Vernors Ginger Ale 150th B-Day

[SODABOB]

P.S.

I forgot to mention there are about 1,000 results for the Cohansey Glass Company in the newspaper archives I'm subscribed to. Eee-gads, I hope I don't have to open and read every one of them! If that occurs, I'll retire myself. Oh, wait! I'm already retired! So I guess I have no excuse and just need to get with it no matter what the outcome might be.

 

[hemihampton]

OK, Good luck on your journey. LEON.

 

[SODABOB]

Thanks

And to think I have only scratched the surface of the approximately 5,000 listing for Vernor's Ginger Ale!

 

[SODABOB]

Keith = Does your Vernor's bottle marked with C.G. CO. 14-3 have a 'period' at the end of the mark?

Leon = Do any of your Michigan beer bottles marked with C.G. CO. have a 'period' at the end of the mark?


The following is copy/pasted from the Cohansey Glass Company article by the BRG ...

"Although generally not recorded by the sources, in our own photos and those from eBay, the numbers after the heelmarks were all followed by a period. This suggests that the bottles were made by the same manufacturer."

 

[SODABOB]

For future reference ...

Heelmark on Keith's Vernor's Ginger Ale bottle ...

 

[SODABOB]

A. Trombley ~ Hutchinson Bottle ~ Bay City, Michigan





Described as ...

Heel = Embossed with C.G. CO.
Base = Blank (No Marks)

Note: Bay City is about 150 miles north of Detroit.

I only did enough research on the bottler to establish that he was in operation during the late 1800s and early 1900s. I do not know the exact start date nor the end date for the bottler. The main reasons I'm focusing on this particular bottle is because ...

1. It confirms there are Hutchinson bottles marked with C.G. CO. (One of many different brands).

2. It confirms there were C.G. CO. Hutchinson bottles distributed in the state of Michigan.

With my main observations being ...

1. Even though I don't know for certain which glass company made this bottle, because there's a possibility it was made by the Cohansey Glass Company of Downingtown, Pennsylvania, I thought it was worth taking a looking at.

2. If it was made by Cohansey Glass, and Keith's Vernor's bottle was also made by Cohansey Glass, then it suggest that James Vernor had the option of using a Hutchinson bottle for his first carbonated bottled ginger ale. In fact, if Vernor had wanted to use a Hutchinson bottle, he could easily have had them produced by any number of glass houses who made Hutchinson bottles, and not just by Cohansey.

With my main points of emphasis being ...

1. As far as we know, there are no Hutchinson bottles embossed with James Vernor or Vernor's Ginger Ale.

2. Which leads me to suspect that James Vernor's first carbonated bottle was a Crown-top-closure bottle.

3. And that Keith's C.G. CO. 14-3 bottle could very well be Vernor's first carbonated bottle.

(Maybe)

 

[SODABOB]

Reminder ...

Earliest possible date for Hutchinson bottles ...

 

[SODABOB]

Hey, Keith

Do any of your Vernor's extract ​bottles have makers marks, symbols, codes, letters, numbers, etc; on them?

 

[SODABOB]

P.S.

Keith

I know its a lot to ask for you to make a list of every Vernor's extract bottle you have that has embossed codes on them, but such a list could prove helpful in narrowing down certain dates for certain bottles, and might even shed some more light on your C.G. CO. 14-3 bottle. That is, of course, if any of the extract bottles are even marked. ???

 

[VernorsGuy]

I'll take a look at my extract bottles tonight. I have about six or seven of them. So, not a big chore. I wish I had more of them, but they're tough to come by. I'll also look at the James Vernor Druggist bottles. One of them looks just like the early extracts.

I'll also get the C.G.CO bottle out again and see if there's a period. My untrained eye thinks that paper label bottle with the tooled top looks earlier. I attached a photo again. It's just so poorly done - even the diameter looks slightly bigger than the neck of the bottle - it makes me think it was an earlier era. But, maybe just not as good of a bottlesmith!

I've been going through a lot of Vernor's paperwork I've collected over the years. Attached is another photocopy of a James Vernor Pharmacist piece about soda water. He doesn't mention ginger ale, just fruit syrups. There's no denying he's making sodas. But, no date! There's also no florist mentioned. It could mean nothing, but it could mean this was before he added flowers to the business. In the piece I posted last night he said "pharmacist and florist".