Warning to Bottle Collectors

I got up really early to volunteer at where I normally do, then drove out of town to go help out at the Grand Rapids Bottle Show.

Arriving, I couldn't find much to do as it seemed to be going smoothly. A manager slapped a sticker on me with my name on it and I was set to go.

I walked around and spotted an unmanned table, where I spotted this bottle.
I picked it up, debated the authenticity of the label, left, came back, analysed it again and determined it to be an old label on an old bottle, albeit something still seemed off.

I left again, and soon the doors opened. I went back to this table, talked the man down on it, and was the first non-dealer to buy a bottle after a man yelled, "Doors' open!"

But I should have looked closer beyond just the printing, and remembered how they put labels on these early bottles.

Another collector asked to see it and pointed out some things:

1. The label is perfectly centered on the plate-mold, which most know as a "slug-plate" (incorrect term), and is also quite straight.
Labels on old bottles were often just slapped on at any angle and without caring where to center it or where the seam was or anything.
2. The label's printing doesn't reflect expected age of closure (I don't think he ever saw a bottle with this closure, either-- another reason I piked it up.)
It looked a bit more modern, as in post-1900 when the bottle is certainly pre-1900.
3. You could see residue of the glue periodically around the labels.
That's a big sign of it not being original. The glue used was biodegradable and didn't leave a permanent film on the glass like newer glues do.

I just liked the bottle and label and wanted it, but will hereafter pay closer attention as I who buys paper label bottles should know better.

Research tells me that this bottle's closure is known as a Thatcher Closure, patented in 1883 and used till 1895 on the Eastern Seaboard of the US.

Research also says that Featherston Products Co. was around in Portland, Oregon in 1914 and 1920 making their Loganberry Juice-- this is the label.

So we have an early 1900s label on a late 1800s bottle, which doesn't add up.

Either the bottle was bought by the company after its first uses and subsequently filled/distributed on the West Coast, or someone took an old set of labels and put them on an older bottle to fool people like me and probably the seller I bought from.

Other signs to watch out for:
1. If you have a very collectible bottle with pristine paper-label, like a 1930s Pepsi, do research. A lot are being faked and sold as real-- the more perfect the label, the more suspicious you should be.
2. If the label tells you the ounces, CAREFULLY pour water into the bottle up to the neck's beginning and pour it into a measuring cup.
Do they match up?
3. If the bottle has white staining or dirt in it, or is beat up or scratched, yet the label looks pretty good, it's probably added in the last 20 years.

Often bottles were stolen from other bottlers. If it says G. Norris on the glass but has a different label on it-- usually covering the embossing-- it was likely stolen from the other company. (Hence the This Bottle Not to Be Sold statement on many.)

Many people add labels to make more money or to display the bottle better-- I add bails to bottles without (if they'd have taken one) that look original but aren't (such as one saying Muskegon Brewing Co. on a bottle for them.)
But if I go to sell or trade, I take the bail off so the buyer does not think it has an original bail (usually a porcelain piece with rubber gasket or rubber piece clamped down to seal drink.)

It's still a really need bottle with an old label, but I messed up.