Odo-Ro-No bottle...

jf9183

I found a bottle on a walking trail in the woods. It wasn't buried, which made me think it could just be a modern bottle. But it was also a small clear bottle, and I'm not sure that there are many of those made anymore. It is about two and a half inches tall. If it isn't an old bottle the only thing I could think that it could be is a sample alcohol bottle. I am attaching several pictures. The seams go all the way up over the lip of the bottle and around the shoulder. I have attached a picture of the seams...and in the same picture is an arrow showing where there is a "slot" inside the neck of the bottle. There are three of these vertical "slots" inside in the circumference of the neck. The embossing on the bottom appears to say obo-Ro-no. But I can't be sure. It also has a number 3 below the letters. Can someone tell me if this is an old bottle? And if so, what it could have been used for? Thanks! Jamie

historic

Thanks for all the details - this is a model post

I do believe this is an earlier 20th century bottle but have no idea what it contained. Medicine, food or cosmetic, if that limits the choices at all.

jf9183

Thank you so much for your response! I am excited you think it's an old bottle. Even if we don't know what it was used for. I wish I knew what the embossing meant on the bottom. I googled all the possibilities I could come up with, but didn't turn up anything. Again, thanks for the quick response!

Jamie

DiggerDog

Jamie,

I found a bottle just like this, and it still had it's original bakelite cap. Mine as well appears to say Obo-Ro-no, though mine has a 5. on the bottom. Like you I haven't been able to find much about this (yet) but I will say that this bottle came from a cache of bottles dug out of a riverbank dump site, the majority of the bottles coming from the 1920's the oldest one I found dating at 1934. My guess is that it came from in between these times, especially since bakelite screw tops were used quite a bit in this time.

I know this post is rather old, but if you or anyone else has any more information on it since, I would LOVE to know. It is the ONLY bottle in my collection I have yet to identify as far as what it's contents were.

DiggerDog

Egh, I mean the youngest bottle in this cache was from 1934. The oldest was actually from 1900. The photo is a small sample of other bottles dug out from around us.

DiggerDog

I FOUND IT!!!

It's not "obo" it is "ODO"... apparently it is a deodorant. The image in this website shows a bottle, roll on, and a cap that I believe predates mine. Your's however might be closer in age to this one, given that it has a 3 on it.

http://www.weirduniverse.net/blog/permalink/the_armhole_odor_test/

Discoveries23

Yes, it was a woman's deodorant, dated I think around 1937 from what I've read. I've also attached a link to an interesting read from The Smithsonian Magazine. I found one of these bottles too...so had just looked around for this info myself. If you look through the extra photos on this article, you'll see an advertisement with this bottle on the bottom. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/How-Advertisers-Convinced-Americans-They-Smelled-Bad-164779646.html