Labeled Pepper Sauce bottle - This is a very nice blue aqua, fluted body pepper sauce which has the original label on it.  The label is of a "gothic" panel-like shape which was a common indented panel on mid to late 19th century pepper sauce bottles, including the earlier gothic or "cathedral" pepper sauces.  The label reads "PEPPER / SAUCE / INDIA MILLS / NEW YORK.  It is 100% complete but does have a narrow separating in the upper middle which must have happened when it was wetted and stuck on.

The bottle has six equal vertical sides all of which are indented and 5 of the 6 with two embossed lines running vertically within the panels; the sixth label panel does not have these lines (which would have likely made it harder to glue the label on if present).  It is a bit over 8" tall, has a tooled double ring finish (aka lip) typical of that era's sauce bottles, a smooth (non-pontiled) indented "post-molded" base, and likely dates from the 1880s or early 1890s I suspect. 

Betty Zumwalt's excellent 1980 book "19th Century Food in Glass" lists this bottle - also with a label (but slightly different in wording) - on page 255 and notes it is "extremely rare."  That rarity is certainly true for examples with the original label - and this offered bottle is of a nice blue aqua color whereas the book example is of "clear" glass. (Betty didn't note any history about the company, alas.)  I acquired it many years ago, later using it to illustrate one of a variety of pepper sauce bottles on my Historic Bottle Website at this link: https://sha.org/bottle/food.htm#Ribbed%20sauce   The bottle is in essentially mint condition with no chips, cracks, dings or really any scratching.  There is some very faint content "haze" which may wash out, but not worth the chance of damaging the label.  Nice bottle1  $45

Queen Olives XXX Francis H. Leggett & Co. - This tall olive bottle is product labeled indicating it contained "Queen Olives" and was used by the Francis H. Leggett & Co. (New York).   The label is about 95%+ intact, the base is embossed as described below, 11.25" tall, clear glass, tooled one-part finish, and from the late 19th century.  This bottle was also acquired to illustrate the food bottles section of the Historic Bottle Website and like the bottle above, came from a large collection of labeled food bottles.  Here is the write-up from that website which more fully describes this interesting bottle:

The company began business in 1870 and also continued until at least 1980 (Zumwalt 1980).  The base has the embossing F. H. L. & CO. / N. Y.  for the F. H. Leggett Co. and is an example of base embossing that without the label would be hard to determine otherwise; it could also possibly be construed as a bottle makers marking.  This bottle has a tooled one-part finish, was blown in a post base mold with no obvious evidence of mold air venting, and is somewhat crudely made (e.g., bubbles in the glass, stretch marks on the shoulder/neck, wavy glass).  These diagnostic features would indicate a probable manufacturing date between the mid to late-1880s to mid to late-1890s.  However, this bottle design with the ribbed lower body was patented by Leggett on February 26th, 1889 giving a good begin date for this particular style.  Other examples of these tall bottles have the actual patent date embossed on the base (Caniff 1997).  Click Leggett patent 1889 to see that patent.  Click on the following links to view more images of this bottle: base view (embossing is minimally visible); close-up of the neck and tooled finish showing the tooled one-part finish. 

Yet another mint food bottle with a great label.  $20

PRIMROSE / REGISTERED (in a banner) / BRAND / WESTERN MEAT COMPANY - This is one of those odd bottles that looks like one thing - an early 20th century liquor bottle - but was actually something quite different - salad oil!   Actually, this shape was commonly used for both oil and liquor during the first couple decades of the 20th century - at least in the West which is where this bottle comes from.  It is 11" tall, aqua in color, with a tooled finish...it is essentially mint with now staining, chips, cracks or other post-production damage only a few light scuffs here and there.  This bottle was also acquired to illustrate the food bottles section of the Historic Bottle Website.  Here is the write-up from that website which more fully describes this interesting bottle:

The pictured bottle above is embossed vertically with PRIMROSE / REGISTERED / BRAND / WESTERN MEAT COMPANY.   This is known to be a salad dressing bottle as other variants are embossed with PRIMROSE SALAD OIL (Zumwalt 1980).  Like its liquor bottle relatives, this salad oil bottle was blown in a cup base mold, has a tooled brandy finish, and plentiful air venting marks on the shoulders, body edges, and integrated within the embossing; it almost certainly dates from between 1905 and 1920.  Click on the following links for more images of this bottle:  base view showing the cup base mold conformation (base is 2.9" square); close-up of the shoulder, neck and finish.  The Western Meat Company began business around 1895 and was located in Chicago but had several packing houses in California (Zumwalt 1980).  It's president was Gustavus Swift and the company was (or became) part of Swift & Company - still one of the largest meat processing and food companies in the world (source: www.swiftbrands.com).  Swift & Co. also used a similar aqua glass bottle that is embossed with MONOGRAM SALAD OIL / SWIFT & CO. / U.S.A. (Zumwalt 1980).

That about tells the story.  Bottle also has some crudeness in the form of bubbles in the glass and a small but interesting ripple mark at the back corner - a byproduct of the hand manufacturing.   $15

TRADE MARK / LIGHTNING - That is embossed on the body of this impressively large (over 10" tall and 4.25" in diameter) half gallon jar.  Colored Lightning jars are a popular with collectors item since they come in a run of very interesting colors including many shades of amber like this offered example.  This jar was acquired to illustrate the food bottles section of the Historic Bottle Website; the history of these innovative jars is available on my other website at this link: Lightning canning jar.  The amber jars are somewhat abundant though quite popular with the pint being the rarest with these half gallons being much rarer than the quarts.  The base is embossed with PUTNAM and the mold number 156; click base view to see such.  The base also has - as the image shows -  some flat, blotchy glass markings which was the result of the glass blower slopping glass fragments into the mold bottom and not cleaning them out... an interesting crudeness seen with hand-made production item.  This jar is a light-ish medium golden amber color with a bit of orange to it; the full view image shows the color accurately to my eye.   Condition is near mint as with most of these jars (which were rarely tossed and buried unless broken).  The minor condition exceptions follow: some minor scratching/scuffing to the body, ample base wear (where it should be), some rusting/pitting to the wire bail (but quite solid and totally intact); and a small flake to the underside of the color matching glass lid which is visible in the enlarged image showing the lid (lid has the usual patent dates embossed on it).  The ground rim is essentially perfect and better than average as it has very little evidence of grinding flaking.  Nice jar with some body crudeness and bubbles.    $110

Click on the following links to go to these other pages with more bottles for sale.

WESTERN AMERICAN BOTTLES BITTERS EARLY AMERICAN BOTTLES & FLASKS MEDICINAL "TONIC" BOTTLES OTHER MEDICINAL BOTTLES SODA/MINERAL WATER & BEER LIQUOR & MISC. BOTTLES and COLLECTIBLES BOTTLE BOOKS

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