One of the earliest of the distinct U. S. bottle styles strongly identified with sauces were the gothic or "cathedral" styles.  These designs (also see the gothic pickle bottle section later on this page) originated during the mid-19th century "Gothic Revival" period in American and Europe which also had its effects on the architecture of the period (Deiss pers. comm. 2003).  This style varies in specific design but all share the distinction of having varying sized peaked "church window" like panels on most or all of the sides.  Gothic sauce bottles were made in both square and hexagonal cross-section shapes and are often quite ornate in appearance - an early and apparently successful attempt to use packaging to attract the eye of potential purchasers by stylistically emulating the already popular Victorian gothic design elements of the 19th century.  These gothic style bottles do seem to be distinctly American in origin and manufacture (McKearin & Wilson 1978).  Some less ornate designs simply have the long lower body indented and peaked panels without the upper smaller panels, or just one upper panel instead of two.  These would all be considered as gothic styles.

The example to the left is typical of the style with three separate panels on each side with the two upper panels having additional decorative features inside the panel.  Incidentally, glassmakers universally called this style "gothic" as in "gothic pepper sauce"; the term "cathedral" does not appear ever in glassmakers catalogs to this authors knowledge (Whitall Tatum & Co. 1880, 1902; Illinois Glass Co. 1903; Obear-Nester Co. 1922).  The cathedral designation almost certainly modern collector jargon.

Both the four (square) and six sided (hexagonal) designs seem to have appeared about the same time (1840s) and both cross-section shapes continued in use to some degree as late as the early 20th century although both configurations of the style were most popular from about 1850 through the 1880s (Deiss 1981; empirical observations).  The image to the above right shows a base view of both conformations.  Gothic sauce bottles were primarily used for pepper sauces of varying types with the use for other sauces/condiments (catsup/ketchup and some syrups) occurring to a lesser degree (Switzer 1974; McKearin & Wilson 1978).  Gothic pepper sauce bottles and the related pickle types were both common products from dozens of different glass making concerns during the era of popularity, as they are found in many different glass makers catalogs (Whitall, Tatum & Co. 1880; Hagerty Brothers 1898; Illinois Glass Co. 1899,1903,1906,1911; Obear-Nester 1922).  The following discussions cover the two major classes of gothic sauces: square and hexagonal.  It should be noted that five sided gothic sauce bottles have been reported (Spude et al. 2006) but have not been personally observed by the author and their existence is questionable (i.e., possibly a miscounting of the sides).

Square: The gothic peppersauce bottle pictured in the upper left corner of this section is a square gothic sauce dating from the 1850s to mid-1860s time period based on diagnostic features including an improved or iron pontil mark on the base and a key mold base conformation.  This example is typical of the design popular during the 1850 through 1880 period.  Click on base view to see an image of this bottles base showing the very distinct iron or improved pontil scar.  The picture to the right is of a bit later version of a square gothic pepper sauce (ca. 1880 to 1885 based on the context of where excavated) which has a crudely applied double ring finish (the typical finish on most gothic sauces), post-bottom mold conformation, no evidence of a pontil scar nor of any mold air venting.  This particular gothic sauce was made 20+ years after the example above with the only noticeable difference (besides subtle design differences) is that it is a bit narrower in diameter.  The author has noted with both the square and hexagonal shapes a distinct tendency towards narrower bodied bottles as the 19th century progressed.  In addition, the square styles appear to have largely fallen out of favor by the early 1890s (discussed below) though were being made by at least one bottle maker until 1898 (Hagerty Brothers 1898).  Click on the following links for more images of the gothic pepper sauce bottle to the right:  base view; close-up of the neck and applied finish.  (This bottle is also the square example in the base image above.)

Hexagonal:  The other common conformation for gothic peppersauce bottles was six-sided/hexagonal as portrayed by the gothic sauce bottle to the left.  This particular bottle lacks a pontil scar on the base (which has the embossed letter "S" as shown in the base view image above right) though has a crudely applied double ring finish, key base mold blown, and no evidence of mold air venting.  It dates firmly from the mid-1860s as bottles blown in the same mold - based on a close examination of the precise embossing details of the "S" - were salvaged from the Steamship Republic© which sank off the coast of Georgia in late October of 1865 (Gerth pers. comm. 2007).  Given that the lifespan of a heavily used mold for a popular generic style bottle type like this was likely just a few years, one can be confident that this bottle dates from the mid-1860s.   Click close-up of the upper embossing pattern, neck and finish to see these features.

Variations of the gothic style were in use for an extensive period and appear to not have begun to disappear until the advent of bottle making machines during the early 20th century and even lingered into the early 1920s on bottles which may have been machine-made (Obear-Nester Co. 1922).  It should be noted that all of the later listings of the gothic style found in glass making catalogs are of the hexagonal shape; the square types appear to have virtually disappeared during the 1890s (Whitall Tatum & Co. 1880, 1892, 1896; Hagerty Brothers 1898; Whitney Glass Works 1904; Illinois Glass Co. 1899,1911; Obear-Nester Co. 1922).  Click IGCo. 1906 catalog - pages 204-205 to see an illustration (lower left) of a gothic pepper sauce from the Illinois Glass Company 1906 catalog which is the same mold as offered in 1911 (Illinois Glass Co. 1906, 1911).  These later mouth-blown hexagonal examples have tooled finishes, exhibit mold air venting marks, and were made in cup-bottom molds (Spude et al. 2006).  (Example noted below.)

Other images of gothic style sauce bottles are available by clicking on the following links.  This helps show a bit of the diversity of shape found in these bottles:

• Early 20th century gothic peppersauce - This is an typical example of the later mouth-blown hexagonal pepper sauce bottle which was likely made sometime between the 1890s and 1910s.  It is 8.5" tall, has a tooled double ring finish, and was blown in a cup-bottom mold; presence of air venting is unknown (photos from eBay®).  This shows the slight but distinctly narrower profile typical of the later hexagonal gothic pepper sauces noted earlier and is virtually identical to the Obear-Nester Glass Co. example illustrated (and discussed) below.  Click on the following links to view more images of this bottle:  base view showing a cup-bottom mold conformation and an embossed "K" which might indicate production by the Kearns-Gorsuch Bottle Co. whose 1916 catalog showed an identical item; view of the decorative elements on the lower body; view of the decorative elements of the shoulder; view of the upper shoulder, neck and finish (Kearns-Gorsuch Bottle Co. 1916).

Dating summary/notes:  Gothic style sauce bottles are most commonly associated with historic sites that date from the period spanning the late 1840s to early 1850s through the 1880s; the gothic sauce bottles pictured here are typical of that era (Deiss 1981).  Glass color is almost always aqua though on occasion other colors may be encountered from colorless or light amethyst (manganese dioxide de-colorized glass) to deep greens or blues (Switzer 1974; McKearin & Wilson 1978; Hawley 1998; Gerth 2006).  The gothic style gradually became less common/popular, as indicated by glass makers catalogs and empirical observations, from the early to mid-1890s on though were known to be produced until at least 1922 (Whitall, Tatum 1880,1892,1902,1909; Whitney Glass 1904; Cumberland Glass 1911; Illinois Glass Co. 1899,1911; Obear-Nester Glass Co. 1922).  The following is a summary of some key date ranges for two classes of gothic sauce bottles:

• Square and hexagonal examples first appeared in the late 1840s to possibly early 1850s (Deiss 1981).
• Pontil scarred examples (glass-tipped, blowpipe, and iron pontil scars) date from the above noted origination time to the American Civil War period.  After that point (approximately 1860-1865) these bottles are virtually all "smooth base", i.e., lacking a pontil scar, indicating they were finished while being held by a snap case tool (Switzer 1974; Russell 1998; Gerth pers. comm. 2007).
• Square examples appear to have largely disappeared by the early to mid-1890s with some made as late as 1898 (Hagerty Brothers 1898).  All square examples studied by the author have had applied finishes indicating that this style was unusual by the mid to late 1880s.  Bottle makers catalogs after the late 1890s only list hexagonal designs, if they list any gothic design sauces.
• Hexagonal examples were mouth-blown produced at least as late as 1911 and possibly even into the 1920s (Cumberland Glass Co. 1911; Illinois Glass Co. 1911; Kearns-Gorsuch Bottle Co. 1916; Obear-Nester Glass Co. 1922).  Those made prior to the late 1880s have applied finishes; those after that time (1890s and later) typically have tooled finishes.  Early 20th century examples are not uncommon in colorless or light amethyst glass (Rinker 1968; empirical observations).  Early 20th century examples made by the Illinois Glass Co. are often based marked with I. G. Co. and were virtually identical to the example in the illustration to the right (Obear-Nester Co. 1922; Zumwalt 1980; empirical observations).
• The latest hexagonal gothic sauce bottles were likely machine-made, though examples have not been observed by the author.  The example listed in the 1922 Obear-Nester Glass Co. catalog (illustration to the right) was likely made by machine given the late date, though mouth-blown production can not be ruled out.  The illustration shows the typical type of relatively narrow hexagonal gothic pepper sauce bottles made by various glass makers from the 1890s through the first couple decades of the 20th century.  In fact, that illustrated design conformation - having embossed decorative features within the tall arched lower panel - is typical of the gothic sauce bottles made during the 1890s through 1910s to early 1920s era, including the mouth-blown items noted in the previous point.  Most gothic sauce bottles produced before the 1890s were conformed like the bottles pictured earlier in this section (Illinois Glass Co. 1899, 1906, 1911; Kearns-Gorsuch Bottle Co. 1916; Obear-Nester Co. 1922).  (Note: This illustration also shows [bottle on left] Obear-Nester's horizontally ribbed "hexagon pepper sauce" bottle offering; the subject of the next section below.)

As noted earlier, there was a trend in gothic sauce bottles for the diameter of the bottles - both square and hexagonal - to narrow a bit over time from the 1870s to about 1900.  However, this is a feature that is only easily apparent after examining a large number of these type bottles and should simply be used as one of several physical features to consider when estimating the manufacturing date of this type.  Generally speaking, the dating of these type bottles based on manufacturing related diagnostic features follows quite well the guidelines presented throughout this website and summarized on the Bottle Dating page; see that page for more information.

This moderately variable category of sauce bottles is unified by the fact that the bottles have some type of molded decorative body features dominated by variously detailed and oriented ridges or ribbing.  These bottles primarily contained various types of pepper sauce (aka peppersauce - one word) though some were used for foods like ketchup, vinegar and likely other semi-liquid food products (Switzer 1974; Zumwalt 1980). 

All do share a general similarity of overall conformation of being a "sauce-like" tall and narrow, usually a capacity of 12 oz. or less, and typically (but not always) have a relatively narrow bore and double ring finish.  One should be aware that there is a lot form and decorative variety within this category not specifically covered by the pictured bottles, though those discussed in the following are commonly encountered designs (Zumwalt 1980).  It should also be noted that ketchup bottles often have vertical body ribbing and grade into this category somewhat, though ketchup bottles tend to have a different overall conformation and usually a different type finish, i.e., commonly have external screw thread finishes, at least from the 1890s and later.  (Ketchup bottles are covered in the next section.)

Vertically ribbed:  Tall, relatively narrow sauce bottles with varying types of vertical ribs, ridging or fluting were a very common conformation from as early as the late 1840s or early 1850s well into the early 20th century (Switzer 1974; Zumwalt 1980).  Mouth-blown vertically ribbed sauce bottles were typically made of aqua glass, though colorless or light amethyst (manganese dioxide decolorized glass) examples are fairly common and deeper greens and blues occasionally seen.  Machine-made vertically ribbed sauce bottles - though not specifically discussed here - exist and lean strongly towards being dominated by colorless glass like the majority of 20th century, machine-made food bottles and jars (Zumwalt 1980).

The common, vertically ribbed sauce bottle pictured above is of late 19th century origin and is hexagonal in cross-section.  It has the original label (with a peaked "gothic" type look) noting that it contained "Pepper Sauce" and was produced and/or bottled by the India Mills of New York.  Nothing is really known about this company except that it was located at 534 Washington St. in New York City (Zumwalt 1980).  However, this vertically ribbed style (and similar variations) were certainly used by many different sauce producing companies and made by many different glass companies during the era from the 1880s to 1910s.  This particular example has a tooled double ring finish and was blown in a post-bottom mold though has no obvious air venting marks indicating a likely 1885-1895 manufacturing date range.  Click on the following links for more images of this bottle:  base view; close-up of the label; close-up of the shoulder, neck, and applied finish.

The picture to the right is of a typical early vertically ribbed/fluted (10-ribs) sauce bottle that was a very common and popular style from the 1850s through at least the early 1900s (Whitall Tatum 1880; Alther 1909; empirical observations).   (Photo courtesy of David Whitten).  The pictured example also has three horizontal rings on the neck which was a common stylistic feature for this class of vertically ribbed sauce bottles.  This example has an applied double ring finish, lacks evidence of mold air venting, and is not pontil scarred on the base which is embossed with S. G. W. LOU. KY. indicating manufacture by the Southern Glass Works of Louisville, KY. who used this mark from 1877 to about 1885 (Whitten 2005b; this reference is available on this website by clicking HERE). 

The almost identical, ringed neck, vertically ribbed/fluted sauce bottle to the left is embossed on the shoulder with WELLS, MILLER & PROVOST which was a successful New York City food packing firm established in 1841 by John B. Wells.  (Photo courtesy of Glass Works Auctions.)  Ebenezer Miller and Stephen Provost joined with Wells by 1842 and 1845, respectively, and operated under their three names until late summer of 1852 when Miller died (Zumwalt 1980; Caniff 2021).  This particular bottle has a crudely applied one-part extract type finish (more or less), blowpipe pontil scarred base, and was hinge mold blown with certainly no evidence of mold air venting. (Note: This author has never observed a pontil scarred, mold air vented bottle.)  These attributes are consistent with a manufacture during the late 1840s to early 1860s, although the above company dates would narrow that dating to 1845 to 1852 (or possibly 1853 if that mold was still being used beyond Mr. Miller's demise).  One of these bottles with an original label noted that it contained "tomato catsup" and similar bottles from this company have been recorded in cobalt blue and deep green, though the vast majority are aqua (Zumwalt 1980; empirical observations).  Pickle bottles from this company (with a few name changes over the years) were also excavated from both the steamships Arabia and Bertrand which sank in the Missouri River in 1856 and 1865, respectively (Switzer 1974; Hawley 1998).  This gives some indication of how commonly used these bottles were during the mid-19th century.

Although the style was most popular during the era noted (1850s to 1880s) they were made by at least one glassmaker in the early 1900s as they are listed in the Robert J. Alther 1909 glassware catalog as a "fluted pepper sauce" (Alther 1909; empirical observations).  Click Alther 1909 catalog page 55 to view the page from the catalog that shows their version of the bottle which appear identical to the examples pictured above, including the vertically fluted body ribs and three tightly grouped horizontal rings on the neck (Alther 1909).  Although the author has not personally seen an example with diagnostic features indicating an early 20th century production, it is possible that the vertically ribbed pepper sauce in the "other images" grouping below may be from as late as the very early 1900s.  (This photo and a description of the bottle was provided by a user of this site in early 2010.)

Horizontally ribbed:  Distinct horizontal ribbing was also a very common conformation for a wide variety of sauce bottles from at least as early as the 1870s until well into the 20th century.  Many types of sauce bottles fit into this category with only a few covered here; users should be aware that this category has a wide range of types and variations.  The binding feature here is that these bottles have distinct horizontal body ribbing, usually held no more than 12 to 16 oz. (often much less), and typically have double ring finishes - at least through the mouth-blown era and into the 1920s with machine-made items (empirical observations).

The so-called "beehive" sauce bottles pictured to the left and right were used by the E. R. Durkee & Co. (New York) and are embossed on the base as such.  (Photo to the right courtesy of Glass Works Auctions.)  Click Durkee sauce base to see an image of the base.  The pictured bottles range from 7" to 7.5" tall and may have tooled or applied double ring finishes and evidence (or not) of mold air venting depending on the time of manufacture.  These are not narrow bodied like the other sauces pictured here though there are other obvious similarities.  (As emphasized throughout this website, this is yet another example of the fact that in all things connected with bottle identification, there are virtually always exceptions.)  A few other companies utilized bottles of this style from at least the 1880s to well into the 1910s and possibly later, although the vast majority of the beehive sauce bottles encountered are from Durkee (Zumwalt 1980; empirical observations).

The horizontally ribbed sauce pictured to the left is an early machine-made item that also had virtually identical mouth-blown counterparts.  These were called "ring pepper sauce" or "oval ring pepper sauce" bottles by the likely dozens of different early 20th century glass makers that produced the style.  This particular example has a the "I in a diamond" maker's mark for the Illinois Glass Company (Alton, IL.) and likely dates from the mid-1910s as this style was shown in their 1911 catalog but not in the 1920 or 1925 editions.  This oval (in cross-section) style was popular from the late 1890s through at least the late 1920s and early 1930s (Illinois Glass 1899, 1911, 1920, 1925; Cumberland Glass 1911; Fairmount Glass ca. 1930).  Click on the following links to view more images of this bottle: base view vaguely showing the maker's mark for the Illinois Glass Co.; side view; close-up of the shoulder, neck, and finish.  Very similar looking ringed peppersauce bottles were also made during the same era (1890s through 1920s) that were round ("round ring pepper sauce") and square ("square ring pepper sauce") in cross-section instead of oval (Illinois Glass 1906; Cumberland Glass 1911; Obear-Nester Glass 1922).

Spiral: This style falls halfway between the two styles noted above in that the ribs spiral down (or up depending on perspective) the bottle with the overall "look" visually more similar to the horizontally ribbed styles than the vertically ribbed. This style is typified by the three differently colored sauce bottles pictured to the right.

The pictured bottles to the right (7.5" to 8" tall) are commonly encountered on late 19th to early 20th century historic sites and are embossed with S & P. PAT. APP. FOR on the base.  The S. & P. is for Stickney & Poor, a very successful Boston producer of "Mustards, Spices, Extracts, &c." during most of the 19th century and apparently into the 20th (Zumwalt 1980).  These bottles have tooled double ring finishes (with the upper portion distinctly larger than the lower portion) and were blown in a cup-base mold which likely had air venting (although evidence of air venting is lost in the heavily decorated body styling) - all attributes indicating manufacture between the 1880s and early 1910s.  These bottles were neck labeled since labels could not adhere well to the lumpy body; click Stickney & Poor label to see an image of part of the neck label noting the company name.  All three of the pictured bottles were produced in the same mold and show the slight differences in neck length (bottles are about 1/2" different in height) common with mouth-blown bottles depending on where the bottle was cracked-off from the blowpipe.

Other images of ribbed style sauce bottles are available by clicking on the following links.  This helps show a bit of the diversity of shape found in these style bottles:

• PEPPERSAUCE - This is an early 20th century, mouth-blown pepper sauce bottle that is embossed with 3 FLUID OZS / PEPPERSAUCE on one semi-flattened side.  This is a variation of the oval (in cross-section), horizontally ringed peppersauce style that was very popular from the early 1900s to 1930s, though this example only has two rings at the shoulder and two above the heel.  It has a tooled double ring finish, was blown in a cup-bottom mold, and has multiple mold air venting marks including on the base which is a strong sign of production after 1900 into at least the early 1920s.  It was made of colorless glass which has a slight amethyst tint indicating de-colorization with manganese dioxide which was most commonly used between the 1880s and late 1910s (Giarde 1989).  Click on the following links to view more images of this bottle: base view; close-up of the shoulder, neck and finish showing the upper body rings and the location where the side mold seam disappears.
• Vertically ribbed "cure" sauce bottle (aqua bottle to far right)  - This bottle is an early style that was used for various sauces (Zumwalt 1980) though this example still retains a fragmental label noting the contents would treat or cure various ailments, i.e., it appears to have contained a patent medicine!  The bottle body and shoulder is vertically ribbed with a horizontal ring on the lower neck, has a blowpipe pontil scar on the base, crudely applied two-part mineral type finish, and was blown in a post-bottom mold which almost certainly was not air vented given the likely date of manufacture of the 1850s or early 1860s.  This item could simply be an example of bottle re-use, having started its life as a sauce bottle, or it could have been purchased new to contain medicine - there is no way to know for sure.  Click on the following links for more images of this bottle:  base view showing the blowpipe style pontil scar; close-up of the shoulder, neck and finish; close-up of the fragmental label showing the medicinal claims.  (Photos from eBay®.)  This is yet another example of how one can not be 100% sure what a bottle actually contained unless pertinent embossing or the original labeling is present.  It is likely, however, that the vast majority of these type bottles were indeed used for sauces.
• Later vertically ribbed pepper sauce or catsup bottle (colorless bottle to the immediate left above) - This is late example of the vertically ribbed/fluted pepper sauce style bottle.  Diagnostic manufacturing related features on this bottle which point towards a later manufacture (1895 to the early 1910s) for this style is the colorless glass, cup-bottom mold production, 7 air venting marks scattered around shoulder at the top of most of the ribs (click shoulder close-up to see one of the vent marks pointed out), and the tooled finish.  The oil finish on this bottle, instead of the usual double ring, indicates it may have been used for catsup instead of pepper sauce, though without any identifying embossing or the original label - of which this bottle has neither - it is impossible to tell for sure.  Click base image to see such which shows the M or W marking which may or may not be a makers marking; probably the latter.  (Photos courtesy of Janis Scalone.)
• More to be added in the future...
   

Dating summary/notes: Given the wide span of production, the dating of this large class of sauce bottles can not be done based on shape alone.  Instead, it must be done based on manufacturing related diagnostic features and/or through research of the historical record when possible.  The latter is usually not possible unless the example has the original labels or is embossed, a rare occurrence.  Generally speaking, the dating of these type bottles based on manufacturing related diagnostic features follows quite well the guidelines presented throughout this website and summarized on the Bottle Dating page; see that page for more information.

Tomato ketchup/catsup (both spellings are correct and used interchangeably here) was contained in a moderately varied array of different shaped bottles, though there are some styles that are strongly identified with the product.  For example, the bottle to the left is a classic and distinctly shaped style used for ketchup for a very long period of time.  Generally speaking, ketchup bottles are relatively tall and narrow (a typical height of at least 3 times the body or base diameter) and have a moderately narrow mouth or bore for the size of the bottle.  The most common styles (like most of the examples pictured here) also have a long gradually tapering shoulder to neck portion that is distinctly taller than the body section below it.  Earlier examples (ca. 1890 and before), like most other type bottles, had cork accepting finishes of one type or another.  However, from the 1890s and later, externally threaded finishes with metal screw caps became increasing the most common closure/finish combination for ketchup.  Most styles also had some type of molded body and/or shoulder features like vertical body ribs (image to the left; common on 1890s to 1920s bottles) or vertical body side panels (typically 8 sides or more) as shown by the bottles pictured here.  Flat panels on the body are very typical of bottles from about 1910 to at least the mid-20th century (and even today on glass ketchup bottles still being used; most ketchup now comes in plastic).

Ketchup bottles were a standard offering from most bottle producing glass companies as evidenced by most late 19th to mid-20th century bottle makers catalogs.  Sizes varied from a few ounces up to at least a quart (Whitall Tatum & Co. 1880; Illinois Glass Company 1903, 1920; Obear-Nester Glass 1922; Owens-Illinois Glass Co. 1952).  The illustration to the right is from the Obear-Nester Glass Co. (St. Louis, MO.) 1922 bottle catalog and was offered in only the 14 ounce size - a typical size for ketchup bottles.  This one notes its availability with an interesting "combination finish" which would accept a screw cap, a crown cap, and/or likely a "Goldy" cap.  Click Goldy closure to view a description of this type closure and finish on the Bottle Closures page.

The mouth-blown ketchup bottle pictured to the above left is a very typical general shape for packaging this product during the late 19th through much of the 20th century; it is not that much different than the shape used today for glass bottled ketchup (somewhat of a rarity in the U. S. since most is now packaged in plastic bottles).  This example is embossed on the shoulder - inside a circular "medallion" - with PREFERRED STOCK CATSUP / A & L (monogram) / EXTRA QUALITY.  The A & L  stands for Allen & Lewis, a large regional "Wholesale Dealer in Staple and Fancy Groceries" located in Portland, Oregon.  "Preferred Stock" was a proprietary brand name used by the company for many of their products.  (See the labeled olive oil bottle later on this page.)  Allen & Lewis began business in the early days of Portland in 1861 and continued until at least 1917 and probably much later (Zumwalt 1980).  The pictured bottle dates from the 1900 to 1915 era based on the "improved" tooled external screw thread finish (called a "screw top tool finish" by glassmakers), multiple mold air venting marks on the shoulder and possibly in the embossing pattern, a faint amethyst tint to the glass, and cup-bottom mold production - all of which point towards the first two decades of the 20th century (Fairmount Glass Works 1910).  Click on the following links to view more images of this bottle:  reverse view showing the ribbing; close-up of the shoulder, neck and finish;  close-up of the shoulder showing (faintly) the embossing; close-up of the finish showing the "improved tooled finish" with the mold seam ending point indicated.

The likely ketchup bottle pictured to the left is representative of the fancier earlier sauce bottle styles and an example that most likely dates from about 1875-1885.  It has a relatively crudely applied double ring finish, lacks evidence of mold air venting, and exhibits some other minor manufacturing crudeness though was blown in a cup-bottom mold which was a bit unusual for this early of a bottle and given its moderate size.  This style could well have held other types of sauce (i.e., pepper sauce) though bulbous bodied, ornate styles similar to this were frequently noted in bottle makers catalogs as intended for ketchup; they were even called "decanter catsups" by some (Whitall Tatum & Co. 1879, 1909; Hagerty Bros. 1898; Illinois Glass Co. 1903, 1911; Alther 1909).  Click on the following links to view more images of this sauce bottle:  base view; close-up of the shoulder, neck, and finish.  A very similar "decanter catsup" was offered by Robert J. Alther (San Francisco, CA.) in their 1909 catalog; click Alther 1909 catalog page 55 to view this item.

In general, like with some other bottles styles (e.g., liquor cylinders) the earlier bottles (mid-19th century) used for catsup tended to be wider in the body than later (post-1880s) ketchup bottles, although there were (of course) exceptions.  The steamboat Bertrand cargo from 1865 had three clearly identified different types of catsup bottles which were tall (>11") and slender with vertical flat body facets (Switzer 1974; empirical observations).  These bottles look to be the precursor style to the early 20th century examples discussed here.  The point here is that there was a lot of variety in shapes used for ketchup, particularly during the period from the 1840s to the 1890s.  By the latter time styles began to become a bit more uniform though there was still some variety; see pages 200-205 of the 1906 Illinois Glass Company catalog found on this website at this link: 1906 Illinois Glass Company Bottle Catalog.

The machine-made, 8-sided ketchup bottle pictured to the right was produced by the Illinois-Pacific Glass Corporation (San Francisco, CA.) between 1926 and 1930 for the Heinz® company for containing ketchup and other sauces including pepper sauces (Zumwalt 1980; Lockhart et al. 2005d).  The base is embossed with H. J. HEINZ CO. / 255 / IPG (in a triangle) / PATD.  Click the base view to see the base of this bottle showing the embossing and makers mark.  The PATD. refers to Heinz's March 28th, 1893 patent for this bottle style; the 255 is Heinz's assigned number for the style.  The company assigned an internal number to all their scores of patented bottle styles beginning about 1873 (Zumwalt 1980).  This particular bottle was found with a crown cap on it (note rust staining) as the bead on the rim of this "combination" finish is exactly the right size for a typical sized crown cap.  It is not thought original but related to a re-use of the bottle as it had several holes punched in it and was likely re-used as a salt shaker or sprinkle bottle.  This general style of 8-sided catsup bottle was called the "octagon catsup" or "paneled catsup" by bottle makers (Illinois Glass Co. ca. 1925; Fairmount Glass Works ca. 1930).

NOTE: For a comprehensive list of Heinz base codes - which indicates the actual use of the bottle - click on Heinz Base Codes (Word document) or Heinz Base Codes (PDF file).  Code list courtesy of the H. J. Heinz® Company. 

(UPDATE September 2022: Recently John Lord - a ketchup/catsup bottle collector - revised and reorganized the previously noted list of base codes which may be of more use to food bottle researchers.  He has graciously made his revised list available; a PDF copy of which is located at the following link - Heinz Base Codes Revised 2022.)

Other images of ketchup bottles are available by clicking on the following links.  This helps show a bit of the diversity of shape found in these bottles:

• 1920s-1930s era catsup bottle - This is 16 narrow paneled body, machine-made, 1920s to 1930s era catsup bottle made by the Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. (Wheeling, WV.) that most likely was sealed with a Goldy cap though it will also accept a standard crown cap.  Lief (1965) noted that the Goldy closure was most popular on catsup bottles and, though invented in 1897, appeared to have the most popular during the 1910 to 1950 era, though similar versions are still in some use today (Lief 1965; empirical observations).  This style with the many body panels was called the "fluted catsup" by some glassmakers as shown in the illustration earlier in this section (Obear-Nester Glass Co. 1922; Illinois Glass Co. 1924).
• PLUMMER'S / TOMATO CATSUP - This is one interesting example of the scores of unusually shaped catsup bottles that were manufactured during the last half of the 19th century (Zumwalt 1980).  This particular example likely dates from the 1870 to 1880 period and is 8 1/4" tall, about 2 3/8" in diameter, has an applied double ring finish (the classic mid to late 19th century sauce bottle finish), and believed to have no evidence of mold air venting judging from the flatness of the embossing (image links below).  Even though an unusual conformation it still has an overall shape that "fits" the sauce bottle category, i.e., tall and relatively narrow, double ring finish, relatively narrow bore, moderate (8-16 oz.) capacity, and an attractiveness that catches the customers eye - a common theme with sauce bottles as illustrated on this page.  Of course bottles within the other types also fit this general description, though if one had an unembossed bottle that was otherwise identical in form to the Plummer's, a reasonable conclusion would be that it was likely used as a sauce bottle.  Click on the following links for more images: base view; close-up of the embossing; close-up of the finish.  (Images from eBay®.)
• CURTICE BROTHERS CO. / PRESERVERS / ROCHESTER, N.Y. - That is embossed inside a circle on the shoulder of a standard early 20th century ketchup bottle that contained their "Blue Label Ketchup."  This example is mouth-blown (similar ones were made by machine also), almost certainly has air venting, blown in a cup-bottom mold, and has an improved tooled external threaded finish.  Click on the following links to view more images of this bottle:  base view showing the initials B. B. G. Co. which likely stands for the Berney-Bond Glass Company (PA.) though that is not certain (Toulouse 1971; Lockhart pers. comm. 2007); close-up of the embossing; close-up of the neck and finish showing the distinctly molded external screw threads; image of another dark amethyst example.  Curtice Brothers was a large ketchup and preserves producing firm that began just after the Civil War and continued until at least the late 1960s.  They used the pictured style of bottle from at least the early 1890s into the early to mid-1920s (Rinker 1968; Zumwalt 1980).  The almost identical Allen & Lewis bottle at the top of this section was most likely a regional imitative "knock-off" of the Curtice Brothers nationally popular brand. 
• Note October 2022:  An article on the Curtice Brothers company has been completed by Bill Lockhart and the Bottle Research Group.  Here is the reference and link to that article:   Lockhart, Bill, Bob Brown, Beau Schriever, and Bill Lindsey with contributions from John Lord and Barry Bernas.  2022b.  Curtis Brothers - The Pepsi-Cola of Catsup Packers.  Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website, E-published October 2022.   This is an article on the history of and bottles used (many types) by Curtis Brothers (New York and other locations) for bottling their catsup/ketchup from the origin of the company during the American Civil War until after the mid-20th century when it merged with another company which is still in business today.  This article is available at the following link:  http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/CurticeBrothers.pdf
• ...more to come in the future...
   

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Dating summary/notes: Given the wide span of production, the dating of this large class of ketchup/sauce bottles can not be done based on shape alone.  Instead, it must be done based on manufacturing based diagnostic features and/or through research of the historical record when possible when the bottle has either the original labels or is product and/or company embossed.  Generally speaking, the dating of these type bottles based on manufacturing related diagnostic features follows quite well the guidelines presented throughout this website and summarized on the Bottle Dating page; see that page for more information.  However, there are a few observations related to the closure and finish that can assist a bit with dating (based on bottle makers catalogs and empirical observations):

• Prior to about 1890 most ketchup containing bottles (like most bottles) were sealed with a cork.  Bottles during the pre-1890 era are, of course, all mouth-blown with double ring or various one-part finishes ubiquitous.
• During the 1890s the transition over to external screw-thread finishes and screw caps began and accelerated so that by about 1910 most ketchup bottles had this finish or some other finish that did not require only a cork closure.  Probably the most commonly encountered bottle on historic sites with a mouth-blown and tooled (often of the "improved tooled" type) external screw-thread finishes are ketchup/sauce bottles.
• The switchover from mouth-blown to machine-made ketchup bottles - like most narrow mouth/bore bottles - occurred primarily during the mid to late 1910s.  During the first half of the 1910s most ketchup bottles are mouth-blown; by the last half of the 1910s they are largely machine-made, though mouth-blown examples occurred to a small degree into the early to mid 1920s.
• By the mid-1920s, virtually all ketchup bottles were machine-made and had either external screw thread finishes or some other re-sealable closure, like the Goldy.  Most have sided bodies like the Heinz patented bottle discussed above.

The club style sauce bottle is a distinctive shape that is closely identified with sauces intended for meats, and in particular, various brands of Worcestershire sauce.  The origin of this style was apparently the bottle designed by or for the Lea & Perrins® (L&P) company (illustration below & picture to the left) and which was first reportedly used in the 1840s (Rinker 1968; Rock 2001).  Due to the incredible success of L&P, the sauce was copied by scores of other companies and put up in bottles of the same shape as L&P - often with the same embossing pattern (just different lettering for the producer).  L&P pursued trademark infringements extensively and successfully during the early 20th century (Zumwalt 1980).  Based on bottles observed by this author on scores of 19th and early 20th century historical sites, it appears that L&P still outsold all of the other competitors combined by a wide margin (empirical observations).  Note: Since L&P was by far the biggest producer of "club sauce" it is the bottle primarily covered here; the competitors bottles would follow the same general dating guidelines though not the company specific ones, of course.

The club sauce bottle style followed the same design exceptionally close across a wide time span, from brand to brand, and in the different though relatively limited sizes that were produced.  These bottles are always cylindrical, relatively tall and narrow in cross-section (between 3 to 4 times taller than wide), have parallel vertical body sides and virtually parallel neck sides (usually with a very slight taper towards the base of the finish), the neck/finish combination is about the same height as the body from the heel to the base of the steep shoulder, and are almost always topped with the distinctive three-part club sauce finish, though on occasion it is found with a two-part mineral type finish (Lunn 1981).  Earlier club sauce bottles will tend to have some variety to the finish, though bottles from the 1870s on almost always have the "classic" three-part club sauce finish (Switzer 1974; Zumwalt 1980).   The earliest L&P bottles were cork sealed, although a large majority of the L&P and competitors bottles were closured with a combination glass stopper & shell cork with a club sauce finish having a cork resting ledge on the inside of the bore.  That closure/finish combination was used by L&P until 1958 when a plastic pour spout and external screw thread finish was adopted and is still in use today (Anonymous 1958; Rinker 1968; Zumwalt 1980; Rock 2001).  Click Glass & Cork closure to view the section of the Bottle Closures page that covers this type closure.  Click on the IGCo 1906 pages 204-205 to view the Illinois Glass Company (Alton, IL.) offering of a "Worcestershire or Club Sauce" bottle in 3 sizes with "Shell Corks and Glass Stoppers to fit" (lower right corner).  The Illinois Glass Company illustration clearly shows that their version came with the distinctive three-part club sauce finish.

The bottle pictured above is an early machine-made (1910-1920) Lea & Perrins bottle embossed with LEA & PERRINS (vertically on the body) and WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE (horizontally on the shoulder), which was the typical embossing for these bottles for about 70 years, i.e. 1850s to about 1920.  This particular example also has J D / S / 26 embossed on the base which is for  John Duncan & Sons (New York, NY) - aka John Duncans' Sons - who were the American licensees for importing the sauce from about 1877 until 1930.  (In 1930 L&P was bought by the company that made the competing HP Sauce according the L&P website [link below].)  The L&P sauce was reportedly imported into the U. S. from about 1877 to 1900 in casks and then bottled by Duncan.  Sometime around 1900 to 1902 the secret formula was given to Duncan and a plant for producing the sauce from imported materials was built in the U. S. (Rinker 1968; Lunn 1981; L&P website 2007).  The embossed bottles were apparently discontinued in 1920-1921 and unembossed, label only bottles of the same distinctive shape used after that.  Aqua glass was also reportedly discontinued in 1944, though may have largely disappeared by the early 1930s in favor of colorless glass (Rinker 1968; Toulouse 1971; Zumwalt 1980; Lunn 1981; Rock 2001).  (Note: The L&P bottles today have embossing once again, though only on the shoulder.)  Click on the following links for more images of the pictured bottle: base view showing the J D / S / 26 embossing and the shell encased stopper to the left (note: the "26" is most likely a mold number with no known significance at this point in time); close-up of the front shoulder, neck and finish; close-up of the back shoulder, neck and finish.  This bottle exhibits evidence of early machine manufacture in that it has relatively crude wavy glass, multiple small bubbles, and uneven base glass distribution.

The illustration to the right is of a bottle with the same body embossing pattern as the example above but is 60+ years older.  (Illustration courtesy of California State Parks.)  The illustrated example is of one of the earliest molds for L&P that came from the context of a mid-19th century historic site in "Old Town" San Diego, i.e., 1855-1865 (Peter Schulz pers. comm. 2007).   Other similar examples are known to date to the early 1850s (Lunn 1981).  These earlier examples typically have a crudely applied "club sauce" finish, were (probably) blown in a post-bottom mold, and lack evidence of air venting.  The A C B Co embossed on the base is the makers mark for Aire and Calder Glass Bottle Company (Castleford, Yorkshire, England) who are conclusively known to have produced these bottles (Lunn 1981; Rock 2001), although some authors attributed these bottles to the Albion Bottle Company of Worchester, England (Rinker 1968).  Although neither of these glass company names perfectly fits the initials on the base, other bottle types have been noted that are embossed with AIRE & CALDER BOTTLE CO. - a perfect fit to the initials.  In any event, the A C B Co bottles are the earliest versions typically found in the U. S.  Click ACBCo to view an image of this base embossing on an example salvaged from the SS Republic© and thus known to date from 1865 when that ship sank.  Click Lea & Perrins to view this same 1865 bottle in its entirety.  (Photos by George Salmon Photography, courtesy of Odyssey Marine Exploration)

One example (of dozens possible) of a competitor to L&P was the product contained in the bottle to the left which is identical in form to the L&P bottles.  It is embossed horizontally on the shoulder with HALFORD - HALFORD, on the front vertically with LEICESTERSHIRE and on the back vertically with SAUCE.  (Images off of eBay©.)   These bottles contained Halford's Table Sauce which was advertised in 1880 as follows:  “The Most Perfect Relish of the Day.  An absolute Remedy for Dyspepsia.  Invaluable to all Good Cooks.  A Nutritious Combination for Children.  Invaluable for Soups, Hashes, Cold Meats, and Entrées" (advertisement found on internet).  Even meat sauce claimed medicinal properties in the 19th century!  This bottle has a crudely applied club sauce style finish, was blown in a post-bottom mold, and likely had no evidence of mold air venting - all features supporting a manufacturing date of about 1865 to 1885.  These bottles were likely manufactured in England during the noted period as American and English bottle making technology at that time was roughly on a par with each other (Zumwalt 1980; empirical observations).  Click on the following links for more images of this club sauce bottle:  base view; back and shoulder view; front and shoulder view.

Lea & Perrins® bottles are quite likely the most commonly found embossed bottle on mid-19th to early 20th century historic sites.  The author has observed them in the trash dumps ranging from the fanciest big city hotels to isolated sheep camps in the Great Basin.  They came in at least three sizes - half pint (probably the most common size), pint, and quart although the two larger sizes at least were likely "scant" sizes, i.e., did not quite hold the full quantity (Illinois Glass Co. 1903, 1906).  Later mouth-blown bottles are embossed on the base with J D S (and usually a mold number) like the machine-made bottle discussed above.  Some of these late mouth-blown bottles were reportedly made in England - possibly by Aire and Calder or Albion or possibly neither (Toulouse 1971).

An image of a different club sauce style bottle is available by clicking on the following link:

• LORD WARD'S / WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE - This 8" bottle is embossed vertically (LORD WARD'S) on the body and horizontally (WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE) around the shoulder imitating precisely the embossing pattern of the much more popular Lea & Perrins bottles of the era.  These bottles have the diagnostic features typical of its known age of 1865, i.e., very crudely formed club sauce applied finish, lack of both mold air venting and pontil scar, and an overall crudity bespeaking its Civil War era manufacture.  Little is known about the company though this bottle is known to date from 1865 as it was recovered from the Steamship Republic© which sank off the coast of Georgia during late October of that year (Gerth 2006).  (Photo by George Salmon Photography, courtesy of Odyssey Marine Exploration.)
   

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Dating summary/notes: Given the wide span of production for this style, i.e. from as early as the 1840s to as late as the mid-20th century (and even in a similar form today), the dating of club sauce bottles can not be done based on shape alone.  Instead, it must be done based on manufacturing based diagnostic features (like found throughout this website) and/or through research of the historical record when possible with company/product embossed bottles or those with the original labels intact.

However, Lea & Perrins® bottles do have some fairly precise dating parameters as follows.  Please note that these dating parameters pertain to bottles found in the U. S., not Canada or other countries (Lunn 1981):

• Some of the earliest bottles - early 1850s to possibly the early 1860s - will often (but not always) have pontil scars and no base inscription (Zumwalt 1980; Lunn 1981).
• L&P bottles with the A C B Co on the base date from the late 1850s or early 1860s to about 1877.  (Note: This base embossing can be found on bottles imported into Canada up until the early 1920s [Lunn 1981].)
• Mouth-blown examples with J D S  on the base date from no earlier than about 1878 and as late as the early to mid 1910s.
• Machine-made examples with J D S on the base date from the mid 1910s to 1920 or 1921, at which point John Duncan's Sons began using plain, unembossed bottles of the same shape.
• Some mouth-blown bottles may have been produced as late as the 1920s or 1930s, though this has not been confirmed and is considered unlikely (Lunn 1981; Rock 2001; empirical observations).
• "Green" glass (aqua) was discontinued in 1944 and likely changed to colorless glass at that time for the non-embossed L&P bottles of that era.
• Machine-made bottles with the club sauce finish and glass/cork stopper date prior to 1958; those with external screw threads date after that time (Anonymous 1958). 

L&P still comes in the same shaped glass bottles today but with an external screw thread finish, dark amber in color (not aqua or colorless), and with LEA & PERRINS shoulder embossing.  The following link is to the official website for Lea & Perrins®:   http://www.leaperrins.com/about/heritage.php 

The earliest bottles used for mustard (dry and/or prepared) during Colonial times and the early days of the U. S. were the same as those used for snuff (McKearin & Wilson 1978).  Click mid-19th century snuff bottle to see an example.  Mustard was most commonly packaged in stylized "barrel" shaped bottles from the mid-19th century until well into the 20th.  As with all the sauces/condiments covered here, mustard was almost a culinary requirement during the 19th century (and before as its use dates back to ancient times) to spice up otherwise bland dishes and to cover up the off flavors of foods in the age before refrigeration and other effective food preservation techniques.  Mustard was also thought to be a cure for ailments ranging from congestion to hysteria, snakebite to bubonic plague (Gerth 2006).   Although bottled in a variety of wide mouth, typically squatty bottles, mustard was commonly bottled in barrel shapes for much of the time period covered by this website.

Barrel mustard bottles - based on glassmaker catalogs and the authors empirical observations - are dominated by those with 3 molded rings (aka staves, bands) above and below the central label area, like the examples pictured here.  Other conformations ranging from 2 to at least 6 rings have also been noted as well as some with vertical staves.  Most examples have rings that are separated by a distinct space, like the example above left.  Mustard was also packaged in other shapes of ceramic and glass bottles (examples discussed below) though the barrel shape is the most closely associated with the product (Switzer 1974; Zumwalt 1980).  See pages 208-211 of the 1906 Illinois Glass Company catalog which offered the standard barrel as well as about a dozen other shapes, including one that was beer mug shaped!  The image to the right above is from the 1906 Illinois Glass Company catalog (page 208) and shows their barrel mustard offering (left barrel bottle available in 6 sizes) and what is likely the second most common general shape of that era for containing mustard - the "pot mustard" (right bottle).

Barrel mustards are typified by the fairly uniform shapes shown here.  Besides the molded rings and cylindrical shape, these bottles have relatively wide bores (1" or more) for easy product access, usually a distinct pedestal heel/base, a narrow banded one part finish, and a body that distinctly bulges outwards in the middle with both the finish and base being narrower in diameter.  Glass makers catalogs, including the Illinois Glass Company, referred to these bottles as "barrel mustards" and offered them sizes ranging from 3 oz. to a quart though the most commonly encountered size seems to be around 6-8 ounces (Illinois Glass Co. 1903,1906,1911; empirical observations).  By 1920, the barrel mustards were being offered with screw thread finishes (for the "American Metal Cap") by the Illinois Glass Company and cork finish examples were apparently no longer available (Illinois Glass Co. 1920).   Barrel mustards (and other wide mouth food bottles & jars in general) were some of the earliest types that transitioned from the cork to some other finish as corks are an increasingly unreliable sealing closure as the bottle bore becomes larger.  This appears to be so because the surface area against the cork increases allowing more opportunity for the cork to not fit well (Lief 1965).  Interestingly enough, the 1920 Illinois Glass Company catalog noted that their barrel mustard style could "...only be sold on and west of the Mississippi River."  Why?  Some type of agreement with competitors?

The barrel mustard pictured above is an 8 oz. size (measured to the top ring) and the general type most commonly encountered.  It has a tooled one-part finish (more or less a "wide patent" or "bead" type), made from colorless glass with a slight amethyst tint, blown in a cup-bottom mold although with no obvious evidence of mold air venting making the likely production date between 1880 and 1900.  Click on the following links to view more images of this typical size and design bottle:  base view; close-up of the upper body, neck, and finish with some of the tooling striations in evidence and the ending point of the side mold seam (where it was "wiped out") fairly obvious.  This mold seam ending point marks the furthest point on the "neck" that the outside pads of the finishing tool could reach.

The  barrel mustard bottle to the right is a relatively early example embossed horizontally on one side between the two sets of rings with MOUTARDE DIAPHANE / LOUIT FRERES & CO. (Zumwalt 1980).  "Diaphanous" (implying a very fine product) mustard and similar other imported versions were apparently the "Grey Poupon" of the of the mid-19th century.  These bottles were usually made of colorless or aqua glass; very rarely in other colors.  (This bottle also has a faint "straw" cast to the glass indicating the possible early use of selenium and/or arsenic to decolorize the glass.)  Click on base view to view an image of the base of this bottle which exhibits a faint blowpipe type pontil scar (pointed out in image) though the scar has a diffuseness to it that is reminiscent of a sand pontil.  The bottle body has no evidence of air venting and was blown in a post-bottom mold although the side mold seam just barely curls around the heel to join with an apparent post-bottom mold seam.  (Note: This company still produces the same mustard brand today, bottled in similar bottles which now - and since the 1920s or 1930s - utilizes a screw cap/finish instead of a cork.  Click 1930s screw top example to see such.)

Very similar shaped mustard bottles of French origin with pontil scars were found on the Steamship Bertrand which sank in the Missouri River in April 1865.  These mustard bottles were among the very few bottle types salvaged from that ship that exhibited pontil scars when this author viewed the collection in Iowa recently (empirical observations 2015).  The Bertrand mustards were a bit unusual in that they had 4 closely stacked rings instead of three spaced ones, though the rings were in the usual positions above and below the open label area (Switzer 1974).

The Civil War (1860s) era mustard barrel to the left is embossed with WESTERN / SPICE MILLS and is a very crudely made, early mustard bottle although it is not pontil scarred.  (Image from eBay®.)  It is 4¾" tall, colorless (faintly gray), and almost certainly has no evidence of mold air venting.  It also has a very crudely cracked-off (or burst-off) finish with just a bit of grinding done to the finish rim to keep from being dangerously sharp.  Western Spice Mills was a St. Louis, MO. firm which, being at the gateway to the rapidly opening West, did a lot of business on the upper Missouri River as well as downstream along the Mississippi River.  Gothic style pepper sauce bottles with this company name embossed were found on the Steamship Bertrand (1865) and on the Steamboat Arabia which sank in the Missouri River in 1856.  Although early information on the company is sparse it obviously dated as far back as 1856 and is known to have continued in business until at least 1877 (Switzer 1974; Zumwalt 1980; Hawley 1998).

The aqua barrel bottle to the right is approximately 4" tall, has a rolled (outward) finish  It could be of either American or European origin and likely dates from the 1860 to 1880 era.  Aqua was certainly the second most common color for this style, though still lags behind colorless glass which was for some reason the standard "color" of choice for mustard bottling.  This was true even prior to the 1880s when colorless bottles were relatively uncommon as they were more expensive to produce than aqua glass (empirical observations).

Other images of barrel and non-barrel mustard bottles are available by clicking on the following links.  This helps show a bit of the diversity of shape found in these bottles:

• Pair of barrel mustards - These two barrel mustards date from 1865 as they were recovered from the Steamship Republic© which sank off the coast of Georgia during late October of that year.  Both are 5" tall, have typical rolled/tooled one-part finishes, lack mold air venting, and have smooth (non-pontiled) bases.  The bottle on the right in the linked picture has staining most likely from contact with the metal parts of the sunken ship (Gerth 2006).  (Photo by George Salmon Photography, courtesy of Odyssey Marine Exploration.)
• WILLIAMS' - This was most likely a West Coast mustard brand and is embossed WILLIAMS' in a "banner" on one lower side.  It is machine-made by a blow-and-blow machine (no valve mark), about 4.3" (11 cm) tall, has a wide (1.5") bore, lug type external thread finish, and a slight amethyst tint.   It has an "S" in a five-pointed star embossed on the base which was the makers mark for the Southern Glass Company (Los Angeles, CA.) in business from 1918 to 1930, though they used that mark from 1925 to 1930 (Toulouse 1971; Lockhart et al. 2009b).  This bottle shows that the use of manganese dioxide to decolorize glass - the reason for the pink tint - continued until at least the late 1920s at some glass companies.  Click on the following links to view more images of this bottle:  base view showing the interesting makers mark; close-up of the shoulder and finish (no real neck) showing the lug type external screw threads.
• CHAs. GULDEN / NEW YORK - This is embossed on one side of a bulbous bodied mustard bottle from this famous condiments firm.  This bottle was certainly used for mustard; the Gulden brand is still being made today though now packaged (unfortunately) in plastic.  It has a wide bore to facilitate extraction of the product, a tooled one-part finish (like most mustards), blown in a cup-bottom mold, and likely has air venting though that is not certain (image off eBay®).  From these features it is reasonable to conclude that the bottle dates somewhere between the late 1880s to early 1910s.  Similar "mustard" bottles were made by and listed in the 1894 Agnew Co. catalog (Agnew 1894).  This specific design for Gulden was first patented by the company in 1875 and variations were used until the late 20th century (Zumwalt 1980).  Click 1922 Good Housekeeping advertisement to see an ad for Gulden's mustard.  Click screw thread finish Gulden's to see a bottle like that in the 1922 advertisement (apologies for the poor quality image from eBay®).
• Mid-20th century mustard bottle - The pictured bottle most likely dates from between about 1925 and 1940.  (Photo courtesy Richard Mushing.)  It was machine-made by the Hazel-Atlas Glass Company (Wheeling, W. V.) based on the H over an A makers mark on the base (it also has the numbers 5943 and 10  on the base - both of unknown meaning), has a wide mouth external screw thread finish, and was blown in a press-and-blow mold based on the suction or ejection valve mark on the base.  The H over an A makers mark was used from about 1923 (when trademarked) to at least 1965 (Toulouse 1971; Lockhart et al. unpublished manuscript 2008).  This late style of mustard still retains the distinctive horizontal hoop rings seen on examples from a century previous.  These type screw top mustard bottles are often seen in bottle makers catalogs from the first third or so of the 20th century (Kearns-Gorsuch Bottle Co. 1916; Fairmount Glass Works undated [late 1920s or early 1930s]).
• It should be noted here that the "spice" bottle style covered later on this page (image to the right) was also commonly used for mustard during the last half of the 19th century (Zumwalt 1980).
• ...more to be added in the future.

Dating summary/notes:  Many different shapes were used for the packaging of mustard, though the stylized barrel shape is the most closely associated with mustard for much of the time period covered by this website.  Unfortunately (for dating utility based on shape) the barrel mustard style was made a very long time, i.e., at least from the 1850s into the 1920s when vertically paneled or fluted shapes rose in popularity (Kearns-Gorsuch Bottle Co. 1916; Illinois Glass Co. ca. 1920; Fairmount Glass Works late ca. 1930; Owens-Illinois Glass Co. 1940s; Zumwalt 1980).  Given the wide span of production, the dating of these bottles must be done based on manufacturing based diagnostic features and/or through research of the historical record when possible (which usually is not unless the example has the original labels or is brand/producer embossed).  Generally speaking, the dating of these type bottles based on manufacturing related diagnostic features follows quite well the guidelines presented throughout this website and summarized on the Bottle Dating page; see that page for more information. 

A few type specific general dating observations are possible with barrel mustards:

• Earlier barrel mustards (early 1880s and prior) tended to be somewhat squattier (proportionally wider) with a wider bore or mouth, though these features are relative and only moderately reliable in calling a bottle "earlier" or "later."  For example, a comparison of the first pictured bottle (latest produced example pictured) to the second and fourth bottles shows this subtle but observable difference.  The third bottle pictured (Western Spice Mills) is narrower in the body but has a level of crudeness that strongly hints at an earlier production date.  As with just about everything in bottle dating and typing, there are exceptions to most trends, though that does not necessarily negate the utility of these trends when considered in hand with other information and diagnostic features.
• Glass tipped or blowpipe pontil scars can be found on some French-made mustard barrels (like the LOUIT FRERES bottle above which is commonly found in the U. S.) later than would be observed on other types of bottles; possibly as late as the mid-1870s which is a decade+ later than typically seen on American-made utilitarian type bottles (Switzer 1974; empirical observations).
• Many "later" barrel mustard bottles -  i.e., early 1900s (mouth-blown) until sometime during the Great Depression (machine-made) - tended to have very widely spaced rings and distinctly less taper to the entire bottle.  Click on 1906 Illinois Glass Company catalog - page 208 to view an example of this barrel type.  The specific example - the "St. Louis or Tin-Top Mustard" - is illustrated in the lower left hand corner of the page.  Machine-made examples of this later variation have been observed from at least as early as 1906 (semi-automatic machine manufacture) to as late as the 1930s (Illinois Glass Co. 1906; Fairmount Glass Works ca. 1930).

It should be noted that these types of barrel bottles were occasionally used for other condiments like horseradish and likely for various spices also.  Conversely, the "spice" bottle style covered later on this page was also commonly used for mustard during the last half of the 19th century (Zumwalt 1980).

The sauce/condiment bottle shapes described in the previous sections cover some of the most common shapes and designs for these products.  However, sauces were packaged in a wide array of additional shapes during the period covered by this website, i.e., the 19th through mid-20th centuries.  Refer to Betty Zumwalt's very informative 1980 book Ketchup, Pickles, Sauces - 19th Century Food in Glass for more information on the subject and images of some of this variety.  (Note: This book is still available new and used at sources like Amazon.com™, eBay®, AbeBooks.com™, and others.)  A few unusual sauce shapes were covered in the ketchup bottles section above; shapes which were likely used for non-ketchup sauce products also.  For a sampling of the sauce bottle variety offered by one early 20th century bottle manufacturer, click Illinois Glass Company 1906 catalog which is a page comprised of scans of that company's entire 1906 catalog.  In particular, look at pages 200 through 205.  The following are examples of a few other sauce or condiment styles (including for ketchup) to show the variety.  As with most of these bottle typology pages, more examples will be added over time.

Bulbous/decorative shaped sauces (not otherwise covered earlier):  This category is fairly broad with hundreds if not several thousand different variations which have in common only that they were used for various sauces/condiments and do not fit well in the categories above.  This "category" of sauce bottles was fairly common as a group though the different examples vary widely in specific shape and conformation; most individual variations within this loose category would be considered uncommon as they were not "standard" forms like the sauces covered earlier (Rinker 1968; Zumwalt 1980).

As an example, the likely sauce bottle pictured above is from the 1850-1870 era as it has a glass tipped pontil scar on the pedestal heel base, a crudely applied one part oil finish, hundreds of bubbles in the glass, and lacks evidence of air venting though it was blown in a cup-bottom mold - a feature largely found on non-pontil scarred bottles.  This appears to be an early example of cup-bottom mold use and may indicate a later manufacture notwithstanding the presence of the pontil scar and overall crudity which speaks of a pre-1870 manufacture.  It is also possible that this bottle was used for some other totally different product (possibly a "specialty" barber bottle or used for liquor) though it has similarity in general form to fancier sauce bottles (Zumwalt 1980).  Click on the following links to view more images of this bottle:  base view showing the glass tipped pontil scar; close-up of the crudely applied oil type finish.

The following are some additional images/information of other styles of fancier sauce & condiment bottles:

• CHACE & DUNCAN / N. Y. - This uniquely shaped sauce bottle was used by Chace & Duncan - New York City "sauce" producers in business together between about 1877 and 1886 (Zumwalt 1980).  It is embossed with the noted lettering on one end of the somewhat uniquely shaped "barrel" body.  This bottle exhibits manufacturing characteristics of the later end of the noted company era (early to mid-1880s) in that it has a tooled double ring finish though has crudeness to the glass and no evidence of mold air venting.  Click side view to see such of this bottle showing the distinctly "barrel" shape to the body.
• More to be added over time...

Horse radish: As with many food/condiment bottles, horse radish was bottled in various shaped bottles.  The general shape described and pictured here, with the bulge or ring at the junction of the neck and shoulder, was a favored type container for dispensing horse radish.  This general style was also used for a variety of other food products which needed a wide mouth for content access and are virtually identical to some of the "pickle" bottles discussed next (Zumwalt 1980).  The only sure way to tell if these type bottles were used for horse radish (or whatever) is if they are embossed and/or labeled as containing such, like both pictured bottles here.

The New England bottle pictured to the left is embossed on one body panel with PURE HORSE / RADISH / H. D. GEER / THREE RIVERS / MASS.  It is square in cross-section, has a tooled one-part bead finish, was blown in a cup-bottom mold, and has one (apparent) mold air venting mark incorporated into the side mold seams at the same spot on opposite shoulders.  Click base view to see such.  The body has some crudity (sunken and wavy glass) that in hand with the other diagnostic features indicates a likely late 1880s to the early 1900s manufacture.  A check of Zumwalt (1980) shows this specific bottle covered under the section for D. H. Geer, even though the bottle (the example pictured here and in Zumwalt's book) is embossed with H. D. Geer.  Originally this was thought to be a mold engravers error in switching the initials around.  Since the initial writing of this section, the author has been in correspondence with a descendant of the Geer family and has been informed that there were two different Geer's in the food packaging industry in Massachusetts - David H. Geer, whom is discussed in Zumwalt, and Henry Denison Geer who was born in 1863 and listed as a "farmer and fruit grower" in Three Rivers, Massachusetts - and the real user of this bottle (pers. comm. with Susan Geer Downes 2008).

The labeled mouth-blown horse radish bottle pictured to the right (photo from eBay®) was used by the food packing and preservation concern of E. C. Flaccus & Co. (Wheeling, WV.).  E. C. Flaccus was first listed as in business in 1898 and operated until 1920.  The stag's head trademark was registered in 1907 but noted that it had been "used ten years" at that time (Zumwalt 1980; Caniff 1997).  This bottle has the typical horseradish shape with the ring at or near the neck/shoulder junction, is rectangular in cross-section, has a tooled one-part flat sided "packer" finish, and was almost certainly blown in a cup-bottom mold with air venting.  These features give a likely manufacture date of 1900 to 1914 or so.  After the latter date, the majority of all wide mouth bottles were being made by machines, although these types were being machine-made at least as early as 1906 and probably a bit before (Illinois Glass Co. 1906).  Click IGCo. 1906 catalog - page 284-285 to view the page from the 1906 catalog that shows a "Machine-made" horse radish bottle of similar conformation.  The pictured bottle has no diagnostic embossing and is solely identified by the label without which the bottle could not be positively identified as this style was used for various preserved food products, as noted earlier.

The general shapes described here (square and rectangular) were used for horse radish until well into the 20th century.  Bottle makers catalogs from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s indicate the style was still in use, though by the late 1910s and early 1920s the finish had shifted to the increasingly more popular external screw threads. By the end of the 1920s virtually all bottles of this style had external screw thread finishes.  The ring at the juncture of the neck and shoulder did carry forward as an stylistic indicator of a horse radish bottle until the 1940s (Illinois Glass Co. 1920,1925; Obear-Nester Glass Co. 1923; Fairmount Glass Works ca. 1930; Lucas County Bottle Co. ca. 1940).

The following are some additional images/information of other horse radish bottles:

• 7 1/2 OZS. / LAKE'S / CELEBRATED / (horse's head) / RADISH / DENVER, / COLO. - This is embossed on the front of this typical horse radish bottle from the early 20th century.  Louis Lake and G. H. Neunsch (and others after 1911) manufactured this product between 1901 and about 1922.  This bottle (7" tall, 2.2" wide and 1.6" deep) with its tooled patent finish, cup-bottom mold production and multiple mold air venting marks dates from between 1901 and the early 1910s (Zumwalt 1980).  Click on the following links to see more images of this bottle: base view; close-up of the shoulder, neck and tooled finish. 
• Additional bottle catalog illustrations of horse radish bottles can be found at the following links:
  Illinois Glass Company (1906):  Pickle & Horse Radish - pages 190-191 , Pickle  & Horse Radish - pages 192-193
  Illinois Glass Company (1920): Page 89 - Horse radish , Page 90 - Horse radish (various styles)
  Illinois Glass Company (1926):   Page 130 - Horse Radish Bottles , Page 131 - Horse Radish Bottles , Page 132 - Horse Radish Bottles , Page 133 - Horse Radish Bottles , Page 134 - Horse Radish Bottles

Dating summary/notes:  Like most bottle types listed on this page, the dating of most sauce and condiment bottles in general can not be done based on shape alone.  Instead, it must be done based on manufacturing related diagnostic features (like found throughout this website) and/or through research of the historical record when possible with company embossed bottles or those with the original labels intact.  Generally speaking, the dating of these type bottles based on manufacturing related diagnostic features follows quite well the guidelines presented throughout this website and summarized on the Bottle Dating page; see that page for more information.

One of the earliest of the distinct U. S. bottle styles strongly identified with foods were the gothic or "cathedral" styles.  As noted in the sauce bottle section above, the gothic style bottle does seem to be distinctly American in origin (McKearin & Wilson 1978).  These designs originated during the mid-19th century "Gothic Revival" era in American and Europe which greatly effected the architecture of the period (Deiss 1981, pers. comm. 2003; Wikipedia.org 2007). 

This style varies in specific design but all share the distinction of not being cylindrical (all have 4 or 6 flattened sides) and the body and/or shoulder having large peaked "church window" indented panels on most or (usually) all of the sides with additional decorative features within and/or just above the panels, as shown by the examples illustrated here.  Click close-up of gothic decorations to view some typical features.  As noted earlier in the sauce section, glassmakers called these style bottles "gothic."  The term "cathedral" does not appear in glassmakers catalogs to the authors knowledge and is almost certainly a term of more recent collector vintage, though admittedly lyrical and descriptive (Whitall Tatum & Co. 1880; Illinois Glass Co. 1903; Whitney Glass Works 1904; Fairmount Glass Works 1910).

Gothic pickle bottles are a very commonly observed item (usually fragmental) on mid to late 19th century historic sites (more rarely on early 20th century sites) although the type is most commonly observed on historic sites dating from the late 1840s to early 1850s through mid-1880s (Switzer 1974; Zumwalt 1980; Deiss 1981; Gerth 2006; empirical observations).  Being a container for relatively perishable food products, these bottles were usually discarded shortly after use though as with most bottles during that era, re-use was variably common (Busch 1987; click HERE to view this reference).  Like with the gothic peppersauce bottles covered earlier, these type pickle bottles also were made in square and hexagonal versions as well as with scores of different and often very subtle decorative design differences.

One of the earliest of the gothic pickle styles are the bottles like pictured to the right.  (Photo courtesy of Glass Works Auctions.)  These distinctively squatty (wider in the body than later examples) gothic pickles are attributed to the West Willington Glass Works (CT) and are referred to by collectors as "Willington pickles." However, these gothic bottles could have been made at other glass works in the Northeast including Connecticut as well as Stoddard (NH) and those in the South Jersey and Philadelphia area.  In fact, examples identical in form to the pictured one (though amber in color) are attributed to the Westford Glass Works, Westford, CT. (McKearin & Wilson 1978).  These bottles are pontil scared, have the type typical rolled and tooled one-part "bead finishes" (described more below) and were most likely blown in a key or hinge mold (actual examples have not been observed closely by the author).  These bottles date from approximately the early to mid-1840s to mid-1850s.

The two sizes (9" and 7.5") of small but highly ornate gothic pickle bottles pictured in the upper left corner of this section are among the most ornate of all gothic food bottles (McKearin & Wilson 1978; Gerth 2006).  (Photo by George Salmon Photography, courtesy of Odyssey Marine Exploration.)  Both have elaborate crisscross lattice work in the large lower body and smaller shoulder panels on three sides; the fourth side had the label and does not have the lattice.  Both have iron or improved pontil scars on the base, typical (for the style) rolled and tooled one-part "bead" finishes, lack any evidence of mold air venting, and were blown in key base (hinge) molds.  These bottles are known to date from 1865 as they were recovered from the Steamship Republic© which sank off the coast of Georgia during late October of 1865.  Fragmental examples of gothic pickle bottles with this particular ornate design were found on the site of the Crowleytown Glass Works (aka Atlantic Glass Works) in New Jersey indicating that these bottles were likely made at that location which was in operation from 1851 to 1866.  This glass works burned down in 1866 - a common fate for 18th and 19th century glass houses - and was not rebuilt (McKearin & Wilson 1978).  This style is also commonly found on Civil War campsites (Russell 1998).  Similar/identical examples of the smaller bottle were also found on the Steamship Bertrand (which sank in April 1865) still inside the original intact packing cases which indicated the bottles contained honey (Switzer 1974).

The relatively ornate, square pickle bottle pictured to the left was most likely made between 1860 and 1870.  It was blown in a post-bottom mold (an unusual square mold post plate) with no evidence of air venting and has no evidence of a pontil scar on the base.  It also has a type-typical rolled finish which was formed by reheating glass at the shearing or cracking-off point and then rolling the pliable glass out and back on the extreme upper part of the neck with some type of glassworkers tool.  It is sometimes hard to tell on these type finishes if it was formed from separately applied glass or by just working the reheated existing glass at the blowpipe removal point.  In the case of this pickle bottle (and all the square ones pictured on this page) there is no evidence of the interface edge that one usually (but not always) can see or feel when separate glass was applied.  This particular bottle has decorative "pillars" on the sides of the large body panels near the corners with a "capital" or crowning feature at the top of the "pillar" - a feature more typical of many earlier (pre-1870 or so) gothic pickles.  Click on the following links to see more images of this bottle: base view showing the unusual square post-molded base conformation with beveled corners; close-up of the shoulder, neck, and finish.

The pint+ sized gothic pickle bottle to the right is typical of examples which date from the middle era of the gothic design popularity era, i.e., approximately 1865 to 1880.  This particular bottle has a rolled (possibly applied?) bead type single part finish, was blown in a post-bottom mold (round post plate like most gothic pickles), lacks evidence of mold air venting, and is somewhat crude in manufacture (e.g., wavy uneven glass, bubbles in the glass, lumpy crude finish).  The complexity of molded decorative elements on this bottle are typical of gothic pickle bottles from the middle of the popularity era (it was almost certainly manufactured later than all of the examples pictured above) in that it has similar shoulder and upper panel decorative embossing of the earlier bottles but does not have the decorative body panel side pillars/crown that the previous two examples have, though it must be noted that not all earlier gothic pickles have that feature either.  This is keeping with the observation that as the last third of the 19th century progressed the complexity of design decreased on gothic bottles in general.  Click on the following links to view more images of this pickle bottle:  base view showing the round base plate indentation; close-up of the shoulder, neck and finish showing the relatively crude rolled or applied finish.

The very large (13" tall with an approximate 1.5 gallon capacity) hexagonal pickle bottle to the far left was a common gothic shape made by numerous bottle makers for an extended period of time.  The pictured illustration is from the 1906 Illinois Glass Company catalog and is almost identical in shape (and size) including the shoulder design and the "scallop" effect at the bottom of the indented body panels.  These large bottles with their makers mark (I. G. Co.) on the base have been noted by the author although the pictured example does not have base markings and was likely made by another glass company.

Virtually identical examples of these large pickle bottles with M. G. Co. embossed on the base and tooled finishes have also been noted by the author.  These bottles were most likely made by the Mississippi Glass Co. (St. Louis, Mo.; 1874-1920+) or possibly the Millgrove Glass Co. (Millgrove, IN.; 1891-1911) near the turn of the 19th to 20th century (Toulouse 1971; Lockhart unpublished manuscripts; empirical observations).  Apparently, this particular style was made by an assortment of different glass companies and originated at least as early as the Civil War and continued until at least 1911 as mouth-blown items.  The author has observed an example with an iron pontil scar but none that were machine-made (Fairmount Glass Works 1910; Cumberland Glass Co. 1911; Illinois Glass Co. 1911; McKearin & Wilson 1978; Zumwalt 1980; empirical observations).  Click on the following links to view more images of the above pictured bottle:  base view; close-up of the label; close-up of the upper neck, shoulder, and applied finish.
 

Dating summary/notes:  Generally speaking, the dating of these type bottles based on manufacturing related diagnostic features follows quite well the guidelines presented throughout this website and summarized on the Bottle Dating page; see that page for more information.  However, some type specific dating observations are possible: 

• Pontil scars: Gothic pickle (and similar fancy food bottles) appear to have a relatively wide range of transition from pontil scarred to non-pontil scarred bases (i.e., from the use of pontil rods to snap case tools), based on the information from several precisely dated shipwrecks.  Specifically, some "luxury" food bottles including "pale-green preserve jars" and a "fluted pickle jar" from the James Mathews, which sank of the coast of Australia in 1841, were reported to be not pontil scarred (Boow 1991).  However, items on that ship were almost certainly not American made.  Conversely, many gothic pickle bottles found on the Steamship Republic© which sank off the coast of Georgia in October of 1865 exhibit iron or improved pontil scarred bases, including the ones pictured above (Gerth pers. comm. 2007).  However, none of the gothic pickle bottles on the Steamship Bertrand - which sank about 7 months earlier on April 1, 1865 - were reported to be pontil scarred though a few other food bottle types were (Switzer 1974).  This likely supports the notion that the pickle bottles from the two American ships were the products of different glass companies which had different transition times for the switch to snap case tools.  However (as seen throughout this website, bottle dating/identification contains lots of "howevers"), the noted "honey" gothic bottles common to both ships were pontiled on the later shipwreck (Republic©) and not on the earlier ship (Bertrand).  The point here is that the transition time from pontil rods to snap case tools was long and glassmaker (and maybe regionally) specific.
• Body diameter:  Analogous to gothic pepper sauce bottles, there was a trend over time for the body width of square gothic pickle type bottles to narrow slightly.  That is, the earliest square examples (approx. 1840 to 1855; pictured earlier) tend to be noticeably wider and squattier in the body compared to later examples which are slimmer.  (This is a trend that was common with many bottles types [e.g., liquor, beer, soda bottles].)  This subtle trend is shown reasonably well in a comparison of this sections photos.  Although this trend is real and can be observed, it is a dating diagnostic feature hard to apply without extensive experience with these type bottles.
• Decorative features:  There is a noticeable - though surely not absolute - trend towards less ornate embossing for square gothic pickles as time progressed during the last third of the 19th century.  More specifically, a trend towards simplification in the form of an absence of the pillar and crown feature on the body panel edges seemed to have occurred sometime in the 1870s; gothic pickles after that time rarely if ever have that feature.  This appears to have been followed in the late 1870s or early 1880s with the general loss of the decorative details in the upper portions of the body panels, although the author has noted some earlier pontiled (blowpipe and iron styles) examples (1850s-1860s) that also have such simplified decorative features.  (Remember, just about nothing in the historic bottle world is absolute!)  These typically later examples (bluish aqua bottle on the left side of the left image above) have simplified to the point that the only gothic decorative features - besides the peaked body panels - are on the shoulders framing the arching top of those panels, including a fleur de les like detail at the highest point.  The paler aqua 1870s example to the right of the previous bottle has the decorative upper body panel embossing but no panel edge pillar/crown decorative features like the 1860s bottle to the right side of the right picture.  All four of the pictured gothic pickle bottles are approximately 11" to 11.5" in height, were blown in post-bottom molds with no evidence of air venting, and have rolled (possibly applied on the latest bottle) bead finishes.  The approximate age of these bottles (from left to right)  is early to mid-1880s, 1870s, 1865 to 1875, and early to mid 1860s.  Click close-up of gothic decorations to view a close-up of the two older bottles which points out the decorative panel edge pillar and crown feature as well as other decorative features. (Note: This decorative simplification trend has not been noted for the large hexagonal gothic pickles which stayed surprisingly similar for upwards of 50 years, i.e., 1860s to early 1910s.)
• Finish manufacture:  Hexagonal mouth-blown gothic pickles, which appear to have been manufactured later (into the early 1910s) than the square examples, have applied finishes if made prior to about 1890-1895 and tooled finishes after that period.  This is in keeping with the bottle style specific finishing observation that larger bottles (10" and taller or with wide bodies) tended to move from true applied finishes to tooled finishes later than small to medium sized bottles.  Square gothic pickles appear to have all but disappeared during the 1880s and all examples observed by the author had rolled or applied finishes (empirical observations).  It should be noted that square bodied pickle bottles continued to be extremely popular after that time though appear to rarely (if ever) have molded gothic decorative features after the late 1880s.  (Square, non-gothic pickle bottles are discussed after the round ones below.)

Glass makers also offered a fairly wide assortment of different cylindrical or round glass vessels designed for bulky food products during the 19th through mid-20th century.  The cigar smoking entrepreneurs in the ca. 1860s American tintype to the right are proudly displaying their product - pickles or "chow chow" (a pickled vegetable mix) - which were bottled in cylindrical jars similar to some of those in this section.  (Photo from eBay®.)  Some idea of the variety offered can be seen in the 1906 Illinois Glass Co. catalog, where many cylindrical food bottles (the most common general shape in the catalog) are scattered throughout the food bottles section between pages 186 and 232.  Click 1906 IGCo. Catalog to view these pages.

These cylindrical food bottles/jars all share the binding elements of having bodies that are round in cross-section with relatively parallel sides, and like the other general styles listed in this section, had relatively wide mouths (bores) to facilitate the packing and removal of the products contained within.  The more or less one quart sized example to the left is quite typical of the cylindrical food bottle type - large bodied, relatively short necked with a wide bore and simple one-part finish, though later machine-made examples (late 1910s and later) had external screw thread finishes.  These types of bottles/jars potentially held a wide assortment of variously preserved foods with most of the contents usually dried, pickled (sometimes in alcohol) or cured with later (20th century) more reliably sealing examples sterilized, vacuum or otherwise hermetically (airtight) sealed (Bender 1986).  It should be noted that regular canning/fruit jars were often used by commercial food packers to contain and distribute their wares during the last half of the 19th century until well into the 20th century.  Food packers "...recognized the value of offering the consumer a re-usable home canning jar along with their product" (Caniff 1997).  Canning jars are covered later on this page.

The earliest cylindrical food jars used in the U. S. were like the two pictured to the right. The dark olive green jar pictured to the immediate right is an early American (or European made) generic food jar that likely dates from sometime between the late 18th century through the first third of the 19th century (McKearin & Wilson 1978).  (Photo courtesy of Glass Works Auctions.)  Another early - though likely mid-19th century (1840-1860) - utility or generic aqua food jar is pictured to the far right.  Click base view to see the blowpipe type pontil scar on the base of that jar.  Both jars were either free-blown or dip molded (no body mold seams in evidence), have pontil scarred bases, crudely tooled and/or rolled finishes, and an overall crudeness that bespeaks an early 19th century heritage.  These jars were most likely sealed with a large cork and wax, though could have been sealed with other primitive methods as outlined early on the Bottle Closures page.

The moderately wide mouth quart+ bottle/jar noted earlier - and pictured to the above left - is labeled (no body embossing) as having been used for "Crown Brand Queen Olives" by the S. S. Pierce Co. of Boston, MA.  This was a large Boston based food packing company (of which there were many) that was established as a corner grocery store in 1831 and quickly blossomed to "Importers and Grocers" producing and importing scores of products; they were still in business as late as 1980 (Zumwalt 1980).  This style was called an "English chow," "English pickle," or "chow chow" by bottle makers though was obviously used for other foods (Illinois Glass Co. 1906; Kearns-Gorsuch Bottle Co. 1916).  This particular jar has an applied, one-part "wide packer" (or "wide patent") finish, was blown in a post-bottom mold, and has single shoulder air venting marks on each side.  Larger bottles like this were made with these diagnostic features (the applied finish & post-bottom mold conformation) into the 1890s or even early 1900s (particularly if the jar was imported) which was much later than other smaller, narrower bore bottles.  This item likely dates from between the late 1880s and 1900.  Variations of this type cylindrical bottle/jar were used for a myriad of preserved foods from (or before) the early 19th century (e.g., dark olive green bottle pictured above) until well into the 20th century.  Jars used today for pickled products trace their heritage to these type items.  Click on modern olive jar to see a late 20th century manifestation that was used for olives, but is very similar to other bottles/jars used for pickles and many other food products.  Click on the following links for more views of the S. S. Pierce olive bottle: base view; close-up of the shoulder, neck, and finish showing the somewhat crudely applied one-part finish.

The tall olive bottle to the left is product labeled indicating it contained "Queen Olives" and was produced by Francis H. Leggett & Co. (New York).  The company began business in 1870 and also continued until at least 1980 (Zumwalt 1980).  The base has the embossing F. H. L. & CO. / N. Y.  for the F. H. Leggett Co. and is an example of base embossing that without the label would be hard to determine otherwise; it could also possibly be construed as a bottle makers marking.  This bottle has a tooled one-part finish, was blown in a post-bottom mold with no obvious evidence of mold air venting, and is somewhat crudely made (e.g., bubbles in the glass, stretch marks on the shoulder/neck, wavy glass).  These diagnostic features would indicate a probable manufacturing date between the mid to late-1880s to mid to late-1890s.  However, this bottle design with the ribbed lower body was patented by Leggett on February 26th, 1889 giving a good begin date (i.e., "terminus post quem") for this particular style.  Other examples of these tall bottles have the actual patent date embossed on the base (Caniff 1997).  Click Leggett patent 1889 to see that patent.  Click on the following links to view more images of this bottle: base view (embossing is minimally visible); close-up of the neck and tooled finish showing the tooled one-part finish.  Similar items were offered by many bottle makers who called them an "taper olive," "obelisk olive," "vase olive," "queen olive," "tall round olive," and other names (Illinois Glass Co. 1903; Fairmount Glass Works 1910).  View the Illinois Glass Company offerings at this link - IGCo. 1906 catalog pages 196-197.

The tall, narrow bottle pictured to the right represents a very common olive bottle style that appears to have originated in the very early 1900s - or possibly late 1890s - and was popular through at least the early 1930s.  It was referred to by bottle makers as the "New York Style Olive," "Chicago Cylinder Olive," or more generically as "Footed Cylinder Olive" and came in many sizes (as many as 14 sizes!) from about 3 oz. to over 28 oz. (Illinois Glass Co. 1906; Kearns-Gorsuch 1916).  The footed olive style is typified by being tall and narrow (4+ times taller than the diameter), having a slight though visibly flaring heel, and a distinct constriction ridge or shoulder at the subtle transition from the body to the neck; see image to the left.  The finish was also usually a one part "flared" finish which was corked or utilized some type of cap though later ones (late 1920s to 1930s) had external screw threads and other types of finish/closure combinations were also utilized occasionally (Kearns-Gorsuch 1916).  Click Dandy Lunch Olives to see an early (1910-1925) machine-made example that has the original label indicating that it was packed with olives by the Durand & Kasper Company (Chicago, IL.) who began business in the early 1890s (Zumwalt 1980).

This style first seems to have appeared as a late mouth-blown item although machine-made examples are much more commonly encountered and likely first occurred around 1905.  This wide mouth style is a type most easily adapted to the new semi-automatic machines that were becoming increasingly common in the early 1900s (Illinois Glass Co. 1903, 1906).  The footed olive appears to have continued into at least the early 1930s, though seem to be uncommon after that time as other more straight, uninterrupted sided (with no shoulder constriction ridge) styles became more popular (Fairmount Glass ca. 1930; Lucas County Bottle Co. ca. 1940s).  The pictured example is machine-made and has a slight "straw" tint indicating that selenium and/or arsenic was used as the glass decolorizer.  It also has the "H over an A" makers mark for the Hazel-Atlas Glass Company (Wheeling, WV) which began using that mark in 1923 and continued until at least the mid-1960s (Lockhart unpublished manuscript 2007).  Click on the following links to view more images of this bottle: base view showing the Hazel-Atlas makers mark and a "6" which may (or may not) be a date code for 1926; close-up of the shoulder, neck and finish.  For an example of a similar mouth-blown example (ca. 1900-1910), with vertical ribbing on the flared heel/lower body and company embossing, click on BANQUET BRAND / CHARLES GULDEN N.Y. (which is also embossed in a square on the lower body) which was produced by that large New York food and condiments company (Zumwalt 1980).

During the era covered by this website, there were likely thousands of uniquely different cylindrical food bottles produced by glass makers in the U. S.  Coverage of all the types is (of course) impossible though the following includes some additional images/information about a few other styles of round pickle/preserved food bottles to show some of that additional variety:

• Eastman Brand Pickles - This quart (approx.) labeled jar is essentially a chow chow type that was used for pickles packed by J. P. & D. Plummer (Boston, MA.).  It is very similar to the labeled olive jar pictured at the beginning of this section (and almost identical to the bottles in the tintype) though this example has a tooled one-part finish and was blown in a cup-bottom mold with three air venting marks on both the front and back shoulders and on the base.  These manufacturing related diagnostic features indicate a late mouth-blown manufacture of between about 1900 and 1915, though no information on the company itself is available to check that estimate against.  Click base view to see such which shows an embossed mold number (742) of no meaningful utility today.  American glass makers also referred to jars shaped like this as "English pickle" bottles (Flaccus late 1890s; Illinois Glass Co. 1903).
• English chow chow - This is a typical example of a ubiquitous English made bottle type that is very commonly found on U. S. historic sites.  It has a crudely applied one-part finish and was blown in a cup-bottom mold with no evidence of air venting.  These type bottles appear to have been made in a similar fashion for an extended period of time, i.e., from at least as early as the 1870s until at least the mid-1910s (empirical observations).  These jars commonly held chow chow but were also used for other food products.  Click on the following links to view more images of this bottle/jar:  base view with the typical - though highly variable - numbers and/or letters markings common to these English bottles; close-up of the shoulder, neck and finish showing the crudely applied finish.   Click Crosse & Blackwell chow chow bottle to see an identical bottle with the original label from this venerable English company which began in 1706 and is reportedly still doing business today (Zumwalt 1980; Caniff 1997).  Many (but not all) of the mouth-blown bottles used by Crosse & Blackwell have C & B embossed on the base, the same physical manufacturing related features as the pictured bottle to the right, and date from the same period noted above (Toulouse 1971).  Click Crosse & Blackwell chow chow without base embossing to view an example found in Montana that has a fragmental label indicating use by Crosse & Blackwell but without C & B embossed on the base. (Photo courtesy of Scott Snyder.)
• Green barrel food bottles - The pair of bright emerald green 10-11" tall bottles/jars are from the late 19th or early 20th century.  (Photo courtesy of Glass Works Auctions.)  These types are often referred to as pickle bottles, though were likely used for various small to medium sized food products that would fit through the moderately wide mouth.  The maker(s) of this bottle type is unknown as similar items were not found in the bottle makers catalogs available to the author.  It is quite possible that these bottles are of foreign origin.
• W. K. LEWIS & Co. / BOSTON - That wording is embossed on the shoulder of a relatively fancy and early food bottle that has an applied one-part bead finish, iron pontil mark on the base, and was likely blown in a post-bottom mold which was certainly not air vented given the early manufacture of this item, i.e., ca. 1855-1865.   (Photos from eBay®.)  The W. K. Lewis Company began business about 1847 and continued until at least 1900 (Zumwalt 1980).  Click on the following links to view more images of this bottle:  base view showing the iron or improved pontil mark; close-up of the shoulder, neck, and finish showing the bead finish which was likely applied not rolled as evidenced by the significant glass "slop" on the upper neck.
• Vase, Fluted or California Olive - These were the names given to several slightly different versions of the same basic style of bottle - as shown in the image to the right - by the Illinois Glass Company in their early 20th century catalogs (Illinois Glass Co. 1903, 1911).  The name "Vase Olive" is particularly apt as the bottle does resemble a vase.  The pictured bottle is body labeled with "Selected Queen Olives, Central Union Ass'n., New Bedford, Mass." with the neck label indicating that their products were "Always Reliable."  This bottle/jar was mouth-blown in a cup-bottom mold with no obvious air venting in evidence and a tooled flared finish.  This combination of diagnostic characteristics make the bottle difficult to date though a composite of the usual date ranges for these particular features would point towards manufacture in the 1890s.  No information on the producer was located in the bottle literature though the Central Union Association of New Bedford was an early cooperative producer and/or consumer trade union - probably of a utopian slant - formed in 1848 to better market products and/or get better prices on consumer goods for its members (Perlman 1922).
• Wide mouth panel jar - The actual use of this machine-made food jar is unknown, though olives, pickles, honey, preserves, or even butter are all possibilities.  It has 14 narrow flattened vertical panels that comprise the body, parallel sides with a slightly flaring heel, and is essentially a body with a finish on top - no distinct neck or shoulder.  The body is similar to some jars in mid-20th century bottle catalogs that were noted as "Round Paneled Preserve" (Illinois Glass Co. 1920), "Tall Fluted Jar" (Fairmount Glass Works 1930s), and "Honey Jars (Lucas County Bottle Co. ca. 1940s).  However, without the original label it is impossible to tell what this specific bottle was used for.  The base does have the "IPG in a triangle" makers mark for the Illinois Pacific Glass Corporation (San Francisco, CA.) which the company used from 1926 to 1930 providing a very tight date range for the bottle (Lockhart et al. 2005d).  Click on the following links to view more images of this bottle: base view showing the makers mark and the number "8" (possibly a date code for 1928); close-up of the upper body and neck showing the square one-part finish that likely accepted some type of metal cap like the Phoenix.
• More examples will be added in the future as there are many types of commonly encountered cylindrical food bottles...

Dating summary/notes: Like many other (but not all) bottle types listed on this page, the general dating of cylindrical pickle/preserved food bottles or jars can not be done based on shape alone.  Instead, it must be done based on manufacturing based diagnostic features (like found throughout this website) and/or through research of the historical record when possible with company embossed bottles or those with the original labels intact.  Generally speaking, the dating of these type bottles based on manufacturing related diagnostic features follows quite well the guidelines presented throughout this website and summarized on the Bottle Dating page; see that page for more information.

In addition to a myriad of cylindrical pickle/preserved food bottle styles, bottle makers also offered a wide variety of square and rectangular pickle/preserved food bottles over most of the time period covered by this website, i.e., the 19th through mid-20th century.  This group of food bottles also share the binding elements of having bodies that, besides being square or rectangular (with variably flattened or sometimes concave/convex sides), are relatively voluminous with at least moderately wide mouths (bores) to facilitate the packing and removal of the bulky products contained.  Some feel for the variety of this category can be found in the 1906 Illinois Glass Co. catalog - particularly on pages 186 to 193.  Click 1906 IGCo. Catalog to view those pages.  (Square is also the most common cross-section shape for gothic pickle bottles - a category covered earlier.)

The earliest (i.e., first half of the 19th century) distinctly sided pickle/preserved food bottles or jars were produced in a similar fashion as the earliest cylindrical food jars noted in the previous section except with distinctly formed sides to make them square.  Early rectangular bodied, wide mouth food bottles/jars are unknown to the author, though likely exist since just anything that could be done - regarding the shapes of bottles - was done at some point although having a wide mouth on a rectangular body would be an awkward conformation (McKearin & Wilson 1978; Van den Bossche 2001).  Although less commonly encountered than cylindrical versions, the earliest square food jars were typically dip molded, very crude with pontil scarred bases and had minimally worked or manipulated flared or rolled finishes, similar to the jars described in the cylindrical section above.

As an example, the approximately quart sized bottle/jar pictured to the right is a European made (Belgium, Holland, or Germany) wide-mouth food bottle that was blown in a dip mold typically used for making case gin bottles.  However, the bore (with a wide, flat cork in place) was manually widened and flared outwards with glass makers tools to form a square, wide mouth jar.  (Forgive the poor picture off the internet.)  These type 18th/early 19th century bottles were used to contain various food products (e.g., brandied fruits, preserved vegetables) as well as other non-food products (pharmaceuticals powders and liquids, liquor, probably tobacco) and are sometimes found on Colonial or early American historic sites (Van den Bossche 2001).  Click wide mouth case bottle base to see the tubular blowpipe type pontil scar on the base.

Probably the most common general shape for square, mouth-blown, non-gothic style pickle bottles are illustrated by the bottles pictured to the left above and below.  These bottles are relatively tall and moderate in body diameter, have four flattened body sides that have rounded arching tops, a steep inwardly tapering shoulder that stops at a relatively wide, bulging ring forming the base of the neck.  Above this neck ring the short (compared to the body height) but relatively wide vertically parallel neck terminates at a horizontally narrow one-part finish - usually a bead or wide patent/packer finish.  These pickle bottles are obviously similar to the gothic examples discussed earlier except that they have none of the decorative features the gothic bottles have, including an absence of indented body panels.  This simplified square style appears to have gradually displaced the square gothic bottles during the 1880s (empirical observations).  This style went under an assortment of glass maker proprietary mold names like the "Standard," "American" or "Tennessee style" pickle (Illinois Glass Co. 1903, 1920; Fairmount Glass Works 1910), "Batty style" (Whitall Tatum & Co. 1880, 1896, 1902), "Baltimore style" (Swindell Bros. 1902; Robert Alther 1909; Thomas Wightman Glass Co. ca. 1900) or simply a "square pickle jar" (Hagerty Bros. 1898; Whitney Glass Works 1902; Cumberland Glass 1911).  For simplicity, these are called ring-neck pickles - a term used by collectors for the style.  Sizes ranged from about half a pint (8 oz.) to a "gallon" size, which is what the Illinois Glass Company called their largest size in 1903, though noted it only held 64 oz, i.e., half a gallon.  The size name being significantly larger than the actual capacities was known as a "scant" size, with the matching of the name and the capacity being a "full measure" size (Thomas Wightman Glass ca. 1900; empirical observations).

The aqua, square, labeled 9" tall ring-neck pickle to the above left notes on the label that it was "packed by" Sebastian Duncan, Jr. & Co. (New York) - company history unknown.  This bottle has a tooled wide patent or packer finish with a 1.75" bore for the packing/extraction of the relatively small pickles that it must have contained.  It was blown in a cup-bottom mold indicating that it was likely an early 20th century (1900 to mid-1910s) mouth-blown item.  Observations by the author of mouth-blown pickle bottles has indicated that those made after about 1895 usually have a cup-bottom mold conformation; those made prior to that time usually have a post-bottom mold conformation.  (See the Bottle Bases page for more information.)  Click on view of the base and sides to view the base and sides showing (vaguely) the cup-bottom mold conformation.  (Photos from eBay®.)

The very tall (13.5"), square ring-neck pickle bottle pictured to the left is larger than average though otherwise a typical mouth-blown example from the late 19th century.  It has a crudely applied bead finish and was blown in a post-bottom mold (air venting status unknown) indicating manufacture between about 1880 and 1895.  Click on the following links to view more images of this bottle:  base view showing the post-bottom mold conformation (the two side-to-base continuation mold seams, typical of a post-bottom molded bottle, are visible in the upper left and lower right corners of the base just outside the round post plate depression); close-up of the shoulder, ring-neck and bead finish showing the relatively crudely applied finish.  (Photos from eBay®.)

By the mid-1910s or so the ring-neck pickle bottles were being machine-made and by the late 1910s to early 1920s the cork closure type finishes were on the way out and the style was being offered with more modern finishes/closures including external screw threads/cap and various non-threaded metal cap types like the Spring Top closure, Phoenix Cap, and other modern closures (Kearns-Gorsuch Co. 1916; Illinois Glass Co. 1920).  These later bottles (post 1915-1920) are usually colorless glass with aqua glass generally disappearing with the advent of broad scale fully automatic machine manufacture, like with most bottle types.  After about the mid-1920s, different shapes - typically cylindrical or oval in cross-section - became more popular and the square, ring-neck pickle bottle largely disappeared (Fairmount ca. 1930; Lucas Co. Bottle Co. ca. 1940s).

The rectangular mouth-blown "sweet pickle" bottle pictured to the right has a tooled one-part finish, was blown in a cup-bottom mold, and has some mold air venting in evidence - all of which would indicate a 1900 to 1915 manufacture.  In addition, the base is embossed with K. G. B. Co. which indicates manufacture by the Kearns-Gorsuch Bottle Co. (Zanesville, OH.) who specialized in "Packers' Ware."  This style bottle was called a "plain oblong" by that company and was available with a choice of finishes including external screw threads (Kearns-Gorsuch Bottle Co. 1916; Toulouse 1971).  This bottle has a finish that appears to be able to accept a capseat closure.  However, Kearns-Gorsuch produced a proprietary closure for food bottles that they called the "Spring Top" closure.  It was designed to fit the type of finish on this bottle, which otherwise looks like a capseat finish.  This closure was patented in 1899 and consisted of a round glass lid with a rubber seal that fit into the "capseat" ledge, all of which was held in place by a spring clip went over the top of glass lid and hooked under the lower edge of the finish (Kearns-Gorsuch Bottle Co. 1916).  Click spring top closure to view the pages from the 1916 Kearns-Gorsuch catalog that illustrate this closure.  Click on the following links to view more images of this bottle:  base view showing the embossing K. G. B. Co.; side view; close-up of the shoulder, neck and capseat finish.

Examples similar to the rectangular, ring-neck style pictured to the left were also made by most other food bottle making glass companies from the late 19th century until the mid-20th century; with even more modern versions of these bottles still made today.  What varies is the method of manufacture (machine-made after the early to mid 1910s) and the finish, which in later years tended towards external screw threads or other types that accepted metal caps as noted for the square bottle above.  For example the Illinois Glass Company's ca. 1920 catalog offered their "oblong pickle" (very similar to the pictured bottle) which could supplied with a choice of the "American Metal Cap, Dunkley, Phoenix, and Square Ring Finish."  Click IGCo. 1920 catalog - page 93 to view this and several other machine made pickle bottle offerings by the company in the early 1920s including the "oblong pickle" with an external screw thread finish.  The Fairmount Glass Works offered the same basic shape ("flat oblong pickle jar") in their early 1930s catalog with a wide mouth "crown finish."  That company also offered a similar item as the "American Horseradish" with an external screw thread finish (Fairmount Glass ca. 1930).  It should be noted that this style was often used for horse radish; a subject covered earlier on this page.

During the era covered by this website, there were likely thousands of different (sometimes subtly but still a different mold) square and rectangular food bottles produced by glass makers in the U. S.  Coverage of all the types is impossible, of course, though the following includes some additional images/information about other styles of square and rectangular pickle/preserved food bottles to show some of that additional variety:

• Obelisk Brand Pickles - This colorless bottle is embossed horizontally on one panel with OBELISK / BRAND / TRADE (image of an Egyptian obelisk with palm trees) MARK / PICKLES/ BEACH & SHERWOOD / N. Y.  The Beach & Sherwood partnership began about 1876 - the merging of a pickling concern and vinegar maker - and lasted through at least the late 1880s, though Sherwood was also noted to be an "importer" in 1893 (Zumwalt 1980).  This example is just under 6" (15 cm) tall, has a tooled, one-part wide (for it's small size) patent finish, and was blown in a cup-bottom mold with some evidence of air venting incorporated into the embossing pattern.  These characteristics would strongly indicate an early 20th century manufacture (1900 into the mid-1910s) implying that the Zumwalt history may be accurate but not complete, although a search of the internet found no additional information on the company or the brand.  However, the obelisk trade mark is almost certainly a representation of "Cleopatra's Needle" - a 3500 year old Egyptian obelisk transferred to New York City and erected in Central Park in 1881.
• More examples to be added in the future...

Dating summary/notes: Like many other (but not all) bottle types listed on this page, the general dating of square and rectangular pickle/preserved food bottles or jars can not be done based on shape alone.  Instead, it must be done based on manufacturing related diagnostic features (like found throughout this website) and/or through research of the historical record when possible with company embossed bottles or those with the original labels intact.  Generally speaking, the dating of these type bottles based on manufacturing related diagnostic features follows quite well the guidelines presented throughout this website and summarized on the Bottle Dating page; see that page for more information.

During the last half of the 19th century bottles shaped like that shown here were a dominant style/type used for various spices as well as other condiments and food products which would fit.  These unusual 8-sided bottles (base view below) have wide, concave front and back panels with flat narrow side panels bound together by relatively wide, concavely beveled corners.  The base view image below "describes" the cross-section conformation better than a narrative - a shape called the "fluted oblong (variant 1)" in the IMACS guide (Fike 1987).  The style also has a moderately wide mouth or bore which allows for easier access to the bottle for both packing and extractive use by the consumer.

Zumwalt (1980) contains images of several of these distinctive 8-sided bottles labeled for a variety of different spices including thyme, cloves, cinnamon, marjoram, as well as mustard which is more of a condiment.  The Steamship Bertrand which sank in the Missouri River in April 1865 contained bottles of this same shape with original labels and packing crates indicating that they contained ground pepper with references on the label to other spices that the company made - and likely bottled in this type glass container - including cinnamon, mace, and white pepper (Switzer 1974).  Glass makers catalogs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries indicate that these bottles were also very commonly used for mustard and horseradish - actually were called a "flat mustard" bottles by some makers - and available in sizes from 5 oz. to 14 oz. available (Whitall Tatum & Co. 1880; Hagerty Brothers 1898).  Similar bottles were illustrated in the 1909 Whitney Glass Works catalog as a "fancy flat mustard" and available in four capacities between 2.5 and 5.3 ounces (Lohmann 1972).

The typical shaped (atypically colored) spice bottle to the left above (base view to the right) has a crudely applied one-part bead finish, was blown in a true two-piece key base mold ("key" portion largely hidden by the oval base indentation which makes it appear like a post-bottom mold) with no evidence of mold air venting, overall crudely bubbly glass, and lacks a pontil scar (i.e., snap case produced).  Based on these features one would estimate the date of manufacture as sometime between the early 1860s and mid-1870s.  This particular bottle was excavated from an east central Nevada mining camp that was most active from the late 1860s through the 1870s; a date range that well fits the manufacturing based diagnostic features.  Click on the following links to view more images of this bottle: side view; close-up of the shoulder, neck and finish.  It should be noted that the vast majority of spice bottles were made in various shades of aqua glass not the bright yellow-green color of this example.

The three spice bottles illustrated to right are of the same basic shape as the pictured bottle; a type that is very commonly found on U. S. historic sites of the mid to late 19th century.  (Illustrations courtesy of California State Parks.)  The bottle to the immediate right (left side of the group) is pontil scarred, has a crudely rolled finish, and produced in a hinge mold; features which would indicate a manufacturing date in the 1850s or early 1860s.  (This bottle would not pre-date the early 1850s since it was found in a California Gold Rush context.)  It should be noted that a large majority of these bottles, like this example and the one pictured above, are not body embossed, though many have mold or glass maker related symbols, letters, or numbers on the base which largely have no useful meaning today.

The bottle illustrated in the middle of the group is embossed vertically with H. C. HUDSON. &. Co and seems to be most commonly found in the West (empirical observations).  That makes sense, as the Hudson Co. was indeed a San Francisco, CA. concern that began manufacturing mustard and spices in 1861 and continued until the early 1890s (Zumwalt 1980).  It is likely that these bottles were made by a San Francisco glass company.  The H. C. Hudson bottles (an actual specimen was studied by the author) have an applied one-part "patent" finish and were blown in a key base mold - as evidenced by the arched base seam shown in the base illustration - with no evidence of mold air venting indicating a likely manufacture in the mid-1860s to early 1880s range. 

The bottle illustrated to the far right is embossed on the narrow, flat side panels with J. W. HUNNEWELL & CO. - BOSTON.  It also has a crudely applied one-part "patent" or "packer" finish though was blown in a post-bottom mold (with an oval post plate to the mold) with almost certainly no evidence of mold air venting (and no pontil scar) indicating a likely manufacturing date range similar to the H. C. Hudson bottle.  The Hunnewell & Co. bottles are probably the most commonly encountered embossed bottles of this style and contained both mustard and various spices.  It is thought that Hunnewell - whose bottles of this type also come in pontil scarred versions and in several sizes - were the first users or originators of the style which was subsequently widely copied by others (Zumwalt 1980).
 

Dating summary/notes:  This style appears to have originated in the 1850s, or possibly the late 1840s, and was produced until close to the end of the mouth-blown era as examples were listed in bottle makers catalogs until at least as late as 1909 (Lohmann 1972).  Only one crude early machine-made example (with a wide bore crown type finish!) has been noted by the author indicating the style largely died out with the domination of automatic bottle machines during the 1910s.  Although made until the early 20th century, the style seemed to have been most popular from the 1850s through the 1880s as most of these bottles observed by the author have applied or rolled/folded finishes; tooled finishes are unusual (empirical observations).

Dating of these type bottles follow quite well the manufacturing based diagnostic guidelines presented throughout this website and summarized on the Bottle Dating page; see that page for more information.  Beyond that, additional information on a particular bottle would have to be acquired through research of the historical record when possible with company embossed bottles or those with the original labels intact.

Capers bottles are typically very specific in shape (and usually color) with only minor variations between different manufacturers - at least until the second or third decade of the 20th century (discussed later).  This distinctive style - as shown by the examples pictured here - was apparently not used for any other product but capers.  (Having stated this, someone will inevitably email with the information about an example with a whiskey label or something equally non-capers-ish!)  Capers bottles are commonly encountered items on American historical sites from the last third of the 19th century into the first few decades of the 20th century; thus, the coverage here.

Capers are the immature flower buds or berries of a prickly capers shrub (Capparis spinosa) which is native to the hot and arid portions of the  Mediterranean region.  It was and continues to be commercially cultivated in southern France, Sicily, and Spain, with some production in the U. S. (Florida and California).  The smallest berries are the most flavorful, desired, and expensive and are referred to as "non-pareille" - a fact noted on the neck label of the bottle to the left.  Pickled capers were (and are) used as a seasoning or garnish on various foods so in a sense this product could be considered a condiment or a preserved food.  (Sources: www.wikipedia.org and www.foodreference.com.)  This bottle style is included here since it does not seem to neatly fit into either of those sections above.

Capers bottles are uniquely shaped in that all the subtle variations of known capers bottles noted by the author have eight non-symmetrical sides, four of which are the equally narrow and inwardly rounded (concave) "corners" which connect the other four wider sides which are usually of two different widths (i.e., most bottles have an overall rectangular cross-section).  Some capers did have equal widths to the four main body panels making them square in body cross-section; these capers bottles were known as a "square caper" in glass maker catalogs.  However, the most common cross-section conformation is modestly rectangular (base example above).  These were called the "flat caper" by bottle makers and had two opposite wide sides that were a bit wider than the other other two opposite wide sides (Illinois Glass Company 1903).  See the base image above as it is (obviously) easier to visualize than describe in a narrative.  The four sides can also vary in that on some capers bottles these sides are all concave (lower right image), all flat (image to the above right), or a mix of the two conformations, i.e., two flat and two concave panels.  Capers bottles are also tall and narrow typically being 3 to 4+ times taller than the width, the bottle to the lower right being at least 5 times taller than the width.  Typical capers bottles also have a relatively wide bore for product access which is sometimes almost as wide as the body (example above).  The most commonly encountered types also have a molded ring on the lower neck, like the example above.  Others - like the example below - do not have the ring but still have the distinctive body and shoulder conformation and glass color.

Most capers bottles were produced in some shade of green glass; most commonly in shades of emerald green like the bottles pictured here.  Click IGCo. 1906 catalog - pages 212-213 to view illustrations of these common bottles (bottom of page 212) in the most common capacities between 3 and 12 ounces.  As the catalog notes, these bottles were regularly offered in "dark green glass" (undoubtedly like the pictured bottles here) but also available on request in "Flint, Light Green or Amber Glass."  Although the author has never seen capers bottles in flint or amber, they almost certainly exist given this statement in the catalog of this largest of the late 19th to early 20th century bottle producers.  Regardless of that possibility, medium to dark green is the color almost always encountered.

The approximately 7" tall capers bottle pictured above is typical of the most common mouth-blown style with a tooled one part packer (or patent) finish, molded ring on the lower neck, deep green color, and produced in a cup-bottom mold almost certainly with air venting.  (Photos from eBay®)  The very tall (12") capers variation pictured to the right is embossed vertically on the "narrow wide side" with J. P. SMITH and has the original label indicating its use for capers.  (Photo courtesy of Glass Works Auctions.)  This example has a tooled straight finish, was likely blown in a cup-bottom mold (air venting status unknown), and likely dates from the 1885 to 1900 era.  This bottle was used by James P. Smith who was a New York City (offices also in Chicago and Paris) importer of food products beginning at least as early as 1875 and lasting until at least 1933.  At least one other variation of this style - similar to the first bottle pictured above - was used by the company and embossed with JAMES P. SMITH on one narrow side and NEW YORK & CHICAGO on the opposite side (Zumwalt 1980).  (Note: There was also a 1870s era wax seal type canning jar that was embossed around the shoulder with J. P. SMITH SON & CO. - PITTSBURGH.  This was the name of a glassmaker from Pittsburgh and not connected with the New York importer [Creswick 1987].)

Dating summary/notes:  The dating of these type bottles generally follows quite well the manufacturing based diagnostic guidelines presented throughout this website and summarized on the Bottle Dating page; see that page for more information.  Beyond that, additional information on a particular bottle would have to be acquired through research of the historical record when possible with company/product embossed bottles or those with the original labels intact, like the examples here.  However, some additional dating refinement and general information on capers bottles follows:

• Most mouth-blown versions of these bottles appear to date from the 1880s to at least the mid-1910s era as all the bottles inspected by the author were blown in cup-bottom molds and have tooled finishes.  They are also far and away most commonly encountered in various shades and tones of dark green glass.
• Many (most?) of the mouth-blown capers bottles found in the U. S. were imported from Europe as France appears to have been the primary producer, processor, and packer of capers during the era of these bottles.  Most of the originally labeled bottles observed by the author note that the product was "French Capers," including both bottles illustrating this section.  In addition, many of the examples that have embossed company names indicates a French origin (Zumwalt 1980).  Although these bottles were apparently made by at least one of the largest U. S. glass makers (Illinois Glass Company) capers bottles were apparently a non-typical offering by most bottle makers, as indicated by a search of several dozen 1890s to 1930s bottle makers catalogs in the authors possession (as noted on the References page).  (The Illinois Glass Co. bottles could also have been imported and sold through their catalog; something that the company is purported to have done with some other bottle types [Jones 1961].)  Given the probable foreign manufacture of many/most of these bottles - and the apparent slower adoption of automated methods by European bottle makers during the early 20th century - it is quite possible that some mouth-blown bottles found in the U. S. were foreign made until well into the 1920s.
• Machine-made, external screw thread versions of these bottles in the typical shape and color were used in the 1920s and likely a bit later (Zumwalt 1980).  It is also likely that cork stoppered bottles were still being used concurrently to these threaded bottles during that era (empirical observations).
• By the 1930s or possibly early 1940s, these distinctive bottles appear to have disappeared from the U. S. market being replaced by more generic, largely colorless, wide mouth bottles/jars that were used for many food products and would be difficult to ascertain as capers bottles without the original labels still intact.

This section includes two classes of "baby food" bottles: bottles/jars which contained some type of more or less solid infant food product; and nursing bottles designed to provide milk or other liquids.  They are covered separately below.

Baby food bottles/jars:  Although not a particularly common category of bottles, there is at least one type of baby/infants food bottles very commonly encountered on historic sites - the Mellin's Infant's Food bottles or jars, as they have a moderately wide mouth/bore.  The typical example pictured to the left is embossed on the body with MELLIN'S / INFANT'S FOOD / DOLIBER-GOODALE CO. / BOSTON.  (Yet another bottle from a major "food bottle" producing U. S. city - Boston, MA.)  This bottle is also embossed with LARGE SIZE on the reverse shoulder; these bottles came in several sizes (Zumwalt 1980).  According to the original label (link below), the product was touted as "The Only Genuine Substitute for Mother's Milk..." and was mixed with water or milk and administered to either the infant or the nursing mother (but was also good for "invalids and adults").

According to Zumwalt (1980) the product was first produced in England in the 1870s by Gustav Mellin, with the first trademarked label in the U. S. issued in 1889 to Doliber-Goodale, which was probably about the begin date for these U. S. made bottles.  The pictured example is most likely one of the older Mellin's bottles dating from the 1890s to early 1900s.  It has a tooled one-part finish with a ledge (aka "cap seat") on the inside of the bore for accepting the shell cork and stopper type closure and was blown in a cup-bottom mold with air-venting - all consistent with the noted date estimate (Boow 1991).  Click on the following links for more images of this bottle:  base view; close-up of the finish showing the shell cork still stuck in place on the ledge within the bore/mouth of the bottle but with the glass stopper removed; close-up of the original label with the noted shoulder embossing above.  Click the following two links to view a somewhat later (1910s) example of a mouth-blown Mellin's bottle which is embossed on the shoulder (MELLIN'S FOOD - LARGE SIZE) and heel (MELLIN'S FOOD - BOSTON, U. S. A.) which also has the original stopper and intact label: image 1; image 2.  (Images from eBay®.)  Later bottles (post-1920 or so) were similar but machine-made.  By the late 1920s or early 1930s the capseat finish and glass lid was replaced with an external screw threaded finish and a metal cap (empirical observations); click screw cap Mellin's to view a 6.2" tall example without the cap.  (Image from eBay®.)

Although other types of baby "food" bottles undoubtedly exist, it was not a common product until well into the 20th century, i.e., Gerber's Baby Food which began production in 1928 according to the corporate website: http://www.gerber.com/history.  There are essentially no other specialized baby food bottles apparently discussed or covered by Zumwalt (1980), which is the most comprehensive book on the subject of "food" bottles.  A related product of use by infants as well as others, was Horlick's Malted Milk.  See the article discussed and linked at the bottom of this section.

Nursing bottles:  Containers used for feeding infants date back to antiquity as pottery ones are known from as early as 1500 B.C.  Materials used for such containers ranged from various metals (pewter was popular), wood, ceramics, and even wood (Munsey 1970).  The use of various glass containers for feeding milk or other liquid/semi-liquid foods to infants was certainly common in the U. S. by the late 18th century (McKearin & Wilson 1978).

The bottle pictured to the right is an early American (1790s to 1830s) bottle of a type known to have been used for nursing infants with with the addition of some type of nipple to the bottle bore.  It was largely free-blown but patterned once with a mold that had 19 engraved vertical ridges.  Click nursing bottle side view to see a close up of the upper side and neck/finish showing the ribs more distinctly.  This flask also has a glass-tipped pontil scar on the base.  These relatively common (for the period) long flattened ovoid shaped flasks were likely not used exclusively as nursing bottles though that is what they are commonly referred to by collectors.  The style was undoubtedly also used for liquor or other liquid products during this early era when bottle variety was very limited (McKearin & Wilson 1978; Jones & Smith 1985).

The aqua nursing bottle pictured to the above left is English in origin and most likely dates from between approximately 1860 and 1874.  It was salvaged from the wreck of the English ship Kingsbridge that sank off the coast of Falmouth, England in 1874.  (Photo courtesy of Leigh Bishop.)  It is a typical shape common with nursing bottles produced from at least 1820 (and probably earlier) until as late as 1913 (in Italy), though most appear to date from the 1820s to 1870s era.  This style is referred to as the "submarine" by collectors today; pottery versions were also made though typically of English origin (Ostrander 1984).  The fluid was added to the bottle via the large "fill or vent" lip on the side (then corked) and fed to infants via the smaller opening which usually usually - but not always - covered with a nipple of some conformation and material, i.e., rubber [after 1845], a soft rag or chamois "suck", and even a pickled cow teat (!) - and item sold by English druggists of the period (Ostrander 1984).  The shape appears to be an evolutionary precursor to later styles as represented by the bottle pictured below.

The first U. S. patent for a glass bottle dedicated to infant nursing/feeding was issued in 1841 although bottles clearly and solely intended for use as nursing bottles appear to have arisen about the time of the Civil War (Munsey 1970; empirical observations).  Click Patent #1,985 - Method of Constructing Lacteal or Artificial Breasts, February 18, 1841 to see this first patent dealing with nursing bottles.  These typical mid to late 19th century nursing bottles featured a glass tube stuck through a cork that fit the bottle neck; an English invention reportedly brought to the U. S. in 1864 (Munsey 1970; Ostrander 1984).  Click 1902 Whitall, Tatum & Co. nursing bottles and closures to view such from that companies early 20th century bottles and "sundries" catalog.  The illustrations show several of these type closures fitted to the typical nursing bottles of the day which also included a rubber hose and nipple for transferring the contents to the infant.

The nursing bottle pictured to the immediate left lying on its side is typical of one of the more common nursing bottle styles of which there were many hundreds of different variations produced during the last half of the 19th century into the middle of the second decade of the 20th century.  Most date from between 1870 to 1910.  They are referred to as "turtle" nursing bottles by collectors; a "standing turtle" if they stood upright (Ostrander 1984).  These types typically held 8 ounces (sometimes as much as 16 oz.), had rounded bottoms, a flattened back, and a short neck that tipped upwards to keep the liquid contents from running out as they were intended to be laid on their sides when not being used (Munsey 1970).  Other nursing bottles of the era had a similar shape with and without the angled neck that would actually stand upright (several of which are shown in the 1879 catalog page linked below).  The image below is from the 1880s and shows a Galion, Ohio baby with a "turtle" style nursing bottle (somewhat hidden in the clothing) with the rubber hose and nipple.

The above (left) pictured example had a typical 8 ounce capacity and was produced by the Whitall, Tatum & Co. (Millville, NJ) from at least as early as 1879 to at least the early 1910s (Whitall Tatum & Co. 1879, 1892, 1909, 1924).  It is embossed on the front (or upper side while laying down) with ACME NURSING / (six sided star with  WT&CO inside) / BOTTLE.  Click 1879 catalog to view an illustration from the Whitall, Tatum & Co. bottle catalog from that year showing the ACME "bent neck, round bottom" nursing bottle as well as several other styles that the company produced. This pictured bottle has a tooled single part bead finish and was blown in a true two-piece mold with air venting indicating a likely 1890 to 1910 manufacture.  (It should be noted that this is a relatively late example of a true two-piece molded bottle but is typical of later mouth-blown bottles with completely rounded bases which do not allow the bottle to stand upright.)  Click on the following links for more images of this bottle: view of the embossed (upper) side showing the Whitall, Tatum & Co. trademark in a star; view of the back (bottom or resting) side which has embossed graduation markings (faintly visible in image) and FLUID OUNCES and is flattened to facilitate stable placement on a flat surface. 

For another example of a similar shape and size nursing bottle from England, click English nursing bottle.  This particular example has an inside threaded finish (and glass stopper) which is seen occasionally on English-made nursing bottles.  These bottles used a threaded stopper of some type (not a cork) to hold the rubber hose/nipple arrangement that would allow access to the contents by a nursing infant.  In fact, the glass stopper in the pictured bottle may have a hole to facilitate such an arrangement. (Photo from eBay®; bottle not in the authors possession to inspect.)

Dating summary/notes: The dating of these type bottles follows quite well the manufacturing based diagnostic guidelines presented throughout this website and summarized on the Bottle Dating page; see that page for more information.  Beyond that, additional information on a particular bottle would have to be acquired through research of the historical record when possible with company embossed bottles or those with the original labels intact.

Lockhart, Bill, Bob Brown, Beau Schriever, Carol Serr and Bill Lindsey.  2020.  Horlick's Malted Milk.  Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website, E-published November 2020.  Another exclusive article published here, this one being on the history and bottles/jars of the Horlick's Malted Milk Co.   The product was produced in various forms (powder, tablets, liquid) and was advertised as "Horlick's Malted Milk for Infants, Invalids, the Aged and Travelers" as it was sterile, portable and easy to consume (by those with no teeth?).  The company began business in the U.S. during the last quarter of the 19th century expanding into England by the 1890s and continuing through the entire 20th century.  It is still is being produced in England (the U.S. factory closed in the 1970s) for various markets around the world.  This company used a wide variety of mouth-blown and machine-made bottles for their product during that time period.  This article is available at the following link:  http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/Horlicks.pdf 

Flavoring extracts (i.e., vanilla, fruit flavors [lemon extract was very common], peppermint, almond, cloves...even onion!) came in a variety of bottle shapes.  One of the most commonly used styles strongly identified with these products were rectangular (in cross-section) bottles shaped like - or similar to - the example pictured to the left (Zumwalt 1980).  This particular style was referred to in bottle maker catalogs as "ball neck panels" sometimes with proprietary names added on like "Dixie Ball Neck" or "Argyle Ball Neck" or more descriptive names like "Tall Ball Neck Panel" or "Arch Ball Neck Panel" and many other names.  These bottles have a very distinct molded ring on the middle to lower neck and indented body panels on two, three, or all four sides (Whitall Tatum & Co. 1880, 1896, 1909; Illinois Glass Company 1903,1920,1926; Whitney Glass Works 1904; Fairmount Glass Works 1910; Cumberland Glass Mfg. Co. 1911).  This style is often referred to now by collectors and archaeologists as "ball neck extracts."  Similar flattened, rectangular bottles without the "ball neck" and/or without the sunken "panels" were also commonly used for flavoring extracts (Zumwalt 1980).  (Note: The style was also used extensively for a variety of medicinal products.  Click THIS LINK to see the section of the medicinal bottles typology page which discusses it briefly.  Also examples of the use for medicine are discussed at the end of this section with images of a couple of them.)

The group of extract bottles pictured below shows some of the variety found in these type bottles including the absence of the neck ring (far right) though all have the variably indented panels common to the group.  (image from eBay®.)  All of the pictured bottles were mouth-blown with tooled patent or extract finishes and date from between about 1890 and the early to mid-1910s.  Flavoring extracts seemed in a way similar to (and as popular as) pepper sauce condiments as food adjuncts designed to liven up (or make edible) the relatively poor and limited range of food products of the day.

The ball neck panel (and related) types were the typical shape for flavoring extracts from at least the mid to late 1860s into at least the 1950s - well into the machine-made era (Whitall Tatum & Co. 1879, 1896, 1909; Obear-Nester Glass Co. 1922; Lucas County Bottle Co. ca. 1940; Knox Glass 1950s; empirical observations).  The ball neck extract bottle was not exclusively used for flavoring extracts only as the style was also used for medicinal products, hair dyes, furniture polish, cologne, and undoubtedly many other products.  In fact, the ball neck panel bottle was typically listed with or near the prescription druggist and patent medicinal type bottles in glass maker catalogs and was undoubtedly used commonly for medicines (Whitall Tatum & Co. 1880; Illinois Glass Co. 1906; Fairmount Glass Works 1910; Lohmann 1972; Zumwalt 1980).  For example the labeled ball neck panel bottle at this link - Dr. David's Chill Tonic - was definitely intended as a medicinal product.  The label does note that it "Tastes as Pleasant as Lemonade" possibly suggesting that it may have simply been lemon extract with maker imagined medicinal properties?  The term "extract" was also used in conjunction with patent medicines (e.g., "Extract of Sarsaparilla") which were often ethyl alcohol extractions of various herbs; that is not the type of extracts covered here (Fike 1987).

The ball neck panel bottle pictured in the upper left corner of this section is embossed with L. BLUMAUER & CO. / FLAVORING /  EXTRACTS (with a fancy L. B. Co. trademark).  This bottle has a tooled patent finish and was blown in a cup-bottom mold though lacks any evidence of mold air venting - diagnostic features which indicate a manufacturing date range from the late 1870s to mid 1880s.  Louis Blumauer - who was the first Jewish child born in Oregon (1850s) - became a pharmacist in Portland, OR. beginning about 1878 in partnership with a man named Heubner (Oregon Native Son Historical Magazine 11(7) December 1900 - online).  (Note: A Blumauer & Heubner druggist bottle is pictured and discussed in the druggist bottle section of the Medicinal Bottles typology page; click HERE to view that section.)  Heubner left the partnership by 1880 and Louis did business under his name until 1889 when he formed a partnership as the Blumauer Frank Drug Co. which continued well into the 20th century (Portland Business Directory research).  Thus, the manufacturing date of this bottle is somewhere between 1880 and 1889.  This bottle is also embossed on the base with W. T. & Co. indicating manufacture by the Whitall, Tatum & Co. (Millville, NJ).  Their 1879 catalog listed these "ball neck panels" bottles as available from 1/2 ounce to 8 ounces and available "for lettered plates" which is how the embossing was added to the mold used for this particular bottle (Whitall Tatum & Co. 1879).  Click on the following links to view more images of this extract bottle:  base view showing the W. T. & Co. embossing; close-up of the shoulder, neck and tooled finish.  This particular bottle is typical of the flavoring extract bottles that were utilized by hundreds, if not thousands, of druggists across the country for products which received only local or regional distribution (Zumwalt 1980).  (The L. Blumauer bottle was excavated in the Portland, OR. area.)

The pair of rectangular extract bottles pictured to the left are both machine-made and exhibit typical machine-made characteristics including suction scars as both were products of the Owens Automatic Bottle Machine.  The bottle on the right side of the image is a 6" tall typical ball neck panel bottle with a very narrow neck ring that is embossed with Mc CORMICK & CO. / BALTIMORE.  The base is embossed with the makers mark for the Owens-Illinois Glass Co. with a plant and date code combination of a "6" and a "9" - numbers which make it impossible to determine if the bottle was made in 1936 or 1939 or at the Streator, IL. (plant 9) or Charleston, WV. (plant 6) plants as both were in operation in the 1930s (Lockhart 2004d).  Unfortunately, there is no additional mold number below the "diamond O-I" mark to orient its proper reading.  McCormick was and continues to be a large producer of extracts, spices, and other food products from 1889 until the present.  The illustrated bottle almost certainly held some type of flavoring extract (Zumwalt 1980; McCormick & Co. website 2007). 

The bottle on the left side of the image (4.6" tall, though was produced in many sizes) is embossed with M & R / BRAND / FLAVORS / ACME / FLAVORING / CO. / BRAND REG. / U. S. PATENT OFFICE (Zumwalt 1980).  It is also embossed on the base with the "IPG in a triangle" mark indicating manufacture by the Illinois Pacific Glass Corporation (San Francisco, CA.).  This mark strongly indicates that the Acme Flavoring Co. was a Western concern though its origin is unknown to this author (though these bottles are commonly seen in the West).  This makers mark definitively dates the bottle from between 1926 and 1930 (Lockhart et al. 2005d).  The shape is an era typical machine-made rectangular "oval" type druggist/prescription bottle including graduation marks indicating a two ounce capacity.  It is also an example of the crossover from the druggist category into the world of flavoring extracts.  (These type bottles are covered in the druggist bottle section of the Medicinal Bottle typology page.)

The square olive green bottle pictured to the right is embossed on one side with W. P. BRANSON and on the other (pictured) with COFFEE EXTRACT.  (Click on reverse view to see the side with the W. P. BRANSON embossing.)  This bottle is English in origin though is occasionally encountered on U. S. and Canadian historic sites (Zumwalt 1980).  It has an applied two-part "collared ring" finish, was blown in a cup-bottom mold and has no evidence of mold air venting as evidenced by the flattened embossing visible in the pictures.  If this bottle were made in the U. S., these features would likely indicate manufacture in the early to mid-1880s.  However, it is of English manufacture and likely dates from between 1885 and the early 1900s.  It is shown here primarily to display some variety in both the type of extracts made (coffee in this case) and the type of bottles used for food type extracts. 

During the era covered by this website, there were probably thousands of different rectangular or square (some cylindrical) flavoring extract bottles produced by glass makers in the U. S.  Coverage of all the types is impossible, of course, though the following includes some additional images/information about other styles or examples of extract bottles to show some of that additional variety:

• LOW'S / EXTRACT - (Image to the immediate right.)  This relatively early (1860s to 1870s), ball neck extract bottle was probably used by a Western American (likely San Francisco) business as these bottles seem to be found only in the West; this example was excavated in Portland, Oregon (empirical observations).  It is 4.8" tall, has a early crudely tooled "prescription" finish and blown in a cup-base mold (both consistent with smaller bottles having these attributes earlier than larger bottles), a lack of mold air venting and overall crudeness commensurate with the relatively early manufacture. It was made with a non-manganese dioxide decolorized glass that actually has a straw tint possibly indicating the glass was decolorized with arsenic and/or selenium.  Click base view to see such; this image also shows the straw tint to the glass.  Click side view to see such.  Both these images show that the bottle is basically rectangular in shape with widely beveled and inwardly curved corners.  This is a shape indicative of the earlier, pontiled and non-pontiled (like this example) extract bottles used in the United States from the 1850s to possibly early 1880s (empirical observations).
• Ball Neck Panel/Extract styles used for medicinal products -  The image to the right above is of two examples of what glass makers called a "ball neck panel", "ball neck extract" or an assortment of various proprietary names for variations on this rectangular, typically paneled bottle style.  The larger (10") colorless (slightly pink indicating glass decolorization with manganese dioxide) bottle is embossed with HENRY KESSLER, PROP. (right side panel) - MIZPAH (CURE peened out) / FOR WEAK LUNGS AND / CONSUMPTION (front panel) - ERIE, PA. U.S.A. (left side panel).  All sides are indented with the rear panel not embossed to facilitate applying a label.  It has a tooled "patent" finish, was blown in a cup-base mold and has air venting marks at several points on the shoulder indicating manufacture from the 1890s or later. This is bottle is about as large as the style was ever made, i.e., holding upwards of 16 oz.  Interestingly, it has the embossed word CURE removed (filled in?) though still faintly visible just after MIZPAH indicating that it likely dates after the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act which began the government regulation of false claims in regards to patent medicines.  This was, of course, no cure for tuberculosis (aka "consumption") at that time.  Examples with the word CURE still boldly present have been noted by the author.
• The other smaller ball neck extract in the image is embossed with JOHN C. HURST (left side panel) - ESS OF  JAMAICA / GINGER (front panel) - PHILA PA (right side panel).  The back panel is unembossed but indented for the label. This much smaller bottle (maybe 3-4 oz.) is 5.75" tall, made of a blue aqua glass, has a tooled "patent" finish, is lacking any evidence of mold air venting and was probably made in a post-base mold.  (The base is quite crude so the mold type is hard to ascertain precisely but appears to be a post-base.)  Actually the entire bottle is crudely formed and seems to be a product of the 1870s or early 1880s.  John C. Hurst was a wholesale druggist in Philadelphia who produced many other patent medicine products during the mid to late 19th century including Rising Sun Bitters (Ring & Ham 1998; web search 2021).  (The high alcohol "medicine" Jamaica Ginger was discussed on the Medicinal bottles page at THIS LINK.)
• ...more to be hopefully added in the future.

Dating summary/notes: Dating of these type bottles follow pretty well the major guidelines presented throughout this website and summarized on the Bottle Dating page; see that page for more information.  In particular, due to the similarity of manufacture (and sometimes use) of the typical U. S. produced extract bottles and druggist bottles, the diagnostic dating information found in the "Druggist/Prescription Bottles" section of the Medicinal/Druggist/Chemist typology page pertains to these extract bottles also.  Click Druggist Bottle Dating Summary/Notes to view this information.

The following are a few summary dating observations or estimations specific to ball neck panel/extract bottles based on the references cited in this section above, various bottle maker catalogs as well as empirical observations by the author beyond those noted at the druggist bottle dating link just above:

• Mouth-blown ball neck panels without mold air venting date from as early as the late 1860s until the early to mid-1880s.
• Mouth-blown ball neck panels with mold air venting marks began production in the mid to late 1880s and continued to be produced through the 1910s.
• Machine-made cork closure ball neck panels appear first when narrow-neck producing machines began significant use in the early to mid-1910s and continued until at least the mid-1930s and possibly as late as 1940 or so.
• Machine-made external screw thread closure ball neck panels first appear in the 1930s and were produced until at least the early 1950s and possibly later.  (Catalogs show most of these later bottles without indented panels.)

Below is an article on the bottles & history of one of the more popular flavoring extracts during the late 19th to mid-20th century:

Lockhart, Bill.  2020a.  Dr. Price's Delicious Flavoring Extracts.  Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website, E-published March 2020.  Another exclusive article published here only; this one on the fascinating history and bottles of yet another well known product (Dr. Price's Flavoring Extracts) which was produced and very popular during the last quarter of the 19th century until at least 1938 - a company which also used these type of bottles.  This article is available at this link:  http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/PricesExtracts.pdf