# Have any of you Candian collectors seen this mark?



## cowseatmaize (Nov 6, 2015)




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## botlguy (Nov 6, 2015)

That is a way KUHL ad. Have you checked the online Makers Mark site?                    Jim


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## cowseatmaize (Nov 6, 2015)

Yeh but it's not listed. I wrote David about it but I was hoping I could verify it on a bottle also.


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## cowseatmaize (Nov 6, 2015)

I got the pictures I needed from a collector on FB. I sent those to Dave as well.
It is confirmed.


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## mctaggart67 (Nov 6, 2015)

I've undertaken a fair bit of research on the Canadian pharmacy industry, including the glasshouses who supplied it. I'm familiar with this advert, as it's from a Canadian pharmacy industry periodical. James P. Richards was a travelling salesman for Toronto's Beaver Flint Glass Co., a jobber of drugstore bottles made by other glass outfits. Richards, with majority shareholding by a newly formed Dominion Glass Co., incorporated the Richards Glass Co., Ltd. in 1912 at Toronto (two current companies are descendants of this company). Like Beaver Flint, Richards was a jobber of bottles it did not make. Richards' bottles were made by Dominion Glass (note the diamond worked into the Richards' basal mark), and the *RIGO* (_*RI*_chards _*G*_lass C_*O*_.) line included all sorts of drugstore glassware, with bottles being the most prominent product. Bottles styles were named in patriotic fashion for the time: the King Oval (the biggest selling style and which is advertised above), Queen Oval, Princess Oval for the English royal family, the head of which sat and (unfortunately) still sits as Canada's official head of state, the Imperial Oval for the British Empire, of which Canada was a part (so were a certain 13 Colonies at one time!), and the Victory Oval, after Canada's part in helping to win World War One. I collect Canadian drugstore bottles. Of the 600 I have, around a fifth are King Ovals, speaking to the prominence of this branded style in the Canadian marketplace. I also have Queen, Princess, Imperial and Victory Ovals, as well as poison and baby feeder bottles marked RIGO. I also own another treasure, James P. Richards' personal copy of his company's catalogue, complete with his annotations, etc. and bound in a special leather cover, gold embossed with his name. Back to the advert in the OP. Richards Glass came onto the pharmacy scene with a big marketing splash which included cleverly illustrated adverts like the one above. As a former road salesman, Richards was in tune with druggists' concerns about bottle shipping reliability, since breaking in transit was all too common.


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## CreekWalker (Nov 6, 2015)

Very interesting information! Thanks.


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## cowseatmaize (Nov 7, 2015)

Thanks Glen. I see see on their homepage that they called themselves manufactures though. Maybe they stretched the truth because of his interests in Dominion? IDK

The company was formed in 1912 as Richards Glass Co. Ltd., *a manufacturer and distributor of glass containers* for the retail drug trade and pharmaceutical industries. At a time when virtually every medicine bottle was made of glass, the company prospered and expanded rapidly throughout central Canada.

During those early days, Richards Glass was known not just for the quantities its factories could produce, but for the quality and selection of its goods and services. These elements were crucial when it came time to innovate and lead the way in the packaging industry.""http://www.richardspackaging.com/about-richards/corporate-information.html


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## andy volkerts (Nov 7, 2015)

Hello Glen. Daresay we that RIGO also made Owl Drug Co bottles, or am I wrong about that, good to read you again, take care Andy


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## cowseatmaize (Nov 7, 2015)

A FB member shared these freely.[attachment=richardsglasscomarkbase.jpg][attachment=richardsglasscomarkbaseRIGO.jpg]


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## mctaggart67 (Nov 7, 2015)

The glassware actually made by RIGO was tubeware through flameworking raw tube stock. According to fire insurance plans, the company did not have the requisite glass tanks, annealing ovens, etc. to make bottles from its 1912 start right through to the 1970s. Even today, much of its production is contracted out (Nike shoes has a similar model and merely pretends to have developed it -- it's a business model that goes back to medieval times with the "putting out" practice which is more genteelly known as "cottage industry"). Of course, RIGO employed advertising strategies to position itself in the eye of its customers as a manufacturer of everything. This was just good business practice, since James P. Richards clearly did not want his customer base to consider any other source for bottles, most especially Dominion Glass Co., the outfit actually making RIGO bottles. As to the geographic reach of RIGO, one must first understand the Canada of the early 1900s. The Maritimes were booming with wealth derived from fishing, coal mining, forestry and iron founding/ship building. British Columbia was booming for much the same reasons. Meanwhile, Central Canada was also booming as its agricultural sector was maturing from its origins in wheat production into other food lines and as its factory production soared. Industrial growth stimulated rapid urbanization, most especially in Montreal and Toronto. While out on the Prairies, over a million settlers were pouring in to establish new farms and work them as business enterprises. James P. Richards exploited all of this and structured his marketing and sales strategies accordingly. RIGO was to be national in scope and the firm ensured this outcome with a national sales force directly answerable to the boss, a travelling salesman himself who knew the ropes. As Canada's population and economy grew, so did RIGO's fortunes. James P. Richards also understood the dynamics of the market place and worked them to his advantage. For instance, just as provincial pharmaceutical regulators invoked poison bottle requirements, RIGO was on the spot with its poison bottles, which we call "Canadian Coffins" (a type of irregular hexagon). The upshot of all this is that there are RIGO drugstore bottles from all Canadians provinces which were part of Confederation in the handmade era (so all but Newfoundland). And, yes Andy, even from the Owl Drug Companies of Vancouver, Edmonton and Toronto (but not San Francisco -- inside joke)!


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## mctaggart67 (Nov 7, 2015)

Here's a RIGO poison bottle base showing the connection to Dominion Glass.


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## botlguy (Nov 7, 2015)

Now that's what I'm talking about. Glen, that was / is outstanding, extremely well written and informative. Thank you VERY much. May we have more?               Jim


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## cowseatmaize (Nov 7, 2015)

It is Jim, ain't it. I'm feeling the love back after a few off-putting days here. []


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## teamballsout (Nov 7, 2015)

I will also say as a newer canadian collector that is more info and some of the best i have seen on that companie. Thanks for taking the amout of time it must have took to research all of that.
jason


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## mctaggart67 (Nov 8, 2015)

Thanks so much, everyone. It let's me know that the research is worthwhile.


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## DavidW (Nov 8, 2015)

Thanks a ton to both of you for your posts and info on those Canadian marks. (I didn't already know anything about the earlier incarnation--- Richards Glass Co.  I was only slightly aware of the more modern marks used by Richards Packaging and did list them along with a picture of the weird "R" mark, and I had been told all of their recent bottles were being made in Taiwan and later China).After Eric wrote to me asking about those marks,(RIGO and R.G.CO.T with diamond)  it had been nagging me a little bit, in the back of my mind, if the earlier Richards company had "subcontracted" out their actual glass manufacturing to some unnamed yet well-known glass company(s) in Canada, so this does confirm my suspicions.  I will eventually add  a bit more info on my website, and list the RIGO and "R.G.CO. T." marks and note they were "actually" made by Dominion. (What does the "T" in the lower right corner signify??).   David Whittenhttp://www.glassbottlemarks.com


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## mctaggart67 (Nov 8, 2015)

"T" = "Toronto"


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## DavidW (Nov 9, 2015)

Thank you! (Duh....that does make sense!)  []


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## DavidW (Nov 18, 2015)

Glen and Eric,Any ideas/guesses on the most likely date range for bottles with the "RIGO" mark?  I wrote "1920s or 1930s" on my site but I realized it may be inaccurate (too late?) and will be happy to edit it with more precise info!Thanks, David


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## cowseatmaize (Nov 18, 2015)

The ad was from 1914, maybe 13 and both marks were on it and the company appears to have started in 1912. I'd start there and leave it open ended for now. Glen may have more later.I already did my writeup of your pages in my .doc so I have to go see what you came up with now.I'm glad this worked out for you.


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## mctaggart67 (Nov 18, 2015)

As far as I can tell, based on the word's use in advertising, RIGO was used by Richards from its start in 1912 right through to as late as the 1970s when the company was still calling its baby feeder nipples the "RIGO" brand.


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## cowseatmaize (Nov 19, 2015)

There's another mark. (JR combo) "Rigo" script. That is on the base of machine made nurser bottles patented 1922 and des. 1926.ebay.com/itm/PAT-1922-DES-1926-RIGO-BABY-BOTTLE-NURSER-RIGO-NIPPLES-AD-BOTTLE-VENTED-8-OUNCE-[attachment=rigoscript.jpg]


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