# Mid 1800's or 1890's Nassau Selter jug???



## Newtoit

This jug was from yesterdays dig. It's 12" tall. Anyone now if it's the one from the mid 1800's or if it's the one from the 1890's. Made in Germany.
 Thanks
 Debbie


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## Newtoit

Nassau Selter stamp


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## Newtoit

Stamped under handle.


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## Newtoit

Handle and top.


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## Newtoit

Bottom of jug. There's one on ebay for $79.00.


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## bottlediger

could even be from the 1920s, they made them for a long time

 Ryan


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## surfaceone

> ORIGINAL:  Newtoit
> 
> Stamped under handle.


 

 Hey Debbie,

 Just guessing here, but I think that "95" would indicate the date.

 "Nassau Selter

 Houck & Dieter offered Nassau Selter imported from the Nassau Selter Co., Ober Selter, Germany from 1893 to 1895. The company bottled its products in ceramic containers. These are:

 straight-sided, circular stoneware jugs . . . wheel-thrown, jugger-made . . . the bases usually exhibit a series of concentric looped ridges left by the wire used to cut the clay base off the wheel. The exterior surface is salt-glazed. The necks are quite short and bear a series of encircling embossed ridges intended to help secure the wire for the cork. Each jug has a single applied handle which loops from just below the base of the neck to the base of the shoulder. . . . They were manufactured in the Nassau District in western Germany at Hohr, Grenzhausen, and other towns (Schulz et al 1980:115).

 Nassau Selter bottles carried an impressed seal with SELTERS (arch) / NASSAU (inverted arch) around a German eagle that contains the initials, F.R., on a shield on his chest (Figure 5-35). The bottles were exported to England by at least the early 19th century and may have arrived in the U.S. as early as 1846 at a price of 15-25Â¢ each, although a few years later the price had increased by 5Â¢. Sales of German selters may have continued until the beginning of World War I (Schulz et al 1980:116-117), although Houck & Dieter ceased carrying the brand in 1895.
 Figure 5-35 â€“ Nassau Selters â€“ one of the seals (Schulz 1980:116)

 Munsey (1971:135) states that Nassau is in the province of Hesse. He dates such bottles as â€œc. 1880-1900â€ (Munsey 1971:139). Wilson (1981:32) describes Nassau â€œSEKTERSâ€ (sic) as â€œsalt-glazed, wheel-thrown stoneware with a ringed neck and a ring-lip neck finish.â€ His dates are the general dates for Fort Laramie bottles: 1860-1890. Blee et al (1986:205-208) depicts an example found in Alaska and notes that â€œmineral water was a popular cure-all of the nineteenth century well known to Russian physiciansâ€ (Figure 5-36).

 Lambrechtsen (2001:8) provides a good description from 1819:
 The water which is imported at London is brought over in stone bottles, closely corked and cemented containing about three English pints each, which means the water, as long as the common air is excluded, will retain many of its excellent qualities for several months; but this caution is so necessary, that if too large an empty space is left even in the neck of the bottle, it soon loses in a great degree the brisk, smart, pungent taste, which principally characterised its excellence, and is more liable to be injured by keeping than any other mineral water. The water abounds with an alkaline salt in a much greater quantity than any of the other known mineral waters.

 The water originated at Selters Spring in Niderselters, Germany, a naturally carbonated spring. According to Websterâ€™s Collegiate Dictionary (10th ed.), the word, seltzer, is derived from Niderselters. The spring was the best-known in Germany, and waters were exported worldwide during the 18th and 19th centuries. The ceramic bottles were manufactured in the Westerwald Mountains, known as the â€œjug baking land/district.â€ Under the handle of each bottle is stamped the first initial of the jugmakerâ€™s location and the personâ€™s individual number. Various types of stoneware bottles were used as early as the 13th century, although they were more rounded or â€œbelly shaped.â€ Handles appeared in the 17th century, and taller, cylindrical bottles date from about 1850. The stamp on the front of the bottle has gone through several variations, and bottle necks vary in length (Lambrechtsen 2001:6-7).

 Jug-making was a cottage industry in the Westerwald area where families in at least nine villages manufactured the Selters bottles. Identification on the front of the bottles, such as Herzogthum Nasau (literally Dutchy of Nassau) identify the political territory of the local nobility or councils that licensed the exportation of the water. Because of the competition from glass containers, the jug trade declined by the end of the 19th century and was reduced to 49 jugmakers by 1926 (Lambrechtsen 2001:6-7)." From. (See the link for drawings of the seal and stone bottles.)




From.


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## Newtoit

Thanks for the info.
 Debbie


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## Newtoit

The one on ebay is identical except under the handle it has R and NUM 27. I'm guessing the letter is the initial of who made the jug and the NUM is how many they've made. 
 Debbie


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