Bottle Questions

Crusty Shellback

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This bottle is 9-1/2" tall with THIS BOTTLE NOT TO BE SOLD embossed below a pronounced oval spot where the paper label would have been. The seam ends about 1-1/2" below the top of the bottle. The seams are very distinct and the bottle is almost flat where the seams are. Is this a soda bottle? Is it a blob top? What approximate age is it. Any info would be great! Thanks for looking.
 

A pic of the lip would help . But it sounds like a beer
 

Pics didn't upload, Still wont. Not sure why.
 

Sorry pics will not upload, will keep trying.
 

2018-07-18 020.webp2018-07-18 017 - Copy.webp
 

Nice looking bottle. I am far from knowledgeable, but I thought blob tops were fatter and rounder. I am up for learning here when the experts chime in.
 

Pics

2018-07-18 023 - Copy.webp2018-07-18 024 - Copy.webp2018-07-18 025 - Copy.webp
 

I thought so too, not sure what type of top this is but it's the only one I've found.
 

OK got a few pics to upload
 

A blob would be more rounded. I usually call this type of finish a 'square' to keep it simple, but it has many names. Here's a great page about the different finishes. Yours is number 8, but yours is not an applied finish like the one in the picture. Rather, the glass was tooled to this shape while still molten (that's why the seam fades). It looks like a late blown bottle, probably around 1910-ish give or take. Beer isn't a bad guess!

https://sha.org/bottle/finishstyles.htm#English Ring
 

Looks like a wine bottle to me. My wife is the expert. On drinking it that is.:laughing7:
 

Thanks for the info!
 

Definitely pre 1915, probably around 1905 and most likely a beer bottle.
 

Crusty That is a nice bottle .I have found a few that are similar to it . They are some of my favorite all time bottle finds .Thanks for posting and asking the question .
 

I agree with it being a beer, but would probably expand the dates of manufacture from 1890-1910. It's a shame there's no embossing in that slug plate. I sometimes joke that there must have been an ordinance against embossed bottles in the 1800s in my hometown, which would have been better named Slicksville.
 

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I agree with it being a beer, but would probably expand the dates of manufacture from 1890-1910. It's a shame there's no embossing in that slug plate. I sometimes joke that there must have been an ordinance against embossed bottles in the 1800s in my hometown, which would have been better named Slicksville.

I agree with that date range, def looks early machine made. Those bottle machine nearly eliminated child labor in the us almost overnight.
 

So that oval shaped depression where the paper label would go is called a slug plate? Cool, I'm learning. Thanks!
 

So that oval shaped depression where the paper label would go is called a slug plate? Cool, I'm learning. Thanks!

Yep, yours has a blank slug plate. A slug plate was a removable piece of the mould that could be swapped out in order to feature the names of many different clients, so that the glassworks could make bottles for your beer, my beer, and so-and-so's beer, without having to create an entirely new mould. My theory is that if the brewer (or pharmacist, perfumer, etc) couldn't afford to pay a mould maker to cast his own personalized plate, or if the product was going through a trial period and wasn't quite ready for the big time, then he got the blank plate. My guess is that the label would have gone on the other side anyway, but I'm not sure. In the end, your bottles and my bottles would look virtually identical in shape and size, but our individual plates would differentiate our bottles (but then there are variations in colour, bubbles in the glass, potential whittle from a cold mould, the uniqueness of the tooled top, etc).
 

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I count these as blobs. The stopper would have been held in place by a bail.
 

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