old bottles

[spot34]

Applied, thanks for your response. It sounds like you are from St. Louis! I'm realizing that these bottles are quite common. We haven't found any from Lemp, but we do have a cool St. Louis Weiss Beer bottle--brown blob top. The lip has a chip, though. I have them all packed away at the moment, but I'll look through them. We do, indeed have some peppersauce bottles, ketchup bottles, medicine bottles--though I'm not sure any of the medicine bottles are pontilled. Ink bottles--I have the feeling I have a few of those, but I'm really not sure what an ink bottle looks like--small, short, wide lip for a bigger cork? I do have one or two like that. They aren't embossed or anything. Just plain bottles. I think the pepper sauces were Strutts or something like that (I can't remember, but the name is on them, and that sounds sort of right off the top of my head). A couple of different sizes, as I recall. We have an early Brooks ketchup bottle. I also have a couple of really tiny vials--I think I posted photos of them somewhere on this forum back in January. I'll send you pictures if you want to see any of them.

I'll have to keep my eyes peeled whenever I'm on the North side. We just sort of hit the jackpot with these bottles from my husband's job site and it plunged us into this very interesting world. We had a couple of interesting bottles from here and there that we just liked and kept, but I've never considered myself a bottler--until now, I suppose. What would you say the oldest part of St. Louis is? I would guess the riverfront down by the arch. Is that true?

I'm not really interested in parting with any of them, but I'd love to know their value and more about their history. Of course, I guess if I really hit a jackpot with a bottle, that would be fun, too []
Thanks for the insight. How do you find out historical information regarding St. Louis specifically?
Janet

 

[Bottle tumbler]

milk bottles were embossed first up to around the fifties I think, but the they were painted (pyroglazed) is the name. Make sure to do your research on them before you sell, some are common but some can be worth more, milk bottles can be like the hutch soda or other sodas. several companies or back yard bottlers in every town. My town of 1000 people, that includes kids, had 3 up untill they closed around 1965 or so. but try and find one.

rick

 

[kastoo]

Common or not..hutchinson bottles are highly prized finds to a lot of diggers just because of the age. I do see hutches go on Ebay though for 5 and 10...it always bewildered me.

 

[redbrass_ca]

Dear Janet

Hutchinson bottles are highly collectable and are getting rarer. Fifteen years ago we use to come across them on the ocean floor about 35% of the time but today I don't think we see them even 5% of the time. We had a lot of Soda Water manufacturer's in Halifax Nova Scotia in the mid to late 1800 because of the large presence of the British Navy which was a heavy consumer of soda and Ginger beer. I don't know for sure if the word pop came from the hutchinson. One thing is certain is that the closure whould need to be modify by our present standards because lead solder was used to hold the spring to the stopper. I have many hutchinson's here in my collection. Embossed bottles are the most sought after.

Cheers

Thierry G. Papion
Halifax Nova Scotia

 

[appliedlips]

Janet,

I live in Ohio now,but originally from Highland,Ill. where one of your milks are from.The Highland Dairy bottles are very common.I probably didn't help your cause,when I was a kid I dug hundreds from a dump in Highland.The Jersey Farms,Union Dairy,and St.Louis are fairy common also.That is the bad thing about being in a area with alot of diggers most local bottles become fairly common.Which of course is no big deal unless you want to sell them.I have moved on to better bottles in my collection but still will not part with a few of my $5 Highland Dairys.Value means nothing if you enjoy something,that's my way of looking at it.If you come across the embossed peppersauce I would be very interested and pay top dollar.Thanks,Doug