Cross & Co. Vancouver B.C. 1894-1963

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Canadacan

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Bob thanks for the input! I had noticed that Ginger Beer bottle on ebay, the Lemon Squash and Orange Squash is something I've never seen!
So unfortunatly none of this information seems to give any clues about Cross's copy cat label, other than the fact that the Schweppes products were being sold or advertised pretty early at least in Eastern Canada. I definitely need to see what's available for B.C. news print ads pertaining to Schweppes Dry.
 

SODABOB

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Cc

My initial post was to establish some dates for Canada as a whole. I didn't realize the main focus was on western Canada. So this time around I looked through the Vancouver newspapers -- some of which I am attaching. There are literally hundreds of references for both Cross & Co. as well as Schweppes. But thought it best to post those with illustrations/pictures of bottles. They are titled accordingly with source and dates, which can be seen by moving your cursor over the image. If some of them turn out too small to read, just save them to your files for closer examination. Following this I will see what I can find regarding the so called copycat labels. I hope the attachments will help in some manner.

1929

Cross & Co. Ginger Ale_The_Vancouver_Sun_Vancouver_B.C._Canada_Sat__Nov_30__1929.jpg

1900

Schweppes The Vancouver_Daily_World_British Columbia_Canada_Fri__Nov_9__1900.jpg

1914

Schweppes_The_Province_Vancouver_B.C._Canada Wed__Dec_23__1914.jpg

1955

Schweppes The_Vancouver_Sun_Vancouver_B.C._Canada_Tue__May_17__1955.jpg
 

Canadacan

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Bob thanks again!...this refreshes my thoughts now a bit. So that Schweppes label was advertised in Canada pretty early (1914)...I'm sure it was advertised in Vancouver at some point.
I forgot about that Cross's ad as well, and we can see that the label was being used as early as 1929.
Note that Schweppes used a different label for their regular ginger ale.

So was this a purposely copied label?...maybe. If it was why would Schweppes not go after them for the label? I think if Cross's did copy them..which it appears to be so, the changed just enough so they were not infringing.
First off the logo in lower left, Schweppes vs Cross's.., different. Second is the Schweppes label has a boarder, the Cross's has no boarder. It can't be that Cross was paying homage to the UK brand because he was Scottish!

Cross vs Schweppes.jpg
 

CanadianBottles

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The sense I get from these ads is that Schweppes wasn't really operating in BC all that much, they were just shipping cases of bottles out to retailers in BC. So it's possible that they never noticed the label similarity. As you say it's also possible that it was just different enough to not be considered copyright infringement in those days.
Also I was curious about the ginger ale bottle shown at the top of that 1929 ad, can you see what it is? It's not one that I recognize.
 

SODABOB

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From the 1929 Cross & Co. Full Page Article ...

Cross & Co. Ginger Ale_The_Vancouver_Sun_Vancouver_B.C._Canada_Sat__Nov_30__1929 (2).jpg

1929 - 40 years = 1889

Cross & Co. Ginger Ale_The_Vancouver_Sun_Vancouver_B.C._Canada_Sat__Nov_30__1929 (3).jpg

Cross & Co. Ginger Ale_The_Vancouver_Sun_Vancouver_B.C._Canada_Sat__Nov_30__1929 (4).jpg
 
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Canadacan

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The sense I get from these ads is that Schweppes wasn't really operating in BC all that much, they were just shipping cases of bottles out to retailers in BC. So it's possible that they never noticed the label similarity. As you say it's also possible that it was just different enough to not be considered copyright infringement in those days.
Also I was curious about the ginger ale bottle shown at the top of that 1929 ad, can you see what it is? It's not one that I recognize.

I never got a proper zoomed in on that center bottle myself, but I'm assuming its their regular ginger ale... which would be extremely rare to find.
 

SODABOB

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The center bottle is an Ambassador Ginger Ale

Cross & Co. Ginger Ale_The_Vancouver_Sun_Vancouver_B.C._Canada_Sat__Nov_30__1929 (5).jpg

Cross & Co. Ginger Ale_The_Vancouver_Sun_Vancouver_B.C._Canada_Sat__Nov_30__1929 (6).jpg
 

Canadacan

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Awsome!...thanks Bob, it's been a while since I've looked at any of the Cross stuff in the archives, I had the original ad saved on my computer but when I zoomed to crop it went too fuzzy.
Ambassador was also an 'extra dry', interesting!...that is a label that no one has ever seen really.
 

SODABOB

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I have been looking for an actual Ambassador Ginger Ale bottle and/or paper label but can't find one. In fact, the ONLY illustration I can find is the one in the 1929 article I posted earlier. There are lots of ads like the one attached here, but no illustrations of their bottles ...

1929

Ambassador Ginger Ale_The_Vancouver_Sun_Vancouver_B.C._Canada_Sat__Aug_31__1929.jpg
 

SODABOB

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This will wrap it up for me today, but I will be back with more in a few days - possibly tomorrow if the Boogeyman doesn't get me ...

​Happy Halloween

According to this Canadian patent, Schweppes was granted a trademark for their label in 1907. Please let me know if the description jives with the paper labels y'all are interested in. I'm also looking for something similar about the Cross & Co. but haven't found anything yet.

Schweppes Trademark Label 1907 (1).JPG

Schweppes Trademark Label 1907 (2).JPG
 

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