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First this cautionary note:  Bottle dating is not a precise science!

Using just physical, manufacturing related diagnostic features, most utilitarian bottles can usually only be accurately placed within a date range of 10-15 years (i.e., 1870 to 1880 or 1885) .  There are numerous reasons for this:

1. Like many industries making the leap from manual craftsman production to industrialization and automation, technological advances in bottle manufacturing were not immediately accepted by glass manufacturers or their workers.   Acceptance often occurred over a period of many years or decades in some cases.  This technology lag makes some diagnostic characteristics better than others for dating.  This will be noted where known.

2. As a corollary to #1, consider the following quote: "Treat terminal dates with care.  We can always have some indication of a starting date for a technique if we can find who first put the idea into practice.  But any technique, once developed, can be used right up to the present - as many collectors know who have been so unfortunate as to rely too heavily on a popular termination date as sure evidence of true antiquity..."  (Toulouse 1969b).  In short, there was (and is) nothing to stop a glassmaker from using an obsolete method in the production of a bottle.

3. Some technological changes were expensive and not adopted by glass makers until it became an "adapt or perish" issue and many glass factories simply perished.  The shift to the fully automated bottle machine from mouth-blown and some semi-automatic methods in the early 20th century is the classic example (Toulouse 1967, 1969a).  (See the Glassmaking & Glassmakers page)

4. The same bottle could have been recycled and reused many times for many years before finally being discarded - entire or broken (Busch 1987; see link below).   This was almost universal with many beverage bottle types (e.g., soda, beer, milk) but was variably common with just about any type bottle - especially prior to 1920.  Of course, soda & beer bottles were reused up until quite recently; milk bottles beyond the mid-20th century.  The bottle pictured to the right has a Wait's Liver and Kidney Bitters label pasted over the embossing of a Star Kidney and Liver Bitters bottle!  (The two products were from separate companies which were cross-town [Sacramento, CA.] rivals during the late 19th to early 20th century. The author has also seen Star Bitters labels on Wait's bottles as well as both labels on the immensely period popular Hostetter's Stomach Bitters bottles!)

Reuse, of course, does not change the manufacturing date of the bottle itself, but care must be exercised when using the known date of one or a few bottles to date other items found from the same context.  When a likely or known "older" item is found in a known "newer" site it is referred to as deposition lag.  An example of this is the finding of a few pontil scarred utilitarian bottles among otherwise late 19th or early 20th century refuse.  It is unlikely that this bottle was made during the same era, but instead was reused for a lengthy period or otherwise retained until broken or discarded.  Pontiled base fragments could also be from later produced "specialty" bottles which are described below.

5. Some bottle shapes are indicative of a particular manufacturing era, though many bottle styles/shapes were used for so many years - like the cylinder whiskey "fifth" or square snuff bottle - that the shape itself is not indicative of age.  Other diagnostic tools must be used to date these items.  Shape is more indicative of function, i.e., what the bottle was used for or contained , though even that can have a myriad of exceptions.  See the Bottle Typing/Diagnostic Shapes page for more information on the subject.

6.  And last, but definitely not least, is the fact that the art and science of glassmaking had a lot of glassmaker/glassblower induced uniqueness in the form of variations, errors, experimentations, and retrogressions.  All this adds to the fascination with bottle making, but makes systematic dating similar to solving Rubik's cube - ostensibly simple on the surface but complex in practice.

To misquote an old saying as rephrased by the BLM supervisor that facilitated the initiation of this website project: "The universe (of bottles) isn't just more complicated than you think, it's more complicated than you CAN think."  True to a large degree, though much information can be teased out of most bottles with a systematic approach to the matter.  That is the point of this website.

A yet a few more factors to keep in mind in the dating of bottles...

This Bottle Dating page (and website in general) is designed to address what the website author refers to as "utilitarian" bottles & jars (click for more information).  Utilitarian items makes up the bulk of the bottles produced during the 19th century and first half of the 20th century. 

What is a utilitarian bottle/jar? They are defined as:

1.  Bottles intended to be used once to dispense the contained product without much hope of return;
2.  Heavy duty bottles intended to be recycled and reused by the producer or distributor of the contained product (primarily soda, beer & milk bottles; see point #4 above); and
3.  Those produced during the era where all bottles were an relatively rare and cherished commodity to be discarded only when broken (i.e., the first third of the 19th century back many centuries prior) and does not otherwise fit the above two categories.

Utilitarian bottles include the majority of the bottles in the following bottle categories or types:  soda, mineral water, beer, milk, proprietary medicine, druggist (excluding shop furniture), chemical, foods & sauces, household (including ink, shoe polish, cleaners, personal hygiene related items), common wine containers (excluding decanters), champagne, and most non-decanter spirits/liquor bottles.  Utilitarian items include canning/fruit jars and figured flasks since they were intended to be reused by the purchaser and have been observed to follow well the dating guidelines, though there are some manufacturing timeframe differences with canning jars.  (Click canning jar to view the typology page section devoted to that category.)  The heavy glass beer bottle pictured to the above left is a classic example of a utilitarian bottle from the late 19th century which was typically reused but follows the dating guidelines on this and the related dating pages.

The dating guidelines found on these Dating Pages (and the entire website) do not always work well with what the author calls "specialty" bottles (click for more information).  This is because certain classes of these bottles were often made using glassmaking techniques from earlier times or with methods not used for utilitarian ware.  For example, some bottle types which were intended to be kept indefinitely (like the early 20th century barber bottle pictured to the right) were produced with the use of pontil or punty rods leaving telltale pontil scars on bottles into at least the early 20th century.  The base image below left is of an late 19th to early 20th century barber bottle base with a very distinct blowpipe pontil scar with a little residual iron from the pontil rod.  Another exception example is that the bottles for expensive, limited production liquors (e.g., high end cognac) and perfumes are still being hand-blown with tooled finishes. 

Specialty bottles include a significant number of bottles in the following categories:  barber & fancy hair tonic bottles (pictured to left and right), perfume & cologne bottles, inkwells (not ink bottles; see ink bottles), fire "grenades", large display or advertising versions of regular sized bottles, demijohns and carboys or other large storage bottles, druggist "shop furniture", fancy or figural wine and liquor bottles, fancy liquor decanters and related bar bottles, and reproductions of earlier bottles (McKearin & Wilson 1978; Jones & Sullivan 1989; empirical observations).  Many specialty bottles were imported from Europe, though that fact may be at times hard to impossible to ascertain.  Specialty bottles can be, of course, occasionally found on historic sites (usually fragments, but occasionally intact) but can rarely be used to help date the site because of the diagnostic problems and deposition lag issues noted above.

Bottle DOES Have Vertical Side Mold Seams

*Exceptions to Question #2 

The following is a discussion of the most common exceptions to the side mold seam "rule" describing a few types of machine-made bottles on which the vertical side mold seams do not quite reach the top edge of the finish making them possible appear to be mouth-blown.

1. Fire Polishing - Although infrequently encountered, machine-made bottles may have fire polished finish rims - a process which eradicated evidence of the neck-ring mold seam on the rim of the bottle.  These bottles will not have the side mold seam proceeding from the upper finish side over and onto the rim itself.  Ostensibly this was done to remove the mold seam rim "bump" that was sometimes left by earlier machines - an action which may have helped facilitate better sealing with crown caps, screw-thread caps, or similar closures which sealed on the rim of the finish.  These bottles will, however, have the vertical side mold seam progressing all the way to the very top of the finish side, just not onto the rim.  They will also have other machine-made characteristics as described on the Machine-made Bottlespage.  In the experience of the website author, these machine-made bottles are rarely encountered and likely a function of early machine-made wares (1905 to 1920s) that had less precise mold fitting and resulted in the need for fire polishing to facilitate proper closure function.

2. Milk Bottles - Many milk bottles made with press-and-blow machines from the very early 1900s into at least the 1940s resulted in vertical side mold seams that gradually fade out on the neck distinctly below the base of the finish.  (Click here for a picture of a typical 1910s to 1940s milk bottle.)  This exception to the side mold seam "rule" was caused by the specific workings of these machines which masked the upper portion of the side mold seam.  These milk bottles will also virtually always have a diagnostic mold seam horizontally encircling the outside of the finish and a distinct valve/ejection mark on the base.  Click on the image to the right to view both mold seam features pointed out on a press-and-blow machine manufactured milk bottle made by the Pacific Coast Glass Company (San Francisco, CA.) between 1924 and 1930.   (For more information and images of typical milk bottles from that era, including an explanation of why the side mold seams fade out on the neck, go to the Food Bottles & Canning Jars typology page.)

If your bottle is a milk bottle that fits this description, click Machine-made Bottlesto move to the Machine-made bottles dating page for more possible dating refinement and to pursue more information.

3. Ink/shoe polish bottles - Another common exception to this dating question deals with small ink bottles and similar small, moderately wide bore (mouth) bottles like shoe polish made during the first third of the 20th century.  

The image to the left is a close-up of the shoulder, neck and finish of a small Sheaffers ink bottle (click to enlarge for more detail).  The image shows the vertical side mold seam ending on the outside edge of the bead finish at a "ring" mold (the upper portion of a parison or "blank" mold) induced horizontal mold seam that encircles the extreme outer edge of the finish.  The side mold seam does not extend onto the top surface of the finish, i.e., does not cross the rim and in fact, does not extend the full length of the outside edge of the bead finish.   These features are pointed out - and much more readable - on the larger hyperlinked image; click to view.

The image to the right is a close-up of a small, medium green, machine-made ink bottle.  It has a similar ring/blank mold related mold seam features except in this somewhat earlier (late 1890s to 1910s) ink the side mold seam ends distinctly at the base of the finish, not within the finish itself like the above colorless example.  As above, click on the image to view a larger and much more readable version with the various features pointed out.

This termination of the side mold seam within the finish short of the rim (Sheaffers ink) or actually short of the finish itself (green ink) on these bottles makes it appear upon casual glance that these are mouth-blown bottles having either an improved tooled finish (Sheaffers) or an applied finish (green ink).  However, both bottles are certainly machine-made.  (Click Sheaffers Ink to view the discussion of this bottles features on the Household Bottles typology page.)  The Sheaffers ink was made on the blow-and-blow Owens Automatic Bottle Machine as indicated by the a base makers marking for the Owens-Illinois Glass Co., along with a distinct suction scar, and a date code for 1940 which is well after the end of mouth-blown production of utilitarian bottles.  There is also no neck ring mold seam immediately below the finish like found on most Owens machine produced bottles and on a majority of all machine-made bottles.  Instead, there is one located near the base of the neck indicating that the neck ring mold portion of the parison mold produced the finish, neck, and a portion of the shoulder.  (This is also pointed out on the image above; click to enlarge.)

The earlier green glass ink bottle is also certainly machine-made, most likely on an early semi-automatic, press-and-blow machine based on its crudeness and lack of a suction scar. (A likely machine used for making this ink bottle was the "Blue Machine."  See the following linked article for more information: http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/TheBlueMachine.pdf )  It also has no neck ring mold seam immediately below the finish like found on most Owens machine produced bottles (or on the majority of machine-made bottles).  Instead, there is distinct horizontal mold seam protruding slightly on the outside edge of the lower finish and another vague mold seam encircling the bottle located on the shoulder near the base of the neck.  This indicates that the neck ring mold portion of the parison mold produced the finish, neck, and a small portion of the shoulder.  (These are all pointed out on the image above; click to enlarge.)  Both these described machine-made ink bottles exhibit no sign of the concentric, horizontal finishing 0r lipping tool induced marks that would be present on a mouth-blown finish which was hand tooled to shape.  (These bottles are discussed in more detail in the ink bottle section of the Household Bottles (non-food related) typology page.)

If your bottle is an ink fitting the descriptions above, click Machine-made Bottlesto move to the Machine-made bottles dating page for more possible dating refinement and to pursue more information.

Bottle DOES NOT Have Vertical Side Mold Seams.