Boat in a Bottle

[kc10bull]

Ok, I've seen some great bottles on here, but never have I seen my bottle. I have searched the web and found new bottles with boats in them but never one like mine. This bottle has been handed down from my family over the years. On the bottom of the bottle ARISTOCRAT. On the back it has a marking of 3XXXii and it has a scale on the side in 50 CC increments for a total of 850 CC. How old is the bottle? I know sailors use to make them when out to sea. It is a wooden 4 masted ship with rigging. The back scenery is like some type of cement / clay with the scenery buildings carved and painted into the cement/clay. To me it is extremely detailed. The bottle face is somewhat milky due to I guess age and sun exposure. I have never taken the screw cap off. Any comments would be great.

[Mr Ripley]

Hi kc10bull,

I don't know much about ships in bottles (other than they are very cool), but I can tell you that the bottle around your ship is probably from the thirties or forties. I find them quite often in great depression/WWII era dumps. They were graduated because they held medicines in bulk. I believe that the roman numerals (even with lower case i's) indicated the size of the bottle.

Hope this helped,

Mr R

[diggummup]

I've only been able to find a few references to the bottle that you have. It sounds like your bottle is between 10and 111/2 inches tall and holds 32 ounces. I have looked at several with the 3xxxii embossing on it, however they all had a different name on the bottom. Some of those names were- OWENS, SANI-GLAS, DURAGLAS, AND EVERITE. I found one with a label on it-"Tr.Merthiolate (Lilly)". With the exception of a 3 inch "pure alchohol" bottle, I have found no examples with the "Aristocrat" on the bottom of the base. Yours is obviously a medicine bottle. I would think it dates to the 1930's or somewhere thereabouts. I would also have to believe that the ship inside also dates close to that time period. I have looked at 1 or 2 older non abm (automatic bottle machine) bottles with the "3xxxii" embossed on it, it is just a marking for a unit of measure. Sorry, that's all I have for now.

[kc10bull]

Wow! Than you for the information, you research helps me to know more about this great bottle.

[kc10bull]

Anyone else have any information on this bottle. I know we have all seen modern ships in bottles. But this is the oldest one that I have seen.

[Adventure Wolf]

The last time I saw a bottle marked with the number, the x's and the i's, the bottled dated from before 1960. That's all that I know.