How common is this SEAL occurance?

[cowseatmaize]

Fryeburg ME Bottle with MASS seal.
How about other state crossovers?
I have a ½ pint embossed from them but it has a MAINE SEAL. Is that just a manufacture mark? I thought it was for point of sale.

 

[RED Matthews]

Hi Eric, This is the first time I have heard of a State Seal on a milk container. It doesn't surprise me, because the government gets involved with every thing else. How about a picture? Congratulations on a new one for us to look for. RED Matthews

 

[cowseatmaize]

Sure Red, these are a H.S. Holder from Hudson Mass and the Fryeburg Dairy from Maine I mentioned.
The "T" you may recognize, it is a Thatcher. The Maine is OI.

 

[RED Matthews]

Thanks, I assumed the left one might be Thatcher's - is the bottom embossed with TGM or ? PM me. RED M.

 

[cowseatmaize]

The TGM is on the heel and the OI is on the base.
My question about the term XXXX Seal is more about whether it's a quality control mark for a particular state.
Any maker in any state could make the bottles, I understand that but would they have to be specific to the state for inspection purposes.
I was curious whether the eBay sale is a mistake or a forgery if they did.
I'm still trying to find out about the dairy, I think it may have been Weston's Farm. I worked for George Weston but I haven't seen or talked to him in 20 years and only worked a few days there. He was about my age now then so I have know idea if the family is even still there.[8|] The historical society was unreachable when I tried last.

 

[RIBottleguy]

Hi Eric,
The seals on milk bottles was only used in a few states (Mass, Maine, RI, and Penn). Almost every RI milk bottle had one when they were required. It was sort of like a license, and a RI milk would need a Mass seal if you sold your milk in Mass. Here's a very helpful website to help decode the letter/number codes on the seals:

http://dairyantiques.com/Milk_Bottle_Marks.html

 

[cowseatmaize]

ORIGINAL: RIBottleguy

It was sort of like a license, and a RI milk would need a Mass seal if you sold your milk in Mass. Here's a very helpful website to help decode the letter/number codes on the seals:

http://dairyantiques.com/Milk_Bottle_Marks.html

Thanks RI, I'm familiar with Doug and Linda's site.
I'm not sure your idea would apply to Fyreburg Dairy though. It's around 100 miles north from the Mass border so sales in Mass in bottles would be impractical, even in the 30's or 40's. Bulk perhaps but not bottles. There were plenty of farms to supply the border towns in NH and MA to meet that reasoning.
I'm not dismissing the idea but if you come up with anything more, I'd love to here it.

 

[RIBottleguy]

Ah, it does help to follow the link you posted first! The seal process was pretty much gone by the time pyro milks became popular. My best guess is that the dairy owner used a bunch of old unembossed cream top milks for his dairy. He probably got them cheap, and then had them pyroglazed.

I talked to the owner of a bottling company in RI once, and he told me how he bought a bunch of unembossed soda bottles from a glass company that was going out of business. He got them cheap, and had the ACLs for his company put on them.


Another possibility is when the seal program ended, the glass company just got lazy and used a mold with the Mass seal in it for the guy in Maine.

 

[cowseatmaize]

I think there's the winner Taylor. I'll do some looking to find when the program ended. I do have a pyro OI from 45 with no MASS SEAL so prior to that I guess.
Thanks for for thinking of what I should have thought of if my brain wasn't frozen. []