“ROOT” MARK ON ANTIQUE GLASS BOTTLES
The marks “R.G.CO.” and “ROOT” were used by the Root Glass Company of Terre Haute, Indiana. Millions of bottles were produced with one or the other of these marks on the heel or the base.
The Root company was established by businessman Chapman Jay Root (November 22, 1864 – November 20, 1945) who opened his glass works in May of 1901. The factory was located at the northeast corner of Third and Voorhees Streets in the southwestern section of the city of Terre Haute. Today (2024), a Thornton’s convenience store and gas station is located near the spot where the factory stood.
As seen on glass bottles, both of these marks were frequently embossed rather lightly on the base, or along the lower heel area, and quite often the lettering is almost illegible. The “R. G. CO.” mark was used more frequently during the earlier years of the factory, up to circa 1909, with “ROOT” becoming more common on their bottles in the years afterward.
Root produced a very wide variety of soda, mineral water and beer bottles as well as fruit jars at their factory in Terre Haute.
Root Glass Company is justly famous for having produced the first “Hobble Skirt” shaped Coca-Cola bottles. The special shape was trademarked on November 16, 1915. The very first prototype bottles were somewhat “fatter” than the design eventually agreed upon- a somewhat slimmed down version – which is the distinctive shape now recognized worldwide. (Coke bottles with the 11-16-1915 patent date embossing were evidently not placed into actual production until 1916 or 1917).
“Georgia Green” was the official glass color name given to the distinctive light sage-aqua green color now used for most Coke bottles. For more detailed information on the Coke bottle and Root’s involvement with that design, check out this article by Bill Lockhart and Bill Porter:
https://sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/coca-cola.pdf
For some more interesting input on Root Glass bottle mold numbers, and info on the Hobbleskirt Coke bottle design, check out comments that are posted farther down on this webpage – by Dennis Smith (4/5/2017) and Steven F. Hale (2/13/2020).
Large numbers of soda bottles (used by many bottling companies around the United States) with the mark “ROOT” along the lower heel of the bottle are found. As stated above, sometimes the mark is “R G CO” – and either of these marks may be accompanied by a mold number or a year date code placed to the right of the mark.
Most soda bottles made by Root Glass Company are found in a characteristic light green or light greenish-aqua colored glass. Sometimes the color of the glass leans toward a pale yellowish-green shade.
Lots of the “PLUTO WATER” mineral water bottles were made by Root Glass, for the Pluto bottling plant located at French Lick, Indiana. These bottles are typically in some shade of light green or light green-aqua and would date between 1913 and 1932. They bear an embossed “devil” figure on the base (with horns and a forked tail) that represents “Pluto”, the god of the underworld in Roman mythology.
ADVERTISEMENT
There were two separate factories in the early years, one for fruit jars and the other for bottles. The fruit jar factory was purchased by Ball Brother Glass Manufacturing Company in 1908, and operated by Ball until it was closed in 1912 or 1913. Root Glass Company was bought by Owens-Illinois Glass Company in 1932.
Later the plant became part of the American-Wheaton Glass Corporation. In 1962 the factory was sold to the American Can Company, and then sold again to Midland Glass Company in 1968. After being purchased by the Anchor Glass Container Corporation, the property was closed down in 1984, to be demolished a number of years later.
This webpage includes photos showing the commemorative historical marker erected at the site of the former factory: https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/wm9FVX_The_Root_Glass_Company_Terre_Haute_IN
Here is a Terre Haute local newspaper article with more details on the Root Glass Company and the Coke bottle design introduced in 1915:
https://www.tribstar.com/news/local_news/coca-cola-honors-bottle-s-roots-in-terre-haute/article_8dbc0fb2-81c5-5dab-b657-d033184d175c.html
Much more background information on Root Glass Company can be found in this detailed article written by Bill Lockhart: https://sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/RootGlass.pdf
Here is a very informative Museum of Arts and Sciences web article on ROOT and the Coke bottle:
https://www.moas.org/The-Root-Family-and-Coca-Cola-6-175.html
For an extensive list of glass manufacturers’ marks seen on bottles, fruit jars, insulators, tableware and other items, arranged in alphabetical order, please click here to go to the first of five pages: GLASS BOTTLE MARKS, page one.
Click here to go to my website HOME PAGE.
Sometimes old Root bottle bases and shards can be found in beach glass. Check out my article on sea glass / beach glass here: What is Sea Glass / Beach Glass?
ADVERTISEMENT
I have a 15″ tall clear glass, approximately 3″ in diameter with a lip (like for a lamp shade). On the bottom, it says ROOT ORIGINAL BOTTLE LIGHT. There are some numbers in the center, looks like 13, OCT 25. This is a cylinder shape, not a bottle. IDK???
Hi Cheryl,
I don’t know anything about it, but I’m happy to approve your post. Maybe someone will eventually come along with some good information to pass along for us!
Thanks and best regards,
David
I just dug a bottle that says root R-G-Co Bottles for Strenth and service. On other side light green flint and amber. Terre Haute ind. Root Glass co.
Hello all! Just today my husband found a green bottle with “ROOT” 1528 on the bottom, Bay Bottling Works, BBW on the bottom, Panama City Fla and hasn’t any Coca Cola logo anywhere on it. I’m hoping to hear this is a good sign after two hurricanes and Covid has stolen everything including our pride. Any advice, help, and opinions would be most appreciated! – Aures family
Katie, thank you for your post on the site! I don’t have any specific information on the bottle your husband found, but I would guess it dates from sometime in the 1900s-1920s period. Perhaps collectors of antique Florida and surrounding region soda bottles might eventually land on this site and share info on it if they have any. Take care and best of luck to you and your family!
David
I have a Coca Cola aqua glass bottle, 11 1/2 ” tall. Chicago 2 cent deposit. Root on bottom of bottle. This was the first bottle I dug up 55 years ago. My buddy was digging and thought it was a ketchup bottle and told me to go down in the hole and dig it up. Any info date etc. would be appreciated.
Hi Lynn, I don’t know what year it would date from, other than from sometime before 1932.
David
I found a Coca Cola bottle says Coca Cola bottling company Charleston SC Trade mark registered on the back side and ROOT on the bottom. in good shape with no cracks. Have no idea if it is worth anything appears to be bluish green in color. No other marking on it. Just curious if anyone knows anything about it.
I have a bottle that’s says Paducah Ky bottling co. On the side 630 in small print on one side at the bottom and a 14. On the very bottom it says ROOT 1
I have a 1915 coke Houston Mississippi with 1fv. Root 27. Any information would be appreciated
Randy, the bottle was made in 1927 by Root Glass Company. Usually, a number positioned immediately to the right of the name “ROOT” (along the lower heel of the bottle) is believed to be a year date code.
Hope this helps,
David
Yes it does. Thanks David.
I would like to know what glass maker uses the image of a tree root on their glass products, there are no other markings.
Recently found a ROOT bottle in the Great South Bay (Long Island, NY) on bottle also says ‘properly of COMO’
Recently found a Dearborn Bottling Co., Lawrenceburg, Indiana green glass bottle with an embossed ROOT and number (3924), which I am assuming is the mold number. Research tells me that the Dearborn Bottling Co. was established in 1922.
I have a “root” coke bottle, found it in St.Augustine in the sand of the intracostal waterway, in the 1970’s while working surveying with my dad. Any idea about this one?
Root molds were numbered. 1-350 were marked R G Co and numbers above that were marked ROOT. I’m working on matching up mold used for individual bottlers with their start date to create a chronology of when a mold was used. By extension, adjacent molds would have comparable dates helping to date bottles made in those molds where no historical information is available. I have a list of 300 mold numbers to start with from 7 to 1380, along with the bottler name and location. I’ve posted elsewhere asking for more mold numbers to fill in the gaps. I’m just wondering if someone else has already done this.
Dennis, thanks a lot for the information. Great stuff! I am not really that familiar with the ROOT molds, but was thinking “more along the lines of” Illinois Glass Company soda bottle molds which I understood were used over and over again with slug plates inserted. I would like your view on this also: would you not have a ‘caveat’ that in some cases a particular mold may have been used sporadically, over a period of years, while most of the time it sat on a shelf? Thus it seems to me that some bottles could potentially be newer than others, but it wouldn’t be obvious just from the mold number alone. I invite any comments or light shed on the matter!
Best regards,
David
Most of these molds were slug plate molds. I found one that was used for twelve different bottlers. I understand from my reading that the molds did wear out over time. The one used for twelve different bottlers may have been all small orders over several years. Knowing the year the earliest bottler used the mold will still provide a ‘terminus post quiem’ or date after which for that mold number being placed in use.
Dennis, I have an aqua soda bottle that says Monarch Bottling Co on the side in a downwards (‘frowning’) arch, and under that it says MONARCH in big all caps, and under that it says in smaller caps REGISTERED. Then it says WASHINGTON DC in another arch, this one upward (like a smile).
My point is though that on the lower heel of the bottle (on the other side from the lettering I mentioned above) it says in small letters “236A ROOT 28”. I don’t know if this breaks the rule you posited above – if the model number is 236A, then it should say R G Co?
The base has a gigantic letter M on it. The only other lettering is above the heel and above the ROOT lettering – it says “CONTENTS 8 FL. OZS.”
I have found several examples where an ‘RG’ mold number was reissued as ‘ROOT.’ In all of these cases the mold is the same except for RG/ROOT. To me that indicates the bottler used the same bottle over time spanning both mold marks.
Hello Dennis. I just acquired a straight side, arrow, Coca Cola bottle. I’m not a collector of bottles, just happened upon it. I didn’t see the numbers on the heel, until I read your post, here. My bottle reads, ‘ROOT’ on the bottom. Under Memphis Tenn, there are two sets of numbers. One looks like a 13 and the other 44 3. Maybe this will help your research. I would appreciate any info. Thanks, Ted
My Wife’s family on her mother’s were ROOT’s it’s now getting hard to find bottles marked with the ROOT name on them. 30 years ago we could find both bottles and jars but getting scarce more. Wish I had TEDS MEMPHIS bottle
Ronn resther@aol.com
I have a “Crystal Coca Cola Bottling Works Roswell New Mexico” (embossed in a circle on the side,) aqua, 6-1/2 ounce, straight sided soda bottle with ROOT and 4130A as well as the number 28 embossed on the heel of the bottle. I found it in the vicinity of an old 1920’s era settlement.
For your mold number collection: I have here on my desk a bottle clearly marked “303 ROOT 29” on the heel. Embossed around the bottle just above the heel is AVIATION-ZIP BOT. CO. CREAL SPRINGS, ILL.
I have those same bottles clear &green I live in creal springs.
Don’t know if this will help you or not,but I just bought an emerald green crown top bottle about 8″ tall with peacocks embossed on the shoulder. It says ROOT 31 480 around the base. Lynchburg,VA on the bottom. I don’t know who the bottler is or what the contents were. If you have any info on this bottle ,I would love to know. Hope the info helps with your research ,either way. I don’t much care about the value. I gave 4$ for it, simply because I collect Lynchburg glass and live in Lynchburg…Best Regards, “DOC”
Has anyone created a list of ROOT bottles by mold number? I’m hoping to date bottles by the operation dates of the companies assigned to the mold numbers.
Hi Dennis,
I’m not sure I understand your second sentence. Are you referring to the companies (end users) who had “private mold” bottles made for them by Root that, because of their shape, were unique to a particular product, and thus might have had a unique mold number (style number, catalog number) assigned for that particular bottle?
Many of the molds Root used (esp. sodas) were “generic” molds that had removable engraved slug plates inserted to make a number of bottles for a particular bottling company.
Perhaps a reader will chime in with more info on the ROOT mold numbers. Readers?
~David
I have a green bottle that has “Last Day April 30, 1984 and The names of several people on it with Prod supt, Frm Supt, foreman and CPPAW with name for each. And on the back is Terre Haute and 10 peoples names also A>F>G>W>U> Local 134.There are also names on the bottom. Did this come from Midland Glass?
Verdeana,
I don’t know about the bottle. Is there a glass manufacturer’s logo or mark on it?
David
David,
Read what I wrote to Verdena and this might make some connections. The Root Glass Company won the bottle competition in 1915 that set the standard for cokes 6 bottling plants. The first was the wide body one. Coke was given a patent for their bottle design. They then released the Christmas (contour body) body on dec 25 1923. It was the Georgia Green tint weighing no less than 14.5oz and held 6.5 fluid oz.
I have a ROOT coke bottle. I can send a picture to your response. 3293F Root 27. Property of the coca cola bottling co. Cincinnati, O.
Bottle Pat D Nov, 16 1923.
This has to be one of the last independent bottles made before the standard was set. It was one month prior to the xmas bottle patent and it came from the root glass company in Terre Haute, IN. This is the first one I have come across with a date. First patent date that I have seen on a coke bottle that is an independent vintage model the predates the Xmas model. And was made by the same glass company.
Does this make sense at all?
Hi Adam,
The November 16, 1923 date is also on a 1920s-era bottle archived here: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1920s-agua-soda-s-francis-avon-park-1788696191
I don’t quite understand the connection, but I am wondering if your bottle was actually made in 1927, since the “27” to the right of ROOT just might be a date code. Not sure about that, but I think it is a possibility.
~David
Hey Dave
Hope you’re doing well.
Just a bit of clarification on the ’15 and ’23 patent date Cokes for the new guys.
First, those dates are PATENT dates only – NOT introduction/production dates.
The first ’15 Cokes were not actually produced/introduced until sometime in 1917.
I have several period Coca Cola internal memos attesting to this.
The earliest dated ’15 Coke I’ve personally seen was marked “Chatt 20” (Chattanooga Glass, 1920)
This was in response to the Coke mandate requiring all Coke bottles produced starting in 1920 to be dated.
I have several gorgeous (but crude) early ice blue, thick base ’15 Cokes with no date or maker marks on them.
’15 Cokes were produced from roughly 1917 to 1927.
The ’23 Coke design was not actually introduced until ’27/’28 and remained in production until 1938.
1938 saw the introduction of the much more common “Pat. D 105529” bottle.
I’m an Atlanta Native. Coca Cola is in my blood…Literally. ; )
Hope that helped y’all some.
Take Care
Steve
HI Steve,
Thank you very much for your post! I appreciate the great background info you have here! Take care,
David
Steve,
Thanks for the information. This has been informative and helpful. Thanks for your time.
Adam
It was probably a commemorative bottle. I spend forty-two years working in six different glass plants including the Midland plant. We made bottles like this to mark special occasions. the GPPAW was the abbreviation for glass pottery plastics and allied workers union, which represented most of the employees. The AFGWU was the American Flint Glass Workers Union which represented the mold makers.
Probably so. My Dad and Sister worked there and those people were always making something out of glass.
I have a clear Hollieanna pint canning jar. The Hollieanna is in script in a slight arc above the word MASON. The bottom has ROOT underlined and below the line 32. How would I find the age?
Hi Clarice,
I’m not aware of any information that can pinpoint the date of these jars, other than the assumption they were made by Root Glass Company. Because they are clear (not aqua), I would assume they were made in the very late years of Root, sometime in the very late 1920s up to c. 1932. (Although maybe just a jar mold number, it is also possible the “32” is a code indicating the jar mold itself was made in 1932, but I can’t say that is correct). Owens-Illinois Glass Company, who took over the Root Glass Company jar plant, also made some Hollieanna jars, but those examples are presumably those that have the “ROOT” marking erased from the mold, and post-date 1932.
Best regards,
David
David – I don’t know how you have kept up with all the inquiries. Thank you for providing an answer to mine in 2016. I now am a proud card carrying ‘jar head’ if there was a card, lol! I got to go to my first bottle show this Spring and had so much fun. I own numerous reference books including SFJR and the last two editions of RB. I enjoy researching to find the answers to my numerous questions re jars and how, where and when they were made. My greatest frustration is the lack of information on the lids used by all the different jar companies and dating.
I hope your future is filled with the time to continue seeking….
Hi Clarice,
Thanks a lot for your kind comments! Good luck with your collecting and your research!
Take care,
David
I have an Amber coca cola bottle ROOT is imprinted on the bottle and Coca-Cola is on the side with Huntsville, ALA. Under it.
Any info as far as history, rarity, or value?
Hi Amy,
Root is known to have made large numbers of Coke bottles including the earlier “straight sides” type and the “hobbleskirt” style bottle. I am not a Coke bottle specialist, so I can’t comment on your bottle, other than to note it is a “straight-sides” type and was made in the 1900s or early to mid-1910s. However, perhaps someone else who lands on this site can offer their opinions. Also, I would suggest you try posting a query on the http://antique-bottles.net site, where many collectors discuss all kinds of bottles and jars. I am sure there are many Coke bottle specialists who frequent that site, and someone may have more info for you, including ideas on the relative rarity of the type you are describing.
Best regards,
David
Amy: Your bottle is considered “common” (that doesn’t necessarily mean easy to find!) and in average condition (normal wear – no chips or cracks) would have a retail value of around $30.
I have a straight sided green glass coca cola bottle, that says ‘The Jacksonville Fla. Coca Cola trademark registered Bottling Company” across the front. Root imprinted on the bottom,and the number ‘436’ on the back close to the bottom. Any ideas when this was made?
Angela, I don’t know. I would assume it dates from the 1900s up to circa 1916.
~David
The Jacksonville Coca Cola Bottling Company wasn’t operating until 1902 so your bottle has to date between 1902-1910.
I have the exact same one! Found in Valdosta, Georgia. It’s very heavy. I was hoping to find out more about it.
I have a straight side Coca Cola aqua bottle. Below the Coca Cola which is in the middle of the bottle. Right below it says TRADEMARKREGISTERED. On the other side at the bottom it says THIS BOTTLE NOT SOLD. On the base it has ROOT. No other markings, words or city present. I am looking for any information I can get. I believe the Coca-Cola script dates it 1893-1901.
Thank you
Louis, your Coke bottle dates from sometime in the 1901-1917 time period. Root Glass Company started in 1901, and most of the straight-sided Cokes were being phased out (replaced by the “hobbleskirt”) around the 1915-1917 time period.
David
Thank you for your information. If you ever come across any information on Shreveport LA bottles I am always interested. I currently have a proximity 200 and in the process of learning and identifying the bottles, people and the growth of this industry in Shreveport.
Thank you for your helppappy
I have a roots light blue mason bottom side marked A this is all wondering about rareity-time produced all I see are people talking about numbers
They are not rare, but certainly not nearly as common as the typical Ball jars.The “A” on the bottom is probably a mold letter. According to “The Fruit Jar Works, Volume 2” by Alice M. Creswick and Steven B. Creswick (1987), the “ROOT MASON” jars date from circa 1906 to 1909. The most common color is aqua (light bluish-green). Other colors known include shades of amber, and olive green. For current values, check the REDBOOK of fruit jars, or search ebay auctions over a period of time and see what the actual COMPLETED AUCTIONS prices are.
Until recently, we all assumed Root never made blob-tops. Myself and one other man each have a ROOT-made blob-top. They look like beers, but were paper labels so we cannot be sure. It’s like my Michigan Bottling Co., Muskegon, bottle: You think it’s one thing, but you will never be sure. He was so excited to find the Root blob, and we all were interested. Later, I became sure they’re not all that uncommon–but I assume there is only a handful of variations; the example I’m talking about being the most common if not the only. My theory is, because they’re not embossed and are large-sized, people who dig them tend to not give them much attention as there are other, better bottles in the hole. I got mine only a short, short while after he did. Be on the look-out, for right now it’s unique still. You’re in luck, gotta cut my post here short: An alarm is screeching. Lol.
I have two clear glass jars that the mouth is as large as the body of the jar marked “ROOT” with the statement
“Against federal law to refill” do you know what was in them originally?
Btw a cross is molded into the side.