Cache of 50+ 1930s-1950s (?) bottles found in Berkeley, CA

[noahwins]

Hello, I belong to a fellowship that rents a clubhouse from a Catholic church here in Berkeley. We recently did renovations and a member found about 50+ old bottles in the basement tucked away in a far corner. The house used to belong to the parish priests and we figured they hid the empties. We don't know if these are worth anything and there are too many to post pictures of them all. I photographed 3 bottles that seemed unusual but there are many more. Is there a collector locally who can come by and take a look at them? We'd like to sell these as a lot and used the proceeds to continue our society's work.

The embossed print on the clear one says FEDERAL LAW PROHIBITS SALE OR RE-USE OF THIS BOTTLE. Prohibition era?

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[hemihampton]

Was there any beer bottles (or cans) in the find. I may be Interested in those. LEON.

 

[RED Matthews]

They are probably all to new to get the attention of collectors. If they have two seams on sides of the finiswh - The top of the bottle - They are machine made bottles, and not very collectable. If they have special shapes the become of interest to some collectors. RED Matthews

 

[hemihampton]

If you were to find some rare 1930's beer cans like Glory B, Log Cabin, Primo, Nu Globe, Leidigs, ect, ect, I may be willing to pay a few thousand for those? LEON.

 

[cowseatmaize]

I'm with Mr Matthews on this, the labels are nice though. The Federal law.... was for post prohibition and mandated until I think 1964, it was still used on some a bit later if the molds were still good.
You might find a collector but I don't think it would be worth the time seeking one out. I'd suggest asking the church if they want them for their next fundraiser rummage sale to piece them out. Parishioners may give more as a donation type buy to support the church and get a piece or the church history.

 

[surfaceone]

The embossed print on the clear one says FEDERAL LAW PROHIBITS SALE OR RE-USE OF THIS BOTTLE. Prohibition era?

Hello Noah,

Welcome to the Blue Pages and thanks for showing us a few of your finds. That "Federal Law" language is post Prohibition, used from 1934-1964. Without a label or Brand embossing, that one would be a candidate for the recycling bin.

The labeled examples may fetch some local dollars, though the collecting of clear glass mid-century bottles has not yet begun. Sodas & milks from this period seem to be the exceptions to the rule.

 

[noahwins]

Thanks for the replies everyone. My friend did preliminary research and put post-it notes on two bottles:

One is smooth clear glass with this embossed:

TRADE
CLICQUOT CLUB
MARK

And a picture of a Quaker (?) holding a huge bottle on the bottom.

The note says "$8 on eBay 1881 Co - soft drinks 1938 also in a can 1965 Canada Dry bought Cott Corp & shut them down, originally Mills Mass" We have at least two of these.

Another bottle has a note that says "The suction scan indicates could be Owens bottling machine - 1907 - 1929 - fully automated."

There are several more crates of these type of bottles still in the basement, I just have one crate here I'm looking through. I'm not sure what's beer or if there are any cans, I'll pull the whole lot out and catalogue it.

 

[noahwins]

The priests seemed to enjoy their Nutdale whiskey. []

Found one more note, a brown bottle with HOLLYWOOD CORPORATION embossed on the bottom, note says "1925 - 1935 $14-$19 with ceramic stopper"

 

[cowseatmaize]

TRADE
CLICQUOT CLUB
MARK

And a picture of a Quaker (?) holding a huge bottle on the bottom.

The Clicquot picture is suppose to be an Eskimo but that may be an unpolitically correct term now. Look up the Clicquot Club Band.

 

[noahwins]

Hilarious, I was watching "A River Runs Through It" with my girlfriend a few nights ago and there was a joke about how lame the Clicquot Club Eskimos were.