# not as common as you think.



## sunrunner (Mar 13, 2016)

want out to find some bottles ,and found one. Hostetter's  bitter's are one of the more common of the bitters , and have had a long run . just how long? Well I came up with one that I have not dug until now machine made.


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## andy volkerts (Mar 15, 2016)

fairly common out here in California, I have dug several examples in my time, but they are not as prevalent as some of the other older variants either.......Andy


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## sunrunner (Mar 16, 2016)

Yeah, Andy, I have fond more of the BLIM then the machine made.


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## andy volkerts (Mar 16, 2016)

I am not certain of how long into the 20th century hostetters lasted, I would guess sometime into the teens, so that wouldn't be very much time to have produced bottles made by machine, compared to the much longer time of the earlier BLIM examples, just another fascinating thing about our hobby.........Andy


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## cowseatmaize (Mar 17, 2016)

Possibly at least until 1925 going by THIS EBAT

Some reports say they changed to Tonic in 1928 and ran until 1959. I have also seen some listings for "Hostetter's Tonic" in "The Druggist Circular" from 1920 and 22. They were just under the header of herbs though so may not be connected.


17N (or other number between 16 and 29)……………usually American Bottle  Company, at their glass plant located in Newark, Ohio. On some bottles  the letter may *precede* the number. Evidence indicates  the date codes (16, for instance, is believed to indicate 1916) may have  been used much earlier, as well as later —- perhaps from ABCO’s  beginning in 1905, all the way up to 1929, at least on a few bottles. I  have received a report that some bottles carried apparent date codes as  late as 1933, several years after the former A.B.CO. plants had become  part of Owens-Illinois Glass Company. See “16S”, “AB”, and “A.B.CO”  entries. http://www.glassbottlemarks.com


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## cannibalfromhannibal (Mar 18, 2016)

I've seen an early threaded machine made version dating to early 20's. I think there are more machine made ones than given credit for....I've dug dozens from one hole! Jack


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## antlerman23 (Mar 25, 2016)

I have seen maybe 3-5 Hostetters come out of holes I've dug, and all of them were abm. I am cursed to only find the 1910 era holes 
Common or not, finding a sweet looking bottle like that is awesome, I have one sitting not 2 feet from me as I type


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## Lordbud (Mar 26, 2016)

In California most TOC - 1910 privies were left undug back in the heyday of bottle digging in the 1960s/1970s. So many of the later PCGW tooled top/lip bottles can be quite rare. Frankly nobody bothered back then. It had to be 1880s or before to potentially find any "killer" bottles. However machine made bottles were the norm in the mid-west and back east after 1900, so those privies would also have been left alone after the older ones were dug out. The two best privies I ever was lucky to dig were both 1900 vintage. They were packed with bottles. Mostly slicks of course. But the good ones that were found are still in my collection.


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## sunrunner (Mar 26, 2016)

thanks for the info. with that long run , hope I can find a few more.


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