Where are all the embossed ABM druggist bottles?

[stumpknocker]

I have an embossed screw top ABM druggist bottle.

 

[CanadianBottles]

Hey, Plumbata, looks like we have a winner! So there were some smaller companies that had them. I guess they had enough business to justify a large enough production run.

 

[mctaggart67]

It is nice to see some ABMs. I'd venture the guess that smaller operations with custom-embossed ABMs not only did a very strong prescription trade but probably also had significant sidelines in in-house proprietary medicines and the like.

 

[Robby Raccoon]

When you say ABM druggists that are embossed, are you looking for ones that says Druggists or such on it, or just anything medicine related or what? My most recent find, albeit severely cracked, is embossed.

 

[mctaggart67]

Further to this discussion, I've seen ABM Boot's druggist bottles from England.

 

[Robby Raccoon]

British!

 

[Robby Raccoon]

One question I have is this: One of my medicine bottles is from before 1911 as is shown by my research (But it didn't tell me how they made them or who made them. Just tells me the company, making me assume they made it there). The vertical mold seams end before the lip, but the lip is perfect (Not flat, it's at an angle; but it rounds off perfectly,) so this means the bottle is full-ABM, or hand-finished ABM? I assume it's hand-finished, but since I found it it has made me wonder as the lip is perfectly rounded compared to the the one next to it. Oh, another question: One similar piece is ABM with hand-tooled lip, but the glass is incredibly thin compared to the former I asked about; so can one help me put a date on it? It's palm-sized and clear glass with a couple bubbles. There is absolutely no embossing on it, but there might have been a maker's-mark on the bottom that is now incredibly fine--so much so I can't be sure it's really there.

 

[CanadianBottles]

Spirit Bear (First post)- Yeah, I mean local druggist bottles, I know there were lots of ABM medicines embossed but I've never seen an ABM local druggist embossed except for the one Plumbata posted or the really large chains. Mctaggart - Huh, I've never seen an embossed ABM Boots, although it doesn't really surprise me. They were a nationwide chain. I even saw a post by someone in Quebec who found one over here, so they might have even gone international a little bit. Spirit Bear (Second post) - Something's only ABM if the seam goes all the way up over the lip (except in the case of some milks, for some reason that Red Matthews could probably explain but I can't). If it's got a tooled lip, it isn't ABM, the two are mutually exclusive. They got quite good at tooling the lips at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, which made the bottles quite uniform. Dating unembossed bottles is a bit hard, and generally speaking can only be narrowed down to at the best a twenty year span because the companies didn't all adopt the new technology right away.

 

[Robby Raccoon]

Thank you kindly for the information, CanadianBottles.

 

[goodman1966]

Well Spirit Bear, there are exceptions to some of the bottle "Rules". What I mean is, there are local druggist, ABM with no seams through the lip. On this one the seam goes around the base of the lip. It's from a small town is south Louisiana. Even has a makers mark, someone will know who. Here's some pics.