3 of a kind!

[mbsbox]

Hello bottle fans. I was back on the bicycle trail last weekend and came across yet another former "open space" tract of land here in central NJ that has been bought/sold and now in the latter stages of demolition-construction. Another mega warehouse on the way where a gorgeous old growth forest used to stand. Terrific. Having had some luck a few years ago on similar kinds of ground I explored the margins of the site for any sign of treasure. The bulldozers left very little intact but I headed into a clearing where some trees still stood and found a good sized dump hole. I poked and prodded and a few old mayo jars and beer bottles became evident but nothing really interesting. Until I noticed something I'd seen before and recovered in the past. A narrow/tall clear thick glass jar of unknown origin and purpose now becomes the 3rd one I've collected. Got it home, cleaned it and compared it to the other 2 in my closet and, yep, exactly the same. As you can see the jars are 6.25 inches tall and 1.5 inches wide. What's interesting here is that even though they appear identical, the bottoms reveal they were actually all made in different places with different maker marks. These are obviously meant to fit a cork or stopper of some kind but there is no branding of any kind. Does anyone know what these bottles are or what they contained? Or approximately how old? I was thinking first half of 1900's or earlier, possibly some type of food jar or maybe pharmacy glass. Any help is always appreciated. Cheers, Matt.

 

[Johnny M]

Hello bottle fans. I was back on the bicycle trail last weekend and came across yet another former "open space" tract of land here in central NJ that has been bought/sold and now in the latter stages of demolition-construction. Another mega warehouse on the way where a gorgeous old growth forest used to stand. Terrific. Having had some luck a few years ago on similar kinds of ground I explored the margins of the site for any sign of treasure. The bulldozers left very little intact but I headed into a clearing where some trees still stood and found a good sized dump hole. I poked and prodded and a few old mayo jars and beer bottles became evident but nothing really interesting. Until I noticed something I'd seen before and recovered in the past. A narrow/tall clear thick glass jar of unknown origin and purpose now becomes the 3rd one I've collected. Got it home, cleaned it and compared it to the other 2 in my closet and, yep, exactly the same. As you can see the jars are 6.25 inches tall and 1.5 inches wide. What's interesting here is that even though they appear identical, the bottoms reveal they were actually all made in different places with different maker marks. These are obviously meant to fit a cork or stopper of some kind but there is no branding of any kind. Does anyone know what these bottles are or what they contained? Or approximately how old? I was thinking first half of 1900's or earlier, possibly some type of food jar or maybe pharmacy glass. Any help is always appreciated. Cheers, Matt.

I have had a few of these over the years with different labels and they were always for some brand of olives. That's average size but I have seen taller. I would have to say these style bottles in general date from the teens to maybe as late as the 30's possibly 40's even. That's rough but probably not too far off. I never found a blown in mold one in all my years of digging either. Johnny M.

 

[mbsbox]

Johnny, thanks! Olives! No kidding? That would not have been my first guess, but now that you say, I really do think I might have seen olives packaged this way in Europe somewhere. Maybe Greece. An odd thing to find in 3 different locations in central NJ I have to say. But those were different times, and back then they called it the "Garden State". Soon it will only be known as "Land of 10,000 Mega-Warehouses".