DavidW
Well-Known Member
Hey Royal Ruby, can you post a picture (as clear as possible) of the base markings. I was wondering if we could figure out the approximate year that bottle was made.
Hey Royal Ruby, can you post a picture (as clear as possible) of the base markings. I was wondering if we could figure out the approximate year that bottle was made.
Thanks for the base pictures! OK, I hope I don't inject too much confusion here, but in the case of that flask I have doubts that the "56" is a date code. It seems that on some liquor bottles with a "Rectifier Number" (R-number) on the bottom, the arrangement of codes can be "thrown off" from the more typical arrangements.Sorry for the late response, been busy with other things lately, might finally have time to get back and look for new dumps to dig, here's the picture you requested, it's clearly dated 1956.View attachment 241417View attachment 241418
Thanks for the base pictures! OK, I hope I don't inject too much confusion here, but in the case of that flask I have doubts that the "56" is a date code. It seems that on some liquor bottles with a "Rectifier Number" (R-number) on the bottom, the arrangement of codes can be "thrown off" from the more typical arrangements.
OK, so we know for sure that Owens-Illinois made that bottle. The 56 may be a liquor bottle permit number -- (a number of liquor bottle permit numbers were assigned to Owens-Illinois factories) and '56" was issued by the US government to their Charleston, West Virginia glass factory location.
(The "5" cannot be a liquor bottle permit number for O-I, as the LBPN "5" was assigned to Thatcher Glass Manufacturing Company at their Dunkirk, NY location.) And we can see the bottle was certainly not made by Thatcher. So the "5" is either a date code for 1935 or it is just a mold number. I don't know which is correct but my guess is that the "5" is a date code for 1935.
Every mention of the Hiram Walker "KING OF CLUBS" brand I could find online was from the 1930s (1934, 1936, 1939). I strongly suspect your bottle does date from the 1930s, not the 1950s. JMHI.
I believe there are specialty sites online where older whiskey bottles are discussed in depth, and label info is presented to help "fine tune" possible date ranges for them. Although I don't have those URLS at hand.