In the mid 19th century, breweries started springing up all over America, with growth continuing right through until 1918. Many of these classic beer bottle breweries are similar to what we call microbreweries today and they sought to serve towns cities or even parts of cities. None of these truly grew to national prominence although some were able to dominate in cities as large as New York and Philadelphia. The earliest dominant brewer was Anheuser. Anheuser & Company antique beer bottles from this era as well as any produced by the many small brewers are highly collectible, depending on your tastes in collectible beer bottles.
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. |
Anheuser & company trademarked a stylized 'A' and an eagle symbol in 1872 and in 1877 they began bottling beer in aqua glass bottles, today one of the most prized collectibles in beer bottles. Early changes make bottles from this era and slightly before it very valuable. In this early era of mass bottling, Anheuser bottled 200,000 beer bottles per day – every one of them a marvelous antique collectible today if you can find it. By 1883, they reached 15 million in sales per year and by 1911, they set a new record in that era, producing over 173 million beer bottles. While embossed bottles are still made today, the earliest embossed bottles are truly vintage beauties.
Bottles in the era of 1875 or thereabouts are often valued around $60 to as high as $100 today. However, depending on the make and market conditions these can fetch more: one collected $1900 on eBay as long ago as 2006. Embossing on these will include the stylized 'A' (seen in image right) and the bottom may be embossed with the logo of the bottling company. For example, A.B.G.M.Co represented the Adolphus Busch Glass Mnfg. Company which had bottling plants in Illinois and Missouri; there were also big bottling plants in Princeton, NJ and elsewhere. Find embossed bottles.
Collectible blob-top bottles
Bottles with a thicker top around the mouth are popularly called blobs or blob-tops, collectible beer bottle types all their own. By the 1880's bottlers used a lipping tool that smoothed down the blobbing more; the tool left distinct rings, especially on the upper part of the ring just below the blob top of the beer bottle.
As the proliferation of bottles increased, so did backlash in the form of temperance leagues. A number of states banned beer and liquor production throughout the late 19th century, but other states saw these as revenue opportunities in the form of increased taxes. In fact, federal and local tax offices also took their cut.
Embossed ale bottles (like the one left) are also indeed very rare and highly collectible, while over time bottle colors changed from black and olive to amber such as that seen here. Aqua bottles are probably the rarest color; beer bottle collectors and bottle diggers get very excited by aqua bottles, highly collectible beer bottles.
The rise of Anheuser was a reflection of the increasing industrialization of many things in American life during the late 1800's, of course. While much was lost (including many of the quaint small breweries producing a wide variety of bottles) much was gained for beer drinkers in this era, of course.
Next, we take a look at the 20th century and many more changes that arose.
