Looking for info on this 1989 20th-Anniversary Anheuser-Busch Beer Bottle from the Jacksonville (Florida) Brewery

[Kevin2]

I'm new here and excited to be on this forum. Was cleaning out an old house and found this old beer bottle. It's very interesting because it has two raised/relief faces - one on either side. It is an Anheuser-Busch amber beer bottle and I've never seen one with anyone's face on one of their bottles. (Photos , below.)

On one side, above the face, it reads:

"Anheuser-Busch
Jacksonville Brewery
20 Years - 1969 to 1989"

And below the face:

"John Wilchek
Plant Manager"

On the other side, below the face:

"Tom Walter
Brewmaster"

Around the bottom, just above the rim it says, "47 REG. U.S. PAT. & T.M. OFF. PLEASE DON'T LITTER 89".

On the very bottom, in the center, it says "47".

There are no other markings.

The Jacksonville Brewery was started in 1969 and I believe these were made to commemorate the 20-year anniversary of the brewery. According to someone's father who used to work at the brewery: "Anchor Glass and Midland Container were the bottle suppliers back then. This bottle with the likeness of the plant manager and the brewmaster was a very limited production commemorating either a production milestone or an important anniversary for the brewery. Not sure which. That bottle is probably very rare since they only made enough to give to employees and maybe some distributors and vendors." I'm almost positive it was made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the plant - there's no question that the plant was started in 1969 and it says right on the bottle: "Jacksonville Brewery, 20 Years - 1969 to 1989".

I wonder how rare it is. Has anyone ever seen one like it?

I would like to eventually sell it. I realize collectibles can have a very broad price range. Any idea of what it would be worth?

Interestingly, the Jacksonville Brewery just celebrated its 50th anniversary last month on November 24. I wonder if they had another special bottle?!

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[Kevin2]

I wonder if I should have posted this in the "What is it? AFTER 1900" forum. Hmm.

 

[WesternPA-collector]

Welcome to the site. I love these type of Anchor Glass / Anchor Hocking bottles. They made a long line of these commemorative bottles for various events but I had no idea they were still making them by 1989. I own some similar types of bottles. I would put it's worth at $40.00.

 

[slugplate]

It's certainly a commemorative bottle they gave to the plant administration. I have a Heinz commemorative. However, your AB in a Michelob bottle makes it kind of cool.

 

[slugplate]

I wonder if I should have posted this in the "What is it? AFTER 1900" forum. Hmm.

It's all good. Your posts will show up in the "New Posts" anyway.

 

[Kevin2]

Thanks very much for the replies.

Has anyone ever seen one of these before? I scoured the internet and couldn't find a photo or mention of one anywhere. I wonder how many exist?

@WesternPA-collector , thanks very much for the ballpark valuation. I appreciate it.

 

[WesternPA-collector]

Thanks very much for the replies.

Has anyone ever seen one of these before? I scoured the internet and couldn't find a photo or mention of one anywhere. I wonder how many exist?

@WesternPA-collector , thanks very much for the ballpark valuation. I appreciate it.

Very few. You won't find much online about a bottle that is made for one or two people like this. If any others have one they are probably also being kept in storage somewhere.

 

[Kevin2]

Thanks for your reply. I'm interested in what you said - do you think this bottle was literally made for only one or two people? It wasn't distributed to 100-200+ people who worked at the plant, vendors and distributors?

 

[slugplate]

Hi Kevin, I ran into a similar problem with this Heinz Commemorative. I suspect it was given only to upper people of the plant. However, I can't rule out that employees may have gotten one as well. Like you said, it's hard to get info on them.

 

[WesternPA-collector]

Thanks for your reply. I'm interested in what you said - do you think this bottle was literally made for only one or two people? It wasn't distributed to 100-200+ people who worked at the plant, vendors and distributors?

It's very doubtful they made them for that many. You're talking a bigger cost there. There's instances where certain glass items or bottles were handed out to the whole factory at Christmas time. I'll be posting some examples of that soon. Saving that post for Christmas.