Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Non-Petro Discussions Non-petro Discussion and Showcase Q for the bottle-heads! :)

For Doc and all the other bottleheads out there, I got this bottle at a flea market years ago and want to know more about it. I just saw it as a still life object and I think I paid $10 for it.

Not looking for value, but want to know:

1. The glass has bubbles in it and a seam. I thought only hand blown mass produced had bubbles. Is this a fake made to deceive?

2. The bottle says (and the lettering is centered)
ISSAC CRANS & SONS
REGISTERED MIDDLETOWN
NY
THIS BOTTLE
NOT TO BE SOLD

What do you know about this company?

What would have been in it?

Why would the bottle read 'not to be sold?'

BTW It was the first bottle I painted from "life" (instead of from a photo) and it wasn't until the painting hung in an exhibit that I noticed that it was crooked (the bottle that is).

I used to collect bottles but never studied history of them a lot. I know the bottles I have with bubbles were made around 1890s-early 1900s. I don't know this company but what color is the bottle? It could've contained soda water or alcohol. Some bottles I have that say not to be resold contained alcohol that was handed out during campaigns. I know Doc knows alot more about them then me. I still have about 200-300 bottles and it's been a long time since I read about how they are made.

Brian

Color me stupid. I forgot the image...

It is a beautiful bottle.... Nicole, I can see how and why it grabbed your attention....

Strange how an old piece of glass can catch one's imagination...

Hi Nicole,

Your ISSAC CRANS & SONS is a soda bottle and the bottle is pre 1900's. If you look at the mold lines you will see that they vanish as they go up the neck. Bottles at this time period were mold blown and finished by hand, the neck rolled smooth and then the top was applied, these are called blob top bottles. Also in the early days bottles were refilled, hence the Not To Be Sold marking.

Robert

I confirm what Robert has posted and can add this....

Catharine Dunning was orn on the Horace Dunning homestead near Mechanicstown, April 7, 1836, and was therefore in the 73d year of her age. Her parents were John Dunning and Esther Uptegrove, who bore a large family of children.
Deceased was married to Mr. Crans Jan. 14, 1852, at the First Baptist Church, this city, the ceremony being performed by Rev. Samuel Barritt. Three sons were bron to them, Jacob Perry, who died March 3, 1893; Joseph Willis and Charles Augustus, who survive, and are members of the firm of I. Crans Sons, manufacturers of mineral waters, conducting business which was established by their father a number of years ago. She is also survived by one brother, Peter Dunning of Tennessee, and one sister, Mrs. Jonathan Decker, of this city.
From find a grave.
I guess a mineral water somewhere around TOC, 1890-1910. Cool bottle, there was a Huchinson also.
Charles A was still listed as a business in 1925 but I'm fairly certain yours is earlier.

Thanks everyone!

The seam with the bubbles threw me off, so I'm glad it's real. And I imagine had a cork stopper.

I have some pieces of dark black/green colonial era shards from the bottom of what seems to be very large bottles, but no seams as they were blown. I was told that wine was shipped over from Europe at that time in them.

That's why I was wondering about the seams of this bottle.

And the hand finishing would explain the crookedness. Unfortunately I painted the crooked neck in the wrong direction, was annoyed that I didn't paint it accurately, and just to make sure I knew how to paint bottles, painted a bunch of modern wine bottles the next time.