Dark Green Bottle w/Odd Bottom Lettering

[exquisiteoaf]

Hello Everyone-

I am by no means a collector of antique bottles. However, I appreciate all manner of old and antique objects, and wonder if anyone can help me me with this inquiry.

Several years ago, a friend of mine was renting a house in Vallejo, California. This is a town in the northern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, right next to another historic town called Benicia. It was a very old house, perhaps dating to the 1880s if not earlier. Anyway, my friend told me one day that the landlord had allowed a group of bottle collectors to dig up the backyard in search of bottles. Apparently the bottle collectors kept the nicer bottles for themselves, and left the rest sitting in the yard. Since I love old stuff, of course I had to venture to the backyard to scavenge through the left-behind bottles. Unfortunately, at the time it was both dark and raining heavily. There was a tarp set up in the backyard, underneath which was a ton of filthy, muddy old bottles. Without a flashlight, I did my best to pick out the ones that I thought looked the coolest.

Even though I don’t collect bottles or anything glass, my general love of old stuff dictated that I’d be use care in cleaning these bottles. Basically, I left them in soapy water for days at a time and used a soft foam bottle brush from time to time to scrub out most of the dirt on the insides of them. Everything turned out pretty good with enough patience.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure none of my bottles are of any special rarity or value. Otherwise the people who dug them up wouldn’t have abandoned them. I also know that bottles with markings are worth more than ones without (is this correct?)- most of the bottles I’ve got are only marked on the bottom, if at all.

I believe all of the bottles are of the type where they were hand-blown, but blown into a mold. The glass is very irregular and full of bubbles and such. These would date, very roughly, into the pre-1900 era, right?

Anyway, I’ve got a good deal of these bottles, but I thought I’d start by posting pictures of one of them in particular to see if anyone can help me with the historical info on it. Like I said, I’m not expecting this bottle to be of any value. I just have an interest in history and I’d like to know about the origins of this one, if possible. I’d like to know what company made the bottle, and what sort of liquid would have originally been held in it (wine? medicine? liquor?)

The bottle is a very dark, olive green. It is unmarked except for the bottom, which is pictured in my photos. The writing is indistinct and I can’t make much sense of it. It almost appears to be in a foreign language rather than English

The top semicircle of lettering seems to start with something like “SAXLEHN_____â€. The middle lettering pretty clearly seems to say “HUHYADI JANOSâ€. The bottom semicircle lettering starts with something like “BITTERROUSâ€â€¦weren’t “bitters†a medicinal sort of beverage back in that period? Any info on this would be much appreciated.

If it’s not a bother, I plan to post pictures of my other bottles for assistance in ID’ing them, in the near future.

Thanks very much,

Mike

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[Jim]

Hi, Mike. The green bottle that you have is a Hungarian bitters bottle. Bitters were used widely for medicinal purposes. The embossing is SAXLEHNER'S BITTERQUELLE/ HUNYADI JANOS. These bottles are mold-blown. We also find the Saxlehner's bottles here in Pennsylvania. It was a popular product in the late 1800s and possibly very early 1900s, and was imported to the United States in large quantities. Although common, they are an attractive old bottle, and sometimes sell for $5-10. Similar bottles with different names also exist, and are also European in origin. ~Jim

 

[cc6pack]

Here's a disscussion on the bottle a while back, check out the trade card

https://www.antique-bottles.net/forum/m_27360/mpage_1/key_SAXLEHNERS%252CHUNYADI%252CJANOS/tm.htm#27360

 

[downeastdigger]

Thats a bottle that fakes you out a lot when you are digging, you think it is a rare Mineral Water, all dark green and whittled, with the great old top.
Bram

 

[exquisiteoaf]

Thanks to everyone for all of the info and help.

I find it pretty cool to be able to find out so much about the background of something like this. The trade card is espescially cool, as you can see what the label that would have been on the bottle looked like. What sort of closure is on the bottle in the picture on the trade card? It looks like some sort of paper seal or something. How were these bottles typically sealed?

Incidentially, I wish I would have taken more of those bottles from that backyard when I had the chance. I took as many as I could carry in a large box, but there must have been a few dozen more that were intact (not of this exact type, but of probably the same time period in that they were all hand-blown.) Unfortunately I think they ended up getting thrown out later on, because they were gone the next time I went to visit my friend.

Thanks again,

Mike