The following link is to a thread (one of my first) that I started in 2010 - and was last posted to in 2017. Its quite long and will require considerable time to read through it. Its end conclusion regarding the earliest known ACL soda bottle came from member Moribous_fod. As far as I know, the "Jumbo - A Super Cola" is still the earliest known and confirmed ACL soda bottle.
Cropped portion of article where we see the word "Fused" which suggest the ACL labeling process had advanced beyond the so called "hand-painted" days ...
Next up we have an advertisement from the next day ... same newspaper ...
[September 21, 1934]
Cropped lower-right portion of ad where we see that the coupon expires on October 1, 1934
Because the previous evidence seems to confirm the "Jumbo - A Super Cola" bottle with the ACL label as having been introduced in 1934, and because no earlier ACL soda bottle has ever surfaced that I'm aware of, I'm jumping to the conclusion that its possible, and even likely, to be one of, if not the very first ACL soda bottle ever produced. Only with time will we know for certain.
Which brings me to this "Jumbo - A Super Cola" bottle I found and purchased on eBay just this morning. (What a coincidence) Check it out. Here's the link.
Even though its not in the greatest shape, notice in the description where the seller desribes it as being from the "1960s." Now compare the base of Morb's bottle to the one I bought on eBay. I'll know for certain in a few days, but the two bases sure look similar, and I'm hoping the one I bought has a 4 to the right of the Owens-Illinois mark
I agree - that's the main reason I bought it - at least I'm hoping its a 4 - if so, it will make for some good research material. I'll let you know when it arrives.
By the way, I'm not through with my "jumping to conclusions" - stand by for what follows ...
The conclusion I'm jumping to is that the earliest, and possibly only so called hand-painted bottles were milk bottles. And that the Jumbo Cola label was applied with some type of silk-screen machine and not hand painted. Check out this article I found by the Bottle Research Group (BRG) regarding milk bottle rim-codes.
Note: Over the years I have communicated with several members of the group, and know Carol Serr personally. She lives in the San Diego area and I saw her last June at the Antique Bottle Collectors annual sale. I sent Carol an email yesterday and hope to hear from her soon.
In the meantime, check out this pdf file I copy/pasted the following from. Notice the part about the first Owens-Illinois ACLs and especially the part about the Brant Rancho / Canoga Park milk bottle ...
One of the Illinois-Pacific bottles is particularly
interesting. It has a rim code of “2
/ 1” and a circular plate-mold label for Brant
Rancho, Owensmouth, California. The opposite
face has an applied color label—the only
example of such a label found on a rim-code
bottle—with similar information, but this label
locates the dairy in Canoga Park. The change
in location reflects the fact that Owensmouth
changed its name to Canoga Park on 1 March
1931 (Van Nuys News 1931). Thus both t he
rim code and the embossing should predate the
applied color label. Presence of a color label
is initially confusing since the technology was
not introduced until the mid-1930s.
Owens-Illinois introduced applied color labels
on milk bottles beginning in mid-1933, offering
them only from its Huntington, West Virginia,
f a c t o r y. Th e p r o c e s s wa s e x p a n d e d t o t h e
Columbus, Ohio, factory in 1934 and then to
other plants (Milk Dealer 1933; Modern Packaging
1948: 122) . Color- labeled bottles were
available from Owens-Illinois California plants
(i ncl udi ng t he former Il l i noi s-Paci fi c pl ant s)
beginning in fall 1934 and were heavily advertised
by 1935 (California Milk News 1934; Los
Angeles Times 1935; Milk Dealer 1935; Owens-Illinois
Glass Company 1935). the important point here is that color labels
could be applied to old bottl es. In fact , the
Owens-Illinois San Francisco factories did this
experimentally in 1936, inviting local dairies to
send in embossed bottles to have color labels
applied to the opposite side (Milk Dealer 1936).
It is quite possible that the Los Angeles plants
did the same. Such a practice would result in
bottles with dual-embossed and color labels, and
the present specimen seems to be an obvious
example of this process.
Lastly, for the time being, the following from the BRG article is where my research will be taking me next ...
"Owens-Illinois introduced applied color labels on milk bottles beginning in mid-1933, offering them only from its Huntington, West Virginia, f a c t o r y."
Note; Please feel free to do your own research on this aspect - you might find something I don't.