# 1929 Great Bear Water Bottle



## gactive (Nov 11, 2021)

Hi all,

My mom has an old 1929 Great Bear bottle with one side embossed with "great bear springs....this bottle is loaned and never sold' the other side is embossed with 'illegal possession or refilling this bottle punishable one year imprisonment $50 reward leading to conviction"......Can someone tell me how much it's worth and best place to sell it. We are in NJ. Thanks


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## BottleEnthusiast (Nov 11, 2021)

gactive said:


> Hi all,
> 
> My mom has an old 1929 Great Bear bottle with one side embossed with "great bear springs....this bottle is loaned and never sold' the other side is embossed with 'illegal possession or refilling this bottle punishable one year imprisonment $50 reward leading to conviction"......Can someone tell me how much it's worth and best place to sell it. We are in NJ. Thanks


Pictures would help


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## gactive (Nov 11, 2021)

Photos attached


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## gactive (Dec 2, 2021)

BottleEnthusiast said:


> Pictures would help


Did you look at the pictures? Thanks


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## 5 gallon collector (Dec 9, 2021)

Nice bottle.
Great Bear is not one of the rarer water companies.  Bottles (5-gallon) of theirs come up fairly frequently, various ages, various designs.  Yours is certainly an nice early version, 1929, cork top, with very nice pattern -- later bottles became progressively less ornate.   Earlier versions are less common than later.  Condition appears to be good, and the bottle appears to be clean (-- I am pondering how to construct a tumbler to clean my 5-gallon bottles, having not had much success with acids, lyes, other cleaners -- (suggestions re this welcomed.))
Value hard to say -- there seems to be less interest in the 5-gallon bottles -- because of their size, space requirements, difficulty shipping -- and most are not yet very old -- earliest date from the late teens.  But their designs can be quite nice, and they can display well.
At swap meets the common / plain bottles might sell for $10 - 20.  Highest I have ever seen was an ebay from Wyrock VA that sold for about $900!, if memory serves.  (And there was no water in it!)  The fancier bottles' asking prices vary from about $75 to about $200, sometimes as much as $3-400 -- a couple on ebay now -- but not selling.  Last week I was in negotiatons to buy a fancy Arrowhead Los Angeles bottle, 1927, the bottle that is covered in Arrowheads -- but it sold in the last minutes of the listing, for the asking price -- $199 -- so with tax and shipping (which varies from about $30 to over $100) -- the buyer likely paid about $250 - $270 for the bottle.  Ouch.  But that said, I might pay that for a rare 1920s Southern California specimen -- eg the Magnetic Springs with the vertical magnets, or another less fancy but also rarely seen - an old Cayumaca, or Perfection, or Matilija or Magnolia.  They just don't come up very often at all.






I've not been to bottle shows, so do not know show prices.
Great Bear was in Fulton, NY -- best price might be had with a local / NY collector?
Attached images of 2 other Great Bear bottles -- one that I think is older than yours, and one much newer.  I have not researched the company, so do not know when they began to bottle.


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## Jstorm (Dec 9, 2021)

5 gallon collector said:


> Nice bottle.
> Great Bear is not one of the rarer water companies.  Bottles (5-gallon) of theirs come up fairly frequently, various ages, various designs.  Yours is certainly an nice early version, 1929, cork top, with very nice pattern -- later bottles became progressively less ornate.   Earlier versions are less common than later.  Condition appears to be good, and the bottle appears to be clean (-- I am pondering how to construct a tumbler to clean my 5-gallon bottles, having not had much success with acids, lyes, other cleaners -- (suggestions re this welcomed.))
> Value hard to say -- there seems to be less interest in the 5-gallon bottles -- because of their size, space requirements, difficulty shipping -- and most are not yet very old -- earliest date from the late teens.  But their designs can be quite nice, and they can display well.
> At swap meets the common / plain bottles might sell for $10 - 20.  Highest I have ever seen was an ebay from Wyrock VA that sold for about $900!, if memory serves.  (And there was no water in it!)  The fancier bottles' asking prices vary from about $75 to about $200, sometimes as much as $3-400 -- a couple on ebay now -- but not selling.  Last week I was in negotiatons to buy a fancy Arrowhead Los Angeles bottle, 1927, the bottle that is covered in Arrowheads -- but it sold in the last minutes of the listing, for the asking price -- $199 -- so with tax and shipping (which varies from about $30 to over $100) -- the buyer likely paid about $250 - $270 for the bottle.  Ouch.  But that said, I might pay that for a rare 1920s Southern California specimen -- eg the Magnetic Springs with the vertical magnets, or another less fancy but also rarely seen - an old Cayumaca, or Perfection, or Matilija or Magnolia.  They just don't come up very often at all.View attachment 232773View attachment 232774View attachment 232775
> ...


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## Jstorm (Dec 9, 2021)

Weird shows I wrote this post about Great bear water bottle. Wish I had that kind of knowledge. Don't want to take credit for someone else's post but it showed up like I posted it on my end.! Sorry to whoever posted that great  information.


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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (Dec 9, 2021)

Jstorm said:


> Weird shows I wrote this post about Great bear water bottle. Wish I had that kind of knowledge. Don't want to take credit for someone else's post but it showed up like I posted it on my end.! Sorry to whoever posted that great  information.


Don't worry.
ROBBYBOBBY64.


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## Jstorm (Dec 9, 2021)

ROBBYBOBBY64 said:


> Don't worry.
> ROBBYBO





ROBBYBOBBY64 said:


> Don't worry.
> ROBBYBOBBY64.


Was that you who posted that info ROBBYBOBBY64?


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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (Dec 9, 2021)

Jstorm said:


> Was that you who posted that info ROBBYBOBBY64?


No, it was 5 gallon collector. The two pictures are of my jug though.
ROBBYBOBBY64.


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## CanadianBottles (Dec 9, 2021)

Jstorm said:


> Weird shows I wrote this post about Great bear water bottle. Wish I had that kind of knowledge. Don't want to take credit for someone else's post but it showed up like I posted it on my end.! Sorry to whoever posted that great  information.


It shows that you quoted it, it doesn't look like you were the one who wrote it.  Same way I'm quoting your post right now.


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## Jstorm (Dec 9, 2021)

CanadianBottles said:


> It shows that you quoted it, it doesn't look like you were the one who wrote it.  Same way I'm quoting your post right now.


No worries thanks.


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