Flask?

[Woodsy]

I found this today and need some help with identification. I am a newby so this may be a simple one, but there is almost nothing to go on. The bottom has a numeral 6/9 depending on orientation. It has a flat bottom but it appears to be an indented base. It’s almost like there is an arch on the inside of the base. Any help appreciated.

 

[CanadianBottles]

It's a flask from the first half of the 20th century. That's all there is to know about it really, without any identifying info it's just a generic bottle. It likely held whiskey but could have held other things as well.

 

[Woodsy]

It's a flask from the first half of the 20th century. That's all there is to know about it really, without any identifying info it's just a generic bottle. It likely held whiskey but could have held other things as well.

When did the requirement for license numbers to be included on the bottle for liquor start? I was expecting to see that but there is only the one number.

 

[hemihampton]

I didn't know there was a Requirement for a License # to appear on a Liquor Bottle? Was there? If so on this type of Bottle it would of most likely been on it's paper label which is long gone. LEON.

 

[sandchip]

Being early machine made, I'd guess a whiskey made between 1903 and 1920, but as Canadian indicated, there's no guarantee that it held liquor, only a likelihood judging from the shape.

 

[CanadianBottles]

When did the requirement for license numbers to be included on the bottle for liquor start? I was expecting to see that but there is only the one number.

Never heard of license numbers on liquor bottles, if there ever was a requirement like that it was on the label, assuming you're in North America. I don't know what they were doing in other countries but I've never seen any bottle from anywhere with an embossed license number.

 

[Woodsy]

I am probably incorrect on the license number. I’m just starting to educate myself on makers marks and such and had read that liquor bottles often had license numbers embossed on the base. Judging by the responses I must be incorrect.

 

[hemihampton]

Never heard of license numbers on liquor bottles, if there ever was a requirement like that it was on the label, assuming you're in North America. I don't know what they were doing in other countries but I've never seen any bottle from anywhere with an embossed license number.

Sounds familiar, sounds like something I'd say?

 

[Dogo]

That oval ring on the base is the mark of an early Automatic Bottle Machine. As the ABM machines were improved those rings disappeared. That is how we know it was early 1900s. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933 hard liquor bottles were required to be marked 'Federal Law Prohibits the sale or reuse of this Bottle'. That requirement was removed in 1963, so any bottle with that embossing was between those dates. Specially designed bottles sometimes have a patent number, but I never heard of a registration number on a whiskey bottle.

 

[Harry Pristis]

The form is called by some authorities a "new whiskey." It has a "brandy lip" finish. It has a valve mark on the base from an early bottle-making machine. There is every probability that it dates to pre-Prohibition (pre-1918).