D-Cola Co - Cochrane Ontario soda bottle

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RCO

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was going to share another bottle that I had been trying to research , don't actually have the bottle but found a picture on a sold ebay listing from a couple months back , never saw the listing when it was for sale so unable to try and purchase it but seem to recall it sold for around $30 dollars but can't find old listing now


the bottle is from Cochrane Ontario which is in Northern Ontario , sort of a train station / mill town , don't really think there is a lot there and only ever been thru the area once

embossed on the bottle is " D cola co " Cochrane Ont , contents 6 1/2 oz

listing in book says its from 1930-1933 , was for a David's bottling works ran by Abraham David , who seems to have operated in a few different towns up north , including New Liskeard

but it gets more interesting as there is also a listing in the book for
D-cola co in Ottawa from 1934- 1937 , ran by the same Abraham David , it appears he left Cochrane and moved to Ottawa in 1934 , although I've never seen that bottle but have to assume its similar if not identical ( just different city name on it ) but no listings beyond 37 for this bottler and unable to determine what became of him


dcolaco-cochrane.jpgdcolaco-cochrane1.jpg
 

CanadianBottles

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That's an interesting one. I've definitely never heard of any D Cola Co in Ottawa. If such a bottle does exist it's got to be pretty rare.
 

RCO

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That's an interesting one. I've definitely never heard of any D Cola Co in Ottawa. If such a bottle does exist it's got to be pretty rare.


I'm assuming this bottle is fairly uncommon and if an Ottawa version existed it also be fairly uncommon

don't see any reason to doubt the listing , everything seems right , name of company on bottle, age of bottle , definitely appears to be from the 30's , it all seems to match

which is why I felt if the Cochrane listing was 100% accurate the Ottawa listing must also be correct and he operated there in some capacity in the 30's , but without a bottle its hard to prove one exists
 

CanadianBottles

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Yeah he could have also just used label-only bottles. But it's still definitely possible that they exist, I still sometimes come across Ottawa bottles I don't know about, though they're rarely from the art deco era.
 

RCO

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Yeah he could have also just used label-only bottles. But it's still definitely possible that they exist, I still sometimes come across Ottawa bottles I don't know about, though they're rarely from the art deco era.

I forget there is a plain version of this 10 sided/decagon bottle , I've seen it more than a few times in antique stores , bottlers who used it would of used a paper label or cap to identify product

although considering he had an embossed bottle when he was in Cochrane , it only make sense he also had one in Ottawa

this design was also fairly common in eastern Ontario , is a similar bottle from Renfrew /Pembroke , also Belleville , it seemed to be used a lot in that area


although not common up north , this is the first one I've seen from Northeastern Ontario region , I also remember at the bottle show was a table who had a lot of northern bottles , like literally one from every town and he didn't have any 1o sided bottles from up north for sale
 

CanadianBottles

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Having embossed bottles in Cochrane doesn't necessarily mean he had them in Ottawa. The embossed ones were expensive, and if he moved it was probably because business wasn't very good in Cochrane. He might have used plain bottles in Ottawa to cut costs.

I think I've met that guy with the Northern Ontario bottles, I bought a nice tooled lip soda from Cobalt off him a year or so ago. I don't see the ten sided bottles that often apart from that Renfrew/Pembroke bottle and the occasional unembossed one. Since the unembossed ones do show up in the Ottawa area sometimes they may be from David's business.
 

RCO

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Having embossed bottles in Cochrane doesn't necessarily mean he had them in Ottawa. The embossed ones were expensive, and if he moved it was probably because business wasn't very good in Cochrane. He might have used plain bottles in Ottawa to cut costs.

I think I've met that guy with the Northern Ontario bottles, I bought a nice tooled lip soda from Cobalt off him a year or so ago. I don't see the ten sided bottles that often apart from that Renfrew/Pembroke bottle and the occasional unembossed one. Since the unembossed ones do show up in the Ottawa area sometimes they may be from David's business.


I agree its likely some of the bottlers I've seen listed in books yet been unable to find a bottle for , used plain generic bottles without embossing and paper labels . and others did in fact have embossed bottles , there just so uncommon they don't appear much and isn't pictures available online ( ebay records also aren't available after 3 months making it hard to determine if one's ever been on ebay or not )

so for now its hard to determine which category this bottle fits into , until more information is available or a bottle appears at some point

( also think we can rule out the possibility of an acl bottle as the 1934-37 date range would seem too early for such a bottle )
 

CanadianBottles

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Yeah I really doubt that anyone was using ACL bottles in Ottawa that early, especially not a small bottler. Ottawa's market was so dominated by Pure Spring that no one else was able to stay in business until the big American brands started coming in and ultimately put them out of business.

I always try to keep an eye out for labeled soda bottles that indicate previously unknown bottlers, but they're very few and far between for this area. I've only ever found one.
 

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