Machine Made Dating
Bottle Dating
Machine-made bottles portion
the Dating Key
: Machine-made bottles
MACHINE-MADE BOTTLES
General Machine-made Diagnostic Features:&
Machine-made bottles will exhibit most or all of the diagnostic
characteristics explained and illustrated below.& (This summary is largely an amalgam of Toulouse 1969b;
Miller & Sullivan 1981; Jones & Sullivan 1989; Boow 1991; Cable 1999; Miller & McNichol 2002;
Miller & Morin 2004; empirical observations.)& It should be noted
that features #1, #3, #4, #5, and #6 are primary indicators of machine-made
manufacture.& Feature #2 (mold seam diameter) is not as strongly
diagnostic as the primary indicators as mouth-blown bottles sometimes can have very
fine mold seams.& Feature #7 describes a couple glass related features
that are quite consistent in machine-made bottles, but not diagnostic, i.e.,
mouth-blown bottles may sometimes have few/no bubbles in the glass and even
thickness:
on the machine-made beer bottle picture above to see an illustration of
this bottle showing the major diagnostic characteristics of a typical
machine produced bottle.
1.& Vertical side mold seams which usually
(see the Note box below point #3 for an exception) run up
to the highest point of the finish and often onto the extreme top finish surface (i.e.,
or lip).& On many early (very early 1900s into the 1920s) and
occasional later (1930s and later) machine-made bottles the vertical
body/neck and
seams are discontinuous and of click
for a picture of this attribute.& These vertical seams
- finish mold seams vis-à-vis the upper neck mold seams - may range from
slightly offset to 90 degrees offset (like shown at the
linked image above).& This
is a function of the orientation of the
relative to the two (
) molds used on the particular
machine.& There are also no
horizontal tooling marks present on the finish and/or upper neck as would be
observable on the finish of mouth-blown bottles.
2. The side mold seams on most machine-made
bottles tend to be finer (narrower and lower) -& though sometimes
sharper and/or visually distinct
than mouth-blown bottle mold
seams although many mouth-blown bottles have
very thick and distinct seams due to less precise mold construction or
fitting.& The statement about machine-made bottles may seem
contradictory (finer but more visually distinct) but is a function of the
higher machine blowing pressure.& Earlier machine-made bottles
(s) tend to have somewhat thicker/higher mold seams than later
machine-made bottles due to the increasing precision in mold machining and
machinery in general as time progressed.& Most machine-made bottles
have mold seams about the thickness of a hair
while most visible mouth-blown mold seams tend to be several times as thick,
higher, but more rounded.& (Mold seam thickness and how high it
protrudes [height] is of only moderate use in telling a machine-made bottle
from a mouth-blown bottle, though if a bottle fragment has a hair fine mold
seam, it is highly likely to be from a machine-made bottle.)
3. There are at least two additional finish related mold seams
- one at the top of
the finish which encircles either the bore or sometimes the outside of
the upper lip portion of the finish (sometimes both of these seams
are present) and a horizontal seam
immediately below the finish which circles the extreme upper neck (called a &neck ring
parting line&).& Click on the picture to the left to view an
illustration which shows both of these seams or click
to view an image which shows well the seam below the
finish.& Both seams are quite diagnostic of machine manufacture and are
usually visible, though the seam at the top of the finish can be hard to see
on some bottles - especially if the finish was
.& In the glassmaking trade, these seams along with the
side mold seams within the finish or just below are referred to as &neck ring&
or &neckring& seams since they
were formed by the separate
portion of a machine mold (Tooley
There are a few machine-made bottle types (milk and small ink bottles)
or post-production processes (fire polishing) which exhibit
mold seams in the finish/upper neck that deviate from the descriptions in
points #1 and/or #3 these bottles may appear to
be of mouth-blown manufacture.& These deviations are discussed on
the main Bottle Dating page in a box under
Question #2.& Click
to view this discussion.
4.& &Ghost& seams are usually present on the neck,
shoulder, and/or body of the bottle
if made by a
machine (like the Owens Automatic Bottle Machine).&
These are faint, somewhat wandering, hairline seams which if present
(usually) are sporadically visible on the sides of machine-made bottles.&
The ghost seams are caused by the parison mold parts and if visible enough will be
&attached& to the vertical seams in the finish.& Click on
to view a close-up explanatory picture of this attribute.&
Be aware that bottles and jars made by early to mid-20th century
machines do not usually have ghost seams, since the
parison mold was usually one-piece, but will
typically have a
on the base
(see #6 below).
5.& A suction scar is present on the base of Owens Automatic
Bottle Machine produced
bottles.& This distinctive base scar is easier to illustrate than
for a picture of a typical scar which exhibits the
diagnostic &feathering& that surely indicates Owens machine production
(same image is below left).&
This mark is distinctive to the suction process which feeds glass into the
bottom of an Owens machine's parison mold.& (Note: A movie clip showing
this process in action is linked at the bottom of this box.)& Suction
scars can not be produced by
feed and flow automatic machines (i.e. &gob feeders&) though a similar type
mark without the feathering is induced by the parison/blank mold of most
machines - including up to the present day.&
machines usually have a round valve mark on the base but lack either the suction
or parison scars.& In any event, the suction scar is never
found on mouth-blown bottles though suction scars are sometimes referred to as a
by the unfamiliar.& See the machine-made section of the
page for more information on these scars.& (Note:&
It is likely that other types of suction based automatic bottle machines
made in Europe in the 1920s - and possibly later - also produced a suction
scar on the base of their products [Pearson 1928].& However, a large
majority of bottles in the U. S. with distinct suction scars were likely
Owens machine produced.)
6. The presence of a circular
on the base of a bottle (typically a wide mouth bottle or jar) is sure
evidence of machine-made manufacture by a
machine.& This is discussed further as
7.& Machine-made bottles tend to have few if any bubbles in the
glass and the thickness of the glass is usually more uniform throughout the
bottle as compared to mouth-blown bottles.& This is especially true of
later machine made bottles, i.e. from the late 1920s on.& (Note: The
presence or absence of bubbles in the glass and relatively even distribution
of the glass throughout the characteristic is not a primary feature of
either machine-made or mouth-blown bottles, though there are strong trends
(For more details about the production of
machine-made bottles visit the machine-made bottles section of the
these Diagnostic Features Indicate:& Bottles with all the noted
primary machine-made characteristics (#1, #3-#5) including the
suction scar on the base (point #5 above and picture to the left) can date no earlier than
1905 and are usually post-1910.& Though patented and first used
to a limited degree in 1903, the first Owens Automatic Bottle Machine
licenses were granted to other manufacturers in late 1904 making 1905 the
effective &beginning& (i.e., terminus post quem) date for bottles with all of the above listed machine
made diagnostic characteristics (Miller & McNichol 2002).& Bottles
which have all the primary characteristics noted above (#1, #3, #4)
without the suction scar (#5) were produced by non-Owens automatic or semi-automatic
machines and are somewhat harder to precisely date, though the vast majority
post-date 1905 also.&
Narrow neck press-and-blow machine?
It should be noted that one fairly early
press-and-blow semi-automatic machine was designed to produce
narrow bore bottles.& It was noted in 1910 that the
Cumberland Glass Company (Bridgeton, NJ) had &...succeeded in
perfecting a machine that will satisfactorily produce narrow neck
bottles, such as catsups, beer bottles, etc., at a big saving over the
hand method.&
The method used was unusual and may have been
unique in bottle-making history:& &The machine differs from
all others, and in getting the neck upon the bottle, the vessel is
made in two sections, the neck being put upon the bowl with a second
operation. This is accomplished so that there is no perceptible mark
upon the bottle showing the joint, and the bottle stands every
possible test as to strength. The machine is operated much as all
pressing machines are...& (National Glass Budget 1910; Lockhart pers.
comm. 2007).&
Although products of this machine are not
conclusively known a bottle such as the one at this link -
- may well be a product of the
described machine as there is a distinct and abrupt interface edge at
the shoulder where the mold seams for both the body and neck end and
are offset.& This little bottle has a moderately narrow neck and
a distinct
on the base indicating press-and-blow
machine manufacture.& Added evidence to this theory is that an
identical shape and size (2 oz.) &Round Shoe Polish& bottle is shown
in the &Machine Made Ware& section of Cumberland's 1911 catalog
(Cumberland Glass 1911).
More specifically, non-Owens machine-made bottles with narrow
necks (similar to the amber beer bottle pictured earlier) will always date
after 1908 (and typically after 1910) regardless of what type machine they
were produced on since the first blow-and-blow semi-automatic machines capable of
producing narrow necked bottles (copied after English machines invented
somewhat earlier) were first made or used at that time in the U.S. (Boow
1991; Cable 1999).&
Very few narrow neck bottles made on the Owens machines will pre-date that
time also.& Bottles or jars with wide mouths
(like the jar pictured under Question #15 below) may occasionally pre-date
1905, to as early as about 1893, since semi-automatic press-and-blow
machines were being used to some degree by the mid-1890s.& (The first
production bottles known to have been made on semi-automatic machines were
wide mouth Vaseline bottles made by the C. L. Flaccus Glass Co.
[Beaver Falls, PA.] in 1894 [Lockhart et al. 2007d].)& It is thought that
probably all pre-1905 semi-automatic bottle machine production in the U.S. was relegated to wide-mouth bottles/jars due to limitations of
the press-and-blow machines at that time&(Toulouse 1967; Miller & Sullivan 1981;
Jones & Sullivan 1989; Cable 1999; Miller & McNichol 2002; Lockhart pers. comm. 2003).&&
1908 photo below is from the Lewis Hine collection (Library of
Congress) and shows an early, probably O'Neill (Barrett 2011) semi-automatic
4 mold milk bottle (which have relatively wide mouths) machine which came with the following caption:& &Machine
that blows 4 milk bottles at a
time. No &lung blowers& employed.
Travis Glass Co., Clarksburg W.
Va. Manager says machines are fast coming into play in bottle industry,
plans eventually to have machines in place of &carrying in boys.& Location:
Clarksburg, West Virginia& (Library of Congress).& This two
table semi-automatic machine would have been hand fed with glass (furnace
likely to the right) and does
have the two different mold sets with the parison molds (where the first
&press& part of the cycle took place) the set on the right.& Blowing air would have
been supplied by the hose visible at the top of the set of blow molds to the left,
where the final &blow& part of the cycle took place.
This image
(click to enlarge) also shows that on many early press-and-blow machines the
parison mold was one-piece (note absence of mold hinges) as the narrow
non-inflated parison
could be removed from either the base or finish mold end (depending on the
type machine) whereas the blow mold had to be two-piece (hinges obvious) to
remove the expanded and finished bottle if there was any narrowing from the
body to the neck/finish (like a typical
would have).
A review of Illinois Glass Company
catalogs from the early 1900s shows that wide mouth bottles apparently made
by semi-automatic &Machine Made& methods first appear in the 1906 catalog
and were not present (or at least specifically noted)& in catalogs before that time.&
Illinois Glass Company was one of the largest glassmakers of the time it is
reasonable to assume that semi-automatic machines producing wide mouth bottles/jars
became common throughout most of the glass industry about that same time.& This allows for a high probability begin date of around
1900 to 1905 for most wide mouth, machine-made bottles and jars (Illinois
Glass Company , 1908).& However, since the products of
automatic and semi-automatic non-Owens machines date from the same era as
the Owens machine and are largely indistinguishable, they are all considered
together on this machine-made bottle dating page.
Mouth-blown to Machine-made Transition Era:&
The transition from mouth-blown to machine-made bottles was a fairly long and
circuitous road.& There were numerous reasons why machines were not
immediately accepted - some of which follow (taken primarily from Toulouse
a & 1971):
- The expense of licensing and acquiring an
automatic bottle machine was quite high, pricing most smaller glassmakers
out of the market.& Between 1905 and about 1914 or 1915, the only
fully automatic machine was the Owens Automatic Bottle Machine and until
the late 1910s they were granting exclusive licenses for various categories
of bottles.& In about 1915, reliable gob-feeders became available which
converted most types of semi-automatic machines to fully automatic at a
lower cost than the Owens Machines.
- Many of the glass companies that did acquire fully automatic bottle
machines retained hand operations for smaller or specialty orders for quite
some time.& For instance the Carr-Lowery Glass Company (Baltimore, MD)
began automatic bottle making in 1915, but retained some hand-blowing
operations until at least 1971 when Dr. Toulouse published
Bottle Makers and Their Marks!
- Worker opposition to machines delayed their introduction in many glass
operations.& In one glass factory a wall had to be erected between the
hand operations and the newly installed machine to prevent sabotage.&
In another instance, worker opposition was so strong that the machine
operations were abandoned!
Regardless
of the obstacles, the proportion of machine-made to hand-blown bottles
increased dramatically after 1905 so that by 1917 no more than about 10% of the bottles
and jars produced in the U.S. were mouth or hand- 90+% were produced by
automatic and semi-automatic methods and would exhibit typical machine-made
characteristics.& The total number of bottles produced in the United
States also dramatically rises from 7,777,000 gross in 1899 (all
mouth-blown) to 24,000,000 gross in 1917, most of which were machine made
(Barnett 1926; Miller & Sullivan 1981).& These numbers help to
determine general dating break probabilities for both machine-made and
mouth-blown bottles.& For example, given the incredible quantities of
bottles produced by machines after 1917 through the mid-20th century, a
bottle with machine-made characteristics - especially with a narrow
neck/mouth -& is highly likely to have been made
later than the mid-1910s.& Likewise, the probability that a bottle
exhibiting mouth-blown (hand-made) diagnostic features dating prior to the
mid-1910s is very high and after the 1920s is very low, though not
impossible as noted above.
The link below allows a user to view an amazing short
movie clip that shows two different early Owens Automatic Bottle Machines in operation.& The first
machine is the &Machine #5& which the film clip script notes as having been
made in 1906 in Toledo, Ohio.& This was apparently the earliest of the
viable commercial machines, and in fact, the clip was made to help promote
and sell the machine to potential buyers.& The first person shown
operating Machine #5 is Emil Bock, a
mechanical genius who worked with Michael Owens from the &bicycle pump&
early machine experimentation days (1890s) and transformed Mike's ideas into
workable steel machines.& Michael Owens is the second person shown
picking up and examining a couple beer bottles.& This clip is also
reported to be the only movie ever made showing Michael Owens who was
reputed to be &camera shy.&& The last half of the clip shows
a much larger, 15 head &AQ& machine in operation at an Owens-Illinois
plant in 1959 (Walbridge 1920;
Owens-Illinois Co. 1959; Perry pers. comm. 2007).& Of particular note,
the 1959 portion of the clip shows& the sucking up and cutting off of
the glass from the continuous tank by the parison or blank mold.&
Towards the end it also shows the shift of the parison from the
parison/blank mold to the blow mold.& Film clip is compliments of the
Owens-Illinois Glass Company. (Many thanks to Phil Perry - a senior engineer with
that company - who graciously provided this clip.)&
Machine-made Bottle Dating
As with mouth-blown bottles, more precise dating
of a machine-made bottle can be done with some confidence by using one or more
of the various diagnostic features outlined in the questions on this page.& Unlike the
first portions of the Dating key (Questions #1 through #3 on the main
#4 through #7 on the
), each question on
this page is an independent dating tool for which the response is not
predicated on the outcome of any of the other questions.&
Thus, these questions do not have to be viewed in order.&
The question numbers on this page continue where they left off on the
mouth-blown bottle portion of the key.
:& Is the bottle glass color aqua (aquamarine or very light green), essentially
colorless (clear), or a color other than colorless or aqua?
:& Are there &bubbles& present in the glass?& If so, how
many and what size/shape?
Does the bottle have the following statement embossed on its side or on the
base?& FEDERAL LAW FORBIDS SALE OR REUSE OF THIS BOTTLE
:& Does the bottle base have similar markings to those on the
bottle pictured? (These markings are those of the Owens-Illinois Glass
Does the bottle have a finish (lip) that was sealed with
a cork, sealed with an externally threaded screw cap, or sealed with some other type closure?
& Does the bottle have what appears to be a painted or
enameled label, lettering, and/or decoration?&
:& Does the bottle have a shallowly incised circle on the
base that is (usually) between 1/3& to 3/4& (10-18mm) in diameter?
:& Does the bottle have a narrow mouth (bore/finish) or does it have a wide
mouth (bore/finish)?
:& Does the bottle have embossed (or labeled) contents or volume capacity
information?
Does all or a portion of the bottle base have a textured pattern, i.e.,
stippling or knurling?
Does the bottle have any type
of glass/bottle makers markings embossed on the base (typically) or body
(occasionally)?
Read through each of the questions to see
which have pertinence to the bottle you wish to date.& Hyperlink to other web pages that are suggested
in each question for added information and then read the
summary statement at the end of this page which will give some suggestions on where
on this website a user could or should proceed to.& Keep track of the
specific diagnostic feature date ranges listed in each question you consult, and once to the end of the page, use
that information to ascertain the likely production date range of your bottle.& See dating examples #1, #4, & #5 on the
page for guidance.
As explained previously above, be aware that the 1905 &earliest& date used
in the questions is not absolute.& There were some wide mouth,
semi-automatic machine produced bottles (albeit a very low percentage) which
had machine-made characteristics (minus a
suction scar) than can date back as early as the mid-1890s.&
Lets begin with
Question #8
right below...
QUESTION #8: Is the bottle glass color:
&&& A. Aqua (aquamarine or very pale green);
&&& B. Essentially colorless (clear); or
&&& C. A color other than colorless or aqua?
The color of the glass in a machine-made bottle can, to a limited
degree, be useful in dating.& (As with all of the dating points on this
page, color must be considered in conjunction with other diagnostic
characteristics in arriving at a probable date or date range for any given
bottle - the &preponderance of evidence& concept.)& With the increasing dominance of the
automatic bottle machine in the 1910s and on, bottle shapes, sizes, and colors became more and
more standardized and uniform, i.e. much less variety.& Glass making technology progressed so
that colorless (aka &clear&) glass became much cheaper to produce and displaced aqua as the
dominant bottle glass color for containers where being able to see the products
natural color was an important consideration.& An assortment of other colors were
still common - particularly
and to some degree,
- but the range of common colors present in
machine-made bottles was restricted compared to bottles produced in the
19th century.& See the
page for more information on this fascinating
Bottle made from manganese dioxide decolorized glass exhibiting
a slight lavender cast in the thick portions of the glass.& Small utility
bottle - ca. .
Bottle made from arsenic and/or
selenium decolorized glass exhibiting a
slight &straw& color cast in the thick portions of the glass - Beverage
bottle - ca. .
A. Bottle made of aqua glass
-& A machine-made bottle made of aqua
glass - which is not a
- is most likely to date from or
prior to the 1920s.&
to view a picture of an aqua medicinal from the
era.& (The
bottle pictured in Question #9 below with a plethora of bubbles in the glass
would be considered a particular deep shade of aqua.)& The amount of
aqua glass bottles produced declines throughout this period so that by the
mid to late 1920s the dominant colors for machine-made bottles (excluding
soda bottles and canning jars) is colorless or amber.& Aqua
pretty much disappears by the early 1930s as a bottle color with the
notable exception of soda bottles (and many canning jars) which continued to be produced in various
shades of aqua up until recent years (Miller & McNichol ; empirical
observations).& Royal Crown Cola, Dr. Pepper
greenish aqua), and
Coca-Cola (&Georgia Green&) are familiar examples of late
era aqua bottles
(Toulouse 1971).&
For more information on this color, click
its description on the Bottle Colors page.
B. Bottle is of largely colorless
(aka &clear&) glass
Machine-made
bottles with colorless glass can date from any time after 1905, though there
is a relatively reliable dating break possible based on the type of
colorless glass.& In the production of colorless glass numerous methods
- mechanical, physical, and/or chemical - were used to decolorize glass
(Tooley 1953).& Decolorizing is in essence neutralizing the effects of
the iron and carbonaceous impurities in the glass mix in order to obtain as
colorless of glass as possible.& The primary physical (masking) agents used in the
first half of the 20th century were manganese dioxide, selenium, and
arsenic.& All potentially leave a very slight residual color to the glass that is
usually visible when looking closely at the thickest
portion of the base
or sides.& For more information
to go to that section of the Bottle Colors page.
Manganese dioxide causes the glass to
have a very slight lavender or amethyst tint which is amplified
to varying degrees with exposure to sunlight (or artificial radiation).& Manganese oxide was found to
be difficult to work with - particularly in the open
glass furnaces used for the Owens Automatic Bottle Machine - and was
eventually
overshadowed by selenium and arsenic for decolorizing (Miller & Pacey 1985).& When
selenium or arsenic (or a combination of the two) is
used to decolorize glass, it often leaves a
very faint &straw& cast to the thick glass portions which is not
affected or intensified by sunlight.& (Note: It has been thought for
many years that selenium produced the &straw& cast to otherwise colorless
and almost exclusively - machine-made bottles.& However, it is now
thought to be a function of using arsenic - probably in tandem with selenium
- as the decolorizer [Tooley 1953; Lockhart pers. comm.
2003].)& The following dating refinements are possible with colorless
machine-made bottles:
1. The large majority of machine-made bottles
with a slight to moderate lavender or amethyst tint - indicating
manganese oxide was used as the decolorizer - date between 1905 and the early 1920s
(top click
for a picture of this entire bottle)
though some can date as late as the 1930s.& Machine-made
were generally
not decolorized with manganese after 1914 (Lockhart 2006a).
2. The large majority of machine-made bottles with a pale &straw& color tint
(bottom picture above right) - indicating
selenium and/or arsenic use as a decolorizer - will date no earlier than 1912
(Lockhart 2006a & b).& Based on empirical
observations, one or both of these decolorizers are still in use today
although after the 1960s other decolorizing agents and glass producing
processes were used resulting in less abundant &straw& tinted bottles.
C. Bottle made of some other color of
If the bottle has
some other glass color no useful general dating information is possible.& However,
some bottle-type specific dating refinement is possible based on specific glass
colors for both machine-made and mouth-&see the
pages for more information.&& Move to the other questions below for more dating opportunities.
QUESTION #9:&
Are there &bubbles& present in the glass?& If so, how
many and what size and shape?
Bubbles in the shoulder glass of a
bottle.& This is an extreme example of the number of bubbles to be
found in a bottle.& Click on the picture to see more of this bottle,&
which is one of the many exceptions in the use of bubbles (and several
other diagnostic features) to date an item.& This is a Mexican made liquor
bottle intended for the U.S. market - ca. mid-20th century.
&Bubbles& are air or gas filled cavities
within the glass.& The image to the left is a close-up of a bottle with
bubbles in atypically high quantity for illustrative purposes.& Bubbles are caused by an
assortment of irregularities in the production process including a glass pot
or tank that was too hot or not full enough, glass cut-off or shearing
irregularities, and various gob feeder problems.& In the glass making
industry, small bubbles were referred to as &seeds& and
larger bubbles as &blisters& (Tooley 1953).&& Similar to the color
question above, the presence of bubbles in the glass can help some in
pinning down the date of a machine bottle, but must be used in conjunction
with other features to more confidently narrow down a date range as it is not conclusive by
Some authors - most notably Jones &
Sullivan (1989) - believe that &the number and size of bubbles has
absolutely no connection with the age of the glass.&& This appears quite true of mouth-blown bottles, though empirical evidence
suggests some dating trends with regards to machine-made
bottles.& More specifically, there appears to have been an increase in
the homogeneity and uniformity of glass as the technological advances of the
machine era proceeded.& However, this feature is still a tenuous one
since there are many early machine-made bottles with few or no bubbles.& Conversely, machine-made
bottles after the 1920s which have numerous and/or large bubbles exist but are rare
(Girade 1989; Lockhart pers. comm. 2003).& See the
for more information on bubbles.
As a general rule of thumb, earlier machine-made
bottles and jars (i.e., 1905 to 1910 [mid-1890s for wide mouth ware] through the 1920s)
will have more and larger bubbles than later machine-made bottles (early
1930s and later) when bubbles in the glass became a much rarer occurrence
due to ever more refined glassmaking technology.& Larger bubbles (~1/8&
and larger) and/or numerous bubbles of all sizes are more prevalent in
bottles manufactured during the early machine period - 1890s (wide mouth
ware) to early 1920s.& The absence of bubbles or
presence of only a very few small &seed& bubbles (less than a pin-head in size) or
very narrow &V& shaped bubbles, denotes
a bottle that is more likely to date from or after the 1930s.&&
(The &V& shaped bubbles are discussed on the
If one takes a look at glass bottles found in
supermarkets today they would be hard pressed to find even one bubble in all
the bottles looked at combined as technology has all but eradicated this
flaw in glassmaking.
QUESTION #10:&
Does the bottle have the following statement embossed on its side or
on the base?
FEDERAL LAW FORBIDS SALE OR
REUSE OF THIS BOTTLE
FEDERAL LAW FORBIDS SALE OR
RE-USE OF THIS BOTTLE inscription on the shoulder of a machine-made
pint liquor flask manufactured in 1956 by the Owens-Illinois Glass
Company.& This embossing was legally required on all liquor bottles sold in
the U.S. between 1935 and 1964.
In the U.S., National
Prohibition was repealed in late 1933 and was subsequently followed by the
passage of Federal laws prohibiting the reuse or sale of used liquor bottles.&
This requirement was intended to discourage the re-use of bottles by bootleggers
and moonshiners, though the biggest discouragement to that illicit activity was
that liquor was now legally available.& On January 1st, 1935 all liquor sold in the United
States was required to be in bottles that had the above statement embossed in
the glass (Busch 1981).& The statement was not required on wine or beer bottles,
the latter category which was - and to some degree still is - bottled in
re-useable bottles.&
If your bottle has this statement
embossed in the glass, it is a machine-made liquor bottle that dates between 1935 and the
mid-1960s.& This inscription is found only on machine-made bottles, with
the rare exception of some Mexican-made (for the U. S. market) bottle being
mouth-blown during that era.
In 1964, the law requiring
this statement was repealed.& Be aware however that for some years after
1964, liquor could still be found in bottles with this phrase since not all
liquor producers switched immediately to new bottles due to the expense of new
molds or to deplete an existing supply of bottles (Ferraro 1966)& Click
to view a picture of the base of a liquor bottle which
has the reuse prohibition embossing though was made well after (10 years) the
regulations requiring the statement were eliminated.& The linked bottle was
made by the Thatcher Glass Manufacturing Company (Elmira, NY.) and has a
date code for 1974.& The company used the stylized &TMC& mark from 1949 to
1985 (Toulouse 1971; Giarde 1989; Whitten 2005).
If your machine-made bottle does
this phrase embossed in the glass it is probably either not a spirits or liquor bottle,
made outside the era the statement was required, or the bottle was originally
sold outside the U.S.&
If you know the bottle is a U. S. made/sold spirits bottle (i.e. distinctly a
shape or design or it has other conclusive features like brand embossing or
labeling) it
could date prior to 1935, though is more likely to be a post-1964 product.&
A pre-1935 date is possible since some spirits - particularly whiskey and brandy -
were available to a limited degree by prescription through pharmacists to be used &for
medicinal purposes only.&& Most pre-Prohibition (pre-1920) liquor/spirits bottles
exhibit mouth-blown manufacturing characteristics, i.e., they are uncommonly machine-made.& This is because Prohibition occurred individually in most states between 1912 and 1918, with
National Prohibition finally passed in 1919 and effective in early 1920.& This
time span was the peak changeover from hand to automated bottle production methods.& Visit the
liquor bottle section of the
page for more information on spirits
NOTE: Some references and many
people believe that there are liquor bottles embossed with FEDERAL LAW
PROHIBITS SALE OR RE-USE OF THIS BOTTLE, i.e., PROHIBITS instead of
the word FORBIDS (Ferraro 1966).& No PROHIBITS bottles have
ever been observed by the author or other consultants to this website and it is
believed to be a myth, though the author would welcome conclusive proof (an
image) that PROHIBITS was indeed used in this context.
Note about a potential related
dating refinement.
After National Prohibition ended (1933) various regulations were
implemented in regards to the bottling of liquor/spirits, e.g., the
required embossing noted above.& Another requirement was specific
liquor bottle permit numbers assigned to individual glass companies and
specific factories which were authorized by the Federal Government to
produce liquor bottles.& These numbers were embossed on the base of
many (maybe all?) liquor bottles produced in the U. S. during the mid-20th
century and can be a useful tool for determining who made the bottle.&
A listing of these permit numbers by glass company/plant can be found at
this link:&
& (This listing courtesy of
Russ Hoenig, Owens-Illinois Glass Co. [retired].)& This can often
lead to enhanced dating refinement of mid-20th century liquor bottle
depending on the current information available for the glass maker.&
See this websites makers marking page at this link -
articles on scores of glass companies.&
QUESTION #11:&
Does the bottle base have similar markings to those on the
bottle pictured below?
This picture shows the &Diamond
O-I& makers mark inside the white box (click to enlarge).& Pictured
is a beer bottle made at the Owens-Illinois Glass Co. plant in
Oakland, CA. in 1941.
Bottles with the highlighted mark in the image date
between 1930 and the mid-1950s (with some limited use of this mark until at
least 1959).
The &Diamond O-I& makers mark of the Owens-Illinois
Glass Co. is shown in the picture within the white box (click to
enlarge).& This mark is also called the &Saturn& mark by some due to
its stylized resemblance.& (Note: The &O& in the Diamond O-I marking is
actually a vertically elongated oval, although referred to here as an &O& for
simplicity.)& This makers mark is very common on bottles made
during the
to mid-1950s period as the company was (and still is) a
dominant force in the bottle production world at that time (Toulouse 1971;
Lockhart 2004d).&
The various Owens-Illinois markings provide an
opportunity to also identify which plant made the bottle and in what year.&
Specifically for the pictured
bottle, the script
marking and the stippling
(molded &roughness&) around the
outside edge of the base were both used first in 1940, so this bottle can date no
earlier than that.& The &1& to the right of Diamond O-I mark is the year
code and in this case obviously can not be earlier than 1941 (i.e., not
1931) because of the
Duraglas embossing and stippling.& In the early 1940s, realizing that
single digit date codes were repeating (e.g., &0& could be 1930 or 1940),
caused the company to add a period after the single digit on some bottle
types - primarily soda bottles (not beer
bottles) - from about that time to the mid-1940s.& At that point two digit year
codes (e.g., &46& for 1946) were used o in particular, beer, soda and milk bottles.&
Unfortunately, the use of the one and two digit date codes was
inconsistently used by different plants and mold makers so this is not a
certain rule for dating.&
For example,
the illustrated bottle was highly likely to have been made in 1941& since
one made in 1951 would likely have a date code of &51.&& The &20& to the
left of the Diamond O-I mark is the code for the Oakland, CA. plant* which
began operations in 1936 and is still in operation today - so knowing the
factory is of no use in pinning down the manufacturing date.&
Similarly, the bottle is paper labeled as having been used by the Columbia Brewing Inc. (Tacoma, WA.)
who did business under that name from 1934 to 1953 when it became the
Heidelberg Brewing Co.&(Van Wieren 1995).& Once again though, this
bit of information does not help pin down the date.& The clincher for
the 1941 date is the heavier (thicker) glass that this particular bottle was
made with identifying it as having been made just prior to the wartime
reduction in the amount of glass used for many bottle types as a
conservation effort during WWII.& This bottle is also an example of how even with
the relatively ample amount of information Owens-Illinois bottle bases
provide, one may still need to rely on more than one piece of data (e.g., plant
brewery dates of operation/business) to ensure a reliable manufacturing date
determination (Toulouse 1971; Lockhart 2004d; Phil Perry, O-I engineer pers.
comm. 2007; Lockhart pers. comm. ).& (More on this bottle is
found on the
1954 and about 1959 the Owens-Illinois Glass Co. changed the Diamond O-I marking
to a simpler &I in an O& mark (same basic mark minus the elongated diamond)
although the time of this change varied through the noted period depending
on the specific plant, mold life, and possibly bottle type.& The base
image to the right is of this newer mark on a bottle made at plant #21
(Portland, OR.) in 1960 - the first year of operation for the Portland plant
(Toulouse 1971; Girade 1989; Lockhart 2004d)*.& Date codes with this
later mark (still in use today) are variable with both single and double
digit codes (like in the image) observed, though recently made beer bottles
(1990s and later) seem to consistently have two digit codes (empirical
observations).&
For a discussion of the Duraglas marking -
shown on the amber beer bottle base above - see
below.& For more information on Owens-Illinois marks, see Bill Lockhart's
Bottles and Extras article reproduced at the following link (pdf file):
(Lockhart 2004d).
*A listing of the specific
numbers associated with the dozens of different Owens-Illinois Glass
Company plants from 1929 to the present is available on this website
at the following link:&
This table is a useful addendum to Bill Lockhart's 2004 Owens-Illinois
Glass Co. article linked above.
When present, bottle makers marks can be an excellent tool for
helping with the dating of historic bottles.& Since
there were so many different makers markings on both mouth-blown and
machine-made bottles, they are not covered in this
key.& Makers marks are discussed more on the
The top illustration
shows a cork finish (i.e. cork accepting) on a prescription druggist bottle.& The bottom
illustration shows the same type bottle with a screw thread finish
with the metal cap on.& Illustrations from a 1928 Owens
Bottle Company &Want Book and Catalog of Owens Bottles...for
Druggists&.& This catalog shows the availability of both
closure types from the same manufacturer in the late 1920s with the note
that the screw caps are &...growing more popular every day.&&
The company (now named Owens-Illinois Glass Co.) still offered cork
finishes on prescription bottles at least until 1935, though much
diminished in importance in their catalogs.
QUESTION #12:
&Does the bottle have a finish (lip) that was:
&&& A. Sealed with
&&& B. Sealed with an externall or
&&& C. Sealed with some other type closure?
The cork finish versus screw-thread finish can be
in dating machine-made bottles but only allows for a moderately accurate dating break
which to a large degree is bottle type specific.& Cork is still
commonly used for sealing bottles containing wine and champagne,
occasional liquor/spirits bottles, and rarely
some specialty food product bottles.&
The utility here for dating is that
certain types of bottles made the transition from cork accepting to
screw-thread finishes during the mid-1920s through the 1930s; see 1928 illustrations to the right.& The bottle types that
made the switch
during this era are the majority of medicinals, food, most
liquor/ and some non-alcoholic,
non-carbonated
beverage bottles.& (If the type bottle you have is in doubt as to its
likely use, visit the
page for identification information.)
External (continuous) screw threads on
a Heinz(TM) catsup bottle produced by the Illinois Pacific Glass Company (San
Francisco, CA.) - ca. .
External screw-threads were first used
during the mid-19th century though almost exclusively on
canning jars including the famous Mason's &1858& jar.& By the 1890s and
early 1900s
external screw-threads were being used occasionally on mouth-blown liquor/spirits
bottles & flasks, some commercial food bottles, ink bottles, and other
bottle types more rarely.& The use of screw threads was still limited
by the lack of precision in hand production processes.& These older external
screw thread bottles would likely have keyed out as mouth-blown in
because of the ground lip
surface present on most mouth-blown external screw-thread bottles.
External screw threads became more
common as fully automatic bottle machines dominated over hand production
methods, since machines produced
much more uniform and precise finish dimensions allowing for standardized
External screw-threads came to dominate closure types by the Depression
(1930s), except on soda and beer bottles.& For more information go to
page and/or the
page, both of
which provide much more information on this complex subject
including the distinctly different types of screw threads.
A. Cork style finish - The
bottle you have has a finish that accepted a cork as the closure and is not a
soda, beer, wine/champagne, or liquor bottle.& Cork closure, machine-made medicinals, food, inks, and
some non-alcoholic beverage bottles usually date prior to the early
1930s, though there are numerous exceptions.
caps for external threaded finishes: an excellent bottle dating feature.
Plastic caps for screw thread finishes
can be an excellent tool for dating.&
- an early thermosetting plastic - made its debut in 1927 as
a screw cap closure material though was first patented in 1907 (Berge
1980).& This provides a terminus post quem (earliest date of
use) of 1927 for bottles with the plastic cap still present.& The
bottle illustrated is from a 1932 Owens-Illinois Glass Co. (Toledo,
OH.) druggist bottle catalog and clearly shows what they call a &molded
cap& on a &prescription ware& bottle.
B. External (&screw&) thread finish
- The bottle you have has external screw threads - which are usually either
or variations on these
themes.& Most all types of
machine-made bottles with external screw threads date from the late 1920s or
after, though some types - like catsup bottles - were commonly screw-threaded
from the beginning of machine manufacture in the early 1910s.
C. Other closure/finish type - There
are a lot of finish styles that accepted crown caps, lightening stoppers, or
other types of closures which do not resemble either of the choices here.&
If your bottle does not fit &A& or &B& above, you will need to visit other site
pages like
for more information.
QUESTION #13:&
Does the bottle have what appears to be a painted or
enameled label, lettering, and/or decoration?&
Applied Color Label (ACL) on a
10 oz. soda bottle from the Mission Bottling Co., Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Bottle made by the Owens-Illinois Co. Oakland, CA. plant in 1946.
Applied color labeling or lettering (also
as ACL or pyroglazing) was a common way of permanently labeling or owner marking a bottle
without the use of fragile paper labels.& It was most common by far on soda
and milk bottles, but can occasionally be found on other types of bottles.&
The ACL process is explained on the
page.& See
the image to the
right for an example of a simple two &color& (black and white) ACL soda bottle.
An ACL soda or milk bottle dates no earlier than
1934, when the ACL process was first adopted for commercial use in the
United States (Girade 1989), with almost complete acceptance by bottle makers
(and users) by the early 1940s
(Lockhart pers. comm. 2003).& Many beverage
and some other types of bottles
are still produced today with ACL's (e.g., Corona(TM) Beer) providing no termination date
for this feature.&
(Note: It should be pointed out that embossed milk and
soda bottles continued to be made well after similar ACL versions were
dominating the market, with embossed milk bottles made into the 1950s and soda
bottles into the 1960s and later [empirical observations]).
QUESTION #14:&
Does the bottle have a shallowly incised circle on the
base that is (usually) between 1/3& to 3/4& (10-18mm) in diameter?&
A valve or ejection mark on the base of a
bottle is a definitive indication of machine-made manufacture by a
type machine (Miller & Morin 2004).& This mark was
formed by machines that utilized a push-rod
valve to eject the
partially expanded
out of the
(the &press& part of the process) to be grasped by &transfer tongs& when shifting the parison to the
(the &blow& part of the machine process)
(Tooley 1953).& To view illustrations of how press-and-blow machines
operated and how the valve/ejection mark was formed, click on the following
links which are of the Lynch Milk Bottle machine cycle:&
A valve mark is usually
perfectly round and roughly 1/2& inch (12-14 mm) in
diameter though can occasionally be a bit smaller (10-12 mm) or larger (up to
at least 24 mm).& The circle is incised or sharply indented into
the surface of the glass and can be distinctly felt by running ones fingernail
over the mark.& On somewhat rare occasions (by a few different glass
companies) the valve rod had a mold number incised in it which would emboss the
base of the bottle with this number when
these numbers
will always be centered in within the ejection mark (Lockhart pers. comm. 2007;
empirical observations).
Valve marks are almost exclusively found on
wide mouth machine-made hollow ware - food bottles & jars, milk bottles, and canning/fruit jars.&
These& are all types of bottles generally made by press-and-blow machines.& Toulouse (1969b) noted
that this mark is &...most often found on wide mouth foods of the 1930s and
1940s and even later, and on many milk containers.&& The mark is
indeed most commonly observed on wide mouth milk bottles and food jars made between
the early 1900s
through the 1940s, and occasionally after that.& It is also very common on canning jars, including many that were
produced by semi-automatic press-and-blow machines possibly as early as 1898 (Birmingham 1980; Leybourne
2001).& The milk bottle pictured above is covered on the
.& The square milk bottle base pictured
dates from the mid to late 1920s and is discussed at this link:
Valve marks are very unusual on narrow necked/mouth (bore)
bottle types though there are some exceptions as valve marks are occasionally
seen on early (1910s) machine-made beer and soda bottles.& At least one manufacturer (Cumberland
Glass Manufacturing Company, Bridgeton, NJ) invented and used a type of
semi-automatic press-and-blow machine in 1910 which did produce narrow neck
bottles that most likely resulted in a valve mark on the base of the
bottles produced in the early 1910s (Lockhart pers. comm. 2006;
Peters pers. comm. 2007).& Thus, the presence of a valve mark on a soda or beer bottles
would indicate a narrow manufacture date in the early 1910s.
QUESTION #15:&
Does the bottle have a narrow mouth (bore/finish) or does it have a wide
mouth (bore/finish)?
the mid-1890s, semi-automatic machines began to be used for the
production of bottles and jars.& The first production bottles known to have
been made on semi-automatic machines were wide mouth Vaseline bottles
made by the C. L. Flaccus Glass Co. in 1894 (Lockhart et al. 2007d,
Lockhart 2015).& (*See linked article below [Lockhart 2015] for more
information on the early machines that made Vaseline bottles.)& For the first decade or so of use (i.e. up
to about 1905)
semi-automatic machines were useful almost exclusively for the production of wide mouth
bottles and jars (picture to the left) due to the limitations of the
machines in use at that time.& Because of this, non-Owens
machine-made
bottles (see &General Machine-made Diagnostic Features& point #5 at the
beginning of this page) with narrow necks- like the medicinal bottles pictured
below right - will
essentially always date after 1905 and virtually always after 1910.& This also
largely holds true for narrow-mouth bottles made by the Owens machines which did
not really begin to dominate bottle production until about
(Toulouse 1967; Miller & Sullivan 1981; Jones &
Sullivan 1989; Boow 1991; Miller & McNichol 2002; Lockhart pers. comm. 2003).
A review of Illinois Glass Company
catalogs from the early 1900s shows that wide mouth bottles -
certainly made by semi-automatic &Machine Made& methods - first appear in the 1906 catalog and were not
present in catalogs before that time.& Since the Illinois Glass Company
was one of the largest bottle producers of the time it is reasonable to assume that
the semi-automatic machines producing wide mouth bottles/jars became
common throughout most of the glass industry about that same time.& This
allows for a high probability begin date of around 1900 to 1905 for most
wide mouth, machine-made bottles and jars (Illinois Glass Company 1903,
Click on the following links to see all of the pages from the 1906
Illinois Glass Company catalog that show their machine-made items:&
.& The types of bottles illustrated on these pages
would be considered typical of the earliest machine-made bottles in the U.
S., i.e., from the late 1890s to around 1910.& Most other types of
bottles still would have been mouth-blown during this same era.& To
summarize:
Wide mouth (bore) bottles and jars with machine-made
characteristics can date from as early as the mid-1890s, but primarily date
after about 1900.& These bottles/jars are primarily food bottles and
canning/fruit jars. A wide-mouth machine-made canning jar is pictured above
Narrow mouth machine-made bottles - regardless of the
type machine they were produced on ( e.g., blow-and-blow semi-automatic
machines, Owens Automatic Bottle Machine) - will essentially always date
after 1905 with very few dating earlier than 1910.& The picture to the
right shows a narrow mouth machine-made bottle (left bottle) that was
produced by the Owens machine and likely dates between 1915 and the early
of the Glassmaking & Glassmakers page
for more information on machine-made manufacturing via press-and-blow (and
other) machines.
Lockhart, Bill.&
2015.& A Tour Through
Time in Vaseline Jars.&
Historic Glass Bottle
Identification & Information Website,
E-published August 2015.&
Another exclusive article
this one on
the fascinating history and bottles of yet
another well know product (Vaseline)
that is still in production today.
This article is available at this link:&
QUESTION #16:&
Does the bottle have embossed (or labeled) contents or volume capacity
information?
very uncommon until the early 20th century for the capacity or volume of the
contents of a bottle to be noted in the embossing or on the label (or closure
sometimes).& The image to the right shows a very late mouth-blown druggist
bottle (1914 to early 1920s) from Spokane, WA. that has the volume capacity (&12
oz.&) embossed on the shoulder.& The origin of volume designations is explained in an article by Bill Lockhart dealing with El Paso,
TX. soda bottlers published in The Artifact in 2003; part of which is
quoted below.& (Note: This article was also re-published in Bottles and
Extras in 2006 (Lockhart 2006a) and available at this link:
On March 3, 1913, Congress passed H.
R. 22526, generally known as the Gould Amendment to the Pure Food and Drug Act
of 1906. Although the Pure Food and Drug Act demanded a great deal of labeling
information, it did not require the inclusion of volume specification. The
Gould Amendment corrected that oversight when it stated that the &quantity of
the contents be . . . plainly and conspicuously marked on the outside of the
package in terms of weight, measure, or numerical count& but continued to
explain that &reasonable variations shall be permitted.& Although the law went
into effect immediately, it clarified that &no penalty of fine, imprisonment,
or confiscation shall be enforced for any violation of its provisions as to
domestic products prepared or foreign products imported prior to eighteen
months after its passage& (U. S. ). In other words, the industry
actually had a grace period in required compliance until September 3, 1914.
In order to be in compliance with
the Gould Amendment, soda bottlers in El Paso (along with those in the rest of
the U. S.) had to include volume information on their containers by no later
than September 1914. All bottles bearing volume data can therefore be dated as
no earlier than 1913 and probably not until 1914. Thus far, I have found no
datable, mouth-blown, El Paso soda bottles containing volume information.
However, a few machine-made bottles from both the Magnolia Coca-Cola Bottling
Co. and the Empire Bottling Works, El Paso’s two largest bottlers at that
time, contain no volume information. This suggests that they were produced
prior to the Gould Amendment or at least no later than 1914. All other
machine-made bottles that I have examined, filled by El Paso bottlers, bore
volume information.& (Lockhart )
Given this information, it appears that the
majority of machine-made (and some mouth-blown items like pictured above) beverage, food, and medicinal bottles with embossed (or
labeled) specific capacity or volume information likely date from 1913 or later.&
This information is of no use for bottles without volume embossing
with no label still present or for bottles that did not hold a
beverage, food, or medicinal product, all of which were regulated by the Pure Food and
Drug Act of 1906.&
One notable exception to the above is that many
earlier machine-made liquor/spirits and milk bottles had
volume notations embossed in the glass (e.g., &QUART,& &FULL QUART,& &ONE
PINT,& etc.) or on the label as early as , though the large majority of
machine-made bottles with capacity information date from the 1913 law or after.&
to see an example of an relatively early (1919)
machine-made liquor flask that is embossed with FULL PINT on the shoulder.&
Volume notation on liquor bottles was apparently a marketing issue and seems to
be related to the rise of mail-order liquor which is briefly discussed under the
slender bodied, straight neck spirits cylinders (late 19th & 20th century)
section on the
page.& The use of volume notations on
earlier milk bottles was likely associated with the demands for more
cleanliness, reliability, and predictability of the product once home delivery
began to be popular in the early 1900s (though reportedly began in 1878).&
of the typology pages for more information.
Question #17:&
Does all or a portion of the bottle base have a
textured pattern, i.e., stippling or knurling?
of mid to late 20th century, machine-made bottles very commonly have a
textured effect covering all or a portion of the base - see the image to the
left.&& There were several practical reasons for this feature: the bottles would have
a reduced base surface contact decreasing
drag on the conveyor belts moving them within the factory and by
purchasers/ to hide prod to hide the suction scar
(primarily on Owens Automatic Bottle Machine products); and for at least one
specific machine operational reason (Phil Perry, engineer with the Owens-Illinois Glass Co.,
pers. comm. 2010).& The noted conveyor belt utility would only involve
the stippling on the resting surface of the bottle base - like that on the
1941 beer bottle
base below where the stippling pattern is just on the outside base edge where contact would
occur.& Various stippling patterns were also added to bottle bases for
largely esthetic reasons, such as the 1959 green soda bottle base to the left.&
None of the stippling - given the indented nature of the base
center and lack of stippling on the resting surface - would have come in contact
with the conveyor belt.
is shown on both the bottle bases in the images and was typically produced by
hand punching the base plate of the bottle mold.& Knurling was machine
impressed on the base plate.& Practically speaking for the purposes of this
website, the difference
between the two is unimportant and the precise &look& of these base designs
varies quite a bit over time, with different bottle types and between bottle
makers.& Click
to see such as defined by a Owens-Illinois engineer
(Phil Perry, pers. comm. 2010) on a bottle that is date coded most likely for
1959.& (The above and linked photos courtesy of Carol Serr.)& Other
types of base perimeter stippling resembles small crescents - (((((((( - which
is very common on modern beer bottles.& Another design commonly seen on
the base perimeter of late 20th century and modern wine bottles is like this:
( )( )( )( )( ).&
Knurling or stippling was first used on glass insulators in 1939,
specifically by the Hemingray Glass Company (a subsidiary of
Owens-Illinois Glass Co. by that time).& This feature is called a
&corrugated base& by insulator collectors (Bill Meier, pers. comm. 2014).
It is not precisely certain when this feature first
was used on bottles although it likely first appeared in 1940 on bottles
produced by the Owens-Illinois Glass Co. when they began using their
proprietary &Duraglas& bottle making process (Toulouse 1971).& Both of the
pictured bottle bases note such with the script Duraglas on the base.&
This likely
is supported by
date codes noted by the author and others on
bottles made by that company (Lockhart 2004d; empirical observations).&
So if one has a machine-made bottle with a stippled base one can be quite certain that it
dates from 1940 or later.
As a side note, the Duraglas in upper and
lower case script
as shown in the images dates the bottle from between 1940 to possible as late as 1963.&
DURAGLAS in all capital block letters dates after 1963 to some point that the company
dispensed with it altogether - probably in the 1970s (Toulouse 1971; empirical
observations).& This inscription is only seen on Owens-Illinois Glass
Co. products.
QUESTION#18:&
Does the bottle have any type of glass/bottle
makers markings embossed on the base (typically) or body (occasionally)?
Machine-made
(and often mouth-blown) bottles will very frequently have embossing on the
(image to the right and the most common location),
which identifies the actual manufacturer of the bottle.& Be
aware that many times the embossing on a bottle base
is not a manufacturers or &makers mark& but instead is either related to the
product the bottle contained, the user of the bottle, or is for internal manufacturer related
tracking (e.g., mold or catalog designations) of little use in dating or
typology.&
When present, however, makers marks - in hand with
answers to the other questions noted prior - will often allow for a distinct
narrowing of the date range in which a given bottles was likely produced.&
For example, the mark to the right inside the white box is the ubiquitous
marking used by the Owens-Illinois Glass Company from 1929 or 1930 until
the mid to late 1950s (ending time dependent on the bottle type and/or
production factory).& This bottle actually dates from 1941& as
discussed&in
above.& As one can see, when
present makers marks can be one of the best dating tools of all!
To assist with this endeavor please consult the
which contains links to scores of articles posted on this
website which were largely produced by members of the
(BRG).& These articles deal
with specific makers markings and the history of the companies behind those
markings.& This will be a &work-in-progress& over the coming years as
scores more BRG articles (including revisions and updates of past articles) are
planned to be &e-published& via this website on an array of other bottle makers.
In order to make full use of this comprehensive& information,
one has to know what mark or marks were used by what glass or bottle
manufacturing company.& If not&known and the marking is either a
clearly identifiable alphabetical letter or letters (like A. B. Co.
for the American Bottle Company) or a distinct logo or symbol, a user
must first determine the origin of that makers marking.& This can be done
by using the appropriate &Makers Markings Logo Table& to ascertain which
mark/marks were used by what company.
Makers Markings Logo Tables
(most preliminary drafts)
*&Final& logo tables although
any or all could be updated in the future as desired.
Once a makers marking is identified one can go to the Bottle & Glass Makers Markings page
(link below) to (hopefully) find the glass
makers article that pertains to the mark, if an article does exist for
that particular maker.
Click the following link to
go directly to that listing of makers marking articles:
This completes the
portion of the key that deals with machine-made bottles and is the end of the
key for diagnostic bottle dating.& Consider the answers and dating overlap
information provided
by the above questions together in arriving at a likely age range for your bottle.& For some examples of how
to use this information to refine your date range see the
As with the
mouth-blown bottles, there are a number of other physical attributes of bottles
that can variably allow for more precise dating.& These features, however, tend
to be accurate at a bottle type or category specific level and/or are impossible
to incorporate into a simple key.&
From this point a user must consult
other pages for additional information on a given bottle.& The titles of
(and links to) all of the pages contained within this site
can be viewed by clicking on
.& Peruse the titles to see if any may help
with your quest for information.& It is suggested, however, that a user first consult the
page for bottle type identification which includes additional bottle
category specific dating information.& From that page the user will also be
directed to other potentially useful website pages.& Happy
This website created and managed by:
Bill Lindsey
Bureau of Land Management (retired) -
Klamath Falls, Oregon
Questions?& See
Copyright (C) 2016 Bill Lindsey.&
All rights reserved. Viewers are encouraged, for personal or classroom use, to
download limited copies of posted material.& No material may be copied for
commercial purposes. Author reserves the right to update this information as
appropriate.