Neat little bottle, will an expert help me with ID please?

[Digginit]

Hi, all.
Found this little bottle in my creek.
It's approx 5.5" tall, 2.5" wide at widest point, and super flat! About 1 cm in width. Believe it or not, there's a big rock stuck inside. The stone is bigger than the bottle opening. what the heck tho...?

The side seam is very pronounced, I can tell it went thru the seam of the mold resulting in press through.

The bottom markings are K in a keystone, J, & 4.

Looks like it must've had a stopper as opposed to a pop-off or screw cap, as the bottle has no lip & no threads.

I'm leaning towards alcohol or perfume, but I'm thoroughly uneducated on bottles.

Any help is very appreciated!

Guess I'll go back to browsing all the awesome stuff everyone else seems to always find, and await an opinion on my wee lone ranger.

 

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[digging440yrs]

Are you sure the stone isn't a cork ?

 

[Digginit]

Brilliant!
No sir, I'm not sure.

I'll check & brb.

Seriously, that's brilliant.

Edit to add: OMG you're RIGHT!!

I'd have never thought of that. We're all clapping for you here at my house.

 

[digging440yrs]

I think you have a whiskey pocket flask

 

[Plumbata]

It looks like a later "Essence of Jamaica Ginger" flask, I've also seen castor oil packed in such bottles but that was probably just someone using-up cheap NOS (new old stock) bottles they obtained somewhere. "Jake" contained 90% alcohol, and was very popular with hardcore alcoholics.

 

[Digginit]

SQUEEEEEAL!!

I'm so excited!! I kinda wondered when I first found it, because it's so flat. Then I thought probably not, since it wouldn't hold much.

Hoo boy, that'd be more than awesome. Thanks so much.

Any idea how old? I'm gonna throw out a wild guess and say 1930s-40s.

 

[Plumbata]

This is an extremely helpful website for identifying and dating bottles with makers marks: https://www.glassbottlemarks.com/bottlemarks/

"K in a keystone…………Knox Glass Bottle Company/Knox Glass Associates, Knox, Pennsylvania and other plant locations (1917-1968). Mark introduced circa 1932(?) Knox operated a number of glass manufacturing plants over many years during the 20th century, and each plant used a different letter inside a keystone as it’s mark. Sometimes there is no discernable letter inside the keystone shape. For much more in-depth information on the Knox family of plants and the marks they used, please check out these two articles written by Bill Lockhart: http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/knox2_brg.pdf and
http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/knoxglas.pdf ."

Seems like you're spot-on with the age! I'm not sure about the actual contents, but with such a minuscule volume it was either medicine, or "medicine"

 

[Digginit]

Great find on Knox, thanks Plumbata. I found that site last night but it was terribly difficult to navigate (to me, anyway)...kept going in circles, ended up with 15 tabs open and I simply gave up as it was late, & went to bed.

Just now when I clicked your links, it goes straight to the Home page and I still can't find what you posted.
So thanks for posting that, it's appreciated!
I worked in a Glass House for years, but never made bottles - just table ware, mostly drinking glasses.

I may fill this bottle with water, then pour the contents into a medicine cup to get an idea of how much it held.
I guess such a small amt might get a hard-core alcoholic thru "a moment" or two. Especially if the stuff was 90 proof!

Still can't believe there's a piece of cork in it...that's crazy. It was completely full of sand & gravel when I found it. When the square piece wouldn't come out, I just thought it was a curiosity that a rock had wedged its way thru the opening somehow. Thank goodness we didn't attempt to get it out after I got home. I'd have ruined the whole thing.

Thanks for the help, y'all. Very appreciated!

 

[NJKLAGT]

I think they put flavouring extracts in these types of flasks, too. But just about anything, I suppose.

 

[jmartins413]

If i had to guess I would say that it is probably an extract flask. It looks very similar to a whiskey flask, but whiskey flasks were usually larger, they almost always held half a pint or a full pint. That looks to be about 4 ounces, that's why im thinking its a flavoring extract, not a whiskey

 

[Plumbata]

"Essence of Jamaica Ginger" is a flavoring extract fellas, just notorious for its misuse by alkies. Wouldn't be surprised if it contained a more mundane flavoring though.



I think the bottle Digginit found is only 1-2oz capacity, I wish they still packaged stuff in goofy thin bottles like that.

 

[epackage]

I've even seen these exact flasks with labels for turpentine, not the most common use for them, but merchants had an entire catalog to choose bottles from in the forms they thought were best for their product...

 

[NJKLAGT]

Yep, I think I've seen a furniture/stove polish label as well. It's more than likely that someone has taken a swig out of the wrong flask before. Haha, yummy!

 

[Plumbata]

It's more than likely that someone has taken a swig out of the wrong flask before. Haha, yummy!

Hah, no doubt! I read an amusing story about someone who woke up, went to the bathroom to apply eye-drops but realized too late that he had just superglued his eyes shut! Those hobnailed poison bottles were a pretty good idea.

 

[xr7ator]

Superglue in a container that resembles an eye drop bottle? Keeping super glue with the medicines, etc in the bathroom??

 

[Greeneman215]

I've always seen them as Castor Oil Flasks

 

[Harry Pristis]

I once encountered one of these flasks embossed with "BAYER ASPIRIN" . . . Early aspirin, it seems, came in liquid form.

 

[Dug]

Superglue in a container that resembles an eye drop bottle? Keeping super glue with the medicines, etc in the bathroom??

Never store a tube of toothpaste in the same bathroom drawer as a tube of preparation H, just sayin.

 

[A2coins]

Nice flask its always fun to research Great ID