Collectible Beer Bottles: Pre-brewery Era (1800's)
Collectible and antique beer bottles are reviewed here in a brief history. Beer bottles have a long and storied history that in some ways certainly reflects brewing history but also American and international histories, wherever beer has been brewed and bottled. In the very earliest days, of course, there was no such thing as beer bottles, while the earliest antiques that might be said to be similar were the antique beer steins that may be lidded, or capped or even bottle-shaped in some way.Find beer bottles from the 1800's!
Find collectible beer bottles from the nineteenth century: stoneware bottles, stopper-lidded bottles and other 1800's beer arcana. |
Find collectible beer bottles from domestic or imported brands from throughout brewing history. |
Some material here is adapted from work by experts in the field of antique beer bottle collections and collecting, with material from anecdotal understanding and experience, as well as other input.
Pre-history of brewing.
Beer, of course, is notorious for attracting pests attracted to its sugary scent. Any means of transporting and storing beer was always contentious and problematic in the era before refrigeration, as sanitation only slowly improved over history.
Indeed, sanitation was the big problem with storing beer even in the early days of bottling (about 1850's to 1880's) where the inside of the bottles was difficult to clean. (Later on, recycling or reusing of beer bottles was even considered a nuisance.) Antique beer bottles that you might find from this era would include stout beer bottles and pottery or glass beer bottles. Antiques from this era are often European in origin. Beer would often have to be drunk at room temperature and stored in a cool spot, although this was not always available.
Antique beer bottles from this early era come in a wide variety of materials including two-toned glazed pottery and cream color glazed pottery bottles. Many of these will be stamped with the name of the Pottery company. Other materials include black glass bottles for ale and beer; these are in a variety of shapes and sizes, most often unembossed.
Stoneware beer bottles – marvellous antiques - were made by beer makers as well as soda makers in the eastern United States. These were characterized often by a very stocky shape. Some contain cobalt blue for decoration or may have been colored various colors. Some of these now very collectible antique beer bottles were molded, while others may have been spun on a pottery wheel. These collectibles were embossed with beer makers' names from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. Bottles were often secured with cork and wire, somewhat similar to the lightning-stopper style.
All of this really predates the actual mass produced collectible beer bottle.
