Embossed clear green Richmond, VA, BEAUFONT bottle. Beer, soda, or soda water?

Embossed BEAUFONT
Trade Mark Registered Bottle

Front and back reads: BEAFONT, TRADE MARK REGISTERED.

This is a mystery bottle.  I've seen it described as a beer bottle and a soda bottle.  I haven't been able to positiveley identify it, though,  From what I've read, it could be a soda water bottle.

BEAUFONT COMPANY INC., RICHMOND VA

It seems the springs in the area were first used for brewing and then could have been used for other purposes.  Below is what I found.


Home Brewing, under the guidance of Fred "Fritz" Sitterding Sr., survived the national prohibition of alcohol by producing soft drinks and bottling drinking water in pre-filtration Richmond. By 1916, Sitterding purchased the Beaufont Lithia Springs company that produced water from springs at Beaufont (approximately where the Chesterfield Towne Center is today).

Sitterding used the verdant acreage as a family gathering place and for public rental. In 1926, he renamed the water division the Beaufont, but by 1932, public water treatment lessened the demand for bottled water. Instead, a different thirst required quenching...

Source: A Sign of Pleasure - richmondmagazine.com

If you have additional information on the bottle, I'd be pleased to receive it.

Embossed Consumers Brewery Company Bottle From Rosslyn VA.

 

Embossed Consumers Brewing Co. Bottle.

Consumers Brewing Co. opened in 1890 and closed in 1902 it was open for 12 years. Items from breweries of this age tend to be more common and less valuable than some breweries. Early items can still be valuable as can rarer types of items. As a Pre-Prohibition Brewery, any advertising items or collectibles are likely to be valuable and desirable to collectors as they tend to be hard to find. Our information indicates that Consumers Brewing Co. was the only brewery that was located in Rosslyn, VA sometimes this means that items from a brewery will have extra value in the area it comes from because there are not other sources for local breweriana.

Source: Consumers Brewing Co. – VA 21a | Old Breweries Information | Brewer Iana Values

Another View of the Same
Consumers Brewing Co. Bottle From
Rosslyn, Va.

Consumers Brewery Company also had a bottling works in New York.

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STUART BOTTLING WORKS Embossed Bottle.

 

This bottle measures about 8.5 inches tall, and has a bottom diameter of about two inches.

I have six of these bottles.  The one shown here has nearly clear glass.  The others are more green and opaque.  All were found between Stuart and Fort Pierce, Florida.

STUART BOTTLING WORKS
embossing.

Other than the glass, its color and condition, so far I've found no differences in the six bottles.

Here is some history on the Stuart Bottling Works.

In July 1913, James Elersly Weir, Jr., purchased a pitch pine wooden building owned by Joseph A. Lucas, a real estate developer, located on an isolated dirt road (Decker Street) south of Stuart; he had it converted into a bottling plant, Stuart Bottle Works. Soft drinks were bottled, sealed with large snap off caps and distributed in Stuart, Palm City, Jensen, Salerno, Hobe Sound, even to Fort Pierce and Jupiter. Weir only remained in Stuart a few years, joining family in West Palm Beach, in the plastering business and later, an auction house.

The bottling plant building was eventually owned by Ira L. Decker, who operated a concrete manufacturing business and was used primarily for storage. In the afternoon of Feb. 6, 1933, while Decker and local firemen were battling a brush fire nearby, the building caught fire. The wooden structure quickly went up in flames making it impossible for Ira to retrieve equipment, vehicles or machinery.

At least two bottles from the plant survive, clearly marked Stuart Bottling Works, one of which can be seen at the Stuart Heritage Museum...

That comes from Historical Vignettes: Some of Martin County's 'firsts' -- Part 2 (tcpalm.com)

J. R. Watkins Bottle.

J. R. Watkins Co. Bottle.
Probably 1920s or 1930s

The J. R. Watkins Company began in 1868 as a small home-based business in Plainview, Minnesota, founded by entrepreneur Joseph Ray Watkins.

Watkins distributed many different types of household products including cleaning products, food extracts and  flavorings, cosmetics,  home remedies, and other products.  (They did not actually make the bottles in which these products were contained.)   As business increased, in 1885 the company operations were moved from Plainview to Winona, Minnesota.

The very first bottles sold are assumed to date as far back as 1868, but I doubt that the very earliest containers were actually embossed with the “Watkins” name, but would have likely been “generic” hand blown bottles with a paper label affixed to indicate contents. (If anyone has more information on this, please contact me!)

By the very early 1870s, as business continued to expand,  it is likely that bottles were being embossed with Watkins or “J. R. Watkins Co.”   The earliest versions of the Watkins bottles were made in aqua glass, were handmade (with a tooled lip) and have the lip fashioned for a cork closure.  Later versions (I don’t know the exact year, but probably by the 1920s or early 1930s) have a threaded-style lip for a screw-on lid.

There are probably hundreds of slightly different Watkins bottle mold variants in existence that have been used over the last 140 years, with a variety of differences in font style, exact wording arrangement, size and shape of the bottle, and I imagine it would be a monumental task to find just one example of every single one of them.

Light aqua glass WATKINS medicine bottle, handblown with a tooled lip.  This type probably dates from sometime in the 1890s to 1910s. The base bears the mold number “64”.  The maker is unidentified as there is no glass manufacturer mark to be found.

Many of the bottles from the 1920s-1940s are quite common, and are usually in clear glass and rectangular in shape.  Sometimes the embossed company name is in a cursive font, and sometimes in a plain “block style lettering”. White milkglass salve or “ointment jars” were also sold.

Here is the link.

J. R. Watkins Company, Winona, MN ~ vintage glass bottles ~ Information. (glassbottlemarks.com)

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Seminole Milk Company, Jacksonville Fla. Half Pint Bottle. Circa 1927.

 

Newly Dug Seminole Milk Company Bottle
Jacksonville, FL.  Circa 1927.

This bottle reads as follows. 

HALF PINT
LIQUID
PROPERTY OF
AND CONTAINS
MILK OR CREAM
PASTEURIZED AND BOTTLED
BY
SEMINOLE MILK COMPANY
JACKSONVILLE, FLA.

 

It was not easy to get a good photo of this bottle.  Maybe I can get a better photo.  Even when the bottle is well lit and well positioned, the embossing has so many words that with the curvature of the bottle you can't capture all the text in a single photo.

The bottle is in great shape.  No cracks or chips.  It also has some great grip bumps around the neck.

The maker's mark is a 5/W, which indicates Winslow Glass Works, circa 1912 - 1927.  I read elsewhere that the Seminole Milk Company operated 1926 - 1936.  I'd place this bottle around 1927.  Great piece of Florida dairy history.

Brown Hicks' Capudine Bottle.

 

Hicks Capudine Bottle.

Henry Hicks had two drug stores in Raleigh, North Carolina.  He invented Capudine around 1900.  It became very popular, and he became wealthy.

Henry Hicks’ mansion still stands on Hillsboro Street, though, sadly, its grandiose porticoes have been long lost.

Interestingly, just as Hicks was achieving wealth and renown, the American Medical Association commenced a crackdown on patent cure-all medicines.

The Association analyzed Hicks’ Capudine and found the concoction to be “a brown, rather syrupy liquid, slightly alkaline to litmus, with an aromatic odor and a salty taste. Besides 8 percent alcohol, Capudine was found to contain sugar, aromatics, chlorides, caffeine, antipyrin and salicylates.” Yikes!

The AMA declared that Hicks’ Capudine was “a barefaced attempt to exploit both the medical profession and the public, [and that] this nostrum is probably preeminent in the annals of the ‘patent medicine’ business.”

Nonetheless, although Mr. Hicks died in 1940, the Capudine Chemical Co. continued to manufacture ‘medicinal cures’ in Raleigh into the early 1960s.

Source: Goodnight Raleigh | a look at the art, architecture, history, and people of the city at night

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Aqua Blown Adolphus Busch Manufacturing Co. Beer Bottle. A. B. G. M. Co.

  

Blown Aqua Adolphus Busch Glass Manufacturing Company Bottle.

This bottle was made prior to 1916.  It shows a lot of bubbles and has an applied top with rounded lower ring.  You can see the markings on the bottom.

For a great site on Adolphus Busch bottles, here is a link.

AdolphusBusch2.pdf (historicbottles.com)

Nov. 16, 1915 Patent Date Coca Cola Bottle With Script Bottom.

 

Below is a newly found Nov. 16, 1915 Coca Cola bottle.

Below is a little of the history of the bottle as presented on the MOAS web site.

When Coca-Cola was faced with the challenge of other competitors, bottlers agreed upon having a bottle that would stand out to the public. Benjamin Thomas and his associates set a deadline for bottling companies to come up with a distinct, marketable bottle for the ever-so-popular soft drink.

Among the eight to ten participants was the Root Glass Company of Terre Haute, Indiana. Members of the Root Glass Co., Chapman J. Root, William Root, Alexander Samuelsson, Earl Dean, and Clyde Edwards, worked endless hours in complete secrecy, manufacturing what they hoped would be the new, unmistakable bottle for the beloved carbonated beverage. They created a bottle in which they nicknamed the “hobbleskirt,” due to the resemblance of the skirt-style in 1910. Their historic bottle was derived from the shape of a cocoa bean, with an elongated shaped and distinct ribs. Once the bottle was developed, Root Glass Company put forth a patent under Samuelsson’s name. The patent was granted on November 16, 1915. This date was later included on the final design of the bottle.

In the early 1916, a committee composed of bottlers and Company officials met to hopefully decide on the design of their bottle. Without a doubt, the Root version was a clear winner. The Coca-Cola Company and the Root Glass Company entered an agreement in which the bottle was to be made throughout six factories in the United States. The contract also called for the bottles to be colored in “German Green,” which was later changed to “Georgia Green.” The weight of the bottle was to be no less than 14.5 ounces and was filled with 6.5 ounces of Coca-Cola, which means that the bottle weighed more than a pound!...

And here is the link for more about that.

The Root Family and Coca-Cola (moas.org)

The Root Family donated a large amount of Coca-Cola memorabilia to the MOAS Museum, which is in Daytona.

I've seen similar bottles listed online for nearly $200, however that, being the top of the range, could be an unrealistic price.  The found bottle has defects and is in far from perfect condition, but in my opinion should still be worth a few bucks.

Embossed Hayner Whiskey Distillery Back Bar Bottle.

 

Embossed Back Bar Hayner Whiskey Bottle.

This embossed Hayner Whiskey bottle was found on the Treasure Coast.  It is a pre-prohibition bottle, meaning that it dates to pre-1920.  It is just over eleven inches tall.   You can see a bubble in the glass below the R in TROY.

There was a paper label between "HAYNER WHISKEY" and "DISTILLARY"

The bottom provides a lot of information.

Bottom of Same Hayner Whiskey Bottle.

The patent date is Nov. 20, 1897.

See Bottle Pickers (antiquebottlepickers.com)

E R Durkee and Co. Salad Dressing Bottle.

Here is a bottle embossed E. R. Durkee and Co. Salad Dressing. 

E R DURKEE and CO SALAD DRESSING BOTTLE.

It is a blown bottle with some nice bubbles in the glass.  

E R Durkee and CO Salad Dressing Bottle.

The glass maker marks on the bottom are also interesting.   The bottle has the patent date clearly written out as April 17 1877.

Patent Date On Durkee Bottle.

Eugene R. Durkee – making spices and extracts in his basement at home – at 1850, and we have seen an advertisement for the firm as early as 1851 – the year given by most sources. The early ad noted that E.R. Durkee (no “& Co.”) was a “Wholesale and Retail Dealer in Drugs, Medicines, Perfumery, Brushes, Fancy Articles, Glassware, Congress Water, Leeches, Cigars, Pure Wines, Liquors, Oils, Camphene, Burning Fluid &c.” in Buffalo, New York. The only products specifically linked to his name were Durkee’s Venetian Liquid Hair Dye, Durkee’s Vermifuge, and Durkee’s Baking Powder (Matt’s Collectibles 2014) (Figure 1). Durkee developed his salad dressing during this period, probably in 1857, and won awards for it (Kovel 2010; Museum of the City of New York 1999:71)...

Here is the link for that information and much more.

ERDurkee&Co.pdf (sha.org)

Embossed Dr. Shoop's Family Medicines Bottle.

 Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Green Deeply Paneled Bottle Embossed DR. SHOOP'S FAMILY MEDICINES, RACINE, WIS.

The bottle is a deeper green than the picture shows and has deep panels and embossing.  It is about 6,25 inches high and 2.5 inches wide and deep.

Dr. Shoop's Medicine Bottle Showing Large Bubbles in the Glass.

There is no maker's mark on the bottom.

Bottom of Dr. Shoop's Medicines Bottle.

I was fortunate to find a lot of information on Dr. Shoop. Here is one paragraph from a much larger article on Dr. Shoop.

Dr. Shoop opened a medical practice in 1883 and by 1890 established a line of cure - all patent medicines which were sold door to door by agents. Dr. Shoop’s Family Medicine Co. was incorporated June 30, 1891, (Capital, $20,000) with Shoop, Jackson I. Case and Charles A. Corbitt as officers. Unable to find suitably large quarters Shoop had plans drawn for a new plant. A lot was purchased and the first three stories of the Shoop Building were completed in 1893, with three additional stories added in 1899 making it the tallest commercial building in Racine.

Here is the link if you want to learn more about this local bottle find.

Racine Post: Celebrating 175 years: Dr. Shoop, Racine's creator of 'nerve tonic'

McCreary Drug Company Bottle. West Palm Beach, Fla.

This is a larger Drug Company bottle.  It measures about 7.5 inches tall and 2.5 inches wide.

It has one big chip on the lip.

 

The crescent moon mark on the bottle is from an unidentified manufacturer.  Most bottles that bear this mark seem to be pharmacy or drug co. bottles.

Old Showing McCreary's Location.
Source: FloridaMemory.com

y

Cobalt Blue Embossed Larvex Poison Bottle.

Embossed LARVEX Bottle.

 Larvex Corporation was a company which manufactured Spraying Larvex, a pest control product used in moth proofing woolen fabrics. The firm was acquired by Zonite Products Corporation in October 1926. Zonite added Rinsing Larvex to its line of products after the takeover was finalized. The pesticides were also referred to as Larvex liquid and cake.

Larvex Corporation continued as a subsidiary of Zonite Products Corporation until December 31, 1936. On this date Zonite Products Corporation informed the New York Stock Exchange that it was dissolving its six subsidiaries.

Bottom of the Larvex Bottle Showing
Maryland Glass Company Mark.

The circle M indicates the bottle was manufactured by the Maryland Glass Company.

Maryland Glass was acquired by the Dorsey Corporation in 1968, and I believe that the “M” mark was used for a time thereafter, but eventually discontinued sometime in the  1970s.

LAXOL Bottle. Cobalt Blue.

 Cobalt Blue LAXOL bottle.

It seems the cobalt blue color is most common.  Some other colors are know and can bring high prices.

Granite State Spring Water Company Bottle.

Embossed Granite State
Spring Water Company Bottle.

 Embossed: TRADE MARK GRANITE STATE SPRING WATER CO.ATKINSON DEPOT, N.H. 

A bottle of this type was featured in the Sept. 2010 Antique Bottle and Glass Collector Magazine (pg. 29).

It dates between 1895 – 1905.

Measures 9” tall and 2-1/8” diameter.

It shows two Native Americans.

1895 - 1905 Granite State
Spring Water Company Bottle.

The company was located in Plaistow, N. H.

When the company went bankrupt, about 1938, it was purchased by Leroy’s Beverages, Inc. of Newburyport, Massachusetts, which later produced 7-UP.

Small Brown Luyties Pharmacy Co. Bottle. St. Louis.

Small Luyties Pharmacy Bottle.

The Luyties Pharmacy bottle is just 2.5 inches tall, with a .75 by .75 inch square base. 

Here is what I found on Luyties.

His earliest knowledge of and training in business came to him through the Luyties Homeopathic Pharmacy Company, a business which was established in 1853 by his father, Dr. Luyties having been one of the earliest representatives of the school of homeopathy in the middle west, and in connection with his practice he established a pharmacy in order to supply homeopathic remedies to the trade.

Thoroughly acquainting himself with the business, Herman C. G. Luyties won promotion until he became vice president of the company and so continued until 1907, when he disposed of his interests...

Silver Palace Pharmacy Bottle, Fort Pierce, Fla.

Silver Palace Pharmacy Bottle, Fort Pierce, Fla.

Partially Cleaned Silver Palace Pharmacy Bottle.

The bottle was found just south of Fort Pierce.  The Silver Palace Pharmacy was formed in 1927 and operated for some time at 2nd and Orange in Fort Pierce.  It became an inactive corporation in about 1965.

Three Small Ink Bottles: Carter's, Higgins, and Sanford's.

Three Small Found Ink Bottles.

I showed several found ink bottles before, but they were all of a larger size than these.  These ones are 1 ounce and 3/4 ounce ink bottles.

The one on the left above is a cut glass Sanford's ink bottle.

Sanford's Ink Bottle 

The center bottle is a Carter's ink bottle.

Carter's Ink Bottle.  One Oz. 

The Carter's bottle shows the Hazel Atlas symbol.  My father packed bottles in a Hazel Atlas plant in the early 1940s, so I wonder if he possibly packed that bottle.

The cork top ink bottle on the right of the top photo is a Higgins Drawing Ink bottle.

Higgins Ink Bottle.

I assume it is the oldest of the three, but haven't yet researched the dates yet.

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GORDON'S DRY GIN Bottles.

Two Very Similar Gordon's Dry Gin Bottles.

Front reads: GORDON'S DRY GIN.

One side reads: LONDON, and the other side: ENGLAND.

I've found a few of these and they all have the wolf's head symbol on the bottom.

Bottom of Gordon's Dry Gin Bottle.

The other bottom embossing varies on different bottles.

Both bottles show REGD 610617 on the back.

No. On One Side of Same Bottle.

The BayBottles.com web site (link below) says that number means the bottle dates to 1912 -1913.

The lips on these two bottles are different.

Lips On Same Two Bottles.

The lip on the greener bottle looks more crudely made.  The lip of that one is applied over the neck, which makes a more narrow opening.

The BayBottles.com web site also provides the following information.

The initial Gordon’s Distillery dates back to 1769 in London and they began making a form of dry gin sometime after the advent of continuous distillation in the 1830’s.

Gordon & Company merged with Tanqueray  in 1898 and it was around this time  that listings for Gordon Dry Gin began to appear in U.S. newspaper advertisements. The first mention that I could find in a New York City newspaper were several advertisements for Macy’s, who listed Gordons Gin under the heading “Fine Wines for Medicinal Use.”

Esquire Shoe Polish Embossed Bottles. Three Bottles. Skuff-Kote. Lanol. White.

Esquire Shoe Polish Bottle.

During the Great Depression Sam and Albert Abrams, chemists and entrepreneurs from Brooklyn, took over an ailing boot polish maker, the Knomark Manufacturing Company of Williamsburgh, Brooklyn.  In 1938 they purchased the Esquire brand.  After a saturation advertising campaign in 1944, the company became the best selling shoe polish manufacturer in the US... In the late 1950s, they sold the Esquire brand and the 1914-built Esquire Building on 330 Wythe Avenue in Brooklyn. In 1957, Revlon acquired the Esquire brand which made annual sales of 15 million dollars. Revlon sold the Esquire shoe polish brand and other Esquire product brands in 1969...  (From Wikipedia.)

Esquire Shoe Polish Bottle.

Bottom of Bottle Shown Immediately Above.

Notice the NOMARK INC. mark above the 555.

ESQUIRE LANOL WHITE.