Old beer bottle porcelain top with hinge - help?

[aimees]

Good Evening -

I was directed to this site by a member on the EB discussion board. Looking to get some info on the following bottle which I acquired this past weekend. Any info (date, value, bottle type, etc.) would be greatly appreciated so I can decide whether to keep this or put it up for auction.

Thanks in advance.

This bottle is from Ehinger Brewery on Germantown Ave in Phila, PA. I think can date it somewhere between 1900- 1912 because the brewery closed after 1912. It has a porcelain top (cork has deteriorated) and on the back it states "This bottle is not to be sold". It does not have any cracks or chips and is fairly clean for its age.There are some air bubbles in the glass and the metal on the hinge(?) is rusted but it still works.

The bottom of the porcelain piece reads, "Pat'd, K. Hutter, Feb 4 1893".

 

[Wheelah23]

Welcome to the forum, aimees! That is a nice bottle you have. Sounds like you have your facts straight already, to be honest. I'd say your bottle dates from around 1895-1905.

Obviously it is a beer bottle, and the particular type is a blob top beer. If it has the original bail, like yours does, I would suspect it is in mint condition. Most Philly bottles are not worth much, but since yours is so nice, I'd say over $20 wouldn't be out of the question. More, if it's a rare bottle. I'd say definitely keep it!

 

[NYCFlasks]

I can tell you a bit about the closure on your bottle. The "K. Hutter" on the base refers to Karl Hutter, a New York businessman who purchased the patent rights for the Lightning stopper (used on fruit jars with the Lightning name at first, others later) for use on small mouth bottles, such as beer and soda bottles.
His name is on the bottom of many of these bottles, such as you see on your bottle. It is possible that if you look VERY closely at the stopper, on the small button or knob which goes into the bottles mouth, that you will also see something to the effect of "Hutter Patent" or "K. Hutter" there also.
This closure is still used today, with some variations, on bottles, the best known to me is the Grolsh beer bottle.

 

[Wheelah23]

At least half of the blobs I've seen from the NY/NJ area were made by Karl Hutter, so there's nothing out of the ordinary there... If you want to be really precise about a date, feel the inside of the neck of the bottle. It's hard to explain in words, but if you feel any sort of sharp ridge, or even any unevenness inside the neck by the blob, then it should date before 1895 or so. What is the exact conformation of the lettering on the base? If the base embossing is written circularly around the base edge, then it's probably before about 1895. It will be spelled out completely, like "KARL HUTTER". If it is written on separate straight lines, then it is likely after 1895. In this case, it will be abbreviated to "K. HUTTER". How is the writing on the back configured? If it's on two lines on the heel, like "THIS BOTTLE/ NOT TO BE SOLD", then it is after 1895. If it is on three separate lines, centered on the bottle, like "THIS BOTTLE/ NOT TO/ BE SOLD", then it is before 1895.

 

[cyberdigger]

At least half of the blobs I've seen from the NY/NJ area were made by Karl Hutter

None of the bottles were made by Karl. That's only a patent mark..

 

[aimees]

Thanks, everyone, for all of your help!

The "not to be sold" words are written on two lines. The words regarding K. Hutter are only on the bottom of the porcelain stopper - they are not on the bottom of the bottle. The bottom of the bottle does not have any writing.

I am probably going to list this on EB - I purchased this and 7 other bottles just because they looked interesting. But since I don't collect these, I will probably see if I can find it a "good home". I got them for a dirt cheap price.

Just a quick question (since I'm such a novice at this) - why are bottles from Philly not worth much? Just curious.

Thanks again!

 

[Wheelah23]

ORIGINAL: cyberdigger

At least half of the blobs I've seen from the NY/NJ area were made by Karl Hutter

None of the bottles were made by Karl. That's only a patent mark..

Technically true... [8D] Although, most of them were definitely made at the same glass house, with merely a change in the slug plate... Okay, you got me... []

ORIGINAL: aimees

Just a quick question (since I'm such a novice at this) - why are bottles from Philly not worth much?  Just curious.

Taking into account what you said about the base and embossing, I'd say your bottle actually is after 1900... I say this because of the embossing being on two lines, in combination with the lack of base embossing... Responding to your question about Philly, if Charlie hasn't beat me to it, Philly had such a large bottling industry that there is not much collecting interest in most bottles from there. There were probably, in total, tens of thousands of individual bottlers in Philly at various points in time... As such, a typical looking example like yours would not command much attention... If it was from a smaller town, which might've had 10 bottlers in all its history, well... The bottles are more interesting to collectors.

And I have a question for you. This is probably stupid, but what does "EB" stand for? []

 

[aimees]

That's what I figured about the Philly bottles - but just wanted to be sure.

I used EB for eBay - wasn't sure if I was allowed to state "eBay" on this site.

I really appreciate all of the info you all have provided. I only paid 50 cents for it so even if I get $10 for it I'll be ahead of the game. I have a few other Philly bottles (no tops though) so I doubt they'd be worth that much. Maybe I'll put the others together in a lot.

 

[Sodasandbeers]

I have his listed at the Germantown address 1906-1912. This bottle has a little more value because it is from a brewery and there are brewania collectors out there. Karl Hutter patented these porcelain stoppers in 1893.

Interestingly, Hutter and other "Foreign" suppliers had difficulty in penetrating the Philadelpia market. So even though North Jersey has tons of Hutter marked bottles, there are only 8 marked Hutter bottles from Philadelphia and 7 of those are from the Prospect Brewery, in which Hutter was a partner. So one bottler out of thousands did business with Hutter.

Also Hutter was a jobber and solicited orders from bottler and worked with various glass factories to get them blown. He was known to use South Jersey glass works.