Forbids Sale or Reuse of this Bottle. So if you have bottle with this statement, you have a bottle that was made after 1937, that may had your favorite rum or whiskey in it.

There are many ways to date bottles, usually requiring more than one type of identification and being in the know about history, business and passage of laws being very helpful also. I probably have close to a dozen books on this subject and still not nothing close to calling myself a bottle expert. I know I like my beer from a bottle and if that beer bottle is thick glass, more than likely was made before 1941. Then Peal Harbor happened and beer bottle needed to be thinner!

Here is a good bottle link. Dating Page

Hey stinky4291: is that a Schmitt Big Mouth lower right?

I live in a new build community and they continue to dig basements for the houses. I have found a lot of bottles that have "Owens" on the bottom. There is a lot of glass in the dirt that is dug up.