# Age of bottle?



## Matt Barnes (Mar 12, 2016)

Hi there, I often do a lot of beach combing in Scotland and collect anything interesting, i found this Schweppes bottle today and wondered in anyone knew a rough age? 
On one side it reads Schweppes and on the other "By appointment to the King and Prince of Wales"
On the base i think it reads K.B.L TO 32
Thanks in advance, Matt


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## cowseatmaize (Mar 12, 2016)

Hello, welcome.
The monarchy always confused the heck out of me but the bottle looks about Edward VII so 1901-10? The K.B.L TO 32 would be LTD for Kilner Bothers Limited, used from the 1870's to until about 1920-25. I'm not sure the 32 has a meaning, it could be a mold number or something. 
I just don't know very much about glass in your part of the world, sorry.


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## spunowski (Mar 16, 2016)

What color does the glass turn when put in the sunlight?

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## bottlediggingcop (Mar 17, 2016)

Found this.  Appears to be 1880's.  This site should give you everything you need to know about Schweppes  http://spiritschweppes.com/


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## botlguy (Mar 17, 2016)

spunowski said:


> What color does the glass turn when put in the sunlight?
> 
> Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk


That bottle will stay that color forever. Only glass that contains Manganese or certain other agents as a decolorizer will change.            Jim


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## spunowski (Mar 17, 2016)

Isn't this a way of dating them?

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## botlguy (Mar 17, 2016)

If bottles or other glass items contain Manganese they will come out Amethyst or Purple. If the Manganese content is limited, used as a decolorizer (turn the finished product colorless or clear)(most glass will be aqua or shades of blue-green) the "purple" may be just a tint. If more than necessary Manganese is used the color density will be deeper. If an excess is used the amethyst / purple will be it's primary color from the beginning. That is as simple as I can make it without getting too technical. That bottle was made that color originally either on purpose or randomly depending on the makers intent. Glass can be colored any color the maker wants by adding various chemicals to the batch of sand. Normal color of glass in dependent on the chemical composition of the basic sand used.      Jim


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## CanadianBottles (Mar 17, 2016)

spunowski said:


> Isn't this a way of dating them?
> 
> Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk



Yes and no.  If it turns purple you know that it probably isn't much later than WWI, but if it isn't a clear bottle then it won't turn any different colour, and that won't tell you anything.  We can be sure that the bottle isn't any earlier than 1901, since Britain didn't have a king before then (not since 1837 that is, and it definitely isn't from 1837).  If the glass company was out of business by 1925, then that's the most recent it could be.  There isn't really any way to narrow it down any better than that unless you can find any history of the soda company itself.  

Regardless of age, it's definitely a very nice bottle.  Here in Canada we'd stopped using that kind of bottle decades before that one was made, so it's not often we find anything like that here.


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## cowseatmaize (Mar 17, 2016)

This is getting off topic from the original poster (who never relied) so I don't care.
So on to the next question. Like stated, yes and no. How much time in direct sun was it in and how much of the certain chemicals can help but there are artificial ways to reproduce that. If you found something that's been lost on the desert, maybe?


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