RINGROSE'S PURE HORSERADISH BOTTLE, WHERE AND WHEN MADE?

[Enasteri]

I recently bought an antique bottle at a garage sale. It is embossed, "Ringrose's Pure Horseradish" on one side and "This Bottle is Never Sold" on the other side. I found one on Bonanza and one on Etsy and I am trying to sell mine on Ebay. Where and when was this bottle made? Is it really rare? It is scraped up inside the top 1/2 of the bottle making the glass cloudy. How much would you say it is worth? the rim has small chips out of it. Is it pre 1900 or post 1900 or both? I can't find any listing of a company by that name.

 

[Enasteri]

Seam goes up through one shoulder of the bottle and onto the neck but seems to be sanded smooth on the neck. Is this an applied, tooled lip?

 

[Fenndango]

C. 1900

Worth about a quarter even in good condition.

 

[CanadianBottles]

The base makes me think it's a bit older than 1900, I'd guess the latter couple decades of the 19th century. Not many people collect condiment bottles of this era so unfortunately it's not going to be worth much. I wouldn't say it's only worth a quarter, but probably not much more than $5-10 or so. The fact that it was presumably a deposit bottle is definitely interesting to me though, I don't remember ever seeing a condiment bottle that was supposed to be returned. I wonder who the customer would have even returned it to.

 

[hemihampton]

I would guess worth more then a quarter. maybe a quarter if it was a slick. Leon.

 

[5 gallon collector]

C. T. Ringrose made horseradish in MN. There are very few newspaper.com hits -- but there is a good article in The Minneapolis Journal, 27 September 1933 that gives some information. A couple of 2-line ads in The MN Star Tribune end of 1934 don't tell us much -- except that he did indeed restart the business after being forced to move. The 1933 article notes that, as of 1933, he had been producing horseradish at his manufacturing plant on lots adjoining his home, on Benjamin St and 18th Ave NE, for 30 years. A poorly designed city project, streets, sidewalks, curbs, gutters, that became washed out and overgrown, reverting to wilderness, led to his taxes being raised so that he had to move. I'll try to attach the article, in three parts -- the article does continue, but there is no further mention of Mr. Ringrose. And I can send it to you if you wish, as an email attachment. Interesting to think that had that ill-fated development not taken place, we might not know much about him at all. I'll see what ancestry.com has.
I think it's a great little bottle, even if not in much demand, and even better with the history - the never sold refill aspect is interesting. Makes sense, not deep, easy to clean, reuse the bottle -- which means I suppose that there might be fewer of them around, though he was producing horseradish for many years, as noted above - at least 30 -- unknown when he stopped.
Who knows, perhaps there are focused horseradish bottle collectors....? And there must be MN collectors. If you sell it, add as much of the history as you can to the sale page.

 

[5 gallon collector]

In the census reports, 1900, 10, 20, 30 he was farmer, garden farmer, pickle manufacturing and pickle factory. First name was Charles. B 1860, in MN, English parents, D 1947. Obituary attached.

 

[5 gallon collector]

You might try to track down a descendant; who might be very pleased to have it and the history (or perhaps could not care less!)

 

[CanadianBottles]

C. T. Ringrose made horseradish in MN. There are very few newspaper.com hits -- but there is a good article in The Minneapolis Journal, 27 September 1933 that gives some information. A couple of 2-line ads in The MN Star Tribune end of 1934 don't tell us much -- except that he did indeed restart the business after being forced to move. The 1933 article notes that, as of 1933, he had been producing horseradish at his manufacturing plant on lots adjoining his home, on Benjamin St and 18th Ave NE, for 30 years. A poorly designed city project, streets, sidewalks, curbs, gutters, that became washed out and overgrown, reverting to wilderness, led to his taxes being raised so that he had to move. I'll try to attach the article, in three parts -- the article does continue, but there is no further mention of Mr. Ringrose. And I can send it to you if you wish, as an email attachment. Interesting to think that had that ill-fated development not taken place, we might not know much about him at all. I'll see what ancestry.com has.
I think it's a great little bottle, even if not in much demand, and even better with the history - the never sold refill aspect is interesting. Makes sense, not deep, easy to clean, reuse the bottle -- which means I suppose that there might be fewer of them around, though he was producing horseradish for many years, as noted above - at least 30 -- unknown when he stopped.
Who knows, perhaps there are focused horseradish bottle collectors....? And there must be MN collectors. If you sell it, add as much of the history as you can to the sale page.

This is good that you've got a city to attach it to now! Yes that could definitely increase the desirability for Minnesota collectors, that's not one of the states where most of this type of bottle originated from.

 

[saratogadriver]

It's a pity that food bottles don't pull more money. That one is a neat one. Certainly not one I've ever seen on the east coast. And I've only seen "This bottle is never sold" on soda and beer bottles, mainly soda. Never seen it on a food or condiment bottle before.

Jim G