D.H.M. Co Pickles (?)

[robertk]

Bottle Vitals​

	Date	Color	Shape	Size (Height x Diameter)	Value*
D.H. M. Co	1894	Green	Round (cylindrical)	5.5" x 2.75"	$20.00

Bottle Views (click to enlarge):

Front	Back	Side	Side	Bottom
				D.H. M. Co

This one was a tough one, and I'm not 100% sure my ID is correct, but I'm pretty confident on the era and the purpose even if I'm off on the branding. This appears to be a jar for mustard, pickles, horseradish, or things of that nature. A very similar shape is present in two glassmaker catalogs from the early 1900s. Both the Kearnes glass company and the Illinois glass company show this shape in their catalogs (click either one to enlarge the page).


The bottle is small -- about a half pint -- so it could possibly have been a milk bottle, but the branding leads me to believe it was something a bit more durable, so probably pickles or preserves of some sort.

The branding, D.H. M. Co, was the hard part. The only use I can find of that mark is by the Denver Hardware Manufacturing Company, out of Denver Colorado. It was founded by George Tritch, of Tritch Hardware fame, in 1892. The company was only in operation for three years, and the only image I could find of any of their products was this old door lock, which has the branding "D.H. M. Co" on it (click to enlarge).


So if the D.H. M. Co on the bottle is the same company as on the lock, this bottle most likely held preserves that were bottle in Denver between 1892 and 1895. And if I'm wrong on the branding, I'd still bet on the timeframe and contents, though there is some possibility it may have been a milk bottle.

This bottle also has an interesting "error". The branding on the base of the bottle appears twice. There is the obvious visible branding, but there is a second copy of the branding, fainter, at a slight angle to the main one. It's almost like it was taken out of the mold too soon, reheated and reinserted. It's a bit hard to see in the photo, but it's there. It's easiest to see the second "M" below and slightly to the right of the visible "M". Click to enlarge.


Here's the before and after. Cleaned with soap and water, brushes, and a wooden scraper.



* Value is a wild guess. I could not find any examples of this particular bottle online.

 

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[Limitool]

Wow... Great research and posting Robert. Great catch on the "branding" on bottom also. And the cleanup came out very good also. I wonder how the bottle would be sealed... wax seal..? There's gotta be a "bottle expert" or group that helps ID old antique bottles somewhere I'd guess. But I'm sure you've looked. Well that's gotta be about 30 bottles ID'ed now out of 100's. Keep'er going sir...!!!!

 

[glass half fool]

A large part of the reason I enjoy digging for and finding old bottles is because I like learning about the history of what I find Life is a never ending trip of learning And when I think of the way those old bottles where made and used in a time where it was a lot more work involved in the entire process I am amazed at the results of you efforts to tell of the history behind this bottle Thank I found a saimilar bottle I need to give it a look see to see if it might have a connection to the one shown in this post