2020 Notes

11/12/2020

Dated New Hampshire Bottles

While adding directory listings for Manchester, New Hampshire bottlers and brewers for a new feature in on this web site, I was reminded of the large number dated  bottles from this town. The new feature documents directory listings and links them to the firms that had bottles or were in the bottling, brewing, and related industries like bottlers suppliers, glass works, and potteries (click here to go to the directories feature).

A couple of things about Manchester, New Hampshire are interesting.  First, is the early adoption of clear bottles.  After 1895, almost all bottles are clear, while aquamarine was the standard for most of the rest of the country.  Second is the lack of soda and mineral water bottles from Manchester.  It must have been a hard drinking community.  Third is the late use of pre-crown beer bottles.  These bottles were used by various beer bottles right up to Prohibition took effect in 1919.

Manchester is almost exclusively the center for dated bottles in New Hampshire with nineteen firms having forty-two dated bottles. The exceptions are a few dated pottery beer bottles from the early 1850s (Nahum W. Burke of Milford has bottles dated 1852 and 1853 and Lane & Conant of Nashua have a bottle dated 1854) and one glass bottle dated 1908 from N. H. Gilbert of Somersworth.  The first Manchester firm to record a date on a Manchester bottle was the iconic bottler Edward Wagner who had a bottle dated 1902.  There is a Quirin & Duhaime bottle in amber that is based embossed 1898, however I excluded it because it is not embossed on the face of the bottle.  The last were P. Harrington's Sons and Connor's Sons with bottles dated 1918.  The vast majority of the dated bottles are from the five years inclusive of 1912 thru 1916.  The year with the most is 1914 with six dated bottles.  There are quite a few firms that have runs of dates with Harrington's Sons having nine bottles with dates between 1906 and 1918.  There are no known bottles dated 1909.  At least not to my knowledge or have been reported to me!

The table below list the firms with the dates:

There are lots of gaps between some of the date runs listed above so there must be more bottles out there.  If you have a dated bottle that is not listed here, please do contact me at Todvon@verizon.net.

Picture courtesy of Glass Works Auctions

11/12/2020

Edmund S. Clark & His Mobile Bottles

While researching the origins of a Wells & Company bottle, I was reintroduced to Clark and his many partnerships.  One being Clark & Wells in Mobile, Alabama.  Before I get into the Mobile bottles, some background on Edmund S.

Edmund S. Clark was born at Northampton, Massachusetts on January 26, 1826.  Edmund married Julia A. Hilliard on January 2, 1845 at Halifax, Vermont.  She was the daughter of John and Hannah Hilliard.  They were both from North Hadley, Massachusetts. The next reference that I can find is the 1850 Hadley, Massachusetts Census where Edmund is listed as a broom maker.  Also listed is Julia, Hannah Hilliard, her mother, and three other boarders who were also broom makes.  Julia died on August 8, 1876 in Massachusetts and was recorded as a widow.

The infamous Johnnie Appleseed of the soda industry, Philo M. Clark, was from Hadley as well.  In 1850, Philo had moved to Illinois, where he was a clerk and his father, also named Philo, was a broom maker.  The younger Philo and Edmund were not siblings, but must have been related as they were long distance business partners in later years.  Likely Edmund was an uncle.

The first reference to Edmund in the soda water business was his association with J. H. Kump, as J. H. Kump & Company.  They were located in both Vicksburg and, just down the river, in Natchez , Mississippi in 1864.  J. H. Kump was a partner with Philo Clark in Memphis, Tennessee, prior to the outbreak of the Civil War.  Natchez was relatively undamaged by the  Civil War and was occupied by General Grant in 1863, but Vicksburg was not so lucky.  Kump and Clark may have set up shop in these two cities to serve the serve the Federal forces and a large number of refugees who migrated to these cities. The following is the earliest advertisement that appeared in the Natchez Daily Courier on August 8th, 1864:

J. H. Kump & Co.
LEMON AND SARSAPARILLA.
MINERAL WATERS.
LABRATORY AT J. H. HARRIS' OLD stand under the Hill.  orders filled and delivered in any part of the city

 In any case, the Vicksburg partnership was dissolved on October 22, 1864, with Kump as the surviving partner.  The Natchez partnership was dissolved a few days earlier on October 19th, 1864, with Clark being the surviving partner.

Clark continued to run the Natchez operation thru December of 1866, or at least that is the last advertisement that I could find in that City.  This ad ran continuously since April of that year.  The last non-recurring reference appeared in the Natchez Daily Courier on June 14th, 1866:

 PHIZ Z-Z-Z--POP !  The clever employees at E. S. Clark's Laboratory, seem determined to keep us under obligation to them.
 Nothing is more delicious and refreshing this hot weather, than the Mineral Waters prepared and sold by them all over the City.

An IRS Tax filing was made by E. S. Clark for September, 1866.  Clark appears in the Weekly Democrat's Natchez dead letter advertisement on August 19, 1867, which demonstrates that he left the City by then.  I think we can safely conclude that Clark concluded the Natchez operations in the Fall of 1866.  There are no known Clark or Kump bottles marked Vicksburg or Natchez.

Meanwhile, Clark was also running a soda bottling manufactory in Mobile, Alabama.  Initially, Clark partnered with William C. Wells in the operation.  The earliest record that I can find for this partnership is for four barrels of bottles that they received from the steamer Flirt as advertised in the Advertiser and Register on September 23, 1865.  It is not known when this partnership was formed or if the two were operating individual business prior to this partnership.  In any case, the partnership was dissolved on October 12, 1865 as published in The Mobile Daily Times on October 24, 1865:

Dissolution
The firm of CLARK Á WELLS is this day mutually dissolved. All debts due from the firm and to the firm will be paid and resolved by E. S. CLARK.
  Mr. Clark will continue the Bottling business, Mr. Wells will continue the Fountain business, at the old stand, corner Dauphin and Franklin streets.
                                                                                                                  E. S. CLARK,
                                                                                                                  WM. C. WELLS.
   Mobile, Oct. 12th, 1865

Clark operated the business thru early winter, but partnered with Asa E. Munn, also from Massachusetts, in the soda bottling business on January 17, 1866 as advertised in The Mobile Daily Times on January 25, 1866:

NOTICE.
  I have this day associated with me in business, A. E. MUNN, and will continue the business of manufacturing and bottling Soda Water, in all its branches, at the old stand of E. S. Clark, under the name and style of Clark & Munn.
                                                                                                                   E. S. CLARK.
  Mobile, Ala, Jan. 17, 1866.

This partnership also operated a branch location in Pensacola, Florida. Clark ran the Mobile plant and Munn the Pensacola plant.  The business continued through 1866 with the pair advertising their product in local papers Mobile papers.  Like this notice in The Mobile Daily Times on June 14, 1866:

CLARK & MUNN-Everybody says it is too hot to drink "pine top." What everybody says must be true, but it is not too hot to indulge in the pleasure of drinking to your full satisfaction some of Messrs. Clark & Munn's Soda Water.  It is a cheap luxury.  By leaving your order at their place of business, on Franklin street, between Dauphin and St. Francis Streets, you can have a dozen or so of bottles left at your residence at any time, at the small cost of 75 cents per dozen.  The children even are getting familiar with the boxes marked Clark & Munn, which are occasionally brought to their door.
The soda water, by Messrs. Clark & Munn, is precisely the same as that sold at most soda fountains.

"Pine top" was a hot tea drunk by "country people" in the spring and fall to prevent colds.  I was not able to locate any Pensacola advertisements.  The last advertisement I found for this firm was in The Mobile Daily Times on February 22nd, 1867:

Mineral and Soda Water.
  The subscribers take this opportunity to express their thanks to their former patrons, and assure them and all others who may favor us with their orders, that their increased facilities this year will enable them to meet all calls for their superior SODA AND MINERAL WATERS, and that nothing but an A No. 1 article will be turned out at their old stand, northwest corner of Dauphin and Franklin streets.
fe20 1y                                                                                                  CLARK & MUNN

This ad was first un in February of 1866 and prepaid to run for a full year.  The previous ad from June of 1866, indicates that the plant moved from the corner of Franklin and Dauphin, to Franklin between Dauphin and St. Francis streets.  They also were listed in the 1867 Directory with a slight clarification that the plant was on the "east side" of Franklin. The exact date of dissolution of the Clark & Munn partnership is currently not known, but must have ended by May 4, 1867 when the following ad appeared in The Mobile Daily Times:

LOST BOTTLES.
  Notice is hereby given to parties having in their possession SODA WATER BOTTLES, with my name on them or of the old firm, Clark & Munn, and all other brands, also plain, that they are expected to return them to me at once, as they are my private property.  Parties having bottles can notify my drivers, or address me through the Postoffice.  The sale of said bottles is strictly prohibited, and parties so doing are warned that they will be prosecuted.
                                                                                                                  E. S. CLARK.

We can conclude that the partnership ended in March or April of 1867.  Clark continued to operate Mobile plant alone for several years.  Advertising sporadically over this time period.  An examples include This ad from The Mobile Daily Times on October 27, 1867:

  E. S. Clark, the great soda and mineral water man, has not failed in his duties to the poor, having gratuitously supplied many families with this health giving beverages during their convalescence.
   Soda water, or rather seltzer water, is one of the most active restorers of appetite after a long and telling disease.

A January 6, 1868 article again in The Mobile Daily Times, comments on the warm weather:

  SODA-SELTZER-KINSINGEN.-We had determined, on the approach of cold weather, to give the go-by to those delicious summer drinks, but Dame Nature is so capricious that she has again mislaid her almanac, and is now coming out in her full summer dress.
   So our parched throats are again forced toward that fount of refreshing drinks which E. S. Clark controls, and which alone can quench the almost feverish thirst of this second Indian Summer.

The last Advertisement I found for Clark was in The Mobile Daily Register on June 4th, 1868:

Soda and Mineral Water
E. S. CLARKE, manufacturer, Franklin, bet. Dauphin and St. Francis sts. Families orders promptly attended to at 75c. per dozen.

The last reference I can find for Clark on his own, was in The Mobile Register on June 30, 1869 where he is listed as a consignee in the Shipping News section as having a receipt of goods aboard the steamer Francis.

Clark was involved in a bit of a scandal during 1868.  While still married to Julie A. in Massachusetts, Clark, aged 44, married 24 year old Mary E. A. Rous on July 27, 1868.  Mary A. E. Hanley married Layfield Rous, a blacksmith, on June 18, 1861.  He became a grocer later in life and died sometime shortly before the marriage.  Mary had a son aged 5 at this time.  The couple had a child Irene Mary born on June 20, 1869 and was Clark's only child.  She died on October 16, 1871.

In the 1870 Memphis directory, Clark was a part of the firm of E. S. Clark & Company.  The partner was Philo M. Clark of Oil City, Pennsylvania.  It is not certain how long this partnership lasted and no other material references can be found to Clark during this period other than a mention of an accident with one of his wagons and him donating soda water to a church bazaar.  Clark & Co. were mentioned as supplying a soda fountain to a church function on April 20, 1870.

In the later period of 1870 or early 1871, Cark joined forces with another Mobile soda water bottler, Edmund Carre as Clark & Carre.  Carre in 1875 advertised that his business was established in 1868.  Not much advertising can be found for this partnership.  The firm used Mathews Gravitating Stoppered bottles for the first time.  Prior to this time all bottles were cork stoppered.

Clarke & Carre dissolved their relationship some time during 1873 and Clark died soon after on August 28, 1874 and was buried at Meridian, Mississippi.  Carre was the surviving partner and went on to be a successful bottler of soda and mineral waters.  In 1892 he formed the firm of E. Carre Company, which operated until 1930 under J. C. Wilkins.  The plant was listed as being abandoned in 1931.  As a side note, the E. Carre Company bottled a drink called Fosko, "a delicious fruit drink with the flavor like rare old wine" and Carre-Cola in 1914.  Foska continued to be sold into the 1920s and it was advertised it extensively with large ads.  Wilkins left the soda water business in 1930, but resurfaced ten years later, in 1939 or 1940, founding the Fosko Bottling Company, which operated under various owners until about 1952.

The table below provides a count by this breakdown and links to the dated bottles:

Pictures courtesy of Glass Works Auctions.

4/25/2020

Best Soda Bottle

In discussions with fellow collectors, we often muse about what are the top 5 or 10 bottles in our collecting realm. The lists are often prejudiced by each collector's interests they have different criterion that factor into this personal decision.  Some value historical relevance, some colors, some rarity, some were the bottles is from, etc.

I have often thought to myself what is the best soda bottle in the United States.  To think about that rationally and remove any personal biases, I would have to have a rational list of attributes that can be used to determine the best of the best.  I need to look at this with the eye of a national collector.  One who cares more about the bottle than where it is from.  A collector of Savannah bottles would value a pink Ryan whereas a collector from Saint Louis may pick the M & W tenpin.  Their eyes are only for their city, state, or region.

1. The first thing I need to consider is history and age.  Since there are few bottles that commemorate historical events or individuals, this does not weigh in to heavily, but some of these bottles illustrate the history of soda water industry. Bottles like the "Remember the Maine" Hutchinson and "Taylor Never Surrenders" soda bottle have heightened collector interest, but there are to few of these and generally do not have other qualities that would drive them to the top slot.  Collectors generally want the earliest bottles in their collecting category, so age is important.  The earliest soda bottles are pontiled.  So the top bottle must be pontiled.
2. The second consideration is rarity.  A bottle that is readily available just precluded itself from being the top bottle.  The to bottle is one that everyone want and very few have.  Along with rarity and appeal come a high value.  So the top bottle must be very rare, with just a couple known examples (one is preferred) and very valuable.  For soda bottles, that would mean a price north of $10,000.
3. The third consideration is form.  Lets face it most soda bottles are of the same cylindrical appearance.  Any deviation in shape or appearance, such as pictures, adds the appeal.  Pictures, such as eagles and flags, appeal to collectors.  As do sided bottles, tenpins, teepees and torpedoes.  So the bottle has to have an unusual form or picture that sets it apart from the normal run of soda bottles.
4. The fourth consideration is color.  Color is king in the minds of many collectors.  In pontiled bottles, aqua is the least desirable color, followed by the various shades of green, blues, ambers, and puce or amethyst.  The last two being the most sought after.  In smooth based bottles, the order is slightly different, it goes clear, aqua, amber, green, blue and then puce and amethyst.  Clear bottles basically do not exist with pontiled bottles and amber is very rare in Pontiled bottles, but is much more common in smooth based examples.  So its position shifts accordingly.  So the top bottle should be puce or amethyst.

So the top soda bottle would be pontiled, super rare and be worth over $10,000, be of an unusual appearance and be puce of amethyst in color.

Although some may disagree, I believe that most would agree that the top bottle would be the Blagrove's bottle of Brooklyn, New York.  Lets look at the reasons:

1. This bottle is very old and dates prior to 1850 and as such has the desirable pontil
2. This bottle is rare.  There is one confirmed example and a second bottle reported.  This bottle has not sold publicly in over 30 years, but one of the private sales was said to have been multiples of $10,000, the highest price paid for a soda bottle, just not on the record.
3. This bottle has an unusual appearance that is unique in several ways.  Although it does not have a picture, it is tenpin shaped and six sided.  There are only four six sided ten pin bottles known and they are all likely made from the some modified mold at later dates.  Tenpins are rare and six sided tenpins are super unusual.
4. Color is king and this bottle is a rich puce color.  Although there are other puce sided bottles, this is the only tenpin bottle in puce.

So what do we know about Blagrove and his bottle.  The first question is what Blagrove?  There were two contemporary Blagroves in Brooklyn when this bottle was produced.  On was Charles J. Blagrove who was a druggist at 105 Fulton on the corner of Main and the second was William P. Blagrove who was a druggist for many years in the Squire building on 115 Atlantic on the corner of Willow.

Charles J. Blagrove was born about 1817 in the District of Columbia and purchased a drug store from Dr. Charles Ball just prior to 1838 in Brooklyn.  In an odd twist of fate, some of the old stock of magnesia that he sold contained arsenic and killed a Mrs. Randolph soon after he started his operation.  A few years later in 1843, his drugstore burned to the ground.  Although he had a rough start as a young business man, he succeeded and served the community as a druggist in Brooklyn and thru at least 1870.

William P. Blagrove was born on May 18, 1807 in Boston, Massachusetts. He succeeded his father as a patent agent in New York City in 1829 and by 1831 was a druggist in Brooklyn.  With a move to a location, William P. joined with Robert A. Powers in the partnership of Blagrove & Powers in the spring of 1834.  This firm advertised soda water for sale as was the custom of many leading druggists during this period.  This partnership was dissolved in January of 1839 and Blagrove continued the druggist business on his own.  He was in business thru at least 1852 and died on March 23, 1853.

I suspect that the two Blagroves were brothers.  They were several times listed together in News Paper ads.  Their father, being in the patent agency business, would have lived or spent a fair amount of time in Washington, D. C.  The question is what brother used the top American soda water bottle?  The answer is in this notice that appeared in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on September 24, 1847:

    A PLEASANT BEVERAGE.-All the world of Brooklyn and vicinity are acquainted with the merits of Blagrove's delicious soda water.  He makes it pleasant and healthful to a degree which we do not know to have to have been attained by any other manufacturer.  Indeed by the high estimation in which it has for years been held, he has commenced bottling of the same kind as he has heretofore sold from the fountain.  It is highly charged with gas and requires a bottle of particular shape and great strength to contain it.  His place is in Atlantic street near the tunnel.

Since William P. Blagrove was located on Atlantic Avenue, we know know this is his bottle. The "peculiar shape" mentioned in the article seals the deal that this is the bottle and it dates to 1847.  Since no other reference can be found to Blagrove's bottling operation, this must have been a short lived operation explaining the rarity of this bottle.  And just for the record this bottle also comes in blue making a fine set of bookends.

Bottle images courtesy of Eric Schmetterling.