The Link between Genealogy and Antique Bottles
Surnames on Antique Bottles ~ The interest in family history (genealogy) has greatly increased in recent years, as evidenced by popular sites such as Ancestry.com and Findagrave.com that offer information and available data for researchers. Some information is from cemetery records, or early census forms, city directories, old telephone directories, obscure books, newspapers, magazines, etc.
Within the field of glass, in recent years it’s become increasingly popular to search for and collect antique and vintage bottles (whether hand-blown or machine-made) that bear an embossed surname (last name), especially a name of particular interest or relevance to the collector, antique buff, bottle digger, amateur historian, genealogist, teacher, researcher, or just a curious family member.
Note: Although this website is geared toward information on glass containers, there are, of course, many, many older pottery and ceramic bottles, jugs, jars, crocks, and related ware in existence that carry surnames, either incised, stamped, embossed, or painted on the surface.
The field of antique glass bottles is an often-overlooked potential source of interest to genealogy buffs. Information from old bottles may be useful when combined with data that can be gleaned from period city and business directories, newspaper and magazine ads, government census data and other contemporary sources.
The interested collector may search for any glass containers that bear his or her own family name, regardless of whether there is or was any relationship to the owner or proprietor of the business that issued or used the bottles with that embossing. These can form an interesting collection in and of themselves, and spur more involved study about the history of the companies and the people involved with them, and of the bottles produced for those business ventures.
A tremendous variety of surnames have been embossed on glass bottles, extending back for a period of 200 years or more. Tens of thousands, even a hundred thousand or more individually distinct surnames probably exist as an integral part of the embossed (raised) markings on bottles made just in the United States alone. Counting bottles manufactured the world over, the number of surnames in existence would be much, much higher.
The possibilities are virtually unlimited for finding glass containers marked with rare, uncommon, obscure, or unusual surnames.
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Here is a list of just some of the many types of bottles which can be found that commonly carry a surname (typically, the company name, usually derived from the owner, operator or manager) . The name may be embossed in raised lettering on the front, sides, or base of a container.
1) Dairies (milk bottles). This is a huge field, with thousands of obscure dairies that once operated across the US. Most of these types of bottles date (in general) from the 1910s to the 1950s.
2) Beer brewers (beer, ale bottles). Another vast field. Many of the larger cities across the US, especially in the East and Midwest, including Milwaukee, Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Boston, Baltimore, and others, were home to large numbers of breweries and/or beer bottlers. Many of these bottles carry the full name of the owner (or firm name) as well as city and state.
3) Soda manufacturers (soda, root beer, mineral water, tonic water bottles).
4) Spirits manufacturers/distillers (whiskey, gin, tequila, vodka, vermouth and other liquor bottles).
5) Chemical companies (chlorine bleach, hydrogen peroxide, ammonia, alcohol, cleaning agents, acids, bluing, fertilizers, farm products, and other chemical bottles).
6) Druggists/Pharmacies (drug, prescription bottles). There were tens of thousands of druggists located in towns and cities across the US that had their own customized bottles manufactured for them (many of them are called “slug plate” bottles) to use for customer prescriptions. The heyday for this type of embossed bottle would be circa 1875-1920. Many of those kinds of bottles were produced by Whitall Tatum & Company with base marks “W T & Co” and later “W T Co”.
7) Medicine manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies (bottles containing “quack” patent medicines as well as “reputable” medicines, including “remedies”, “cures” “elixirs”, “liniments”, “vermifuges”, bitters, etc.). A major sub-category of antique bottle collecting, the “Patent Medicines” were sold in tremendous quantities especially throughout the 1840s-1910s. Many of the very oldest bottles of this type, bearing pontil marks on the bottoms, are extremely rare and seldom seen by collectors.
8) Food products manufacturers/distributors (food containers of a very wide range of types).
9) Pickle and condiment manufacturing/ distributing companies (containers for pickles, olives, chutney, chow chow, ketchup, vinegar, pepper sauces, relishes, etc.).
10) Ink and shoe polish manufacturers. (many types, sizes, designs of shoe dressing, stove blacking, ink, glue and related product bottles).
11) Bitters manufacturers (bitters bottles).
12) Coffee distributors (coffee jars).
13) Cosmetic manufacturers (cologne and perfume bottles, lotions, oils, salves, cold cream, makeup, aftershave).
14) Fruit jar manufacturers (well-known examples include Ball and Kerr, but dozens if not hundreds of other lesser-known names have been embossed on glass canning jars over the years).
Probably the most common embossed names found on antique and vintage glass bottles would be SMITH, JONES, WILLIAMS, THOMAS, JOHNSON, BROWN, ADAMS, MILLER, and others of that genre. The less common the surname, the harder it may be to find unusual examples or variants of bottles.
Some surnames are not that common to begin with, but are frequently found in “the bottle collecting world” simply because the companies were so successful. “WHITTEMORE” comes to mind, a prolific manufacturer of shoe polish. “HOSTETTER” is another, as shown by the bitters bottle shown on this page.
Many names, by their very nature, give strong clues concerning the ethnic or country origins of the proprietors of a particular business firm. For instance, a very large proportion of early beer brewers and bottlers were of German origin. A large influx of German immigrants occurred throughout much of the mid and late 19th century in the United States, many of them accomplished tradesmen and businessmen in a wide variety of fields.
The eBay.com auction site can be of great help in finding bottles with a particular surname on them.
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I am looking for information about a bottle I found. The bottom says S. C. Johnson and son Racine WI. I haven’t been able to find anything about it.
Thanks
Suzanne