need help identifying and valuing bottles I found

[cowseatmaize]

The green bottle is embossed on 3 sides Udolpho Wolfe's / Scheidam / Aromatic Schnapps, with Holbrook and Co. on the bottom. I believe it is a pontil mark on the bottom. The green is quite bright, not olivey. From what I could see it would bring in the $50 range unless the color is unusual...? I have reposted the other bottle, which I am not able to find any information about on the internet. The embossing on the clear/purplish bottle is Alexander & Paterson / Finest Quality.

Are you in Australia? Holbrook was a merchant in Sydney I think and Alexander & Paterson were liquor merchants in Melbourne. That's all I get.

 

[CanadianBottles]

Pretty sure that isn't a pontil, just a circle for put there for some reason or another.

 

[sunrunner]

hay man, just saying what I know , The photo is not clear , but even from here , I can tell the deference between a pontil and not. also if some one really what's to learn the basics there is a lot of other places to pick it up.

 

[cannibalfromhannibal]

Pretty sure that isn't a pontil, just a circle for put there for some reason or another.

I would agree, as any decipherable embossing along with a pontil mark is highly unusual, if not unheard of. The scar would obliterate any readable marks unless they were on the outer rim. I have one bottle like I describe but looks more like a design rather than embossing, but could have been a crude attempt at embossing the base. Schnapps by nature are not usually pontiled and are fairly obvious when they are. Also, the amount of base embossing on yours in readable condition pretty much rules out the pontil idea. I checked my collection of "Holbrooks Ltd." sauce bottles I have and thought I had one that read Holbrook & Co. and in fact I do. It is a sample Worcestershire type sauce bottle and believe it is an American made variant. I'm just not sure how a sauce company would fit or connect to the Schnapps bottle unless they were made in Australia, which is out of my realm of knowledge. I would suspect more an American connection as Australia like England, used the LTD as opposed to Co. in their embossing. The clear bottle has a "brandy neck" and likely was just that. They both are fairly common enough type bottles and unless there is something that would make them a rare variant, they would sell fairly cheap. I would think the clear brandy type to be in the $15-20 range, assuming there are no cracks, chips, etc. One of the best ways to figure a decent price is to go on ebay and check out the completed/sold auctions. I did this with your Schnapps and discovered some interesting info. I found 41 sold, and 22 in a shade of green. Some were more exotic shades than yours so I eliminated those as they typically bring a better price. One had a complete label and also usually doubles the value or more. Next, I eliminated those that sold more than one bottle per auction. One lot had 3 nice early examples that sold for just $70! A bargain in my opinion. I also made note of those with major damage and eliminated those. Lastly, there were 3 listed as pontiled with one being highly doubtful as it had a common bulls-eye type circular base marking as seen on later variants. Two were clearly pontiled though they were iron pontiled, not open pontiled. So I ended up with 15 green examples nearest to yours and eliminated the top 2 and bottom 2 on the price scale. I ended up with an average sold price of just shy of $38 each. Factor in any shipping costs, say about $12 and you could expect a retail price around $40. HTH Jack

 

[cannibalfromhannibal]

Can't add properly......meant retail about $50, not $40......

 

[westernglassaddict]

The Schnapps is definitely a later version with an embossed "bulls eye" type circular pattern and definitely not any form of pontil. It dates to about 1910 or so. Value would be in the $12-$20 range at best. The clear whiskey looks to date about the same time...maybe a couple years earlier. Value would be in the $5 range unless embossed with a liquor merchant.

 

[newbienow]

Wow! thank you to everyone for your incredibly helpful information!!