Hey Barbara,
I don't know anything specific about your bottle. It looks kind-of neat but I think the top gives it away as modern. It looks like a closure that is still available on a grolsch bottle.
At closer inspection the closure is plastic, not ceramic [].
My only hope is that is is simply a replacement...to my untrained eye the bottle appears BIMAL.
Thanks for the clue to research lightening stoppers bbbob. The perfect way to learn.
The SHA site says:
"Lightning-type swing closures were most popular on beer and many soda bottles from the 1880s into the 1920s. Use after that time was limited though occasional. The bottle/closure pictured to the right is a modern Grolsch® Lager (Dutch) bottle having a pretty "classic" Lightning-type closure. That company's current marketing internet site calls it the "Swingtop" closure and notes that it has been used by them since 1897 (Grolsch® website: http://www.grolsch.com). The only difference between the "Swingtop" and Lightning-type closures is that the "Swingtop" has no neck encircling wire. Instead the closure is attached to the finish via two dimple holes on opposite sides of the lower finish. Lightning-type closures are also found today on various foreign beer bottles, some decorative storage bottles & jars sold in "import" stores, and likely other bottle types. The lid portion of modern Lightning-type closures are usually made from plastic but still have the rubber gasket for sealing."
and the Southeast Bottle Club December 2002 Newsletter:
"From 1860-1895 there were over 4,000 closures developed and patented. The closure styles varied as greatly as the beer they held. Names such as Hutter, Rich, Lowell, Lloyd, Putnam, Matthews, Hutchinson, Champion, Susemihl and many more began to emerge.
*The European community also made numerous contributions with inventions such as the "Swing" stopper, which used dimples in the bottle top to hold the eccentric, rather than the neck wire used by most US inventers. Fritzner brought this innovation in 1880. Although it originated in Europe, there were several bottlers and brewers, located mainly in the upper Midwest that used the device.*
The Codd’s patent followed the same course. This was a grand time in history for collectors and continues to be an item of historical interest. This growth continued until the early 1900’s when the Crown Cork Closure ended the concept of the plug and bail."
I do not think your handsome bottle is a repro. I don't think it is a real old guy either.
I was too busy not paying attention in French class, but I believe "Brasserie" roughly translates to tavern, or perhaps Brewery. It is fromRennes, in the Breton region of France.
I have eaten in unassuming restaurants that were called brasseries.
Believe it, or not, but a few bottles are still made the hard way in Europe. Lightning, or Bail type stoppers, are in common use by some brewers to this day.