# Small Amber Owens-Illinois bottle



## shannondaniels1 (Nov 23, 2020)

I'm new to bottle collecting, found this little guy in a pile of glass from late 30s to mid 40s.  Can I get advice on the type of bottle, the finish type, name of finish, (is it really applied finish? I'm not seeing a seam above on the finish - seems to be wierd this late, right?)  and finally the year of manufacture?  

https://sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/OwensIllinois2015.pdf  --- https://www.glassbottlemarks.com/owens-illinois-glass-company-bottle-container-marks/ do not have anything apparent on this type of bottle 

seems to be stipling on bottom, (post 1940?)

36  SB
9  (O-I Logo) 8
2

4"  x  1-7/8"  x  1- 1/2"


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## CanadianBottles (Nov 23, 2020)

Welcome to the forum!  It's an ABM bottle, like pretty much all bottles that were being made in the US around that era.  There are some ABM bottles where the seam doesn't go above the lip, just due to the mold being set up a different way.  I assume it's a medicine bottle but hard to be 100% sure with such a nondescript bottle.


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## shannondaniels1 (Nov 24, 2020)

CanadianBottles said:


> Welcome to the forum!  It's an ABM bottle, like pretty much all bottles that were being made in the US around that era.  There are some ABM bottles where the seam doesn't go above the lip, just due to the mold being set up a different way.  I assume it's a medicine bottle but hard to be 100% sure with such a nondescript bottle.



@CanadianBottles thanks for that.  I am trying to learn more about this really fascinating hobby.  I'm assuming there are other resources available to learn more about glass manufacturing and how to judge the origin of the glass.  I know this little guy isn't really worth anything to a collector.  But for knowledge sake.  the numbers around the icon to the left of the icon is the factory number for this manufacturer and the date code to the right.  Based on what I've studied so far, the single digit date code was applied in 30s and 40s.  they used a dot or period after the date code after 1940.  but there were some mold makers who didn't use the dot.  that makes dating really confusing.  are there anyother tells?  again I know its not really worth anything, I'm looking more knowledge at this point using this little bottle as an example so-to-speak.

thanks again.


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## CanadianBottles (Nov 24, 2020)

shannondaniels1 said:


> @CanadianBottles thanks for that.  I am trying to learn more about this really fascinating hobby.  I'm assuming there are other resources available to learn more about glass manufacturing and how to judge the origin of the glass.  I know this little guy isn't really worth anything to a collector.  But for knowledge sake.  the numbers around the icon to the left of the icon is the factory number for this manufacturer and the date code to the right.  Based on what I've studied so far, the single digit date code was applied in 30s and 40s.  they used a dot or period after the date code after 1940.  but there were some mold makers who didn't use the dot.  that makes dating really confusing.  are there anyother tells?  again I know its not really worth anything, I'm looking more knowledge at this point using this little bottle as an example so-to-speak.
> 
> thanks again.


I'm not that knowledgeable about Owens Illinois codes honestly.  We don't get a lot of bottles made by them up here so I never really bothered to look that deeply into them.


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## SODABOB (Nov 25, 2020)

Shannon

Thanks for sharing and welcome to the "Team."  I hope the following will help

1.  Your bottle was indeed made by Owens-Illinois in 1938
2. It was machine made and not hand-blown
3. The lack of a seam at the top is not uncommon on small bottles
4. The "dot" you referred to was only used on soda bottles
5. The Sha.org site you posted a link to has a lot more information, and is the most extensive bottle site on the Internet.  If you haven't already tapped into it, use this link.

Society for Historical Archaeology - Archaeology of the Modern World (sha.org)

6. The following page snippets are from a circa 1933-1937 Owens-Illinois catalog. Their catalogs are hard to precisely date because the pages were removable and often replaced with updates and/or removed when necessary. The catalog I got these from, as well as a few others, can be found on the link I posted.

7.  Although I can't say for certain, what you described as SB on the base might be 98 - which (sort of) correlates to the mold number and bottle I placed arrows next to.  Even though I have resourced these types of catalogs for years, they can be confusing and aren't necessarily easy to figure out.

8.  However, regardless of all that, I'm pretty sure the bottle shown in the catalog is your bottle or very similar to it.  Owens-Illinois likely made that same bottle for a number of years, and is generally referred to as a common pharmaceutical that used a cork stopper.

9.  By the way, there is a difference between mold "style" numbers and mold "cavity" numbers.  The style number is pretty self explanatory - The cavity number refers to the various molds on the machines themselves, which varied in counts from about 10 to 20 molds per machine. Cavity numbers were used for quality control so they knew which mold was causing problems if defects were present in the finished product. Hence, the 2 on your bottle is a cavity number.













The 4 and 4-11/16 are heights - as are the other numbers in that column





Have a great Thanksgiving

Bob


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## Dogo (Nov 25, 2020)

If you didn't know, ABM stands for 'automatic bottle machine'.  It was invented about 1906 and gradually adopted by all commercial glass factories.  There was a time  some years back that nobody collected them. (except for milk bottle).   Before  the machine was invented, ALL bottles were hand finished.  Today those pre-machine bottles generally bring higher prices and can be much harder to find. On pre machine bottles the seems end before the top, or the top is rough ground.  people are collecting machine-made bottles now, but the bottle needs to be identifiable to some town or product, such as soda or beer. Happy hunting, and welcome to the club.


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## shannondaniels1 (Nov 25, 2020)

SODABOB said:


> Shannon
> 
> Thanks for sharing and welcome to the "Team."  I hope the following will help
> 
> ...


Thank you.  that's the kind of detail that educates!  thank you for that.  have a wonderful Thanksgiving


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## SODABOB (Nov 25, 2020)

For future reference ...


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## shannondaniels1 (Nov 25, 2020)

Dogo said:


> If you didn't know, ABM stands for 'automatic bottle machine'.  It was invented about 1906 and gradually adopted by all commercial glass factories.  There was a time  some years back that nobody collected them. (except for milk bottle).   Before  the machine was invented, ALL bottles were hand finished.  Today those pre-machine bottles generally bring higher prices and can be much harder to find. On pre machine bottles the seems end before the top, or the top is rough ground.  people are collecting machine-made bottles now, but the bottle needs to be identifiable to some town or product, such as soda or beer. Happy hunting, and welcome to the club.


great intel!  thanks so much!  the majority of what i've found so far are slick bottles.  There are a number of dump sites in these old mountains that I'll be checking out soon.  (now that the snakes are hibernating)


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## shannondaniels1 (Nov 25, 2020)

SODABOB said:


> For future reference ...
> 
> View attachment 214792


thanks for that!  I'll be printing that out and keeping that handy.  Wonderful Thanksgiving to you.


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## SODABOB (Nov 25, 2020)

P.S.  / Shannon

I overlooked the "Stippling" (Numerous bumps/Texture) on the base of your bottle. That was a later development in glass making and often found on post-1940 bottles - which suggest your bottle was most likely made in 1948 and not 1938


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