High Desert Historic Bottle Website

Grouping of 19th and early 20th century American bottles.

Located in south central Oregon in Klamath Falls & near Chiloquin (on the Williamson River) - a beautiful area with BIG lakes (Klamath & Agency Lakes), very near to Crater Lake National Park and within sight of two snow covered peaks - Mt. Shasta & Mt. McLoughlin.

The Klamath Basin is located on the extreme western edge of the high and "cold desert" of eastern Oregon at over 4100' (valley bottom). Not real high for the Intermountain West, but just right for cold (but not too cold) winters and warm (but not too warm) summers. It's flora and fauna reflect its proximity to the Great Basin - the "sagebrush ocean."

I (Bill) am a collector (42+ years!) of all kinds of older, mouth-blown (not machine-made) American bottles and flasks produced by hand methods from the late 18th through the very early 20th century (pre-1910 + or -).

My collecting tastes run the gamut from early American figured (aka "historical") flasks, bitters, California gold-rush era soda & mineral waters and other Western American bottles, early American utilitarian bottles, Oregon bottles, Lindsey's Blood Searcher bottles, etc. I really don't have huge amounts within many of the recognized types or categories of 19th century bottles, but do have something within virtually all types - even some canning jars which are among the most fascinating bottle collecting genres.

In short, I am a generalist at heart with the one exception of medicinal tonics bottles...more later.

I offer an assortment of useful bottle books for sale via the following page: Book Books For Sale Page Like with all collectibles and antiques, good advice is always to "Buy the book before the bottle." Knowledge is power and even safety (of your money) when dealing with any collectible - bottles even more so than many other fields of collecting because of the incredible diversity of historic bottles. Beyond that, the history behind the glass companies that made the bottles - as well as the individuals and businesses that ordered and used the bottles - is simply fascinating...and isn't that a big part of why we collect bottles?

The bottle books listed for sale are selected for their utility in the fascinating field of identifying and dating American made bottles generally made by hand, i.e. "mouth-blown" to use Grace Kendrick's term. Virtually all of these books are out of print and variably hard to obtain, but are still of high utility because of the historical information that they contain. There are no old purely price guides here - those types of books become quickly out of date and then are simply useless lists of bottles with no real utility. Bottle books with historical information about the makers of bottles, the processes involved in producing bottles, and the companies and individuals that purchased and utilized the bottles never loose their value, though the information may be later refined or added to by others. Those are the books found here. In the end, isn't it the history behind the bottles that intrigues we collectors (and archaeologists)?

Want to know more about historic
American-made bottles?

If you have general questions or want to learn more about historic bottles, click Historic Bottle Website (HBW) to view a very in-depth website I have created (and still working on). The HBW is now hosted by the Society for Historical Archaeology as a joint effort with my ex-employer (I'm retired) the Bureau of Land Management. This site was designed to answer general bottle age & type (i.e. "typology" or what a bottle was used for) questions for most American-made bottles produced between about 1800 and the 1950s. The site also provides a wealth of information on glassmaking, bottle & bottle use history, references, glossary, and a lot, lot more. The Historic Bottle Website will continue to refined, expanded and enhanced as long as I'm able, so check in frequently.

If the HBW does not answer your questions you may send me an email. If you provide a good detailed description of the bottle in question and include a clear digital picture(s), I will try to help...but no guarantees. Be aware however that there were hundreds of thousands of uniquely different bottles produced during the 19th century into the middle of the 20th century and published information is available for only a very small percentage of them. For example, Ron Fowler has cataloged over 16,300 different embossed Hutchinson soda bottles made between about 1879 and the 1910s! (And that is only one type among many types of soda bottles.) However, many of the physical, manufacturing related, features of bottles provide clues to their age and utility so something can usually be said about virtually any and all bottles even if there is no published information on it. I may not get back immediately (I do get lots of questions!) but try to answer all reasonably descriptive, friendly, and non-demanding (responses are not a right just because I have a website) emails within a couple weeks.

Historic Bottle & Bottle Fragment Identification Service

Now that I've settled into retirement from the Bureau of Land Management and greatly enjoy the challenging process (and learning opportunities) of historic bottle and bottle fragment identification, I am willing to provide assistance to appropriate entities in need of such service, e.g., institutions of higher learning, governmental agencies, and CRM (or other) firms depending on the project specifics.

I will take on such tasks solely at my discretion as time allows with focus on projects that assist with the goals of my Historic Bottle Website (HBW). I am especially interested in viewing/analyzing assemblages of bottles and/or bottle fragments that come from relatively tightly dated historic sites as these most directly support the goals of this website...although I am open to other projects. The cost of this service is negotiable depending on the project specifics, who the project is for (e.g., non-profit entities vs. CRM businesses), and would at least entail reimbursement for all the costs of doing such work (e.g., travel, food, lodging). I will also selectively consider doing analysis of materials shipped to me.

Please contact me at the following email if you have need of such services: historicbottlewebsite@yahoo.com

I ask that people trying to first contact me please use the email address above NOT find my phone number on the internet.

Grouping of 19th and early 20th century medicinal tonic bottles.

My one incursion into bottle collecting specialization is MEDICINAL TONIC bottles. Not hair tonics, but medicinal tonics where, for example, the word "tonic" is used in the place of the word "bitters" or "cure" - i.e. a Fever & Ague Tonic instead of Fever & Ague Cure. I do not generally collect items where the word Tonic is descriptive instead of the actual product, i.e. Dr. Jayne's Tonic Vermifuge is not a tonic, but a vermifuge with "tonic effects". But I would consider the Wilson's Tonic & Sarsaparillian Elixir to be pretty much of a true tonic bottle. It's a fine line of course, but I'm just after what I consider to be "true" tonic bottles.

I am in the process of compiling a list of all the known, embossed medicinal tonic bottles (though I am also interested in label only ones). My goal is to get as complete a list as possible, including different embossing patterns of the same brand; color, lip and size variations; and all the unique American and Canadian brands. I have a listing of over 380 to date. I am striving towards some kind of book (or website?) on the subject in the future.

Click on Medicinal Tonics to see my most updated listing of tonic bottles and for more information on the subject. I am also looking for good quality images of unusual tonic bottles.

Central Oregon's Smith Rock State Park - August 2008 (Photo by website author)