Sun-Colored Amethyst Catsup Glass Bottle - [Owens Bottle Co.]

The Kansas River's water level was the lowest I've ever seen this morning, which meant that I was on the sand bars scouting for exposed bottles.  I ended up finding an old-as-the-hills ketchup glass bottle half-buried in the sand.

For dating purposes, this bottle's physical characteristics include:

• A small-mouth, continuous external thread finish that wraps around the circumference just once.

• This finish can be categorized as an improved tooled finish, which is identified by the side mold seams being present within the finish itself.  (A standard tooled finish has side mold seams that distinctly run out on the neck of the bottle, below the finish.)  Virtually all improved tooled finish bottles were made post-1895 until the end of the mouth-blown era in the early 1920s.

• There is a very evident light lavender tint throughout the glass.  This tells us that originally, the glass was "colorless," and that the manufacturer of the glass used a decolorizing agent, manganese dioxide, to set off any residual iron impurities within the glass.  When exposed to sun, this type of glass will turn pink or moderately dark amethyst depending upon the amount of manganese dioxide in the glass and the amount of ultraviolet light exposure, also known as "sun colored amethyst" glass.  The large majority of bottles made with manganese dioxide were manufactured between 1890 and 1920.

• The mold qualifies as a post-bottom mold bottle (see figure to the right), and does not have a pontil scar.  A post-bottom mold bottle is one with a circular or oval seam on the base, and has side seams that run directly into the circular seam. This generally means that the bottle was manufactured sometime between 1860 and 1890.

Dimensions: 9.40" x 2.25"

This is an 8-sided catsup bottle.

Along the heel of this bottle the number '393' is embossed, possibly a base plate number belonging to Heinz.  If that is the case, then this would be a Heinz Chili sauce bottle.

The base has a single 'O' embossed in the center, likely an early rendition of the Owens Bottle Company's trademark.  This embossment is surrounded by several perfectly circular rings that are indented into the glass.