RIBottleguy
Well-Known Member
The more RI soda bottles I acquire, the more I'm curious about how to date them. I've noticed a number of strange discrepancies, and was compelled to share my finds. I guess you could call it a TOC soda bottle 101 lesson.
Most people would find the following timeline to make sense (from oldest to newest):
Aqua blob top
Clear blob top
handmade crown top
machine made crown top
However, there is much more to it than meets the eye. Quite often the first three categories can be mixed up to a frustrating point. The bottle that really upsets this timeline would be the following:
American Bottling Co. Incorporated Limited 1916 Providence, RI
While it's not a true aqua (more of a grey aqua), it's not clear, and it's not a crown top! I was initially very surprised that blob tops survived so late into the 1910s. With the crown top coming on the scene in 1892, one would think by 1905 it would be the dominant lip finish for soda and beer bottles. Clearly that was not the case. (I later added the crown top version (handmade) to my collection, which fits better with the timeline.)
So, with the evidence before me, I had no choice but to estimate that BIM blob top sodas could have been made up to 1920, and ABM blobs to 1925.
In the particular above case there is still a mystery that if solved, might shed some light on the subject. The trademark V & S is on the bottom of both of the bottles, but I can't find any info on it. If I could determine what years they made bottles, it would help refine my estimated dates.
Now to another side of things, which is your common BIM clear blob top soda. As far as I can tell, they seemed to emerge around 1890, but were popular until 1915. This might make using the term TOC a bit inaccurate, since almost all bottles made in the 1900-1910 era were in fact, BIM. Only wide mouth jars (mainly fruit jars) appeared early on the scene.
Now one wonders where the crown top went in all of this chaos. It was slowly assimilated into the bottle finishing process, and quite honestly, it is often the same age as blob tops. For a while blob top and crown top sodas were made side by side. This was likely due to the factories unwillingness to simply throw out their blob top finishing tools. After all, they could last another ten years, so they were replaced by crown top finishing tools when they wore out. Here is an example of two identical sodas, only one is a blob and the other a crown top.
Roger Williams Bottling Co. Cranston, RI
Checking the bottom of these bottles confirms this. They have the same mold number, 6A.
Finally, there are machine made blob tops. Quite often they are hard to distinguish from BIM bottles, since they lack the Owens scar and have very faint mold seams on the lip. They are probably the least common kind of soda from the 1910s-20s era. Narrow necked machine made bottles came on the scene around 1908, so ABM blobs could have been made as early as that (I'd round it to 1910). I mentioned above that these bottles could have been made as late as 1925. A possible explanation for this could be the persistence of the lightning style closure. This stopper with porcelain top and rubber gasket was popular because it would be re-used, unlike a bottle cap. I've seen them on soda bottles dating up to around 1930. I should also mention they worked on crown top bottles as well. If a bottler had a large stockpile of these closures they would be in no hurry to switch over to bottle caps.
Well, that's my 2-hours worth a.nalysis. I'm sure other members (particularly Red Matthews) would have a lot of info and/or corrections which I'd appreciate. The more I learn the more satisfying it is to date a bottle accurately!
Most people would find the following timeline to make sense (from oldest to newest):
Aqua blob top
Clear blob top
handmade crown top
machine made crown top
However, there is much more to it than meets the eye. Quite often the first three categories can be mixed up to a frustrating point. The bottle that really upsets this timeline would be the following:
American Bottling Co. Incorporated Limited 1916 Providence, RI
While it's not a true aqua (more of a grey aqua), it's not clear, and it's not a crown top! I was initially very surprised that blob tops survived so late into the 1910s. With the crown top coming on the scene in 1892, one would think by 1905 it would be the dominant lip finish for soda and beer bottles. Clearly that was not the case. (I later added the crown top version (handmade) to my collection, which fits better with the timeline.)
So, with the evidence before me, I had no choice but to estimate that BIM blob top sodas could have been made up to 1920, and ABM blobs to 1925.
In the particular above case there is still a mystery that if solved, might shed some light on the subject. The trademark V & S is on the bottom of both of the bottles, but I can't find any info on it. If I could determine what years they made bottles, it would help refine my estimated dates.
Now to another side of things, which is your common BIM clear blob top soda. As far as I can tell, they seemed to emerge around 1890, but were popular until 1915. This might make using the term TOC a bit inaccurate, since almost all bottles made in the 1900-1910 era were in fact, BIM. Only wide mouth jars (mainly fruit jars) appeared early on the scene.
Now one wonders where the crown top went in all of this chaos. It was slowly assimilated into the bottle finishing process, and quite honestly, it is often the same age as blob tops. For a while blob top and crown top sodas were made side by side. This was likely due to the factories unwillingness to simply throw out their blob top finishing tools. After all, they could last another ten years, so they were replaced by crown top finishing tools when they wore out. Here is an example of two identical sodas, only one is a blob and the other a crown top.
Roger Williams Bottling Co. Cranston, RI
Checking the bottom of these bottles confirms this. They have the same mold number, 6A.
Finally, there are machine made blob tops. Quite often they are hard to distinguish from BIM bottles, since they lack the Owens scar and have very faint mold seams on the lip. They are probably the least common kind of soda from the 1910s-20s era. Narrow necked machine made bottles came on the scene around 1908, so ABM blobs could have been made as early as that (I'd round it to 1910). I mentioned above that these bottles could have been made as late as 1925. A possible explanation for this could be the persistence of the lightning style closure. This stopper with porcelain top and rubber gasket was popular because it would be re-used, unlike a bottle cap. I've seen them on soda bottles dating up to around 1930. I should also mention they worked on crown top bottles as well. If a bottler had a large stockpile of these closures they would be in no hurry to switch over to bottle caps.
Well, that's my 2-hours worth a.nalysis. I'm sure other members (particularly Red Matthews) would have a lot of info and/or corrections which I'd appreciate. The more I learn the more satisfying it is to date a bottle accurately!
