Vernors Ginger Ale 150th B-Day

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SODABOB

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Keith

You probably already know this, but I was reading through Lawrence L. Rouch's book "The Vernor's Story" and on page 12 noticed where he wrote the following ...

"Two beverage firms in the home of Vernor's ancestors, Grattan (of Belfast) and Cantrell and Cochrane (of Belfast and Dublin), developed ginger ale around 1852."

I'm still leaning toward the possibility that some of your bottles were made in Europe and imported to the United States and thought the Belfast and Dublin locations mentioned above might be a connection if James Vernor's ancestorial roots did indeed originate in Europe.

 

hemihampton

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As far as I know most if not all the early European Ginger Ale bottles had the round bottom or Torpedo type. Not like the Vernors bottles. LEON.
 

SODABOB

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The Times ~ London, England ~ April 6, 1909

(This brand used a cork closure wrapped in foil)

Ginger Ale The_Times_London_England Tue__Apr_6__1909_ (3).jpg


The Times ~ London, England ~ July 29, 1919

(This brand used a Crown closure)

Ginger Ale The_Times_London_England Tue__Jul_29__1919_ (3).jpg
 

hemihampton

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In the 1800's they had the round bottom but when then eventually moved away from them & went flat I don't know. Here's a 1870's Ginger Ale I dug.C&C4.jpgTorpedoCloseUp - Copy.jpg
 

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VernorsGuy

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Thank you! Great information. Yes, the numeral 1s are faint. In fact, at first I thought there was nothing on the bottom of the bottle. You have to tilt it just right to catch the embossed numbers. If nothing else, it looks like this could be the earliest non-siphon non-extract Vernor’s bottle if it is an English import. Thanks for the help.
 

SODABOB

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I haven't taken the time to re-read all 885 post in this thread so I'm not sure if the first newspaper page shown below was posted or not. All I know about the page is that it was in my photo files and described as having been published in 1916. The page does not have a date on it that I can see, but it does have an article titled "International Y.M.C.A. Opens Cleveland Today." So, in an attempt to possibly confirm the 1916 date, I found the article below from May 12, 1916 that confirms there was a Y.M.C.A. convention held in Cleveland in 1916 that started on May 12th. If all of this is accurate as I believe it to be, then it appears that Vernor's Ginger Ale was being sold in a tall paper label bottle at the time. I'm not sure how this fits into the Vernor's bottle timeline, but I thought I'd share it for consideration.

Vernor's Ginger Ale Bottle Ad 1916.jpg

Vernor YMCA CONVENTION CLEVELAND OHIO MAY 12, 1916.jpg
 

hemihampton

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This Past Summer driving through Detroit I seen this new Vernor's Sign Painted on the side of this Building. Cool. LEON.VernorsNewSign.jpg
 

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