# Eastman Kodak Blue?



## avalonweddings (Dec 2, 2021)

I am a collector of anything to do with photography, pre 1920s. I'm not really a bottle collector but I do have a lot of early Photography chemical bottles.

I found this on ebay and bought it... I've never seen a blue Eastman Kodak bottle... ever.. and im a serious collector.

This bottle would predate Kodak as it doesnt have the Kodak logo which they began using in the early 20th century.


so I have three questions..

Are the letters raised on the bottle and is it blue because they would consider the contents to be poison?

and is this really a blue bottle? I was told that chemicals in the glass turn purple over time if the bottle is left out in the sun or is buried in the ground for decades... so is it blue because it was MADE blue or did it change color over time?

oh.. Hit met up at darrin at avalonweddingsbcs dot com if you got any bottles for sale that are photographically oriented..


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## BottleEnthusiast (Dec 2, 2021)

The blue color was to usually color the glass to


avalonweddings said:


> I am a collector of anything to do with photography, pre 1920s. I'm not really a bottle collector but I do have a lot of early Photography chemical bottles.
> 
> I found this on ebay and bought it... I've never seen a blue Eastman Kodak bottle... ever.. and im a serious collector.
> 
> ...


the blue color was to usually protect the contents inside from sun damage, and the writing that is raised is just the embossing which is like any older bottle. It doesnt mean its poison unless it has some sort of ridges or dots on the side. I dont really know anything about kodak so I cant help you with that.

-BottleEnthusiast


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## CanadianBottles (Dec 2, 2021)

That's not blue, it's deep purple.  And I'm afraid it's not the bottle's original colour, that was a clear bottle which someone artificially irradiated with UV rays, making it purple to increase the price on Ebay.  It would be very difficult for a bottle to be in the sun long enough to turn that shade of purple, it would essentially have to sit out on top of the ground in the middle of the desert for a hundred years or so.


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## BottleEnthusiast (Dec 2, 2021)

CanadianBottles said:


> That's not blue, it's deep purple.  And I'm afraid it's not the bottle's original colour, that was a clear bottle which someone artificially irradiated with UV rays, making it purple to increase the price on Ebay.  It would be very difficult for a bottle to be in the sun long enough to turn that shade of purple, it would essentially have to sit out on top of the ground in the middle of the desert for a hundred years or so.


oh my bad


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## hemihampton (Dec 2, 2021)

It's been Nuked.


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## avalonweddings (Dec 3, 2021)

It was $10 on ebay.. and its not purple at all. Its BLUE..


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## saratogadriver (Dec 3, 2021)

I can't tell from your pics if that's a natural cobalt or a nuked color.    It appears to have some hit of purple in it.

Either way, I don't think you did bad for $10.

Jim G


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## avalonweddings (Dec 3, 2021)

Is there a way to photograph it to show better? im a professional photographer, so I can do whatever needs to be done... just never photographed a bottle for this specific reason...


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## saratogadriver (Dec 8, 2021)

I'm horrible at photographing bottles.    Others on here are much better.    Backlit with a white background?

Jim G


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## willong (Dec 8, 2021)

avalonweddings said:


> I am a collector of anything to do with photography, pre 1920s. I'm not really a bottle collector but I do have a lot of early Photography chemical bottles.
> 
> I found this on ebay and bought it... I've never seen a blue Eastman Kodak bottle... ever.. and im a serious collector.
> 
> ...


I'm chipping in for two reasons: First, long burial would prevent glass turning purple (amethyst) as that color results from a chemical reaction caused by exposure to UV light acting with the manganese used in the original glass batch to produce clear (colorless) glass. Second, I do believe that your example is an original bottle that has been irradiated by, in my opinion, an unscrupulous seller. It still makes a nice display; but it can no longer be considered authentic. A quick online search reveals original examples of that bottle in colorless glass. Your comment: "This bottle would predate Kodak as it doesn't have the Kodak logo which they began using in the early 20th century." is wholly consistent with the appearance of the bottle and the use of manganese to clarify glass prior to The Great War (World War One) when selenium was substituted for clarifying glass because manganese was a strategic war material. (Selenium, by contrast, will produce a light straw color with prolonged exposure to the UV component of natural sunlight.)


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## willong (Dec 8, 2021)

I am going to stick my neck out a little bit and guess that the original eBay seller specifically *did not* describe the bottle as *cobalt blue*. Is that accurate avalonweddings?


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## avalonweddings (Dec 8, 2021)

saratogadriver said:


> I'm horrible at photographing bottles.    Others on here are much better.    Backlit with a white background?
> 
> Jim G



I'm actually a professional commercial photographer and I have all the backgrounds and soft boxes and studio lights and stuff... I was just wondering if others had a special way of doing this I might not have been aware of... I shoot glass a lot... I can do clear glass wine glasses on white... which is hard to do... just didnt know if there was a trick to shooting a blue glass to make it seem purple without using photoshop..


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