# Houston Texas Straight-Sided Coca Cola Bottle



## nhpharm (Apr 7, 2014)

Dug a tooled top "Houston Texas" script Coca-Cola bottle this weekend...the script is mid-way down the bottle (not like the later machine-made  Houston ones that were on the shoulder).  How hard are these to find?  This was the first I had seen.


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## SODAPOPBOB (Apr 7, 2014)

nhpharm

I'm not a Texas Coca Cola expert, (nor an expert on anything for that matter) but I am curious about your bottle. I looked around and discovered that ...

1.  The Houston, Texas Coca Cola bottling plant was established in 1903.
2.  There were at least two variations of the Houston straight-sided bottle that had the mid-script
     and came in both Amber and Aqua.

Is yours amber or aqua?

The pictures and accompany descriptions are as follows ...

1.  *Amber*

"Coca-Cola bottle, Houston, Texas amber, super rare. Broken top, get this bottle repaired and you have a super rare bottle. Last whole Houston amber Coca-Cola sold for over $4,000.00. Has on the front mid-way down Coca-Cola, TRADE MARK REGISTERED, PROPERTY OF THE COCA-COLA BOTTLING COMPANY HOUSTON, TEXAS. Back is blank, has 1309 on the bottom."

2.  *Aqua*

"IS AN AQUA APPLIED TOP BOTTLE THAT IS 7 1/4 INCHES TALL. IT HAS COCA-COLA IN SCRIPT ON THE FRONT AND HOUSTON, TEX. IN A RECTANGULAR SLUG PLATE NEAR THE BASE, WITH "THIS BOTTLE NOT TO BE SOLD" UNDER THE CITY AND STATE. IT IS A BOTTLE THAT WAS DUG NEAR CITY HALL DOWNTOWN HOUSTON. IT HAS A NUMBER OF FISH EYES, SOME POPPED AND SOME WITH THE GLASS IS STILL INTACT. THE BOTTOM HAS "1386"


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## nhpharm (Apr 7, 2014)

It is aqua...my digging partner has the bottle so I don't have a photo but it sure sounds like the second one.  We're trying to decide if we are going to keep it (if it is pretty common, we'll just keep it) or hard to find (then we might sell it).  Has a couple of fisheyes (no glass missing).


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## jays emporium (Apr 9, 2014)

The aqua script Houston Coca Cola is not common at all.  They seldom show up on ebay but I see maybe one or two a year.  I don't remember what they sell for though.  I dug an amber Houston with lower script 36 years ago.  $200 was a lot of money for a bottle back then but that is the one bottle out of thousands I really wish I'd kept.


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## cowseatmaize (Apr 10, 2014)

This is fun. "In 1899 two lawyers from Tennessee, B. F. Thomas and Joseph Whitehead, secured "bottling rights" from the Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia. They issued contracts to produce and sell Coca-Cola within control areas. Although Texas and parts of New England were excluded, the system provided the capital and the entrepreneurship needed to develop the soft-drink industry nationally. Thomas and Whitehead offered contracts in specific geographic regions, Thomas taking the northern and eastern states and Pacific coast and Whitehead taking the South and Southwest. Thomas built a bottling plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Whitehead built one in Atlanta. Whitehead sold a half interest to J. T. Lupton, a lawyer from a Virginia tobacco family. Lupton helped finance the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Atlanta, and in 1902 his relatives opened plants in Dallas and Houston. Within three years Coca-Cola was selling its syrup to twenty-nine Texas plants. Soft drinks were among the first consumer products controlled by the franchise system. In 1914 twenty Texas bottlers listed Coca-Cola as part of their trade name, and eight did not. Other Texas companies did not issue franchises until the 1920s. Delaware Punch, a noncarbonated drink formulated in 1913 in San Antonio, was among the first to join Coca-Cola in issuing franchises in Texas. Between 1899 and 1914 the number of Texas plants doubled and the value of production tripled. In 1914 Texas had 262 plants (4.8 percent of the nation's total), but only the Coca-Cola bottlers included the franchise in their trade name. FROM Texas State Historical Association


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## nhpharm (May 14, 2014)

Turns out it is clear...it was so dirty when we found it that I thought it was aqua.  The interesting thing is that "Houston" is spelled "Houstan".  A few fisheyes but no cracks... I listed it on eBay...scheduled to start at 19:00 PT. http://www.ebay.com/itm/191176193049?ssPageName=STRK:MESCX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1554.l2649


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## jays emporium (May 14, 2014)

I saw it when it was on before.  Now it's gonna sell.  Good luck.


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## nhpharm (May 20, 2014)

Day and a half left on the auction.


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## nhpharm (May 21, 2014)

Auction ends tonight!


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