old bottles

[spot34]

Hello everyone,
I'm hoping someone can give me some info on these bottles.
The bottles both say "H. Ackerman St. Louis, Mo" on the front. The hazy looking bottle on the left has no other marks aside from the "A" on the bottom with a dot under the cross mark of the letter A. The clearer bottle on the right has "This Bottle Never Sold" on the back. On the bottom of this bottle there is also an "A" but the dot is on the upper right corner of the A.

Regarding their tops, the clear one seems smoother than the hazy top which doesn't look as tooled. Does this mean the hazy bottle is older? Are these considered "blob tops?"

I'd sure appreciate any info.

Thanks! Spot

 

[DiggerBryan]

Hello Spot, I think these are called a "hutch" as in Hutchinson (sp?) If I remember right Hutchinson was the last name of the man who invented this style. I am mainly into milks so I could be very, very wrong! But for some reason that seems to stick.

 

[spot34]

Thanks, Digger. I'll check that out.

What do you know about milk bottles? I found a bunch of those as well.
Janet

 

[glopf43]

Hey Spot, Nice finds [8D]! I think that Bryan is right, these look like "hutch" bottles. These types of bottles are usually very desireable. Did you dig these yourself? There are others on the forum that may be better at dating and giving a value for them [8|]...mid 1800s I believe [sm=rolleyes.gif]??

 

[spot34]

Thanks , Glopf.[]
My husband's jobsite uncovered an old cistern back in January. We got a lot of old bottles at that time (a building is covering that site now), but they are still digging up some places. So, actually, my husband found these and brought them home the other day. The others (about 40 various types--beer bottles, medicine bottles, soda bottles, milk bottles, ketchup bottles, olive oil bottles etc.) all seem to date the late 1800's from what I've learned. These "hutch" bottles weren't from the cistern, though, and are different from all the others. It's right near an old open, farmer's market that still exists today and the farmer's market has been there since 1779, so I guess it's feasible to find bottles around there that are so old. It's also around a lot of brewery caverns (like Busch and Lemp). Anyway, I'm looking forward to researching Hutch Bottles. Thanks!
Janet

 

[DiggerBryan]

Hello again spot, I can tell you a lot about milk bottles, especially Ohio milk bottles. Do yours have raised lettering on them? (Also known as embossing) or are they painted. (AKA pyro) On most milk bottles if you look on the bottom you will see a number for example, "24" that would stand for the year 1924. Let me know what questions you have.

 

[redbrass_ca]

The hutchinson type closure was invented by Charles G. Hutchinson in 1879. It was the principal style of bottle used by soda water manufacturers in North America in the 1880's and 1890's until the early 1900 where is was gradually replaced by the crown top. There should or could be the remains of a spring wire closure or cap which needs to be pushed in the bottle to release its content. It is hard to tell from your picture.

Cheers

Thierry G. Papion

 

[appliedlips]

Your bottles date to the 1890's.These are fairly common St.Louis sodas and are worth maybe $5-10 dollars.However, there were many different bottlers in St.Louis at this time and much earlier,some not as common.Any Anheiser or Lemp bottles would be desirable from this time period.Most milk bottles from St.Louis are very common also.Bottle diggers have dug St.Louis for alot of years and turned up alot of bottles making most stuff from this age fairly common.Soulard is a neat old area of town but not even close to the oldest.Any sites they dig downtown or on the North side will be older and bottles will be more desireable.If you ever run into any St.Louis inks,pontilled medicines,or peppersauces I would be very interested.

 

[spot34]

Hi Bryan. I didn't know that about milk bottles. I looked and all are from 1914 except one, which is from 1913. A couple of them don't have any numbers on the bottom. Does that tell me anything? They are all embossed. I didn't know milk bottles were ever painted. I'm guessing painted bottles came before embossed. Is that true? I have bottles from Jersy Farms, St. Louis Dairy Co., Highland (Illinois), and Union Dairy Co. All are pint jars, except for one. I have one that is a quart bottle. I love the way they look.

What got you interested in the milk bottles specifically?
Janet

 

[spot34]

Thierry, thank you. That time period fits perfectly with all of the other bottles we found. Unfortunately, there was no remain of the closure. One of the bottles is really pretty beat up, but . . . well, they are interesting and fun to find out about. In my looking around to find out about Hutch bottles yesterday, I discovered that this is where the term soda-pop came from--because of the sound it made when a person pushed the closure in to open the bottle. Is that right? I never knew that.
Janet