OLD unusual Milk Bottles in Crate - any info or value?

ORIGINAL: jessicaleigh

Thanks everyone for your help.  I'm going to call a few auctioneers and see.  I asked a local milk bottle collector and he said the square shape paired with the age, which, b/c of that 2 digit telephone number, means early 1900s, and also the pink sheen, and he thinks they are worth at least $25  apiece, but he said it could be more since he's never seen them before. 

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Why don't you sell them to him?

ORIGINAL: jessicaleigh

I had someone off me $100 for the entire crate with all bottles, but I didn't want to sell it b/c I thought I might be able to get more.

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Why don't you put them on FeeBay?

The Clouse-Snider bottles are from New Lexington, and are one of the most common milk bottles for our area, Wiseman from Crooksville being the other. If the paint is in excellent condition, and the glass is in excellent condition you might get lucky and get $10 if you list one on ebay. Shipping would kill the price as a lot. I could probably get rid of half of them locally, if they're in great shape. Most of the ones I've seen or own not only made it through their first use as a milk bottle, but later held screws or nails or oil or poison, and sat in a barn, or under a house for 20 years before it was found. So the paint condition is the most important aspect of those particular bottles.

I asked a local milk bottle collector and he said the square shape paired with the age, which, b/c of that 2 digit telephone number, means early 1900s, and also the pink sheen, and he thinks they are worth at least $25  apiece, but he said it could be more since he's never seen them before.

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Hello Jessica,

Welcome to the Blue Pages. The square shape, in your case, probably means post-war.

"Square milk bottles became popular after World War II, in the late 1940's. These are the milk bottles that many people remember from when they were kids. There were earlier square milk bottles, such as the Nightingale (patented in 1898) and the Blake-Hart (patented in 1927), but they were not common. Square milk bottles had an advantage of being able to ship more milk in less space. The cases were one third smaller and 20 percent lighter. Usually three cases of square milk bottles would fit in the space taken up by two cases of round bottles. Also bottle making technology had advanced so that a strong square milk bottle was possible. Round bottles are inherently stronger since they do not have corners. Another advantage of the square milk bottles was that when the conveyor lines backed up the square bottles did not sit and rotate against each other causing wear marks on the bottles.

Buck Glass Company of Baltimore, Maryland claimed that they had a square milk bottle in use at Alexandria Dairy Products Company of Alexandria, Virginia in October of 1940. This is the first use we have found reported of a modern, square milk bottle and Buck Glass Company claimed they were the originator of the square milk bottle in many of their later ads. The Thatcher Manufacturing Company was advertising their T-Square milk bottle by August of 1944. Liberty Glass Company advertised their Econotainer which was a square milk bottle in October of 1944 and Owens-Illinois was advertising their Handi-Square milk bottle by January of 1945. However reportedly Sanitary Farm Dairies of Cedar Rapids, Iowa started using the Owens-Illinois Handi-Square milk bottle in July of 1943. The square milk bottles quickly became popular and round bottles were replaced by square ones as new bottle orders were placed.

The shortages of World War II probably helped the transition to square milk bottles. Raw materials, trucks, tires, fuel and new equipment were in short supply because of the war effort. In addition to requiring less glass for a similar sized bottle, square bottles allowed existing equipment to become more efficient. Older trucks could haul more milk with less fuel and cramped cold storage facilities could now hold more milk without modification.

We are aware of two design patents during this time frame for square milk bottles. Royden Blunt was granted a patent on February 3, 1942 for a square milk bottle. He would later invent the tooth ache milk bottle. Blunt was associated with the Buck Glass Company but the filing of his patent would have been after Buck's claim to already have had square milk bottles in use in 1940..." From.