How can I tell when my bottle was made?

How can I tell when my bottle was made?

The embossed maker’s mark or letters on the side of a bottle or on the base of a bottle will help to reveal a bottle’s age. Marks or letters on collectible milk bottles and Coca Cola bottles are commonly indicators of age and origin.

How do you date a vintage milk bottle?

The shape of a milk bottle can tell you about the time period when the bottle was made. For instance, round bottomed bottles with tall sides were made prior to 1930 and most square bottomed bottles with short sides were made after 1940.

What is an open pontil mark?

A pontil mark or punt mark is the scar where the pontil, punty or punt was broken from a work of blown glass. The presence of such a scar indicates that a glass bottle or bowl was blown freehand, while the absence of a punt mark suggests either that the mark has been obliterated or that the work was mold-blown.

How to determine the age of antique glass bottles?

When determining the approximate age of antique bottles, the first thing to know is how the glass bottle was produced. From the mid-19th century through the early 20th century, most glass bottles took shape under a glassblower’s watchful eye. However, in the mid-20th century, automation took over the glass bottle industry.

How do you identify a 20th century bottle?

Some of the embossed markings on the bottle base above are a great information source for 20th century bottle identification; some are meaningless. This bottle is an Owens-Illinois Glass Companyproduced beer bottle made in 1941 by the Oakland, CA. plant.

How can you tell how old a whiskey bottle is?

A common 1880-1890 whiskey bottle with no label or embossing can be identified by its trademark on the bottom of the bottle. When selling at Bottle and Collectibles shows, the most asked questions are: “What makes a bottle old?” and “What makes a bottle valuable?”

How did the bottle-making game change over time?

In 1892, the bottle-making game completely changed with the invention of the semi-automatic bottle machine. Generally called the automatic bottle machine (or ABM), this machine molded the bottle lip along with the bottle’s body. Thus, there was no longer a need to hand-finish the bottles.