THE HISTORY OF ANTIQUE BOTTLES

With the Gold Rush on, men flocked to the West. San Francisco and Sacramento became large cities offering miners places to spend money. There were breweries, distilleries and wineries with plenty of saloons. Stockton, closer to the Southern mines became the shipping port for supplies and equipment. It also offered entertainment for the miners. It was a town that was heavily visited during the cold winter.

Many of the Gold Rush towns didn't have a way to distill their alcohol. As a result, it was transported around in barrels, and then bottled by the various merchants, thus the different labels. Some companies had embossed bottles, but breakage was a factor in shipping. Bottles were precious. They were recycled, de-labeled and re-used by another merchant. Medicine bottles were also treated this way.

Embossed bottles were a good advertisement. Plain bottles with paper labels were much cheaper.

Glass in its natural mix is light green. To produce clear glass, magnesium was used as one source to clear it. Glass with this mix will turn purple in the sun or under a black light. This glass dates 1919 and back.

Bottles were hand blown in wooden and iron molds and then tops were applied. In 1903 the 1st automatic bottle machine was introduced, but many small suppliers continued making bottles by hand.

Older bottles are identified by the seams. Seams do not go all the way to the top. The top rims, under heat, were applied later.

Chinese items were hand made and very crude.   Because of this, most did not survive. The Chinese were a great work force during this period of time and held to their culture.

In 1919, Prohibition Act put the liquor business out of business until 1933. Bottles after Prohibition have a Federal Law message embossed on the back of them.