Hires “medals and medallions”

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Csa

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Can’t find too much on this one. A couple eBay examples and a reference to the medals and medallions advertising campaign apparently from the 20’s in the hiresbook.com.
Has no mark or maybe a very faint one on base. Nice embossed medals below shoulder. At bottom has Hires/registered on one side and Hires 14 Fld. Ozs on other. Anybody have more info on this one? It’s in great shape compared to the vast majority of my finds which are studies in how glass breaks down over time.
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SODABOB

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Csa - Cool bottle -Thanks for sharing it ...

Even though I do not consider myself an expert on Hires Root Beer bottles, I have done my share of research on them over the years and have a file of over 100 Hires related items - including photos of bottles, ads, etc. But regardless of my so called credentials, I think the best place to start is to determine if your bottle is hand-blown or machine made. If you are not sure how to determine the difference, the simplest way is to examine the mold seams on the sides of the bottle and see if they stop on the shoulder/neck area or go all the way up and over the top of the lip. Even though determining that won't provide an exact date, it will narrow it down considerably. If it is machine made, it was almost certainly made sometime after 1905. Once that is determined, it will be a lot easier to attribute an approximate date for it, and possibly even narrow it down within a year or two. Regarding Hires bottles in general, their earliest Crown-top bottles were produced around 1896-97. Prior to that, they had Blob-tops.

Thanks again - we will standby and look forward to what you come up with.

Bob
 

Csa

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Thanks for the feedback SodaBob, this is exactly the type of guidance I was looking for when I joined up here. As I have mentioned in my earlier posts, nearly all of the bottles I am finding are surface finds or slight unearthing, and only a couple that I am pretty sure are hand blown, or blown in a mold with an applied top. Most are first half of 1900s medicins, a few milks and a lot of "federal law forbids" drinking bottles fro the 40s.

Looking at this bottle, it def has seams all the way up and is pretty cleanly finished, so quite sure it's machine made. The hiresbook.com is a great pictorial history of hires. Looking through the chapters, I see ref to the medals and medallions slogan and label in late 1800s, but the bottles obviously are much different. The first time I see a picture like the one I found is in their 1920s listings and ads. By the 1930s adds, the bottle have changes and have art-deco looking horizontal embossing. So as of now my amateur working assumption is a 1920's era bottle. Coincidentally I have a Hires Household extract bottle with a cork top finish, which seems to be a 1920's vintage as well. I'll keep an eye out for more Hires material. Cheers
 

SODABOB

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Csa

Thanks for the info - very helpful. The Medals on the bottle, and on a lot of paper labels, represent awards they won - especially those they won at the World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893. Notice that the two bottles I'm attaching have different labels. You can rarely date a bottle simply based on the label because there is no way of knowing if the label is original to the bottle or was added later by someone. That's why ads and similar references are a lot more reliable.

I don't know the exact dates for either of these bottles, but they appear to be the same or similar to yours

Hires Ginger Ale Bottle carling forum (3).jpg
Hires Crown Top Bottle - Exact Date Unknown (3).jpg


Here's a closeup of the center medal on a typical paper label - where you should be able to see the words World's Fair and the 1893

Hires Label eBay Oct 2016 Start Bid $34.99 Medal (2).jpg


I will be back with more later.

Bob
 

hemihampton

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The older Hires, hand blown as Bob calls it & Blob will have the Hires embossed on very Bottom of Bottle. What year they moved it off Bottom I don't know but the early Machine Made Hires would probably still have it on the Bottom. LEON.
 

SODABOB

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If a Hires bottle or label has the word "Registered" on it - as opposed to the words "Applied For" then it is safe to say it was made in 1906 or later - which is when their Wordmark was first granted as seen in this original document. Notice the date June 26, 1906

Hires 1906 Original Trademark Document Page Two (2).jpg


Hires 1906 Original Trademark Document Page One.jpg
 

SODABOB

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Earlier we said that ads are a good resource for dating bottles. I don't know if either of these bottles have the medals embossed on the shoulder, but it is safe to say that this particular bottle was available in 1921

Baltimore, Maryland ~ June 22, 1921

Hires Root Beer_The_Evening_Baltimore Maryland_Sun_Fri__Jul_22__1921.jpg


If I came across this particular bottle with this particular label, I would be comfortable in assuming the label is original to the bottle - because the ad supports it

Hires Root Beer_The_Evening_Baltimore Maryland_Sun_Fri__Jul_22__1921 cropped Bottle.jpg
Hires Ginger Ale Bottle carling forum (2).jpg
 

SODABOB

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Although this is still inconclusive, and I don't know if the bottle in the ad has the embossed medals, it does depict a paper label with the medals - which is close enough for me to "assume" that Csa's bottle was "possibly" available in the early 1920s. I have only been able to find the bottle depicted in the ad from 1920 to 1922. But whether those are the only years it was available, I cannot say for certain. Now I'm going to see if I can find anything about the Brehm Beverage Co. that might shed some more light on things.

Baltimore, Maryland ~ July 8, 1921

Hires Root Beer_The_Evening_Sun_Baltimore Maryland_Wed__Jun_8__1921_.jpg


Hires Root Beer Bottle Embossed Medals Forum Member Csa Nov 2020.jpeg
Hires Root Beer_The_Evening_Sun_Baltimore Maryland_Wed__Jun_8__1921 Cropped Bottle.jpg
 

SODABOB

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I hate to say this is still inconclusive, but it's the embossed medals on Csa's bottle that's complicating things. I'm starting to think those particular bottles might have been exclusive to a single bottler. If that's true, then it might explain my difficulty in finding others like it. So instead of looking for identical bottles, I switched my focus to 14 Oz bottles, which Csa said is embossed on the heel of his bottle. With that said, this ad from 1925 is the absolute latest I can find that refers to a 14 Oz bottle. The snippet of the bottles is from the same ad. The coupon is where you will see the reference to 14 Oz bottles. I have more to add to this discussion, including a variation of the bottle with the embossed medals that I bought on eBay this morning, but I will need a little time to get my ducks in a row in order to properly present it, which I hope will be sometime tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest.


Philadelphia, Pa. ~ May 14, 1925

Hires Root Beer 14 Oz Bottles__The_Philadelphia_Inquirer_Penn_Thu_May_14_1925.jpg


Hires 14 Oz Bottles_The_Philadelphia_Inquirer_Penn_Thu__May_14__1925.jpg
 
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