# Rare Dr Pepper Bottle?



## bhaze

I recently purchased this at an antique mall and it is a 6 1/2 oz dr pepper bottle. It has the clock on the back that is pointing to 10, 2, and 4 which i believe is debossed. The Dr Pepper Good For Life on the front is embossed. Under that where a city would have gone is the number "43" and the number "1." (Maybe from 1943?) The city and state are on the bottom and it reads "Springfield, Ohio" with "Ball" written in cursive. I'm not really sure exactly what this bottle is but I think it might be a transition bottle of some sort. Any info at all would be much appreciated.


----------



## bhaze

clock


----------



## bhaze

bottom


----------



## Dr Pepper bottle man

Just a plain clear DEBOSSED Dr Pepper bottle from the 40's in good condition.They were from approx 1934-37 to 1950, same style all the way thru.
 From approx 1925-7 or so they were all EMBOSSED bottles with the town/states name on the heel, and Dr Pepper either in block letters or script on the bottom.
When you run your fingernail over the letters Dr Pepper, if an EMBOSSED bottle, it will rise up, if DEBOSSED, your fingernail will fall into a cut groove in the letters.


----------



## bhaze

Gotcha, figured out that mine is debossed. I know we are talking in two different forums so lets just stick to this one to keep everything organized [][][]. Whats the value and rarity? I bought this for $10. Rip off? Fair price? Great price?


----------



## Dr Pepper bottle man

Thats about top dollar for a good clean bottle, good find.



> ORIGINAL:  bhaze
> 
> Gotcha, figured out that mine is debossed. I know we are talking in two different forums so lets just stick to this one to keep everything organized [][][]. Whats the value and rarity? I bought this for $10. Rip off? Fair price? Great price?


----------



## MichaelFla

If anybody is interested, Marshall McMasters is listing an *embossed* "Dr Pepper Good For Life" bottle with Winston Salem slug plate on his website. I asked and he said he has no photo and that it's ABM. I don't buy ABM bottles, but thought it odd that it would have the city in a slug plate.
 Of course, without a photo, it's difficult to tell if it is actually a debossed bottle that he is misrepresenting.


----------



## jays emporium

Debased Dr Peppers are very common.  $1 - 10 depending on town.  Embossed are $15 up.


----------



## sodahistory1879

I have a "Good For Life" Dr pepper bottle that has Shreveport LA in block on the bottom and Dr Pepper in script on the base.


----------



## zecritr

Hi Soda History can tell you alrady before the others do and that is a Picture or two or three would be excellent 
 I know i would love to see it


----------



## Dr Pepper bottle man

Pic below is of embossed Dr Pepper bottle.
 The town state will be on the heel


----------



## Dr Pepper bottle man

Pic below is of embossed Dr Pepper bottle.
 Dr Pepper will always be either in block letters or script on the bottom only and the town state will be on the heel like in the pic above.


----------



## RED Matthews

> I recently purchased this at an antique mall and it is a 6 1/2 oz dr pepper bottle. It has the clock on the back that is pointing to 10, 2, and 4 which i believe is debossed.


 
 Then later is this thread I saw the term "debassed".  Now I am looking for a dictionary.   

 RED Matthews


----------



## Dr Pepper bottle man

> ORIGINAL:  RED Matthews
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I recently purchased this at an antique mall and it is a 6 1/2 oz dr pepper bottle. It has the clock on the back that is pointing to 10, 2, and 4 which i believe is debossed.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Then later is this thread I saw the term "debassed".  Now I am looking for a dictionary.
> 
> RED Matthews
> [/quote
> 
> The term "debossed"is a Texas slang started by the biggest Dr Pepper expert in the US, a man named Bill Agee who lived in Waco, Texas, and is now deceased. He said the term "debossed" was the opposite of "embossed". Debossed meaning the Dr Pepper letters were cut into the glass, or depressed amd "embossed' meaing the letters Dr Pepper were raised. This is a way the bottle collectors in Texas describle the early Dr Pepper bottles from approx 1925 to 1950 by the Dr Pepper bottle experts. It is just an easy way to describe Dr Pepper bottles. If your talking "debossed" vs "embosse", the prices are very very different. The "embossed" bottles are rare because most had damgae from running thru the bottle cleaning machines and the letter were chipped and the bottles could not be used again, so the dealers went to the "debossed" bottles. Most were destroyed, thay is the reason they are rare.
> I was talking to a dealer here in Texas, that told me he had two boys sit out back of his back door and and knock the tops off all the "embossed" bottles. He paid them .10 for each bottle to do so, and then they buried them!.
> Need any more info, just holler, I helped write the The Dr Pepper Bottle and Price Guide book in color that was out a few years ago, thanx, Doyle
Click to expand...


----------



## RED Matthews

So Doyle, all I can say is thank you for filling me in.  From this, I have to assume the iron in the mold cavity around the neck had to be removed leaving the letters stand in the mold iron of the cavity.  This would be a costly event in the cost of the molds, but certainly possible to do.   The thing that comes to my mined, is that these letters, being raised on the glass â€“ should or would have been even more subject to chipping off the bottles, unless they were a rounded thin lettering.  No doubt they were not made as sharp as they could have been.  I would like to have a picture of the resulting lettering on a bottle. 
 RED Matthews


----------



## Dr Pepper bottle man

I don't know what part of the US your in, but there was a glass company in a town called Three Rivers that made some of the DP bottles. It was called the Three Rivers Glass Co. and they were in business from 1922 to 1937. If you ever see any bottles, that has Three Rivers, or 3R* on the heel or bottom, that is a super rare DP bottle, and sometimes they sell for approx $300. to $600.00 depending on the town.
 I had the very first 2 Dr Pepper Good for Life  bottles made in approx 1926 that have no clockdial on the back, and another just like it with the clockdial. The 6 1/2ozs is usually on the heel close to the bottom, but on this bottle it is approx 1" above that. It has raised letters and Dr Pepper in block letters on the bottom, and Waco, Texas on the base. They are super crude looking. The last of these whole undamaged no clock dial bottles I had sold for approx $795.00 and the one with the clock dial sold for approx $675.00. I have another set with lots of damage that came out of the well in the Artesian Manf & Bottling Co (Dr Pepper) building in Waco. These bottles are super rare, so keep you eye out!
 See pic below:


----------



## RED Matthews

Thank you for all your information and getting back to me.  I lived in the central upstate of N Y near Watkins Glen and about 30 miles from the Corning Glass Museum.  I worked for 15 years for Thatcher Glass in Elmira NY - in their Central Mold Division - as an Applications Engineer and Management Assistant.  For the next 20+ years I worked in selling special metals to he worlds glass companies for making glass products.  I am now nearing 84 years of age and spend a lot of time trying to help other bottle collectors getting acquainted with this great hobby.  
 Unfortunately I guess, I never got very interested in the world of soda pop bottle collecting.  If you go to my homepage I have covered some of the glass collecting and glass interest I have studied.  I have at least a dozen blogs in process for the homepage - but I get derailed from them more often than I should.  That is OK because I have to keep my better half happy and she's been there for me for over 63 years of world travel and listening me talk about nothing but glass.
 I will have to watch for some Seven-up examples.  Thank you for your time.
 RED Matthews


----------



## Dr Pepper bottle man

Pics of an "Embossed" DP bottle.


----------

