RARE SODA BOTTLE BOOK ~ By J. L. JONES ~ COPYRIGHT 1972

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Here's one for you Tennessee boys ...

Big Victory Chief ~ Morristown, Tennessee ~ 1935

Were these being made in 1935 or is the date a misread/misprint/typo?

I collect Big Chief's and have been wanting one of these for a long time but haven't been willing to pay the big bucks they usually demand. Too bad I didn't nab one back in 1972 for $2.00-$3.00

Bob

Bottle B-17

 

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Text ...

 

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Hmmm ...

Gono.com shows a 1934 Big Victory Chief

http://gono.com/museum2003/paintedlbottles/paintedb2.htm

 

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For Future Reference / In Search Of ...

If a 1934 'Big Victory Chief' does exist, it will tie with Morbious_fod's 1934 'Jumbo Cola' as the earliest acls known. There have been discussions in the past about the possibility of a 1934 Big Victory Chief, but as far as I know nothing ever surfaced to either confirm or refute it. I recall one forum member saying these bottles were from the 1940s, but now with two separate references coming to light (the 1934 gono.com listing and the 1935 J.L. Jones book listing) I can't help but wonder if the earlier than 1940 examples do in fact exist. It would be easy to dismiss one or the other references as some form of typo, but with two entirely different references seemingly in support of one another, it makes it a little tougher to dismiss. I spent a considerable amount of time last night and this morning searching for anything I could find related to a Big Victory Chief acl, but the only thing I found worth mentioning was an example on eBay from September of this year that was listed for $50.00 but did not sell. I suspect the reason it didn't sell is because of the poor condition it was in. The seller did not indicate a specific date, but the (blurry) picture of the base he posted clearly shows 'Duraglas.' And because of this I know that particular bottle was from no earlier than about 1940. I will post a picture of the base and you can check it out for yourself on the link, but I have been unable to make out the embossed date number other than it is obviously an Owens-Illinois bottle. Anyhoo, its possible the J.L. Jones book might have got this one right - maybe?

Please note: This is not a case of assumption or speculation. I honestly feel the two references warrant a legitimate investigation into the possibility of a 1934-1935 Big Victory Chief acl soda bottle actually existing.

Bob

eBay Link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/BIG-VICTORY-CHIEF-SODA-BOTTLE-MORRISTOWN-TENNESSEE-TN-DIXIE-BOTTLING-CO-/310744971335?nma=true&is=j0y70GOKg4da%252BqQDfZZb63uVuzc%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=NC&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

[ eBay Bottle ~ Ended September 17, 2013 ]

 

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Base ~ w/Duraglas ~ 1940 at the earliest ... but this doesn't necessarily mean they couldn't have been produced earlier ...

 

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ORIGINAL: SODAPOPBOB
There have been discussions in the past about the possibility of a 1934 Big Victory Chief, but as far as I know nothing ever surfaced to either confirm or refute it. I recall one forum member saying these bottles were from the 1940s, but now with two separate references coming to light (the 1934 gono.com listing and the 1935 J.L. Jones book listing) I can't help but wonder if the earlier than 1940 examples do in fact exist. It would be easy to dismiss one or the other references as some form of typo, but with two entirely different references seemingly in support of one another, it makes it a little tougher to dismiss.

My research on other bottles often leads to two or more seperate online sites listing bottles like this making me believe that one backs up the other, then thru further research I find out that one site took it's info from the other site and that they are both wrong, so don't go by what you see without further research Bob.

Way too many people are just plain lazy and they copy what they find elsewhere on the net without any other documentation or facts, if I hadn't dug further I'd never have found the numerous Paterson bottles I was told DIDN'T exist. It would not surprise me at all if the Gono refernce is attributed to the Jones book in this case, food for thought.

 

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ORIGINAL: SODAPOPBOB

Base ~ w/Duraglas ~ 1940 at the earliest ... but this doesn't necessarily mean they couldn't have been produced earlier ...

My guess is that the Big Chief had a 5. on the base that was misinterpreted as a 1935 and not the 1945 that it actually was. The Owens date codes surely were not as widely known and easily deciphered as it is in the internet age...

 

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Jim/epackage

I agree to some extent except that gono.com list a 1934 Big Victory Chief and the J.L. Jones book list a 1935. If gono.com was just copycatting Jones, why not use the 1935 date instead of 1934?

However, I will say this; I discovered something this afternoon that ties gono.com and J.L. Jones directly together and is something I have never heard mentioned on this forum and suspect not too many, if any, members are aware of. Notice in the following two pictures that they are the same image. I have often wondered where gono.com got their black & white images from - and now you and everyone else also knows - they got their images from the Jones book. As for gono.com dates, I was always under the impression they got them from their mass collection of bottles, with each one being categorized accordingly. And they may have, I'm not saying they didn't. But if they used the Jones book for both pictures as well as dates, why not use the same dates that are in the Jones book instead of using 1935 in place of 1934? But irregardless of the exact dates connected with the Big Victory Chief bottle, whether its 1934 or 1944, I still want one and hope to acquire one someday.

Anyhoo, here's the Jones book image again - the gono.com image will follow for comparison ...

 

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And here's the gono.com image. Look close at certain things like the two white dots just above and to the right of the Chief's headdress. It's the same image as the one from the Jones book ...

 

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Clarification ~

I did not mean to imply that every image on the gono.com site is from the J.L. Jones book, only that a lot of them are. gono.com has more images and listings than the Jones book does. I'm not sure where gono.com got the rest of their images but they could very well be from their own photographs that were taken and then converted to black & white's.

Bob