Applied color labels (acl) - hand painted labels & machines

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OsiaBoyce

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Bob, can you show us an add for Jumbo Cola from 1934? As many of these bottles that are out there they must have been very popular and without a doubt they advertised.
 

SODABOB

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Bob, can you show us an add for Jumbo Cola from 1934? As many of these bottles that are out there they must have been very popular and without a doubt they advertised.

Osia

I already posted a 1934 article on #14 and an ad on #15. They were originally found by Morb and posted in my Earliest ACLs thread several years ago. Check 'em out.
 

SODABOB

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False Alarm

Earlier I said that I was on the trail of the possible existence of 1930 to 1932 ACLs. It involved an Owens-Illinois catalog that's located in the archives department of the University of Toledo, Ohio. Because of what we're calling the 'Signatures Page' (See pics) they believed the catalog was published in 1930. But as it turns out, the catalog was published in 1934 at the earliest, and most likely sometime between 1935 and 1937. Like other O-I catalogs from that era, the one in Toledo contains a section on Libbey Safedge ACL tumblers (drinking glasses) with a Donald Duck tumbler among them. The thing is, Donald Duck didn't make his debut until 1934 in a book titled "The Wise Little Hen." Prior to that 1934 debut, no one ever heard of Donald Duck - and even then he was just a minor character. So the catalog in Toledo cannot be from 1930. I have exchanged several emails with the archivist, Sara Mouch, and she was very helpful. If someone who reads this lives in or near Toledo, Ohio, and is interested in examining the catalog, they can make an appointment with Sara to see it. Here's her information ...

Sara Mouch
University of Toledo
Archives Department
Phone 419-530-5578
Email sara.mouch@utoledo.edu

In the event that someone does make an appointment to examine the catalog, please let us know what you find. Perhaps you can figure out some way to properly date it.

(Pics to follow on next page)
 

OsiaBoyce

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Osia

I already posted a 1934 article on #14 and an ad on #15. They were originally found by Morb and posted in my Earliest ACLs thread several years ago. Check 'em out.
Hmmmmmm, I missed that. I still do not understand or see why I've seen so many of these bottles and in the condition that I saw them........maybe,
 

SODABOB

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The reason the archivist thought the catalog was published in 1930 is because of this so-called 'Signatures Page." All images courtesy of Sara Mouch.

Catalog Cover

Owens Illinois Catalog Front Cover.jpg

Signatures Page

Owens Illinois Catalog Signatures Page.jpg

Cropped top of page.

Notice ...

1. "Beck" = Harold (Beck) Boeschenstein (Vice President of the Owens-Illinois Company in the 1930s)
2. "The First Owens-Illinois Catalog" (The Owens-Illinois Company was established in 1929)

Owens Illinois Catalog Signatures Page Cropped.jpg

Cropped upper-right portion of page.

This is the main reason the archivist thought the catalog was published in 1930. But apparently the signatures page was added to a later catalog. Notice where it says "Catalog finished Dec 1930" Sara said the signatures page was already in the catalog when the University received it.

Owens Illinois Catalog Signatures Page Close Up.jpg

Cropped from the bottom of the page.

This is a mystery in itself. Notice the word "Replica." Sara said the page is made of Vellum paper, but couldn't explain the "Replica" aspect, and doesn't know where the original is, or even if it still exist. But at least the combination of things indicates there was a "First Catalog" published at some point in time, even though no 1930 catalog has ever surfaced that I'm aware of.

Owens Illinois Catalog Signatures Page Replica.jpg
 

SODABOB

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I'm continuing with the following, which is from an AB.net thread ...

1. Started by member ACLbottles in 2014
2. The copy/pasted text below was posted on Page 1/Post #9 by member epackage
3.Among other things, it provides some new terms (that I edited and changed to red) for the ACL process used by different glass making companies.
4. The link should take you directly to the thread that originally appeared in the "Milk & Dairy Bottles" forum.



https://www.antique-bottles.net/showthread.php?640187-Blue-pyro-Perry-Creamery-Co




This process was called Pyroglazing (pyro for short). Pyroglaze was the term used by the Thatcher Manufacturing Company of Elmira, New York.

Owens-Illinois Glass Company of Toledo, Ohio used the term Applied Color Lettering or ACL for the same process.

The Universal Glass Products Company of Parkersburg, West Virginia called the process Fire-fused Color Lettering or Hi-fired Color Lettering.

Liberty Glass Company of Sapulpa, Oklahoma used the term Lustro-color for their bottles with colored lettering.

[ Notice what epackage says here - especially some of the dates ]

The first mention that we have seen of colored lettering by a U. S. glass manufacturer was a January 1933 newspaper article that said the Sheffield factory of the Knox Glass Bottle Company was experimenting with the process on prescription bottles. An industry press release in May of 1933 indicated that Owens-Illinois Glass Company had developed this process for use on milk bottles at its plant in Huntington, West Virginia. Soon after, by July of 1933, they started promoting milk bottles with fused names and trademarks in color (they did not use the term ACL at that time) in their own advertisements. In August of 1932 they used the term "Applied Color" Bottles in their advertisements to refer to display milk bottles that had color fused to the inside of the glass bottle. Display milk bottles were internally colored white to simulate milk and a yellow color to indicate the cream. This was done inside the bottle and used by milk dealers in their promotional displays. One unintended use of these display milk bottles was as a way to hide liquor. Prohibition was still in place in 1932 and these painted milk bottles did a good job of concealing their contents, especially if it was not milk. We are not sure if coloring the insides of the bottle was the same technology as applying colored labels to the outside of the bottle but Owens-Illinois claimed that the colors were fused to the glass by intense heat. They said the color was an integral part of the glass and permanent and indestructible except through breakage. The first advertisement we have seen from the Thatcher Manufacturing Company for pyroglazing was in March of 1934. They used the term pyroglaze in that advertisement.



 
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SODABOB

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Here's the thing(s) that keeps me digging deeper ...

If epackage's information is correct, the 1933 dates suggest there should be some ACLs from that year - even if they were experimental, and possibly only on milk and pharmaceutical bottles.

Plus, there's this article from ...

The News Herald ~ Franklin, Pa. ~ August 27, 1935




The_News_Herald_Tue__Aug_27__1935_ (2).jpg

[ Cropped from above ]

The_News_Herald_Tue__Aug_27__1935_ (3).jpg
If its correct, and we deduct four years from 1935, that takes us to 1931

So what I'm thinking is, there's a possibility that ACLs exist from as early as 1931-1932. Not to mention the possibility of some of them being hand painted/stenciled. But finding and properly dating them is another can of worms unto itself. Hence, one of the many reasons for this thread and why I continue to dig deeper and deeper. I'd like nothing better than to find a hand painted ACL from 1931-32
 

SODABOB

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The copy/pasted paragraph below is from the 1939 Julian Toulouse article I posted earlier. I selected this particular part because of the first sentence where it says ..."In the beginning of the silk stencil process the designs were carefully cut by hand with a knife." Now we not only have Toulouse eluding to "hand painted" ACLs, but also to "hand cut stencils." But where-o-where are those elusive boogers?

"In the beginning of the silk stencil process the designs were carefully cut by hand with a knife. The life of these screens were short and the method of preparing them made them quite costly. Later photographic methods were developed which allow extremely complicated designs, fine registers, the employment of several colors superimposed, and other great advantages at markedly reduced costs. These factors contributed much to the growing popularity of applied color labels."
 
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SODABOB

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I've been looking at dozens of early ACLs and came across this (pint cream) milk bottle ...

Mary's Grove Dairy ~ Lenoir, N.C. ~ mTc Thatcher Manufacturing Company ~ Marked 3E4 for 1934

The reason I selected this particular bottle is because the ACL looked kind of crude, as if it might have been hand painted/stenciled. Plus, the dairy itself sounded kind of small and a possible candidate for a low production of bottles that maybe, just maybe, were hand painted/stenciled. But who can say for sure? Does the ACL look like it was hand made to you?



View attachment 184550

View attachment 184551

(To be continued)
 
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SODABOB

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Lastly (for today), here's a great picture of a 3E2 (1932) Thatcher milk bottle base. Unfortunately, its fully embossed and not an ACL. But it will give us some idea of what to look for and hopefully find one that's an ACL. And where there's a 1932 ACL milk bottle, maybe, just maybe there's a 1932 ACL soda bottle?

3E2 Milk Bottle.jpg
 
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