Hutchinson Spring stopper or what?

mrbottles · Dec 19, 2005

I'm looking for a little help with the origin of this bottle. There was some speculation that this stopper type may be from Hutchinson of Chicago. I am wondering if any one knows if this is true and are there any other bottles of this type from any where else? I have never seen another from anywhere. There is one known bottler from Madison and this one from Milwaukee. In total there are four known whole examples of all the varieties. This is a mystery that had plagued Wisconsin collectors since the day the first was discovered. While this example is not pontiled there is a iron pontil example. All of the Wisconsin examples date from the late 1850's to early 1860's.

I eagerly await any help at all.

Thanks,

Steven

Bottleman · Dec 20, 2005

Very, Very strange! I have never seen a top/stopper like that before. What does the full name embossed on it say?

~Tom

mrbottles · Dec 20, 2005

Hi Tom,

The bottle is embossed "O. ZWIETUSCH MILWAUKEE." The body of the bottle is about the same size as a half pint mineral water or soda bottle. The other bottler that i know of that used this bottle is "J&A LINDESTROM MADISON, WIS" Zwietusch patented a number of soda bottling apparatus and a couple of different closures that are known so some locally assume he was the inventor. It's a terrible idea when you look at teh difficulty pouring the contents out without making a mess would be.

Both Lindestrom and Zwietusch bottled miner and soda water.

Once again, I wait hopefully that some one will know the origin and maker of this bottle. Here is a picture of the other one.

stormysouth · Dec 20, 2005

Welcome. Checked out your website. It was really good.

Lisa

mrbottles · Dec 20, 2005

Thanks Lisa! The site begs for contributions from local collectors. It's starting to take off. I have three content administratiors working on the galleries daily now. They are high profile local collectors that are basically putting up images of every example of different bottle types. The site is allready the best record of clay beers from our state and is the only place new collectors can see the treasures they search for. I am looking for ideas for the site so if you have any PLEASE let me know.

We added a forum module that isn't running yet a couple of months ago. I was looking to find bottle sites that might have a blog or forum when i found this site this past weekend. I wasn't sure if people would actually use a bottle forum but i can see they will and do.

Very cool!

Steven

Back to PLEASE TELL ME WHO MADE AND WHO DESIGNED THIS BOTTLE it would be a huge success for me if some one knew.

capsoda · Dec 20, 2005

Hey Steven , Those are very neat looking bottles. Could you tell me how rare and how valuable are they. What would it cost me to get an example of each.

Hutchinson designed and sold many different types of stoppers. Yours has the hutch style bottom and a strait shaft .[pic] I have found several of these and could never figure them out until I saw yours. Mine are missing the spring, I may have just missed them since I wasn't looking for them anyway. The bottom of the little washer holder says Hutchinson on some and Liquid on others. Someone in Il. should be able to find out something, Hutchinson and Son was in Chicago.

mrbottles · Dec 20, 2005

Hi Warren,

That is not it I think. Maybe similar. I will take my stopper out tonight when I get home and photograph it and add it to the site. The springs are brass and have a loop that rolls straight into a horizontal stem going down. The spring and the top stem are one bent piece. There is a hole in the stem that the spring is through and is locked on by. Iâ€™m nearly certain that yours is not the same. Iâ€™m very interested in that stopper though. Where did it (they) come from?

Supply and demand equals value in Wisconsin. We have a couple of bottle books that make these things targets with a capital T. There are VERY few whole examples. None are for sale. One in mint condition may be $1500 maybe more. Obviously damage would quickly bring the price down. I know of a couple repaired pieces. The Madison one pictured is missing half the blob and I have another that is missing half the blob without the repair.

Not to be a pessimist (the bottles are all about optimism) I don't think this is the kind of thing that will be turning up any time soon. The goofy design and the thin neck make it more than prone to breakage. One of the five whole examples was broken in a tumbler. TERRIBLE!!! That makes me tear up! The reason there are a few (2 maybe 3) of the Madison around in semi broken states is that the bottling works was right on water. They discarded their damaged goods in the water. Even so, they are VERY scarce. You can visit exapmles of every variety I can get pictures of at the mrbottles site under blob soda gallery! That will have to satisfy you untill i can find you one.

I'll post the stopper picture when I get home from the gym tonight. Digging in Wisconsin muck takes brute strength!

Steven

capsoda · Dec 20, 2005

Yeah Steve, We have our share of nearly non-existant bottles here too. Most of them are plain jane types that are so scarce that a piece of one is a prize, but I had to know.

I dug the funny stoppers in downtown Pensacola, Fl. Right where a bottling works was.

I saw the ones on your site. I've looked your site over pretty good and I get a kick out of the stories.

If your persistant you will run into a cash of those rare ones eventualy.[

]

Good luck on your hunt for the elucive ones.

mrbottles · Dec 20, 2005

Hi again Warren,

Thanks for the feedback. I have a lot of new content that I am parsing out bit by bit to keep it fresh. There will be a new HUNT story today that I will load in a few minutes about my brother and I finding target balls. Keep coming back! I have more of the spring stopper bottles than shown in the gallery because I am trying to get at least some thing all over for people to see. I will go back and complete the listing and add examples. I need to get it up and started so that the two collectors who are working their buts off loading images can simply log into the edit area and throw them in. It's hard to believe how huge of a process cataloging with images as many of the bottles from the state as we can is.

Here is the stopper. I'm pretty certain it's not the same thing. I would be interested in buying one of those Hutchinson embossed straight stoppers if you have a spare.

Steven

If you have ideas for make the bottle site outstanding PLEASE let me know. We are working hard but some times great improvements are only a different perspective away

capsoda · Dec 21, 2005

Wow Steven! That looks like a miniture pump plunger. That could be a direction to look. I have about 25lbs of mixed stoppers in a bag. i'll look through them and find you one. Email you when I find It.

Hutchinson Spring stopper or what?

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