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Studying the base of a milk bottle will give some clues as to how it was made and what company might have manufactured the bottle. Also many dairies took advantage of the space on the milk bottle base to add embossing to help identify their bottle. One thing that one will not find is a pontil mark. Many people, especially on ebay, describe milk bottles as having a pontil mark but this is not correct. A pontil is where the glass blower attached a punty rod to hold the partially finished bottle so he could form the lip. When the punty rod was snapped off the bottle, a rough scar was left on the base of the bottle (picture). Pontil marks are found on bottles that date to the 1860's and before. Since the first milk bottles did not appear till the late 1870's one will not find American milk bottles with pontil marks. We have only heard of one early jar that was from Tuthill Dairy of Unionville, New York that was reported to have a pontil but this was not in the shape of a milk bottle. 
As stated above milk bottles appeared after the period of pontiled bottles. Some of the earliest milk bottles will be mouth blown but they will have been blown in a three piece cup mold. The three pieces are the base of the bottle and the two halves of the body. Therefore there will be a mold seam just above the heel of the bottle, encircling the base and a mold seam up each side of the bottle disappearing at the neck. The base of these mouth blown milk bottles will not have any mold seams. These bottles will generally date prior to 1910. Starting in the late 1800's machines became available to blow bottles and were quickly adopted. Machines could produce many more bottles in a day compared to a man thus reducing the cost and the bottles were more consistent.
The milk bottle on the left was produced on an Owens Automatic Bottle Machine. This machine was patented by Michael Owens on August 2, 1904 and the patent was assigned to the Toledo Glass Company of Toledo, Ohio. These machines used suction to pull the molten glass up into the mold. After the correct quantity of glass was drawn up a knife cut off the flow and sealed the base of the mold. This knife formed a scar on the base of bottles made on these machines. This scar is often referred to as an Owens suction scar. It is often off centered, fairly large, will be very rough and may have slivers of glass around the edge although the scar becomes more refined on later, post 1920, milk bottles as the machine was improved. On the bottle shown above one can also see the embossing T. MFG. CO. which was the glass makers mark for Thatcher Manufacturing Company of Elmira, New York. The 16 embossed below the mark was the date code for 1916. Note the purple tint to the glass which is common in these older milk bottles exposed to the sun. Thatcher Manufacturing Company was one of the first companies to be licensed to use the Owens Automatic Bottle Machine. The presence of this scar is a sure sign the milk bottle is machine made and dates after 1904 and more likely 1910. The Owens Machine was the dominant bottle making machine in the 1910's and 20's after which it was slowly replaced by other machines.
Another type of bottle machine fed the glass in by gravity and then used a plunger to remove the partially formed glass from the mold so it could be moved to the final mold where it was blown into shape. The action of the plunger left a distinctive mark on the base of the bottle. The bottle on the right shows this mark which is often called a valve mark or ejection mark. The mark is usually the size of a penny although they can be slightly larger or smaller, especially on smaller bottles. This mark, unlike the Owens scar, is very smooth and more centered in the base of the bottle. This mark is found on the base of most milk bottles. This type of machine became the most common milk bottle machine in the late 1920's and remained so through the era of round glass milk bottles and into the introduction of square glass milk bottles. Again, the presence of this mark is a sure sign the milk bottle was machine made.
For a more in depth education on milk bottle manufacture and bottle making machines be sure to check out Bill Lindsey's website: Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website 
Companies selling milk bottles often embossed their names or marks into the base of milk bottles. These may have been the actual glass manufacturer or a company that bought bottles and then resold them. The milk bottle on the left is embossed DELAVAL. DeLaval was a dairy supply company that probably did not manufacture milk bottles but bought them directly from a glass manufacturer and then resold them to smaller dairies. Note the valve ejection mark on this milk bottle indicating it was machine made.
The milk bottle on the right is embossed FIDELITY. Fidelity Glass Company of Tarentum, Pennsylvania was a glass bottle manufacturer, They were in business from 1895 to 1916 or 1917 when the company was sold. This milk bottle was a mouth blown bottle. Note that it has no mold seams or circular scars on the base. Mouth blown bottles can have base embossing.
Most glass companies used some sort of makers mark and often a date code. These were commonly found on the base of the bottle or on the heel. This was important since milk bottles were reused the dairy needed to track the life of the bottle to evaluate the quality of the bottle. In the previous picture one saw the glass makers mark for Thatcher Manufacturing Company and its date code. The following picture shows the makers mark for Owens-Illinois Glass Company along with their date and plant code.
For a very complete list of glass makers marks be sure to see David Whitten's website: Glass Factory Marks on Bottles 
Dairies often embossed their name or initials into the base of their milk bottles in large letters. This made it easy to identify their bottles at stores and bottle exchanges. This was especially important if the dairy was in a city with more than one milk dealer. This type of base embossing was even common on pyroglazed milk bottles. Since milk bottles were used multiple times it was very important for a dairy to get their milk bottles back. The more trips a milk bottle made meant more profit for the dairy. The milk bottle on the left is embossed M. C. which stood for Mission Creameries of Watsonville, California and the milk bottle on the right is embossed ROBERTS which was for Roberts Dairy of San Rafael, California.
Both of these milk bottles have the makers mark for Owens-Illinois Glass Company at the top which was an I inside an oval, superimposed on an elongated diamond. On both milk bottles there is a 23 embossed to the left of the mark which was the plant code for Los Angeles, California. This Owens-Illinois glass plant produced many milk bottles that were used on the west coast. Owens-Illinois also had California glass plants in San Francisco (21 or 22), Oakland (20) and Tracy (22). The bottle on the left has a 46 embossed to the right of the makers mark which was the date code for 1946. The bottle on the right has a 3 to the right of the makers mark which was the date code for 1943. Owens-Illinois sometimes used a two digit date code and at other times used a single digit.
Both bottles have the word Duraglas in script embossed at the bottom. This was the trademark Owens-Illinois Glass Company used to describe their stronger, more durable glass bottles which allowed the manufacture of lighter weight milk bottles. In their trademark application Owens-Illinois said that the first use of Duraglas was September 4, 1940, which helps date these milk bottles. On both of these bottles you can also make out the valve ejection mark resulting from the machine that made the milk bottles. 
Another common base embossing is the word STORE. If a dairy had home delivery routes as well as store sales they needed to distinguish between milk bottles used for home delivery and store use. This was important because stores usually charged a bottle deposit to encourage returns but the deposit was usually waived for customers on home delivery routes. This embossing is even found on pyroglazed milk bottles.
Just like the previous bottles, this milk bottle has the makers mark for Owens-Illinois Glass Company, a factory code of 23 for Los Angeles, California and a date code of 5 for 1945. It also is embossed Duraglas for the light weight design. This milk bottle also has a valve ejection mark on its base from the machine that manufactured it. Valve ejection marks are found on most Owens-Illinois milk bottles. 
The embossing REG. CAL. is very common on California milk bottles. It is the abbreviation for Registered in California. It is found not only on the base of milk bottles but also on the heel, the slug plate or in the pyroglazing. Often pyroglazed bottles will have REG. CAL. embossed in the glass. We have seen non-California bottles that have this embossing. Probably west coast glass plants used molds that would satisfy the laws of multiple states. It was possible that a milk bottle was made for a surrounding state that used a mold with the embossing REG. CAL. On milk bottles from the east it is more common to see the word REGISTERED embossed in the glass and we have seen California milk bottles made in eastern glass houses that have this embossing. In general though the REG. CAL. embossing is helpful in identifying California milk bottles that are not labeled with the state.
Registration had multiple meanings as it applied to dairies. As early as 1911 the California state legislature passed a statute requiring all dairies with more than four cows to register with the state as follows:
"Every person, firm or corporation operating any dairies. dairy, where more than four cows are milked, and every creamery, cheese factory, receiving station, skimming station, ice cream or ice milk manufacturer, or milk condensary, shall on or before the first day of November of each year, cause to be registered with the secretary of the state dairy bureau a statement showing the full name and address of such person, firm or corporation so operating the same, and also the full name and address of the owner or owners of the business so being operated, in case the person operating the same is not the owner, together with a statement of the class of such business carried on by such person or corporation, and the number of cows then being milked, in case of a dairy."
Most states also had laws that allowed dairies to register their milk bottles. The bottle was required to have the dairies name or trademark as well as the word "registered" or in California's case "Reg. Cal." This made it illegal for anyone to use a milk bottle belonging to someone else. This meant another dairy could not use the bottle for milk but also any other use of the bottle was prohibited. We have seen records were gas stations were fined for using milk bottles to hold motor oil as well as druggists who used milk bottles to hold remedies and medicines. These laws were very important to dairies since the dairy needed a milk bottle to make many trips to be profitable. Milk bottle theft was very costly to dairies and a big concern. Click here to see a 1928 California Containers Brand Registration Certificate for the Hotel Del Monte which had its own milk cans, milk bottles and milk bottle cases. The cost for this hotel, which was located in Del Monte, California, to register their milk bottles was 5 dollars in 1928.
Note on the milk bottle above that the makers mark of H over an A is near the bottom of the picture. This was the mark of Hazel-Atlas Glass Company based in Wheeling, West Virginia. Hazel-Atlas produced glass in many locations including two glass factories in the California cities of Oakland and Pomona. The number 21 to the left of the mark we do not believe is a date since a 20, 21 or 22 is found on many Hazel-Atlas milk bottles that cannot date to the 1920's. One can also see the valve ejection mark from the machine that made this milk bottle. |
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