Tombottle
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Interestingly, the accompanying base mold code markings (such as A 5, C 14, V 7, etc) seen on bottles of this type are also seen on many export beer bottles marked “A.B.G.M.CO.” which points to a strong connection between those two marks. Adolphus Busch Glass Manufacturing Company made huge quantities of beer bottles for their affiliated Busch family company (the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association), and marked many, if not most, of those bottles with “A.B.G.M.CO.” Bottles marked with “A.B.CO” (which we know to stand for American Bottle Company) are also seen with similar letter/number codes on the bottom.
Typical “AB-connected” blue-aqua glass beer bottle. This particular example has the code “v 7” on the base.
Again, at the present time, some uncertainty exists on the “AB-connected mark” and it’s proper attribution and the exact period of time when it was being used. This mark was attributed to Adolphus Busch Glass Manufacturing Company (1886-c.1926) by author/researcher/glass historian Julian Toulouse in Bottle Makers and their Marks (published in 1971) and he believed that it dated to circa 1904-1907.
More recent research (by Bill Lockhart, Alamogordo, NM) seems to indicate the American Bottle Company as the correct attribution for the bottles with the “AB” (letters attached) mark (dating those bottles circa 1905-1909), as well as the A.B.CO. marks.
Assertions that the “AB-connected” mark was indeed used specifically by Adolphus Busch Glass Manufacturing Company for an uncertain stretch of time before the incorporation of American Bottle Company in September of 1905, coming to that conclusion from research concerning certain AB-marked hutch soda bottles (with the AB-connected mark on the heel). He finds that those bottles were used by several bottling companies located in Minnesota and elsewhere before 1905. This would seem to indicate the AB mark was used by Adolphus Busch for an undetermined stretch of time preceding 1905.
(The crown-top closure, as seen on most of these bottles, dates from c. 1892, and the Adolphus Busch plant at Belleville started glass production around that same time. If the AB-connected mark stands for Adolphus Busch, it could conceivably date as early as 1892, but currently this is mere speculation).
Typical “AB-connected” blue-aqua glass beer bottle. This particular example has the code “v 7” on the base.
Again, at the present time, some uncertainty exists on the “AB-connected mark” and it’s proper attribution and the exact period of time when it was being used. This mark was attributed to Adolphus Busch Glass Manufacturing Company (1886-c.1926) by author/researcher/glass historian Julian Toulouse in Bottle Makers and their Marks (published in 1971) and he believed that it dated to circa 1904-1907.
More recent research (by Bill Lockhart, Alamogordo, NM) seems to indicate the American Bottle Company as the correct attribution for the bottles with the “AB” (letters attached) mark (dating those bottles circa 1905-1909), as well as the A.B.CO. marks.
Assertions that the “AB-connected” mark was indeed used specifically by Adolphus Busch Glass Manufacturing Company for an uncertain stretch of time before the incorporation of American Bottle Company in September of 1905, coming to that conclusion from research concerning certain AB-marked hutch soda bottles (with the AB-connected mark on the heel). He finds that those bottles were used by several bottling companies located in Minnesota and elsewhere before 1905. This would seem to indicate the AB mark was used by Adolphus Busch for an undetermined stretch of time preceding 1905.
(The crown-top closure, as seen on most of these bottles, dates from c. 1892, and the Adolphus Busch plant at Belleville started glass production around that same time. If the AB-connected mark stands for Adolphus Busch, it could conceivably date as early as 1892, but currently this is mere speculation).
