NOLA Amber Coke

[Ivybriana]

Found this one the other day. While I am pretty knowledgeable about the hobbleskirts (thanks SODAPOPBOB and hemihampton!!) I know very little about earlier Coke bottles. This one looks to be in pretty good shape. Any info (year? worth? Anything unique to look out for?) would be appreciated.

 

[iggyworf]

Possibly 1900 to 1915. Any early amber Coke is worth some good money. 30$ or more maybe. Hopefully others will chime in with more info.

 

[hemihampton]

I'd say any straight side Coke a good find. with the older style R.G. CO for Root Glass Company on Bottom I'd guess predates 1909. think they changed to ROOT around 1909. Louisiana only made 3 different Amber Straight Sides. New Orleans, Shreveport & Monroe. with Shreveport being rarest & New Orleans more common. at least that's what Bob Porters Coke Book sez. LEON.

P.S. The best Coke to find would be any Hutchinson Coke Bottle.
P.S.S. With all the whittle in neck does not look ABM.

 

[SODABOB]

Hi, Ivy

Cool bottle. According to numerous sources, including New Orleans Coca Cola commemorative bottles, that particular bottler was established in 1902. So that would be the earliest date for your bottle. As Leon indicated, Root Glass stopped using the R.G. CO. and switched to ROOT around 1909. It was also in 1909 when Root started dating their bottles. I noticed in one of your photos what appears to be a 2 and possibly some other numbers or letters under the word Cola. Can you make them out and tell us what they are? They might be another clue about the date, etc. But regardless of those additional marks I believe it is safe to say that your bottle was likely made sometime between 1902 and 1909.

As to value, that is a horse of different color and difficult to say for certain. As with most soda bottles a lot depends on how bad a collector wants it if they don't have one and need to compliment their collection and possibly fill a gap. Of course, the overall condition of a particular bottle is also a major factor. I suppose one of the best ways to determine a value is to see what other bottles like it have sold for in the past and/or are currently being sold for.

This one on eBay is aqua but similar to yours. They are asking $55.00. If it was a "must have" bottle it would likely have already been sold.

https://shorturl.at/bimJL

This one on Etsy is amber and they too are asking $55.00. However, this one is unique in that it has O.B. CO. on the base which stands for the Ohio Bottle Co. According to some fairly extensive research that has been done on the company they were only in operation for two years - 1904 and 1905. So if that is accurate then this particular bottle and others like it are easy to circa date.

LOUISIANA COCA COLA Bottle-new Orleans-amber-straight - Etsy

This Collectible Glass item by thepastinglass has 36 favorites from Etsy shoppers. Ships from Roland, AR. Listed on Jun 16, 2023

www.etsy.com

That's about it for me. Thanks for sharing your bottle. If I find anything else of interest I will let you know.

Bob

 

[Ivybriana]

Hey Bob! You have a great eye! this time I totally missed the text but you are correct, it’s there. Here a pic, it’s pretty clear on this one.

 

[SODABOB]

Thanks, Ivy

It definitely appears to be a 215. I can't say for certain but there could be some additional letters/numbers on the right side of the 215. But regardless of that the 215 was definitely used by Root on some of their earliest Coca Cola bottles. As you may know, some of the first Coca Cola bottlers were Benjamin Franklin Thomas, Joseph Brown Whitehead, and John Thomas Lupton. I won't go into the history about them which started around 1899, but it is well known that they established separate territories. Their first bottles were Hutchinson bottles. According to historian Cecil Munsey, as well as other sources, it is believed that B.F. Thomas was the first bottler to use amber bottles. It would require a closer look into things to say for certain, but I believe New Orleans was a part of Thomas' territory. If that is accurate, then you have a Thomas bottle. But even with that said they are still considered somewhat common because there are so many of them. Because we may never know for certain when Root used the 215 on their bottles, we can only speculate about the exact date. If it was mine I would date it circa 1905.

Bob

 

[SODABOB]

Ivy

I forgot to mention that Benjamin Franklin Thomas was the one who first suggested the idea for the patent 1915 bottles - which we discussed in the thread about your Graham bottle.

Bob

 

[Ivybriana]

Ahhh yes, it all comes full circle!!! Thanks Bob, super informative as always

 

[UnderMiner]

I like it! And I enjoyed reading all the posts concerning its history! Well done everyone!