BrotherBo
Member
The indentation isn't thin; it's pretty much the same thickness as the rest of it.
I took this bottle to a seasoned bottle collector on Monday so he could have a look at it and give me his opinion on it. He was actually pretty fascinated with it and says that he's never seen another example like it in his 30+ years of bottle collecting and that includes never remembering seeing another one like it at any of the shows that he's attended. It was his opinion that this bottle dates to somewhere in the latter half of the 19th century(1880's-90's) and most likely held bitters or possibly whiskey. He thinks it may very well be an attempt at an experimental re-do of a tired design that was starting to wane in popularity(log cabin figural) but was abandoned and never put into production. We sat it along side several of his log cabin bitters bottles and it looked right at home and the size was very comparable. He cautioned that we may never know the actual maker or true origin of the bottle without another example turning up in the form of one with the label still on it or possibly seeing it in an old advertisement(which in itself was a true long shot that would probably never happen). He said the value of the bottle really could only be determined by what someone is willing to pay for it. He said that even though it could be "one of a kind", since it's clear and a later 1800's bottle with no way to pin down the maker then it all depends on what someone is willing to pay for the bragging rights of having a mystery log cabin figural bottle that nobody else has sitting in their collection.
Regardless of who made this bottle or what it originally held, for me this find has really sparked my interest in bottle collecting. I've had a few decent old bottles in the past but I never really knew a lot about them or had the time to devote to collecting them(actually I'm wishing now that I hadn't sold some of the one's I used to have). I really look forward to finding and collecting some great old bottles in the future and hopefully building a decent personal collection for myself.
I took this bottle to a seasoned bottle collector on Monday so he could have a look at it and give me his opinion on it. He was actually pretty fascinated with it and says that he's never seen another example like it in his 30+ years of bottle collecting and that includes never remembering seeing another one like it at any of the shows that he's attended. It was his opinion that this bottle dates to somewhere in the latter half of the 19th century(1880's-90's) and most likely held bitters or possibly whiskey. He thinks it may very well be an attempt at an experimental re-do of a tired design that was starting to wane in popularity(log cabin figural) but was abandoned and never put into production. We sat it along side several of his log cabin bitters bottles and it looked right at home and the size was very comparable. He cautioned that we may never know the actual maker or true origin of the bottle without another example turning up in the form of one with the label still on it or possibly seeing it in an old advertisement(which in itself was a true long shot that would probably never happen). He said the value of the bottle really could only be determined by what someone is willing to pay for it. He said that even though it could be "one of a kind", since it's clear and a later 1800's bottle with no way to pin down the maker then it all depends on what someone is willing to pay for the bragging rights of having a mystery log cabin figural bottle that nobody else has sitting in their collection.
Regardless of who made this bottle or what it originally held, for me this find has really sparked my interest in bottle collecting. I've had a few decent old bottles in the past but I never really knew a lot about them or had the time to devote to collecting them(actually I'm wishing now that I hadn't sold some of the one's I used to have). I really look forward to finding and collecting some great old bottles in the future and hopefully building a decent personal collection for myself.