# P.D. & Co mark on flasks



## cobaltbot (Jan 2, 2010)

There's been some recent interesting threads on flask base marks.  I recently reacquired a P.D. & CO. base marked flask.   Today I got my ABGC mag in the mail and lo and behold there's a question about the P.D. & CO. mark in Digger McDirt.  Digger gives the standard Parke Davis & Company answer but my research makes me reasonably certain that it stands for Packham DeWitt & Company a Baltimore based supplier of bottles and brewers supplies.  It's a well established fact that his younger brothers were in the same business and I have flasks with their name on the base.  Their older brother Eldridge is known for clear and amber half pint flasks with E. P. Jr & CO. on the base and this marking is also on the base of some South Carolina Dispensary bottles.  Some of his other bottles are just base marked E. Packham & CO.  Before 1891 he was in business with Charles DeWitt and my research has shown that this short lived partnership was also in the same business.  I temporarily had the bottle pictured below and recently acquired another which I cataloged with Doc at the last Baltimore club meeting.  Chris, aka baltbottles agrees with my theory - adding that the strapsided form has a Baltimore look to it as opposed to strapsides from other nearby eastern cities.  I've posted here before about this but I think I'll write a letter to the editor for ABGC as food for thought.  The only (non Parke Davis) bottles I've seen with this mark are amber half pint flasks.


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## NorCalBottleHunter (Jan 2, 2010)

This I my kind of post! Good stuff! I only wish my leg wasn't broken so I could unearth mine flasks from the closet


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## GuntherHess (Jan 3, 2010)

I would tend to agree with you on the flasks. 
 First, I cant see a reason for Parke Davis to need whiskey flasks.

 Packham was responsible for both the E P JR & CO  and P BROS  SC DISPENSARY bottles.
 A SC legal proceeding ...
  http://books.google.com/books?id=YHYbAQAAIAAJ&lpg=PA406&ots=nTtQWchWkq&dq=%22Packham%20DeWitt%20%26%20Company%22&pg=PA406#v=onepage&q=&f=false
 Gives some interesting insights into the glass business.
 My understaning is that Packham was a jobber and did not actually blow bottles.
 They apparently contracted with glass houses such as Bodine glass in PA and Cumberland glass in NJ.


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## cobaltbot (Jan 4, 2010)

I have been to that website and although a tedious read, there is lots of interesting stuff as you pointed out about many glass busineses, bottle breakage etc.  Yes, those guys were jobbers, at one point in his testimony Mr. Packham even claims "I have never blown a bottle".  There's also info about prices and weights for different kinds of bottles.  It also mentions some counterfit P.Bros bottles I have never seen.

 Most of the base marked Parke Davis bottles I have seen have a small "o" in Co.  I guess I will write into Digger's part of the magazine first.  I think it's John Odell that does that.  I have gotten a lot out of reading all his "ask digger" stuff on the web and I'm pretty sure he is or was a member of this forum.


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## GuntherHess (Jan 4, 2010)

I thought it was interesting that they glass house was gathering up the broken glass for free. Thats a good scam.
 Glass makers need broken glass to add to the batch as flux. They normally had to pay some price like $20 a ton. Apparently they were acting like they were doing the customer a favor picking up all that nasty broken glass for free[]

 They name a lot of glass works in that proceeding.
 Seems like the size of a glass plant was described as X furnaces with Y number of rings.
 I assume the rings are the blowing stations surrounding the furnace.


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## farmerdan (Jan 5, 2010)

I was in a local antique shop yesterday and there was a pair of one Gallon red amber utility bottles one of which had this identical P.D. & CO. mark on the base. The other was marked W.T. Co. (Whitall Tatum), but other than that the bottles are nearly identical. They are both BIM, cylindrical with a big laid on ring top. I think she wanted something like $15 or $20 each. If anyone is interested in these GIANT slicks, send me a PM and I'll figure a way to get 'em to ya.
 -Dan


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