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Hutchinson Bottle Manufacturers

The following June 1892 National Bottlers’ Gazette advertisement detailed the Hutchinson bottle style numbers, dimensions, and capacities available from American Glass Works, Limited of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a major industry bottle manufacturer:

The accompanying advertising copy specified:

Such as BEERS, SODAS, MINERALS, and APOLLINARIS BOTTLES, which we make in GREEN, RUBY, IMPORTED GREEN, and FLINT COLORS.  We manufacture bottles for the Bottle Seal, also for the Lightning and Hutchinson Stoppers, and will furnish bottles and stoppers at regular prices.  We use NATURAL GAS in all departments, which enables us to anneal the ware better and more uniform than where the old system of coal is used.  We have a large selection of Stock Moulds, which are provided with plain plates, upon which we can insert your name and address at a very slight cost, thus saving you the cost of a mould.  We have railroad connections at our works with all the principal roads in the country, which enables us to make prompt shipments at all times…

DESCRIPTION OF DIFFERENT STYLES OF STOCK MOULDS.

All are so arranged that we can put on any name and address desired.  We make one size stopper holes only unless otherwise ordered.  No leakers.

Five years later, an American Glass Works advertisement in the December 15, 1897 issue of The Western Bottler pictured the same Hutchinson bottles (with Style 104 specified as “FURNISHED FOR SEALS”):

The accompanying advertising copy proclaimed:

Manufacturers of all kinds of High Pressure bottles for steaming and carbonating purposes and for all kinds of stoppers.  Special attention paid to private and lettered ware.  Natural gas used in all departments.  Colors, light Green, light and dark Amber, Bohemian Green and ‘PittsburgFlint.  Unsurpassed shipping facilities.  First-class goods, moderate prices.

Another major industry supplier of Hutchinson bottles was the North Baltimore Bottle Glass Company (North Baltimore, Ohio 1888-1895; Albany, Indiana 1895-1900; Terre Haute, Indiana post 1900).  Here’s an N.B.B.G.Co. advertisement from the same December 15, 1897 issue of The Western Bottler.   Note they did not charge extra for designing private moulds:

A related news item in the same issue of The Western Bottler mentioned:

The North Baltimore Bottle Glass Co. of Albany, Indiana, has again increased the capacity of its large furnaces during the annual summer shut down, making its product the largest in the West.  Nothing but beer and soda water bottles are made in this plant, and the quantity of the ware is of the best.  Natural gas, as fuel, is used throughout the plant, and its use accounts for the high degree of perfection reached in tempering or annealing its bottles.

An 1884 National Bottlers’ Gazette advertisement placed by the Wisconsin Glass Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin illustrated quart, 1 ½ pint, and half pint Hutchinson bottles they were manufacturing.    Note “Name and address blown into bottle,” and “Private Moulds a specialty:”

An 1887 National Bottlers’ Gazette advertisement by Whitney Glass Works (59 Murray St., New York City, and 227 South Front St., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) proclaimed they were the “Largest Manufacturers of Bottle Ware in the United States…Our factories are all now at work.  To insure having bottles on hand for summer use, send orders early.  The best bottles are made in cold weather…The following cuts represent sizes and styles of a few of our stock moulds, from which we can furnish bottles with the name and address at a small additional cost, on orders of 5 gross and upwards.”  Here are the Hutchinson bottles illustrated in their advertisement (note the backwards Ns in the embossing on the quart; so much for quality control!):

Discussion of Hutchinson bottle manufacturing would not be complete without mention of the Illinois Glass Company in Alton, Illinois.  A team of advanced collector specialists and archaeologists is doing extensive research and will be providing more information about this prolific manufacturer of Hutchinson bottles.  Here is a sample page from the 1911 Illinois Glass Company catalog (as reprinted in H. E. Putnam’s booklet Bottle Identification in 1965) showing the most common Hutchinson bottles this firm produced.  These Hutchinsons are often found with maker’s marks specifying “I.G.Co.” plus year codes (such as ’01, ’02, ’03, etc.) and Mould numbers (11, 22, 33, etc.) on the back of the bottles, close to the base.  Note that in the illustrated grouping, all of these mould styles were available with Hutchinson stoppers except for No. 44 which was only furnished for bottles utilizing corks, Lightning Stoppers, or Baltimore Loop Seals:

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