Three in One G W Cole Co
Hi there glad to join this group! I am having a hard time dating a bottle I have. Three in One stamped one on side, G W Cole Co on the other. 5" tall 2" wide 1" deep. Lip is 1/4" thick. It is stamped P9 on the bottom I found a lot of information thanks to google but cannot determine production period.
Comments
Thanks for posting. 3-in-1 is a popular brand, still exists and not surprisingly even older bottles like this one are fairly common.
Your aqua bottle appears to have a "tooled top" meaning the lip was hand finished after being blown in its mold. Later machine-made bottles would have a mold seam visible to the very top of the lip. (And they would likely be clear rather than aqua)
Below are two advertisements for this product from 1899 and 1921. My feeling is your bottle is likely from the 1890s but could have been made in the aughts (1900-1910) In the teens one starts seeing machine-made bottles. I found yet another 3-in-1 company ad from 1920 which mentions that they can ship a free sample bottle. Collectors know this little green bottle to be machine-made and my hunch is the regular product bottle was as well.
The images are from https://ebay.com auctions.
The 1920 company advertisement. Picture also from an eBay.com auction. Note mention of a free sample bottle.
Thanks so much for the info and the pics are super helpful. Couple of things that stand out to me, there are 2 mold seams that run up to the neck and stop. They are just a little offset. There is also either stretch marks or striations at the neck which (I think) would indicate that the lip was indeed finished after the mold. Does this indicate an older bottle? This info is so helpful for me!
Yes, yours is on the older end of the age bracket for this bottle.
See the 3-in-1 Wikipedia page which tells us the company was founded in 1894. Your bottle most likely is from the 1890s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-in-One_Oil