Posted 9 years ago
SpiritBear
(813 items)
Pic one, of 4 bottles, is mostly 1910s through 1940s including a scarce Peerless Creamery, along with one it becomes: Muskegon Dairy Co. Then we have one I've been looking for for some time: Bear Creek Dairy, and also a Muskegon Milk Bottle Exchange piece.
The next pic shows my first dug milk bottle: a scarcer 1920s Twin City Dairy that I found one late winter on frozen mud when trying to move away from a man following me in the woods where I was exploring and taking pictures.
The Jack's Dairy may be the only one known-- no one, not even milk experts, could tell me more than I already knew: Likely about 1910 and made by Butler Glass Co.
I was cycling out to an antique store and being repeatedly BLINDED by what I figured out to be a laser pen's light bouncing around on my glasses.
I knocked on the door of the house I tracked it to, threatening to get the cops if the person didn't come out for me to talk to on the dangers of it, and left back on my way.
When coming back, with this for me and a Carnival Glass piece for my mom, the person again accosted me. So I turned around and brought an Officer like I had threatened. LOL.
The Milk Products Co. was given to me free and may have been a salesman's sample, also possibly being the only one known. It's beat to Hell, thus telling me it might have also been used for testing bottle-integrity. It's from 1904 (only reference I could find to what must have been a company that sold but not made milk bottles and other related products) and made by "CRY PKG MFG CO CHICAGO" which was around from 1901 - 1904. Nice gift. :)
The Highland Park Dairy is common.
So too are the Briggs and Sanitary Dairy Co. bottles.
Anyone got anything on the Jack's Dairy bottle? Final bottle, also purple, in final pic. It sat in an antique store for years, over-priced, till they marked it down and I took a risk that I don't regret-- plus the story about the laser-light makes it even more interesting.
Hi SpiritBear, sorry i can't help you with your mystery (very nice story btw =), but you mention that one of the bottles is beat so bad that it might have been tested for bottle integrity. I have never heard of such thing... is this for real? I posted a bottle a while ago and I was wondering what ever happened to it. Could it be the case of testing the bottle's integrity, too, in your opinion?
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/174704-ph-wm-kessler-bottle
Anna, the bottle in your link looks to be etched very well (it was beautiful and I'd have it on a main display,) probably using acid. That was popular in the early 1900s as far as I can tell, especially on seltzer bottles. It has the shape of a seltzer bottle, but I've never seen one without the top, so I don't know about the mouth. If the seams on the bottle (if there are any) stop before the mouth, it's probably before the 1920s. It looks like yours, though, was a surface-find somewhere and was not put up for testing; because it may be a seltzer, it was likely bumped around a lot in some soda-fountain. Bottles of similar age I find on the surface of the ground when digging often look like that, especially from ice and being hit by falling sticks and such. Also, bottles jarred too much in shipment or treated very poorly end up like that as well.
The reason I have suspect that my Milk Products Co. bottle was used to test the integrity of the class is because of how it is damaged. Milks suffered some of the worst damage from shipment, cleaning, sitting in freezing temps on people's porches, and use at tables. This one shows many signs of "pry-offs," or how someone took a sharp tool to remove the cap from the mouth; prying the cap off was the number one reason why milks didn't last. It also looks like it was rattled around, such as what would often happen, in a box with other bottles that weren't packed properly in what was likely their idea of a ''wagon ride'' over bumpy roads, and it also looks to have beem set down a bit too hard a few times.
Essentially, someone get's the job of beating up a bottle to a point above "normal" use to decide, "Is this a good quality product?"
The bottle was also not embossed as well as it should have been, in that not all the letters are formed-- that could tell me that it was also used just to test a design, or that the mold was getting old and needed re-engraving.
SpiritBear, many thanks for taking the time to provide such a detailed explanation. The more i learn, the more i realize there's so much more to learn...There are no seams at all on this bottle and i have no clue what the top would even look like as the bottle was purchased at a garage sale as is, but i'm glad i know more about it now than i did when i first got it =)
I wish you luck in solving your mystery bottle, but regardless, it's a beautiful, unique-looking and rare bottle that definitely stands out. I'd love to have one like this in my collection, too.
Anna, if your bottle is seamless, it may have been blown in a turn-mold-- those don't leave seams. It is impossible to have an embossed bottle in a turn-mold, although I know little about them (I prefer embossed albeit your piece is grand.)
If you want a much older milk bottle, most mil bottles with the purple tint seen in a few of mine mean that they are before 1920.
The Manganese, originally mixed in to make the glass clear, turns purple over time when exposed to the sun's radiation. Even bottles under the ground can experience this ''purpling.'' And thus we learn that it is likely an older bottle, if American. Any dark-purple bottle, though, was artificially irradiated to make it that colour. I refuse to buy those kind, but natural "purpling" is always nice.
A link to a better pic of the purple, seen on the flower of the Jack's Dairy:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-6dn7PvbeB8s/VL782SWZEuI/AAAAAAAAFOY/ccLRlJIqLbk/w769-h577-no/Jack%2527s%2BDairy%2B019.JPG
As for the white lettering, I use a fine-tip and medium-tip white painter's pen to make them stand out.
Some people colour the etching on bottles in as well, albeit I recommend against that.
I talk a lot, but it's educational.
no, please, do keep talking! I better start posting my bottles so i learn about them, too. I'm envious that you can just go to some abandoned building and dig up all those wonderful things. Most abandoned structures in my area have "no trespassing" signs, so, obviously, i stay away. The most i ever found was what you call "surface finds" of broken pieces of cool old bottles or stoneware or newer (1950s) clear bottles that don't interest me. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, i enjoy learning, and reading your stories =)
Wishing you many great finds in new year!
You mean the No Trespassing signs that 60% of people ignore? LOL.
And if I get caught, which has happened only once in an area that had the signs, I walk up to the catcher as if I had done nothing wrong-- going so far as to start questioning him, as I often do, on things pertaining to the area. Last time I had brought my camera, as I also do photography. So he and I talked nicely on all sorts of things, and I even answered honestly his question of what my first and last name is.
I myself started finding, oddly, in the lake-- using my feet, for which I wear surf-mocks. I moved on to a bit newer areas, finding 1950s-1960s. They can have nice bottles too.
My oldest areas are only 1890s. I still hit-up 1960s areas, which is where I dug my post of 2 silver coins.
You gotta dig down. Glass on the surface is likely to be newest. I was digging a mound on a hill once: At the top was 1960s stuff. The center turned up a silver half-dollar. The bottom and deepest area had 1910s stuff-- all in an area about 5 feet long, 3 and a half feet deep, and about 4 feet wide.
Great luck to you as well. You just gotta know where to look and what to do.
In the woods, if you have them, are often abandoned homes. And "dumps" from them, too, to dig in exist near them as mounds. Hint hint. ;)
SpiritBear, thank you so much again for your wealth of knowledge. We do have such areas, so i'll look for the mounds :-) There's nothing more exciting than treasure hunts in old dumps :P
Keep an eye out for small circles. They could be coins, or they could be washers.
Here is one post of pics, before and after, of coins I dug just this past month-- no metal detector. but tips on how to clean non-valuable finds and silver: http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/176639-dug-silver-without-a-metal-detector
Here is an out-of-place (was practically new when tossed into a site up to 30 years newer than it) coin I dug, no metal detector, and my best one yet (plus the stories you seem to love:)
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/176640-my-best-dug-coin-1869-indian-head-no-m
I'd never have thought that such a large place as this site would be so friendly and with repeat-readers.
Thanks, SpiritBear, i'll keep an eye for both small circles and angry-looking people with guns LOL
Thank you for the links, tips, and more stories =)
Yes, i think this site and people here are the most valuable find i've discovered to this day!!
Your last part of the comment there is very kind to them.