G.V Bottling Works - art deco bottle - Timmins Ont

[RCO]

poking around a facebook group and came across a picture of this bottle , never seen or heard of it before . the bottle itself is the same art deco style used in other bottles and if you've seen my posts I have several in the same design. so surprised to learn there is also one from Timmins I had never seen yet

The bottler is called " G V Bottling Works - Timmins and was being run by a George Varteniuk who also ran a hotel in Timmins with a similar name ( G V Hotel )

its listed in the Ontario bottle book but only for 1 year 1938 and not entirely sure what became of it after that year ?

the embossing reads " speed " Canada's winning drink and features an image of a horse and jockey

 

[RCO]

attempted to do some research and actually came across some great stuff from an old newspaper online , its from Timmins called the porcupine advance and this article and ad ran in March 31 1938

it seems to have been placed as a way to advertise there opening and fact a new bottler had arrived in the area

but couldn't seem to find anything else after that , to explain what became of them or why they seemed to disappear so soon after ?

the ad also indicates " KIK " was being bottled in Timmins in 1938

it also says the " speed " was a brand being sold elsewhere but I've never seen or heard of it before . sounds like an energy drink but this is 1938 so more likely a cola ? or lemon lime drink maybe

there location is also mentioned sixth avenue and balsam street - Timmins but on google maps its a residential area north of the downtown so maybe building long gone ?

never actually been to Timmins before its a long way north from where I live so not exactly familiar with the city

has anyone seen or heard of this bottle before or the brand " speed " in Canada 30's era

 

[CanadianBottles]

That's a great design, never seen such detailed pictorial embossing used on one of those generic deco designs before. Never heard of a franchise drink called Speed either... that means something very different today! Since it's alongside "orange" as a new flavour, I think it was likely just a local drink rather than an actual franchise product, maybe something with extra caffeine.

 

[RCO]

That's a great design, never seen such detailed pictorial embossing used on one of those generic deco designs before. Never heard of a franchise drink called Speed either... that means something very different today! Since it's alongside "orange" as a new flavour, I think it was likely just a local drink rather than an actual franchise product, maybe something with extra caffeine.

I've seen most of the other designs of art deco bottles that used this bottle and none have this much detail

the others its just embossed words , the company name and town/city , some did used different font types

wonder what the " speed " drink was too ? the newspaper ad says they also sold Kik ( a cola ) and an orange drink so could rule those 2 out

was it something with extra caffeine ? a very early attempt at an energy type drink ? or perhaps a lemon lime type drink ? also becoming popular at the time . other options would be a root beer , cream soda , ginger beer ?

 

[RCO]

a couple years ago I found a book on timmins at a thrift store , so I was flipping thru it see if there is any useful info

obviously nothing about the bottle itself but mentions there was another newspaper called the Timmins Press so perhaps they took out ads in it too ?

also mentions timmins grew during the 30's and wasn't hit as hard economically as other regions

mentions the population was 13,000 in 1930 but by end of the 30's had 25,000 people

so helps to explain why there was a market for a new bottler there in the late 30's , it was actually a busy growing city at the time

the bottle seems like its one of a kind but I'd wonder what the minimum order was to have such a bottle made by consumer glass in the 30's , it have to be at least a couple hundred or maybe 500 or a 1000 so must be others out there somewhere ?

thinking even if it only lasted for a year ? they must of had 100's of bottles made at the time , a major glass maker like consumers glass would of been expensive and wouldn't of bothered unless order worth while

 

[RCO]

don't have any postcards from Timmins but found a couple online that appear to be from the 20's > 30's era based on vintage cars , to give an idea what the city was like then when this bottle operated

 

[RCO]

came across some new info , searching thru more newspapers and came across an ad for GV Bottling works showing KIK bottles but its from 1941 , so they obviously lasted much longer than 1 year and now it appears they operated from at least 1938 > 1941 but could be longer

this ad only features KIK and no mention of other flavours or speed