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The Antique Detective: 18th Century English Furniture

By Robert Reed

As seen in The Antique Shoppe Newspaper, May 2007

The search for treasured old bottles, ranging from hard drink bitters to sofa drink colas, has been a fascinating American occupation for generations.

Bottled goods were generally available in the United States from the middle of the 19th century on into the 20th century. They were as varied as their contents and came in a near-rainbow of colors including various shades of amber. Moreover bottles could be round, square, rectangular, or even pot-bellied like old-fashioned stoves.

Some accounts suggest that during the latter 19th century people occasionally decorated rooms or kitchen shelves with colorful bottles. The bottles of different shapes and colors were said to be eye-catching when arranged to glimmer in the day's sunshine. Bottle collecting continued on a fairly casual basis for the next few decades.

In 1920 author William Walbridge wrote one of the first formal books on bottle collecting noting that such an activity was "probably the rarest of the many accumulations of antiques." However Walbridge added in American Bottles Old And New, that such bottle collections were "second to none...showing the great changes in the shapes of bottles over the past century and a half in the art and process of manufacturing."

At that time Walbridge devoted much of the text to bottle-like 19th century whiskey flasks. During the presidential campaign of 1840 such flasks in the shape of long cabins were distributed on behalf of William Henry Harrison. These bottles, dark brown or green, were produced by the Whitney Glass Works under the direction of a distiller named E. C. Booze. Long after the presidential campaign was forgotten, the term for liquor 'booze' endured.

Early flasks were slender and arched, with the edges horizontally corrugated. Later in the 1800s came oval shapes with the edges ribbed vertically. Flask patterns next progressed to a circular form with plain rounded edges. Still later was the so-called decanter form, almost globe-shaped with fluting edges. These flasks usually bore long, slender necks and top caps rather than corks.

One of the most intriguing, and collectible, group of bottles to come out of the 19th century where those that held bitters. The contents of such bottles was comprised mostly of alcohol but they were sold as medication for all manner of ills. The concept first grew popular in England and then came to the United States in the early 1860s. Bottled bitters got a further boost in America when the Internal Revenue Act of 1862 heavily taxed alcoholic beverages but allowed the content of 'medication' to escape taxation and regulation.
Besides the alcohol content the bitters often included a sweet-tasting flavoring agent plus a mild laxative. Writing in the book Bitters Bottles, author Richard Watson called them "one of the most successful and lengthy frauds ever perpetrated on the American people." Be that as it may, there were at least 1,000 different types of bitters bottles produced in assorted shapes and colors. Heavily advertised cure-all bitters were manufactured and widely sold until the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.

A majority of bitters bottles were embossed with the manufacturer's name or at least a maker's symbol. Most of these bottles were amber. Others were of clear glass, light blue, or green. Considered among the most scarce of bitters bottles are white milk glass, dark blue and blue-violet. Thanks to the embossing and coloring, bitters bottles literally unearthed decades later can often be specifically identified.

By the end of the 19th century a great number of household products were being offered at the general store and elsewhere in bottled form. Selections ranged from Gold Key Ammonia to White Diamond Liquid Glass & Silver Polish. Chemicals meanwhile sold in wholesale amounts were frequently bottled in large dark amber or brown bottles to prevent the damaging effects of sunlight. Eventually chemical compounds were amber-bottled by manufacturers extending from Eastman Kodak to Mallinckrodt Chemical Works.

Technically speaking glass milk bottles were in use during the late 1890s but they did not reach their full glory until much later. The 20th century saw thousands of independent milk producers master the use of bottle caps as a satisfactory sealant thus making the milk bottle practical. Between the 1920s and the 1950s millions of milk bottles were put into use and generally reused over and over. Makers used a pyroglaze process to provide an enamel-like lettering on the bottles, lending personal identity to thousands of dairies around the country.

The letter on glass milk bottles might be red, green, or even yellow. Most milk bottles themselves were made of clear glass with the exception of a few dozen bottlers who used brown, green or other colored glass for some of their specialized diary products.
Other collectible bottles of the past are almost as varied as the items they once held from apple cider vinegar to witch hazel. Also joining the list would be hair tonic, disinfectant, clock oil, and an almost endless variety of 20th century soft drinks from Big Red to White Eagle.

As a general rule vintage bottles with the original paper labels are harder to find and therefore even more desirable than those with simply embossed lettering remaining. Typically fascinating paper labels such as Black Cat Stove Enamel and Reed's Bottled Drug Store Alcohol often did not survive the rigors of using and aging like their accompanying container.

In some cases the original bottle was not only given a paper label but a cardboard box for packaging as well. Having all three elements of an old bottled product would represent an ultimate item in that category. Bottle collecting for all of its diversity remains a compelling endeavor.

"As evidenced by many discoveries and events, and numerous other discoveries made by the many bottle club collectors across the United States and the world," notes Michael Polak author of Antique Trader's Bottles Identification and Price Guide, "there continues to be an ever increasing interest and excitement with the fun hobby of antique bottle collecting."

Polak cites the example of a rare Pepsi Cola bottle which was discovered in a barn with a box of other old soda bottles. The bowling-pin shaped bottle was embossed with Indian Rock Ginger Ale and Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company, High Point, North Carolina lettering from the early 1900s. The bottle of soda pop and its entire contents ha sold originally for around five cents. Empty, but still in good condition a century later it brought more than $2,600.

Recommended reading:
Antique Trader Bottles Identification and Price Guide, 4th edition, by Michael Polak, (Krause Publications)