Diamond Glass Company of Royersford, Pennsylvania (1886-1990) produced a wide variety of glass containers throughout their long history.
(This factory was originally built as the Penn Glass Works in 1884, but the plant was purchased by a group of investors and renamed the Diamond Glass Company in 1886).
Please click here to see an early Diamond Glass bottle catalog posted on Tod von Mechow’s great informational site on antique soda and beer bottles: Diamond Glass Company catalog. This catalog is circa 1900-1905, and indicates that many of their soda bottles were marked with style or mold numbers on the base, but with no manufacturer’s mark. A few bottles are marked with a plain diamond, or “D. G. Co.”.
Most bottles found in the United States with a diamond marking (but no letters or numbers inside) embossed on the base or heel of the container can be safely attributed to Diamond Glass Company of Royersford.
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Note: There are no doubt a few bottles in existence (marked with just a plain diamond) that cannot be attributed to Diamond Glass Company with 100% certainty, simply because Illinois Glass Company, based in Alton, Illinois, produced bottles with an “I inside a diamond” and on some examples the letter ‘I’ is invisible or barely discernible. However, the chances are good that any particular bottle with just a plain diamond marking was indeed made by the Royersford concern. Bottles with numbers, or a number/letter combination placed within the diamond are considered to be products of Illinois Glass Company.
Diamond Glass Company was purchased in 1985 to become part of Diamond-Bathurst, and in 1987 the factory was acquired by Anchor Glass Container Corporation, which closed down the plant in 1990. (Some more background info on Anchor Glass Container Corporation is on my webpage about Anchor Hocking Glass Corporation, here).
Below, the typical “plain Diamond” mark as seen on the heel of more recent bottles………..this is on a clear glass non-returnable soda bottle made in 1986.
For more background detail on Diamond Glass Company, please check out this article by Bill Lockhart et al here: https://sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/Diamond.pdf
Please click here to go to the alphabetical listings of marks, starting here on Page One.
Click here to go to my website HOME PAGE.
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I used to work at Diamond Glass in Royersford, Pa. Started working there in the carton room the day after I graduated from Spring-Ford High School 1973. Continued to work in the carton room until 1978. I then transferred to the molding Dept. It was called the hot end. I continued to work there until the plant closed in 1990.
Thank you for reading this.
Tom Bainbridge
Hello Tom,
Thanks a lot for your post! I appreciate your chiming in on the site. Maybe some other former co-workers will eventually land on this website and see your comments.
Take care,
David
My dad worked there for 38 years. I am looking for a Diamond Glass Bad Guy Mug. We had several from the factory growing up. Do you know where I might find one? eBay has them but not DG. Thank you
Hi Bernadette,
Since Diamond Glass Company is not in business anymore, your best bet is looking online in the “secondary market” such would include ebay and etsy as well as other sites such as Poshmark. I know that the prices asked on items sold on those sites are often VERY high, but perhaps sooner or later, someone will list one of those mugs at a reasonable beginning bid, or buy-it-now price! You could also try putting an “ITEM WANTED” ad in your local version of Craigslist. Hope this helps!
DAvid
Hello!! I found a bottle that has the O inside the diamond with no I on the inside?!?! And it is marked 3 3/4″ on the bottom. Does anyone know if maybe it’s a misprint? Or what kind of bottle it is by any chance?
Hi Amanda,
There are a quite a few Owens-Illinois bottles bearing their “Diamond and oval” mark in which the “I” inside the oval is illegible if not virtually invisible. This occurs mostly on smaller bottles. I would need to see a pic of the bottle to help identify the type or possible original contents. Please check at the bottom of the pages on this site for my email address. Thank you and take care!
David
The Spring-Ford Royersford Area Historical Society in Royersford is looking to purchase a vintage catalog or copy of one for their museum.
Hi today I find a little brown bottle of poison liquid iodine at the beach, under the bottle it has the D in a diamond and under the sign only one number the 2 🙂 I’m looking to know if someone can tell me more about it 🙂 thanks
Hi, your bottle was made by Dominion Glass Company (in Canada), as indicated by the “D inside a diamond” mark. The number “2” is a mold number and doesn’t tell us anything about the bottle or it’s age.
Best regards,
David
IN 1958 or so I was a classmate of a daughter of the Leroux liquor family. As a class trip we toured the Diamond glass factory in Royersford. I always thought we got in special because Leroux bought their bottles from Diamond. I have vivid memories of the bottle blowing machines and to his day I believe that that tour was the single most thing that made me want to aspire to a career in manufacturing. Most of my adult life was spent in food manufacturing management, and I trace it to that day.
For years I looked on the bottoms of bottles to see if they had the diamond. I remember on the tour that we were told that Diamond made all the bottles for “Vitalis” hair tonic. Who remembers that?
Tom Lewis
Hi Tom,
Thank you very much for your interesting post! I love this kind of background info! I don’t know anything about the Vitalis hair tonic bottles but I would guess they were not marked with the Diamond Glass Co. logo (as many “private mold” bottles were not marked to show who actually made them for the company that sold the product contained in the bottle).
Perhaps someone will comment further. Take care,
David
I went on a field trip to Diamond Glass as an elementary student. Everyone got a set of shakers. Mine had red plastic caps, but I’ve seen many with metal ones.
Hello Dave, thank you very much for your post! I appreciate you sharing your story. Do you still have the shakers? If not, would you remember or recognize the shape/style, if (for instance) you did a keyword search on ebay for similar ones? Just curious!
Best regards, David
Not only remember the shape but still have at least one set. Our museum, of the Spring-Ford Area Historical Society, has many sets of shakers made in town. http://www.sfahs.com Dave
Thank you for the info, Dave!
Take care, David
I have a glass salt and pepper set. On the side it says complements of Diamond Glass Co. Royersford PA The bottom has a diamond. No numbers. Do you have an idea when it was made or why Diamond Glass Co. would have handed them out?
Hi Deanna,
I have no idea on date, but it sounds like a nice souvenir item to help advertise the Diamond Glass Company. Maybe someone with more background information on your salt and pepper set will land on this site, and help us with more details on the set.
Best regards,
David
We had a whole case of the shakers at home when I was a kid. We never used them and I wonder if my dad still has them somewhere. He worked for Diamond Glass in Royersford through the 50s and early 60s. I remember going there with him and seeing the machines blowing bottles faster than you could watch. The shakers were made to give away to tour groups and sales samples.
I found a pint flask clear bottle that says FEDERAL LAW FORBIDS SALE OR REUSE OF THIS BOTTLE on the side. Maker’s mark is an empty diamond. Above the diamond is a number 4. To the left of the diamond is the number 18. To the right of the diamond is the number 65. Below the diamond is R-44. I thought it might be an Owens Illinois bottle from 1965, which would fit with the FEDERAL LAW FORBIDS…, but that doesn’t fit with plant code 18. I haven’t been able to find anything on R-44. I’m assuming it’s a rectifier code, but can’t find any info on it. My next guess is Diamond Glass Company 1965. Anyone care to offer an opinion?
Hi, I am fairly confident your flask was made by Diamond Glass Company of Royersford, PA. The “65” would be a date code for 1965. The “18” is a liquor bottle permit number that was assigned by the US government to the Diamond Glass plant.
~David
Hello, I have a glass Decanter seven crown embossed. It has the number 18 then the diamond and the number 62 on the other side. It has prohibition text around the edge and D-126 also.
Hi Maddy,
Yes, you have a bottle definitely made by Diamond Glass Company in Royersford. The “18” is a “liquor bottle permit number” assigned to Diamond Glass, and the “62” is a date code for 1962. (I have a list of liquor bottle permit numbers on this page: https://glassbottlemarks.com/glass-industry-liquor-bottle-permit-numbers-numerical-list/ ) . The “D-126” is a code number that identified the distiller.
~David