John G. Epping Bottles

[jblaylock]

I guess we're concluding this, unless SPB has any additional information. It seems we'll likely never know why John Epping changed the name, or if there were 2 products or what. I'll recap what is likely here Epps-Cola: 1917-1923Epps-Kola: 1924John G. Epping bottles: seem they are from 1923-1924 time period. My guess is they were just a flavor bottle, and Mr. Epping used the other bottles for Epps-CKola. Perhaps he went with a new bottle/name in 1924 to differentiate the cola from the other flavors. Like I originally said, I like that Mr. Epping stuck with that similar bottle design (rectangles with rounded ends) through the years/flavors/sizes. But since finding the Wainscott bottle, I'm curious of the design and where that came from. I saw this photo, which as a curiously similar pattern.

Albany IN isn't super close to Louisville, but not awfully far.

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

I meant to post this comparison earlier but got side-tracked. I'm still thinking the deco Epps-Kola bottle was too similar to the Julep bottle and is possibly why the Epps-Kola bottle was so short-lived and why it might not have received a design patent. The main differences I see are ... 1. The areas where the names are embossed2. The Julep bottle has two neck rings but the Epps-Kola only has one ( I borrowed the Julep bottle from Morbious_fod's Tazwell site because it was the best color image I could find )

 

[jblaylock]

Starting to feel a little like Forrest Gump here......

For no particular reason I just kept on going.

John G. Epping 1925 Clear

Epping Dimpled - Green

 

[sunrunner]

a nice bottle line.

 

[jblaylock]

I found one mention from "The Encyclopedia of Kentucky" of Epps-Cola, but no year was mentioned. That lead me to Herman Epping. That didn't turn up much, only this obit from American Bottlers Vol 31. Seems like the business went on as Mrs. H. Epping and Sons

When this bottle showed up on Ebay, well..... I had to add it to the collection of Epping's bottles.

 

[jblaylock]

Hey guys, Does this look legit? I'm always skeptical about seltzer bottles. http://www.ebay.com/itm/2...ame=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

[DavidW]

Hi Josh,Just a bit of trivia.......last year I found a couple broken / deformed EPPS-COLA bottles along with some other soda bottles from an apparent casual dumpsite that was uncovered during some road construction. I am guessing all of the soda bottles were from the 1920s period (maybe late 1910s in some cases), because along with the EPPS-COLA there were also some broken FALLS CITY ICE & BEVERAGE CO (Louisville), THE HORN CO, Louisville, and several JEFF-KOLAs from Jeffersonville, IN (right across the river from Louisville). ALL of the JEFF-KOLAs were made by Graham Glass Company of Evansville and carry date codes: either 1924, 1925 or 1926! Because of that I was assuming that EPPS-COLA type was from the same general time period, although they didn't have date codes on these 2 particular ones.David

 

[jblaylock]

David, did you find any bottles different from what I have? I'd love to see the photos if you do.

 

[DavidW]

Josh, I think they are the same style as yours. Be warned they are rather ugly and dirty looking, but I saved broken examples just for the heck of it.......ya never know when something different will be noticed after a bottle is cleaned up. They are definitely two slightly different shades of "light coke bottle green" but the shades don't show up exactly correct on my computer monitor. The dumpsite where they were found had been burned over so they had melted a bit and have a "squashed" look. I examined the heels very closely (better than I had done before) and discovered the whole one appears to be marked faintly: 19 N 1 (I assume this indicates it was made by American Bottle Company in 1919, at their Newark, Ohio plant).The broken-top example has this mark on the heel: 845ESR (I haven't checked, but I believe this is a Graham Glass code, haven't taken the time to try to find out what it means......I know there are webpages discussing the Graham codes but I don't have all that info memorized!) I was going to post a couple pics but I'm not sure if I can upload them directly to this page from my computer?David

 

[DavidW]

Josh can you email me at davidrussell59@att.net.