Ron and All,

        Compared to original contents information (as Ron mentioned, reuse could
be a bewildering topic), manufacturer's marks are easy.  Some generalities can be
made, but there are almost always exceptions. For example, cobalt blue glass was
usually used for medicinals, but there have been occasional soft drink bottles and
even one milk bottle (not counting forgeries) made and used in that color.  The
"swelled" neck on beer bottles is a good identifier in general, but many beer bottles
(at least five major types and numerous variations) do not have swelled necks.
Bottles with swelled necks were also used for root beer, whiskey, and hair tonic (and
probably others).

        The typical panel bottles associated with medicine and drug stores was often
used for various toiletries, such as the Yucca Root hair tonic bottle from Mesilla, New
Mexico.   They also contained soft drink syrup, shoe polish, and just about anything
else that could be put into a bottle that size -- and I am refering to the primary or
original use of the bottle.  During the early part of the 20th century, the resale of
returnable bottles was a thriving business.  Larger dairies and soft drink firms lobbied
for local laws (passed in many states and municipailties) demanding that bottles be
permanently labeled to prevent the theft of the bottles by smaller companies.

        Virtually every bottle type has been used or reused for something else.
Several Pepsi-Cola companies during the Depression (ca. 1931-1937 time period)
bottled soda in old beer bottles, unmarked bottles from other soft drink companies,
and catsup bottles (the Goldy finish used on some catsup bottles of the period
worked perfectly with crown caps).  I'm sure small bottlers also follwed this trend.  In
return, bottles that looked like typical soft drink bottles were used for medicines in
many drug stores, including the famous Owl Drug chain.

        To sum this up, trying to determine function based on bottle characteristics is
a very difficult task.  This is one of the reasons why our bottle research group is
currently focusing on manufacturer's marks.  We can make more deinitive
statements about those than we can about function.  Bill's webpage will address
function as much as possible.

        Meanwhile, we have found so many errors in Touluse that we will eventually
produce a new new book on dating manufacturer's marks.  Currently, I am writing a
column in the most research-oriented of the bottle magazines (Bottles and Extras) as
a chanel for some of our findings.  The editor places the issues online after a suitable
time period.  I hope to also continue placing occasional articles in the Historical
Archaeology newsletter, and I hope to do a major article for the journal on the very
complex American Bottle Co.

Bill

> Carol Serr asked, "How can a dated bottle provide zero information on
> function of a site?" Many bottles and jars were manufactured and
> shipped to companies that filled the vessels with a wide range of
> contents and the bottles/jars tell nothing about what the retailer
> sold or how the artifact functioned in the site. A clear glass bottle
> could have held horse linament, root beer, food sauce, or snake oil
> and none would be the wiser because all we often have is a bottle with
> the manufacturer's mark or side panel embossing. I had hoped for new
> definitions of contents based on lip shapes, side decorations, or
> bases (not solely on basal marks or side embossing). After paper
> labels were invented and embossing vanished, functional intepretation
> got almost impossible to discern. And, yes, there are documented
> examples of scavengers selling recycled glass bottles to beverage
> retailers.
>
> Ron May
> Legacy 106, Inc.