Earliest ACL Royal Crown Cola redux

[morbious_fod]

Ok this is just annoying.

Here is the RC trademark I mentioned earlier.

 

[morbious_fod]

Finally something works!

 

[morbious_fod]

From August 1931 here is a Glenshaw ad for their deco bottles.

 

[morbious_fod]

Sodapopbob freaks out in 3...2...1.

Notice the artistic representations of the bottles and more importantly what is on the reinforcing ring as we are calling it. It appears that they used the G on their bottles for a very long time, which may give us the reasoning behind the G1 with the speculation that the 1 was put there so that the workers in the plant knew that it was being used for a dating system from then on rather than whatever they were using before.

Chattanooga Glass did a similar thing with the reasoning that they didn't want their customers, or the end customer knowing what year a particular bottle was made in.

 

[morbious_fod]

Here's the Glenshaw chart that most of refer to for the various codes. But notice where I underlined in red where it says ... "That may have been the introductory year for the first Glenshaw applied color label." So it appears that whoever compiled this chart wasn't 100% certain about the codes either.

I guess it is all in how you read that line. They aren't saying that they aren't certain that G means 1935. They aren't sure of the reason why that year was chosen to start the coding, and assume that reason might be the introduction of the painted label bottles for the company, thus your "may".

I think their speculation that the adoption of the painted label bottles being the reason for this change in dating might be spot on. Makes sense when you remember that the ACL was first used on a soda bottle by Owens Illinois only a year or so earlier.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Sodapopbob freaks out in 3...2...1.

Morb You're right! I'm freaking out because I'm excited you provided evidence which focuses attention on my initial question about the use of the lip codes. And when it comes right down to it, all I'm attempting to do is point out that the G mark on the chart below indicates it was first used (for whatever reason) in 1935, and yet your 1931 ad clearly illustrates the G mark was used as early as 1931. So I naturally can't help but wonder which one is accurate - your 1931 ad or the chart below which most collectors rely on when attempting to date Glenshaw bottles? Please Note: My primary focus at the moment is with the G mark only and not variations of it nor any other letters in the alphabet. The chart says G = 1935 and before that is clarified none of the other letters hold much relevance for me at the moment. In other words, can we really say for certain if the G stands for 1931 or 1935, or perhaps neither and it simply stands for Glenshaw?

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

P.S. Because of the charts, if I found a non-acl deco style Glenshaw bottle with a G on the lip, I would naturally assume it was made in 1935. But now I see there is possibly this is incorrect and that it could actually date as early as 1931.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

P.S. ~ P.S.
Now I'm wondering if this New Jersey collector knows more about Glenshaw bottles than I previously thought? Notice where he says ...

"They dated their bottles by the letters on the lip each year, starting with G for Glenshaw in 1927."

http://njbottles.com/index.php?topic=735.0


I wonder where he came up with 1927? Is it just because 1927 is embossed on the bottom of his bottle or was he referring to something else? He sounds fairly confident that G stands for Glenshaw.

 

[morbious_fod]

They had been using a G on the lip as a trademark, which is why it is larger and more prominent than the later G.

They adopted the G in a square trademark in 1932 from everything I've read. Not trusting that fact completely I compared a Jan 1932 ad to a Sept. 1932 ad, and found that they have dropped the G on the bottles and started using the G in a square in the advertising by Sept. 1932.

Logically they stopped using the G on the lip in 1932 when they adopted the G in the square trademark, and when they adopted the letter dating system they put the "1" beside the now smaller G to stop confusion with the earlier bottles. They started with G for their dating system for purely narcissistic reasons. I'm sure they put the G on the lip on more than just decos.

I think the code dating table is spot on especially since it was created by long time ACL collectors who would have figured this stuff out years ago.

The Jersey guy saw 1927 on the bottom and the G on the neck and rightly surmised that the G meant Glenshaw Glass. That doesn't mean that the G on that lip had anything to do with the date at that point.

 

[morbious_fod]

The September 1932 ad. So this means that they hadn't used G on the reinforcement rings of their bottles for nearly three years prior to their alphabetic dating code adoption. This I suspect is the real reason for G1 being on the 1935 dated bottles. This also means there should be an H and an I bottle out there for 1936 and 1937.

Note the G in a square and no G on the reinforcement ring around the lip.