Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Archives of the best of past topics How To Questions and Answers "correct" spouts for Mobil oil bottles?

Hi all, got these 8 bottles with rack at an auction and unless they are new/repop I think I got a great deal. The labels are all perfect except one has a pinhead missing from the edge, 2 ea. SAE 10,20,30,40.
The spouts were very rusty... some Amco, Masters, Huffman(sp?). I've seen some similar bottles w/blue plastic spouts that are reproduced, and some w/Gargoyle spouts, is there a "correct" spout or would they have had whatever on them?

Thanks,
Tok

Question,
Do ANY of the bottles have scratches or minor chips anywhere ?
Why would ALL the decals & bottles be NEAR/OR mint & spouts are RUSTY ? Was seller to cheap to buy repo tops OR trying to pass them off as OLD ?
db

From a casual glance and the fact that all the spouts are rusty and different I would say the decals are not original. Still they look great!

HOW CAN I TELL IF THEY ARE NEW?? I NEED TO KNOW!!
I also bought 4 embossed Atlantic bottles in a rack from the same guys collection at that auction, the spouts on those were also very rusty, I mean sandy grit falling off rusty on all 12. I figured they were stored in an unheated building or something for a long time. There were/are still canning lids between the bottle and spouts which kept the bugs and crud out of the Mobil bottles... a layer of rust particles was covering the lids w/I took the spouts off to clean them and the lids are sort of sealed/stuck on there, but not like vacuum sealed.

I will check the bottles but don't think there are any signs of use.

They were good about announcing an item as "contemporary" if it was a repo and did not say anything about these. There were only about 20 people left when they realized they forgot to auction these off, I'd been waiting all day for them.

Thanks for the help!
Would a close-up picture help figure if new or old??? Now I'm scared.

My opinion: old bottles & spouts, new decals. They could possibly be NOS decals that were applied recently...that's best case scenario.

Check the quality of the glass. As hard as it it, glass will wear a bit. Get a new bottle or jar, and rub the bottom on the sidewalk. You'll see what I mean. It will show some wear if you do that. If those are original bottles, there should be a bit of wear on the bottom, sides, and any high spots on the embossing. Its even likely that they will have a few small nicks in them. Think about how they were used. Its doubtful that they would have been well cared for.

Upon further review...
The 2 bottles w/ sae 40 have decals that are not perfect, and one of those bottles has moderate wear on the bottom and some scratches, it has two very small nicks out of the label. The other sae 40 has one nick. The rest are all pretty much w/out a mark except for a little in the carrier area here and there.

As far as the spouts, I don't know where I got Huffman?, one is Masters, two are Amco, and the other 5 are Rhodes.

Thanks


[This message has been edited by tokheim (edited 11-10-2006).]

Most logical scenario...Readily available reproduction decals on original bottles with original spouts.
Jim