# Tip Top Bottling Co. / St. Louis, Mo.



## bottle-bud (Mar 18, 2019)

Tip Top Bottling Company
1712 Madison (1903-1905)
1432 Jefferson Ave. (1906-1942)
St. Louis, Missouri

Bell Extract & Bottling Company
1525 Elliot Ave. (1908-1909)
3223 Easton Ave. (1910-1913)
1432 Jefferson Ave. (1915-1918)
St. Louis, Missouri

                In this thread I have combined two companies that I believe were closely related. Not only do the managers of these companies swap locations from time to time but they share the same address for three years. It seems likely that Bell Extract & Bottling Co. was suppling the flavoring and extract formulas for the TipTop Bottling Company as well as producing their own line of soft drinks.
                The first listing I find in city directories for Tip Top is in 1903 and a William Knost is president. Knost is president until 1906 and in 1907 he is simply listed as “soda water” and is located at 1525 Elliot. William Schroeder is now president of Tip Top and will be in this position until 1912.
                The first listing I find for Bell Extract & Bottling is in 1908 and William Knost is president. He will remain at this position until 1913. At current time I have no advertisements for Bell only directory listings.
                Here is an image of the building on Jefferson Ave.




Here is an early bimal Tip Top bottle and a 1911 newspaper ad.

 


1913 listings show William Knost as president of Bell and a Henry Kruse listed as secretary. Oddly enough in the same year Henry Kruse is also the new president of Tip Top.
1914 listings show Henry Kruse as president and William Knost vice president of the Tip Top Bottling Co. I can find no more managers listed for Bell Extract & Bottling Co., but now since both companies are at the same address perhaps these men are managing both companies. After 1918 I find no more listings for Bell.
I have only one bottle in my collection from Bell Bottling Co. The directory listings are for Bell Extract and Bottling Co., but this bottle simply states Bell Bottling Co. A six-ounce version and alongside are three early different versions of 6 1/2-ounce Tip Tops.


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## bottle-bud (Mar 18, 2019)

*Tip Top Bottles Celery Cola*

*Tip Top bottles Celery Cola
*Celery Cola was a popular drink nationwide and here in St. Louis the first directory listing I find is in 1904 and here is a brief timeline of addresses and names.
J.C. Mayfield Mnfg.  Co. (Celery Cola) - 2224 Washington - 1904
Celery Cola Co.    – 2224 Washington – 1905, 1906,1907
Celery Cola Co. – 1525 Elliot Avenue - 1908 

                Hold on a sec, in 1908 1525 Elliot is the new home of Bell Extract & Bottling Co. and looks to be the new address of Celery Cola. So, it seems Bell Extract & Bottling Co. now have the franchise rights to Celery Cola. But my title reads Tip Top bottles Celery Cola. So, to recap, Bell bottles Celery Cola in 1908, Tip Top and Bell merge in 1915, and Tip Top is now bottling Celery Cola. In 1915 Gould’s Red Book of the city of St. Louis has multiple listings for Tip Top in the directory, as follows;



Here is my one and only Celery Cola bottle. She probably dates to the 1904 to 1907 era.  I am going to assume that Tip Top bottled Celery Cola with paper labels. Any help with this would be appreciated.

 


The above two narrow ads were found at the bottom of the directory of 1915 on numerous pages and one of them mentions Bear Brand Soda Waters. So, I do so more digging because Bear Brand sounds so familiar. Of course, Bear Brand Soda Waters was a product of the Standard Bottling Co. of St. Louis. Here is a timeline of Standard;
Standard Bottling Co.
1623 N. 7[SUP]th[/SUP] Street (1902-1903)
McNair av. Nr. Ann av. (1904-1911)
1428 N. Jefferson (1913-1916)

The Jefferson address comes up again and I assume another merger took place in 1913. I find a lot of big soda bottling names in the research of Standard Bottling Co. but that would be another story/ another time.
My one and only Standard Bottling Co. bottle. She is a bit rough but a somewhat hard bottle to find in good condition. I am guessing she dates to the early 1900’s. Also a close up of a bear hugging or maybe looking to get a drink from the  bottle.
 


So now it’s the early 1920’s, a good time to be in the soda water business as prohibition begins and the soda business takes off. Tip Top Bottling Co. is in full swing with a huge line of different flavors of soda and using their own extract and flavorings.  Here are a couple 1921 ads.
 


Tip Top was boasting twenty flavors, here are a few ads, all from 1921.

 




The first ad is promoting Smile. I am not sure if this is the same Smile soda that came from The Orange Smile Syrup Co. of St. Louis or if this was their own mixture. The timeline would be correct as I believe 1921 was the first year for the Orange Smile Syrup Co. Prior to 1921 the syrup maker was known as The Orange Julep Co.

Orange Whim must have been really popular as Little Jim expresses his pleasure. I have no bottle, but I do have a bottle cap.

 



1927 and Henry Kruse dies after a long illness. He was 70 years old. William Knost is once again president. Henry’s son Alvin who has been in management for some time now will become president sometime in the Early 1930’s. Alvin’s brothers Raymond and Elmer also become fully involved with the management of Tip Top Bottling Co.
The following ad dated 1932 is really cool to me as it has three different brands listed that I can associate with bottles in my collection.




The first soda on the top says Real English Ginger Beer,well my bottle says “Genuine Ginger Beer Old English” close enough for me. Kind of hard to see on the bottle. A tough bottle to photograph.  Secondly, the pictured bottle in the ad is a nice art deco version of Tip Top and I have one in my collection.  And finally Speed-O. The bottle I have, has Speed-O Corp. on the bottom.  I have had the bottle for sometime and the only article I found was a bad one in that Speed-O Corp. of America., Speed-O Corp of Missouri and the St. Louis Laboratories were being sued by stockholders. Speed-O is on this ad and it is highly likely that Tip Top was the bottler for the bottle in my collection.


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## bottle-bud (Mar 18, 2019)

*Tip Top Part III*

1933 and Prohibition is over, time to push the mixers for hi-balls. 




I have a sign and a bottle to share.
 

Here are two very common quart size bottles. I think every antique mall in Missouri has one or two of these for sale. 

 


No mention on any ads for this guy, a 7- ounce ACL dated 1937 and quite hard to come by, White Cap. Next is a highly collectible 12-ounce spinning top bottle dated 1941.
 


It’s the early to mid-1940’s and the Tip Top Bottling Co. is starting to come into hard times, sales are slumping and small to mid-size bottling companies are being squeezed out by the big guys. This sign I have advertises for White Mule, this may have been one last effort to increase sales.  I have never seen this bottle,only this sign which comes up frequently at auction. Actually, I am not sure of the date of this poster.  



Tip Top Beverages or flavors will extend into the 1970’s but I am not sure how it all transpired. Perhaps the extracts and flavoring were acquired by another bottler or another merger of some sort occurred. 






The End.


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## shotdwn (Mar 18, 2019)

Another great history lesson!


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## Screwtop (Mar 18, 2019)

That's some great history, and excellent bottles! I love the Celery Cola bottle.


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## GLASSHOPPER55 (Mar 18, 2019)

Agree! He does an excellent job.


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## bottle-bud (Mar 19, 2019)

Thanks to all for the nice comments! I am indeed having a lot of fun writing these stories.


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## iggyworf (Mar 19, 2019)

Yes another great write up! Very nice!


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## bottle-bud (Apr 2, 2019)

Well after about 20,000 inches of rain last Friday and Saturday I decided to get out of the house spread my wings and drive up to west county and check out a couple antique malls. I don't find many bottles to add to my collection as I am trying to specialize in St. Louis marked bottles, so it was nice to find a different version of TipTop. This is a 7 1/2 ounce bottle with one big top on the back shoulder. My other ones are 6 1/2 ounce with multiple tops going around the shoulder. This sorta perks me up for future hunts!


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## iggyworf (Apr 2, 2019)

Good scores! Yeah when you have collected so many bottles(like myself) it's tough sometimes to find good ones at antique stores.


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