Help With Identifying Bottle & Maker Info
Hi, Im new here and hope someone can help, as I found alot of good info so thanks in advance and please excuse my lack of knowledge Ive been researching bottles for past week due to a small collection of my grandfathers and hope someone can help on this bottle.
Ive been told this is an extremely rare bottle because of the bottle company, the stopper, and the type of bottle.
Manhattan Bottling Co 342 Manhattan Ave Brooklyn N.Y. Registered, and 1 pint with the monogram is on the back. Ive found the company was founded in 1895, and was the maker of the manhattan special. I cant find any info or examples of any bottles they made anywhere. Any help on any history or what kind of beverage the bottle was for is welcome.
The stopper says Hutter for New York Germany, which Im told is a rare lightning stopper on this kind of bottle. Again me being a novice, I dont know what the proper term is for the kind of bottle( pontil, hutch, attatched etc, I admit my confusion.
Any help is welcome to explain what kind of bottle I have here, and if indeed is is as rare as Im told. And any idea of its value. Ive been able to identify a few blob tops, and a hutch in the collection from researching, but this one has me stumped. Thanks in advance for any help. More pics available.
Ive been told this is an extremely rare bottle because of the bottle company, the stopper, and the type of bottle.
Manhattan Bottling Co 342 Manhattan Ave Brooklyn N.Y. Registered, and 1 pint with the monogram is on the back. Ive found the company was founded in 1895, and was the maker of the manhattan special. I cant find any info or examples of any bottles they made anywhere. Any help on any history or what kind of beverage the bottle was for is welcome.
The stopper says Hutter for New York Germany, which Im told is a rare lightning stopper on this kind of bottle. Again me being a novice, I dont know what the proper term is for the kind of bottle( pontil, hutch, attatched etc, I admit my confusion.
Any help is welcome to explain what kind of bottle I have here, and if indeed is is as rare as Im told. And any idea of its value. Ive been able to identify a few blob tops, and a hutch in the collection from researching, but this one has me stumped. Thanks in advance for any help. More pics available.
Comments
Your bottle appears to be in excellent condition.
Note your bottle has a lip made for a crown top closure (still in use today on beer bottles) but is fitted incorrectly with a Lightning stopper. While possibly used that way at one time, it was not so originally.
Age-wise, if the mold seam runs to the very top of the lip, this is machine made and would date from, most likely, the 1920s or 30s. If the mold seam stops, then it is slightly older. The crown closure was patented in 1892.
Understand that at the time this bottle was in use, there were thousands of individual bottlers across the US. Many small towns had their own bottler, cities had many. The stopper on this bottle belongs to another bottler - Hutter was evidently a big concern since there are quite a few bottles bearing the name. See this link for a list of them. Did stoppers get mixed up when in use? Probably, but only for an age-appropriate bottle. Your bottle is several decades newer than the era of the Lightning stopper.
I would hesitate to label this bottle as rare. Just slide over to ebay.com and you can find a dozens of similar soda bottles. Things get interesting with "local" bottles when an individual business existed only for a short time and their wares are super hard to find. And...collectors of said local items need to care enough and compete for those bottles is essential to drive the value. Judging by the company name, I would suspect his was a pretty big outfit and the bottles are not hard to find. Consider the contrast between a bottle from New York City and one from a guy who ran a small shop in Arizona or Nevada at the time when there were only a few hundred people as potential customers.
I cannot specifically speak for this particular company's bottles but my gut reaction is this is a $10-15 item - a price I would put generally on all of its type.
Also the collection this bottle came from is from my 90 yr old grandfather. He was in the concrete business. He is selling off some stuff as his medical bills are adding up etc. So Ive been tasked with sorting through things and selling them. The collection of bottles he has isnt large, and they are all uncleaned. But its a decent amount. For a solid week ive been reading and looking at pics and have been enjoying learning about antique bottles, and stoppers, and glass and everything in between.
Im going to attatch some basic general pics of the collection, Any advice on how I should go about learning, researching and ultimately listing and selling these.I want them to go to someone who will appreciate them as my grandfather had originally tried to give them to a museum, but then since he needs to pay alot of bills decided to try to sell them.
Im not sure for example if I should try to clean them, list individually, as a lot, if any seem rarer than others. I do have a basic idea, but im still confused with the styles of the bottles especially blob vs hutch, lol. If anyone has time to share their opinions on the original bottle , or the collection Id be most grateful. Im happy to provide detailed pics and info, I just will post a few here so you can see what I have. I figure you may appreciate seeing what a new greenhorn to this world is dealing with. May bring back some memories! Thanks Chris and anyone else who can assist me.