two nice crownies

[brianwpopbottle]

Here are a couple of recent bottle finds:
> "it" - clear, 6 oz., three sided body with slogan "The Whole World Wants it" embossed 3 times in large letters " embossed in small lettering on each of the three sides. "it" is embossed in large letters three times on shoulder. "3 Rivers" on heel and "San Antonio Texas" on bottom. I love this super simple name and slogan! Did coke borrow this in their "Coke is it" slogan from several years ago?

>"Milwaukee" - clear, 6 1/2 oz., nice bust of girl with 20's hair style sipping soda from a straw & bottle. Nice fancy embossed patterns over entire bottle and slogan "Milwaukee/All Year Round" on reverse of bottle. "3 Rivers" on heel. I found the "Milwaukee" at a bottle show and the "it" on ebay.
I'd love to upgrade condition on both of these - I always have bottles for trade, both embossed and ACL's, and I'm always on the prowl for neat unusual embossed crowntop bottles from the 1920's/30's.

Check out my website with lots of bottle photos at http://www.decosodas.com

 

[whosyerdaddy]

BRIAN, took a look at uer site awesome art deco sodas thanx whosyer !!

 

[bubbas dad]

brian
nice bottles. i really like the "IT" bottle. all the pictures you take of your bottles turn out looking great. what sort of back ground and lighting do you use?

 

[ronvae]

Yeah, tell me how you do the background & lighting, too!

Would you consider this one a "deco soda"? Is that your name for them, or a recognized group?
The maker's mark on the bottom is a diamond superimposed over an oval and an "I", Owens-Illinois Glass Co., Toledo, OH. My marks list says this version was used 1929-1957. It is embossed with pebbling all over, and a little Quaker man, and it says: "QUAKER BOTTLING CO., MPLS., MINN." & "CONTENTS 7 FLU OZS. Interestly, I can't find any info at all on Quaker Bottling Co. There are a few small bubbles in the base, and the base is a tad uneven.

Can anyone narrow the date for me at all?

 

[Tony14]

Not sure if that would be a deco or not. Deco sodas are sodas made in the 1920's -1930's with very odd or irregular shapes. Hpe this helps!

 

[brianwpopbottle]

Thanks to all for the (+) feedback!
Re. photos - The bottles stand on a frosted glass base and light it from below with 2 - 50 watt bulbs about 6 inches below the glass with a dimmer switch so I can get the bottom to glow and blend with the amount of backlight. I use a peice of white painted sheetrock for the background. For the backlight I use a 100 w bulb in one of those cheap reflectors (Home Depot) shining straight up from the bottom of the sheet rock. I totally darken the room except for the bottle lights and don't let any light leak out into the room from the base lights. I use a digital camera and shoot pics on low quality (files move faster that way) and use my zoom on telephoto and shoot the bottles from about 4 feet away. I've found all these things help but I'm not sure why.
There was a good article on photographing bottles in Soda Net recent issue. I haven't tried those methods yet but the photos looked really good!
PS - there is an "it" for sale on ebay.

 

[brianwpopbottle]

Ronvae,
Re the Quaker bottle I'd say your dating is right, a pretty wide range. Some Co's continued using embossed bottles into the 50's but most had switched to ACL's. I think it would be a deco soda in that it had a specifically embossed design
Re the term "deco", I had heard it used by some collectors for the past several years but it is not an official name for the category - but it fits the time period of the bottles (the deco design era was during the 1920's and 30's) and also some of the design features of the bottles. There wasn't any recognized name being used by collectors to define this category of bottle, and so I dedcided to use the only term I knew for my book. I recently learned that another name for this category would be "specialty" bottles, that refers to their special bottle design which identifies a particular brand's bottle. That was the first term used to identify this category in a book about the soda industry written in the 1950's by John Riley. If I write another book I think I might use the term "Specialty (AKA Deco) Soda Bottles" for the title.

 

[flasherr]

Hey Brian how can i order your book. I havent seen it on Ebay lately and didnt see a place on your website
Brian B