Vernors Ginger Ale 150th B-Day

[hemihampton]

Interesting, I forgot about that post & thread. SO, I guess that's another variation I need, Plus the other 1906 Statement version Keith posted & I thought years ago I seen another version where statement was there along bottom not running up back side but lower bottom back side. LEON.

 

[SODABOB]

My bottle arrived today, and after closely examining all of its attributes, I'm assigning it a date of ...

circa 1907 at the earliest

circa 1912 at the latest

Later today I will post some pictures and explain how I came up with those date. By the way, the bottle is in near mint to mint condition!

 

[hemihampton]

sounds nicer then mine, i should of outbid you LOL. Is yours ABM I assume. LEON.

 

[SODABOB]

Here are some of the attributes I used to date my bottle ...

1. ABM / Machine Made
2. Owens Suction Scar on Base ( But no makers mark or date codes)
3. Ghost Seam on One Side ( Evidence of being Machine Made)
4. Micro Bubbles in Glass

5. With the best evidence being this claim ...

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The Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906 (effective January 1, 1907):

The Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906 imposed regulations on the labeling of products containing alcohol, morphine, opium, cocaine, heroin, alpha or beta eucaine, chloroform, Cannabis indica, chloral hydrate, or acetanilide. It required that products containing any of those substances be labeled with the substance and quantity on the label. Use of the word "cure" for most medicines was nominally prohibited, though there were little teeth in the law and enforcement was rare. However, the word "cure" began to be replaced by "remedy" and other terms about this time, though "cure" was still used at least up to the passage of the next discussed law in 1912 the Sherley Amendment.

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NOTE: From implementation of the above Act (1907) until the early to mid 1910s, virtually all patent medicines were required to meet the requirements of the law and be labeled with the following notation -

"This product guaranteed under the Pure Food and Drugs Act, June 30th, 1906."

Thus, labeled bottles with this notation do not date prior to 1907 and appear to not date after - or much after - the passage of the following act in 1912.

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The Sherley Amendment to the Pure Food and Drugs Act (1912):

The Pure Food & Drugs Act was considerably strengthened with passage of the Sherley Amendment in 1912. According the Food & Drug Administration website - Congress enacts the Sherley Amendment to prohibit the labeling of medicines with false therapeutic claims intended to defraud the purchaser, a standard difficult to prove. The use of the word "cure" was largely curtailed and this is for all intents and purposes the end date for patent medicine bottles for human use that are embossed (or labeled) with "cure." However, enforcement was still not complete and some use of the term most likely did occur after 1912-1913, although not likely embossed on bottles after this point. One of the first patent medicine producers to be prosecuted in 1913 was William Radam's Microbe Killer whose bottles claimed boldly to "Cure All Diseases." The company lost their case and the Microbe Killer - and most other "cures" - faded quickly from the market.

Thus ...

Circa 1907 .. to .. Circa 1912

Note: What appears to be blemishes in the glass are camera bloopers. The bottle is in near-mint condition.

( Triple-click to enlarge )





Notice the Owens Suction Scar = Large, offset, hairline circle on base.



Ghost Seams = Two hairline seams side-by-side between arrows




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[hemihampton]

Same bottom I have on mine. Are you happy with your Purchase & Price? What I want to know is What if any Vernor's carbonated soda bottle came before this one? Not counting the extract bottles. Anybody know? I'd like to see one pre ABM or tooled crown top.

 

[SODABOB]

Leon

Being as I rarely purchase soda bottles anymore (having just sold the majority of my 500+ bottle collection), I'm very happy with the Vernor's bottle and was prepared to go as high as $50 if necessary.

As for the earliest non-extract Vernor's bottle, I'm actually leaning toward the possibility that 1906-1907 might be the earliest. And not because I might have just purchased one, but because I can't find any solid evidence for an earlier example - but plan to keep searching and see what I can find.

 

[SODABOB]

Here's an example of a "Ghost Seam" I found on the Internet. Ghost Seams are not uncommon on Machine Made bottles. Google has detailed explanations for it, as well as definitions for the term "Owens Suction Scars."

The term "Owens Suction Scar" doesn't necessarily mean it was made by The Owens Glass Company - It just means that it was made by an Owens bottle machine, that different glass companies used during the early years of Machine bottle making (circa 1905 to circa 1920).

 

[SODABOB]

P.S.

We may never know the exact date for my bottle, and others like it, but its possible they actually date to 1907-1908. The 1912 date is merely what I think is a "latest" date. I say this primarily because of the 1906 statement embossed on the bottle. It seems to me that anyone who went to the lengths to have that put on their product likely used it when it was first introduced in 1906-1907. To tell you the truth, I have never seen that statement embossed on any other soda bottle. Has anyone else ever seen the statement on a soda bottle?

 

[SODABOB]

Coca Cola used the same statement in many of their early ads - with this one being from 1907. But I have never seen the statement embossed on a Coca Cola bottle - although there may be examples I'm not aware of.

Notice the different serial number ...

Coca Cola Serial # 3324

Vernor's Serial # 1246

 

[SODABOB]

I just did a brief search of Coca Cola ads and it appears they stopped using the 1906 Statement around 1909 - But I need to do a more thorough search and fine tune it.