# Early turquoise green 'l.a stone soda water' torpedo



## AAAuctions (Jun 25, 2018)

Does anyone know what city this is from please?
It has been consigned to this current auction (http://www.aaauctionsltd.com/auction-12/cgi-bin/CATALL.CGI) lot #221 but we are unsure as to how rare it is, or indeed if it is an American bottle?
Any help would be much appreciated. We have been told it may be c1850 too?
(the auction closes 4pm New York time on Saturday 30th June '18)
Many thanks

Alan Austin

AA Auctions Ltd
sales@AAAuctionsLtd.com


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## nhpharm (Jun 25, 2018)

As far as I know no one knows where it is from.  Manufacture suggests the US, but of course it could have been made here for a foreign company.  I'm not aware of any that were dug...all of them that I am aware of were found diving, which makes me wonder if it might be from some foreign port city.  One (and perhaps more) found in Indonesia, one in Sacramento.  There are maybe a handful of them around but the uncertainty on where it is from seems to depress the prices somewhat.


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## sunrunner (Jun 25, 2018)

the lip finish looks American to me .


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## saratogadriver (Jun 26, 2018)

No expert, but the lip, color and form all speak of Baltimore glasshouse, 1850s to me, and the lettering definitely looks like American manufacture.   But that is by no means dispositive of it actually being same.  

Jim G


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## Old Wiltshire (Jun 26, 2018)

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The bottle in the AA Auction is this particular one which had originally been found in the River Batanghari in Indonesia
and can be identified by the various marks and striations in the glass.

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It is also the same one that I photographed at a UK show in November 2017

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This next example is the one that was found diving near Sacramento.

http://www.oocities.org/torpedobottlecom/page13.html

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The example in Tod von Mechow's 'North American Soda & Beer Bottle' site appears to be the Sacramento found
one but there is no real background information.


http://www.sodasandbeers.com/SABShowBottle.aspx?Bottle=53485AA&Firm_Number=53485


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## AAAuctions (Jun 27, 2018)

nhpharm said:


> As far as I know no one knows where it is from.  Manufacture suggests the US, but of course it could have been made here for a foreign company.  I'm not aware of any that were dug...all of them that I am aware of were found diving, which makes me wonder if it might be from some foreign port city.  One (and perhaps more) found in Indonesia, one in Sacramento.  There are maybe a handful of them around but the uncertainty on where it is from seems to depress the prices somewhat.



Many thanks for taking the time to reply. This may be the Indonesian one you mentioned, but I'm very surprised there is doubt it may be from the US as it just has that American feel about it (ie the embossing, lip shape etc) but I'm no expert!


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## AAAuctions (Jun 27, 2018)

Old Wiltshire said:


> -
> The bottle in the AA Auction is this particular one which had originally been found in the River Batanghari in Indonesia
> and can be identified by the various marks and striations in the glass.
> 
> ...



That's a great help... many thanks!


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## CanadianBottles (Jun 27, 2018)

I think it's very likely this is a bottle manufactured in America for use in one of the Straits Settlements.  It is almost certainly not Indonesian, because Indonesia was colonized by the Dutch and there would be little reason for them to have English language bottles.  The river it was found in is also not very far from Singapore.  The third known example of this bottle was purchased by someone who lives in Sungai Buloh, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur, although his blog doesn't state where exactly he purchased it.  Two examples of this bottle showing up in or near Malaysia seems too much of a coincidence for it to be used particularly far from there, unless old stock from an American bottler was shipped to Malaysia which I suppose could be possible.


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## Old Wiltshire (Jun 30, 2018)

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This piece sold earlier today in a UK absentee auction with a hammer price of UK£2,000 which at todays exchange rate is US$ 2,654.20

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