Visit to friend nets good local bottles

[jerrypev]

Drove down to the dark depths of South Jersey to visit a fellow bottle collector today. He always has plenty of interesting new finds to show when I visit; This time several good bottles found at a local flea market and a a few nice finds at a consignment shop near Trenton. On the way back I stopped at the consignment shop and bought three bottles from local companies, McNamee Plainsboro NJ, Catelli Kingston NJ and Featherstone Princeton NJ. His best find was the Princeton Anheuser Busch New Jersey Bottling Association bottle.

The most commonly found McNamee bottle is embossed "Hightstown NJ", a town about two miles from away. During the 1890s and early 1900s McNamee owned the McNamee Hotel in Plainsboro, NJ a town even smaller than Hightstown visible across the field out the second floor window. Why he used Hightstown on his bottles has always been a mystery since his business was located in Plainboro. The Plainsboro bottles are scarce and possibly earlier.

I've collected here since the early 1970s and don't remember seeing the Featherstone bottle before but then I ain't as young as I used to be either.

 

[NYCFlasks]

If your Featherstone is a tooled finish on the crown top, could be a rare one.
From my area the hand blown and finished slug plate crown tops can be the rarest bottles from many areas. It can be much easier to get many of the local blobs and hutches than some of the crowns.

 

[Sodasandbeers]

Do the New Jersey Bottling Association botlescome from towns other than Princeton and Sommerville?

Also which is older the NJ Bottling Association bottles or the NJ Bottling & Rectifying Company?

 

[jerrypev]

Bernard S Featherstone moved to Princeton from Pennsylvania between 1900 and 1905 with his wife Etta and two children. He died between 1920 and 30, his wife widowed living in Trenton, NJ by 1930.

 

[jerrypev]

Tod, this Forked River bottle might answer your question

 

[Sodasandbeers]

Nice bottle. That makes at least three branches. I wonder if there arre any more. Do these molds have plates for the branches? If so it appears that there are at least three molds.

Have you seen the same Princeton bottle marked New Jersey Bottling & Rectifing Co.?

 

[jerrypev]

Here's a picture of both versions of the bottle my friend owns, The NJ Bottling and Rectifying and the NJ Bottling Association.
There's no other embossing I noticed which would identify the local company.
I remember a bottle from the New Brunswick, NJ area when I first began collecting with the Anheuser Bush logo and similar writing. It was either the East New Brunswick bottle or Spottswood, NJ just next door. I haven't seen one in probably about 30 years so the details are vague but I'm pretty sure it was a NJ Bottling Association bottle. I have found a few fragments of the bottle over the years.

 

[Penn Digger]

Nice scores.

PD

 

[jerrypev]

I suspect the "NJ Bottling (or Rectifying) Association bottles date from the time of the Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906. There was an attempt by some bottlers during that period of assure the public their products were pure and safe to use. Something like "The NJ Bottlers Association" projects the image of a strong professional government sanctioned organization we can surely trust. Whether they lived up to their image or not I don't know.

 

[KBbottles]

Great local bottles Jerry!! I dug one of those Princeton Anheuser bottles last summer and from what I hear, they are pretty hard to come by. One of the New Brunswick ones sold quite high on ebay a while back. Much more than what I'd be willing and able to pay... The Plainsboro blob does have a very early look to it.