The J. R. Watkins Company began in 1868 as a small home-based business in Plainview, Minnesota, founded by entrepreneur Joseph Ray Watkins.
Watkins distributed many different types of household products including cleaning products, food extracts and flavorings, cosmetics, home remedies, and other products. (They did not actually make the bottles in which these products were contained.) As business increased, in 1885 the company operations were moved from Plainview to Winona, Minnesota.
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The very first bottles sold by Watkins are assumed to date as far back as 1868, but I doubt that the very earliest containers were actually embossed with the Watkins name, but would have likely been “generic” hand blown bottles with a paper label affixed to indicate contents. (If anyone has more information on this, please contact me!)
By the early 1870s, as business continued to expand, it is possible that some bottles were being embossed with “Watkins” or “J. R. Watkins Co.” (However, I have not seen any “WATKINS” embossed bottles that definitely appear to date from the 1870s. Have you?).
The earliest versions of the Watkins bottles were presumably made in aqua glass, were handmade (with a tooled lip) and have the lip fashioned for a cork closure. Later versions have a threaded-style lip for a screw-on lid.
The exact year when screw-top bottles were introduced by Watkins is unclear. Perhaps this would have been sometime in the 1920s. However, some products were continued to be sold in “cork top” bottles for many years after other products had switched to screw top containers. For instance, some of the flavorings and extracts are seen in bottles with a cork closure, but the paper labels on the bottles include a zip code in the company address information. This would definitely date those bottles to 1963 or later, the year that zip codes were introduced in the United States.
Some of the later bottles with paper labels and cork closures appear to be “special edition” or “commemorative” bottles that mimic the look of bottles they sold decades before.
There are probably hundreds of slightly different Watkins bottle mold variants in existence that have been used over the last 140 years, with a variety of differences in font style, exact wording arrangement, size and shape of the bottle, and I imagine it would be a monumental task to find just one example of every single one of them.
Of course, many of the products sold by Watkins are packaged in other kinds of containers besides bottles.
Many of the bottles from the 1910s-1940s are quite common, and are most commonly seen in clear (colorless) glass and are rectangular in shape. Sometimes the embossed company name is in a cursive font, and sometimes in a plain “block style lettering”. White milk glass salve or “ointment jars” and amber bottles were also sold.
The J.R. Watkins Company is still in business (as of 2024). Their current website is here: (This points to their history page).
https://www.watkins1868.com/pages/our-history
Another related site (this seems to be the division that sells mostly personal care products) is here:
Most bottles now being sold by Watkins bear a paper label showing the company name, product information, etc., but without embossed markings in the glass itself (assuming the bottle is made of glass). According to this “About us” history / timeline webpage, Watkins started switching over to plastic bottles for most (not all, but most) of their products beginning in 2010. https://shop.watkins1868.com/about-us
No doubt a number of different glass companies have produced bottles for Watkins over the years, but evidently Illinois Glass Company (“I inside a diamond” mark) and Owens-Illinois Glass Company have produced large quantities of them. I don’t have information to show what other glass companies they dealt with for supplying empty bottles. If anyone has solid information to show what other glass companies have actually manufactured bottles for Watkins over the years, please contact me!
Rawleigh’s was a competing firm that sold many similar products by mail-order and whose bottles are also found in large numbers.
(Thanks to Sarah Lindman for information and help concerning the Watkins company!).
For an extensive list of glass manufacturers’ marks seen on bottles, fruit jars, insulators, tableware and other items, and for more general information on this subject, please click here to go to the GLASS BOTTLE MARKS pages (page one).
Click here to go to my website HOME (WELCOME) PAGE.
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I just found a clear Trial Mark Watkins bottle in my backyard. I had to dig it out of the ground because only part of it was showing, the bottom has “container made in USA” embossed on it.
I have a J.R. Watkins bottle for shampoo jelly but it doesn’t have the markings on the bottom or anywhere just says shampoo jelly and Watkins on the neck and then J.R Watkins Medical Company Winona Minn. u.s.a on the front. Just curious as to who made the bottle
Hi Latasha,
Without a glass manufacturer’s mark on the bottom, it is difficult to know who made it, where, and when. Sorry I don’t have better info for you.
David
I have a very old clear glass Watkins Bottle (empty) the paper label say’s liniment on it, it has a cork for a cap the label is partially gone.
It has no # on the bottle but above the label in the glass it say’s Watkins” Trial Mark on the front and on one side it say’s
The Watkins Med C0. on the other side it say’s Winona, Minn. U.S.A.
The bottle seem’s to have a lot of air bubbles in it.
I am trying to find out some information on it I have searched the internet with no luck was wondering if it had any value.
Would appreciate any help anyone can give me.
It was my GrandMother’s and I am sure she had got it from her sales men that came to her house in the 1950’S as I remember him coming.
Hello my name is Debra and I have a picture that my great great great grandmother who sold Watkins products and she received a picture for her sales, and it’s a picture called THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY??? IF THATS THE NAME. IF ANYONE has any info. please contact me at debshaffer7@gmail.com Thank you
Does anyone have an old extra bottle they could upload an image of somewhere of cherry nut extract.
I SWEAR my grandmother had a Watkins 2oz bottle of cherry nut extract, the little dark bottle with the small handle, but I can’t find a reference to that particular flavor ANYWHERE.
I swear I’m not crazy…….
Hi Anthony,
I did a search on google (which quickly scans several billion webpages) and found just a couple obscure webpages with the three words “cherry nut extract” embedded in the text. (I made sure I placed quotation marks around the phrase to make sure I got hits only on the EXACT PHRASE you were looking for). They had nothing to do with Watkins. I am guessing the actual LABEL on the bottle did not read “cherry nut extract” but instead was probably lettered just “cherry extract”. Perhaps your grandmother (and/or other family members) used the expression “cherry nut extract” in ordinary conversation but that exact phrase wasn’t listed on their bottles??? I am not sure what you mean by “dark bottle”…….. did you mean amber (beer bottle brown) glass?? I can’t find any examples of small handled amber glass bottles with Watkins labels, but here are two shown on this webpage that are clear glass:
https://wallofretro.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/watkins-extract-bottles/
Please keep in mind that most bottles of flavorings and extracts (like most common household items kept in the kitchen cupboards, pantries, etc) were thrown away after they were emptied. So, if Watkins sold a bottle with a label with that exact phrase on it, there may be very few still around that were not thrown away. (If not for the habit of some people of saving lots of items that were normally pitched, (call it “packrat” or whatever), there would be few examples of old labeled bottles and other containers still around that now show up in such places as flea markets, antique malls and on online auctions and sales sites.
Hope this helps! In the meantime, perhaps sometime in the future someone will land on the site with more definite info on the Watkins bottle you are asking about. Good luck and take care!
David
You are not crazy – but the bottle may have been Cherry Nut Flavor and not Extract. My grandmother sold Watkins for years and after she passed there were a number of the old 2 oz. bottles of extract and flavors that I ended up with. One of them is Cherry Nut Flavor. It is a clear 2 oz bottle with the little loop handle at the top. For what it’s worth – it was my favorite flavor to use in making homemade ice cream and now my bottle is empty and I’ve never been able to find any more of it. The regular Cherry flavor is good but just not the same.
Yes, they did make a seasonal cherry nut along with plum and blackberry. If the site allows picture uploads I will do so.
A site called Worthpoint has pictures of this flavor bottle / label and many others. For curiosity sake I have collected 57 different flavors and extracts in those little bottles with handles. But not the cherry nut or plum bottle’s yet, just aforementioned pictures.
2 billion years later… yeah we have a bottle here of Watkins imitation cherry nut flavor, 2 oz. Above the Watkins logo (just Watkins, but the fatter serif font) is a rough drawing of 2 Cherries and 2 nuts, with green, red, and tan fill. Below 2 oz. is the number 1395 but idk if that’s a batch number or label number (?? the back says 1395B), idk. Bottle is shaped like a little syrup bottle. Glass is clear, white plastic cap. Bottom of the bottle says W 8 CO / C (in a circle indent)/ 15. Owner thinks she probably had it since before the 90s.
Hello,
I was interested in seeing a photo of that bottle, but you left a fake/invalid email address so I couldn’t contact you. In any case, you didn’t explain which portion of the lettering was on a paper label and which was actually embossed into the glass. However, I did a keyword search on ebay and found some similar bottles with paper labels still intact. Watkins sold a number of different imitation flavorings in these kinds of “syrup style” bottles that have a “fancier” design than their ordinary rectangular extract bottle shapes.
The “C in a circle” mark on the bottom indicates the bottle was made by Chattanooga Glass Company. The “15” on the bottom is a mold number.
I believe the number “1395” (printed on the paper label) is an inventory code number (product identification number) assigned to that particular product (Imitation Cherry Nut Flavor). The label on the back has the same number along with a “B” which (I think) is just an inside factory code to indicate it was the label to be affixed to the reverse side of the bottle. There were a number of other bottles such as “Imitation Butter Flavor” and “Imitation Sherry Flavor” that were packaged in the same style of bottle, but they bear a different product identification number. I don’t know when these bottles were made and sold, but I’d guess in the 1970s-1980s.
And I appreciate that you have supplied additional proof that there WERE indeed some bottles sold containing that particular flavor! When I answered the original post from Anthony Ferguson, at the time I wasn’t able to find any info that such a flavor existed. Evidently it wasn’t a very good seller, or wasn’t distributed as widely as some of their other flavoring products! Thanks for your post.
David
I found a Watkins face cream bottle from the JR Watkins company in Winona Minn. The bottom symbol is a diamond with a 281 inside.
I have just found a screw top bottle.which has the name lengthwise and readable whe the bottle is turned sideways. They are raised letters on glass, or embossed? The bottom is embossed? With a 2 and what looks like the planet Saturn with rings and then a 1 on the other side of the Saturn image. I understand the value is minimal, just wondering a date and maybe what it was for? Its about 4 1/2 inches tall and 1 1/2
Che, your bottle is one of many, MANY bottles made by Owens-Illinois Glass Company for Watkins. The “Saturn” logo was used by Owens-Illinois as their trademark for many years. Please check out my webpage on that company. I cannot tell you the exact year the bottle was made, but the number on the RIGHT side is a date code, and the number on the left side is the plant location code.
David
I have a smaller bottle. Brown colored glass and made for a cork. I found it in the yard of a house I was renting. It was buried about 2 ft deep. I am just curious as to what it may have contained. Most of the J.R. Watkins bottles I have found online are clear glass.
Hi Rosalyn,
Watkins used amber glass for some of their products. Some possibilities might include flavorings such as maple or vanilla extract, and various cleaning products as well as medicines. You might try searching ebay over a period of time for bottles with the label still intact.
David
My bottle has Watkins printed on the front and above the Watkins name it says Trial Mark. On the bottom it has the number 10 and says Container Made in USA. Any value for this? Thanks in advance.
Oops, it was also made for a cork stopper and not a metal cap.
Hi Timothy,
Millions of Watkins bottles have been made over many years, and most of them have only slight value to bottle collectors. I don’t know about the exact bottle you are describing, but I would guess the value is slight, perhaps one to 4 dollars. As I have tried to state in various places on my website, I try to keep the emphasis here on background information on the glass companies and marks they used, and I do not mean to turn this into an appraisal site answering lots of questions like “what is this worth?”. I find myself doing that, but it is not my real intention. There are no easy answers to such questions. Ebay is the best way to find out the “average” or “typical” value of an item, by searching ACTUAL auction ENDING PRICE results (for similar items) over a long period of time.
Best regards,
David
I have a bottle, has a handmade tooled lip watkin’s tooth power the j.r. watkins med.co. winona.minn. is embossed in a in a circular pattern around edge of bottle. It is in the shape of a watch fob,with a pedestal base. 3″ dia. across circle 4″ high 1″ thick.
We have a J R Watkins bottle #281 that says WATKINS FACE CREAM JR WATKINS COMPANY WINONA MINN. It is a cork bottle not a screw top. Do you know the value?
Hi Becky,
Concerning Watkins bottles values, please check out my reply to Albert Jacquez.
Take care,
David
The bottle i ha e is a clear glass cork top. Watkins sideways on front. And a number 5 on the upper left corner of thr bottom. With container and made in Usa on bottom
The bottle that I have has a screw top clear glass the number six on the bottom and The J.R. Watkins name on the front does it have any Value?
Becky, most of the Watkins bottles are very common (since they were made in huge numbers over many years) and don’t have a lot of “monetary value” to antique bottle collectors. Please search ebay over a period of time and see what various types sell for.
Best regards, David
I just found a Jr.Watkins facecream Cork bottle does it have any value to it
Albert, many different kinds of Watkins bottles have been made over the years. Most of them have minimal value to collectors at the present time, simply because they were made in such large quantities, and there is not a strong collector base for Watkins bottles. That may not be true for certain old or scarce varieties, but in any case I don’t have value information on the earliest Watkin’s bottles that were made.
My advice to you (and to all the many other people who write to me asking about Watkins bottles) is to search ebay periodically and see what other similar bottles actually sell for. (NOT the minimum bid or “Buy-it-Now” price, but check the ACTUAL SELLING PRICE via an ebay COMPLETED AUCTIONS search). Hope this helps,
David
I have a old bottle wondering what it is worth
I found a bottle with the front saying Watkins, Trial Mark. On one side it says Winona, Minn. U.SA., on the other side it says, The J.R.Watkins Med.Co. And on the bottom it is either a number 7 or an L.
I have one very similar only it has #3 on the bottom an a line through the words Trail Mark. I found it by a old abandoned building in some woods just next to my house made of concrete, trees growing through and out of it.
I’ve got a Watkins Liniment bottle which I found about 1 foot underground behind the foundation of a cabin that had been on the Old Mormon Emigrant Trail. It is molded with the words, “J.R. WATKINS MED. CO.” on one side and “WINONA, MINN. U.S.A.” on the other side. The front says, “WATKINS LINIMENT”. It has a cork top (no surviving cork), and no marks of any letters or symbols of any kind on the bottom. The glass is extremely clear, with a very slightly aqua tint to the thickest parts. It looks like a brand new bottle. Any information you might have would be wonderful.
I have a Watkins bottle with the contents still inside. It is 8.5 inches. Clear bottle with cork. Number 5 on bottom of bottle. I’m trying to determine the cost.