This attic-mint early soda bottle comes from Robinson Brothers of Dover, New Hampshire, a small but energetic late-19th / very early-20th century bottler known for handsome typography and crisp glasswork. Their bottles turn up far less often than the larger Portsmouth or Manchester operations—and almost never in this kind of clean, bright, untouched condition.

This example carries the firm’s ornate interlaced “RB” monogram, one of the more elegant logos used by a New England soda house of the era. The glass is clear, smooth, and beautifully struck, and the embossing is deep enough that you can practically read it in the dark. Collectors love these because Robinson Bros bottles were locally distributed only, meaning the surviving population is small and heavily dug—most are sick, frosty, or bruised. This one? It looks like it hit the soda bench and immediately requested early retirement.

Bottles of this style—with a true early blob-type lip, made for a wired cork closure—precede the standard crown tops that took over after about 1900. Yours is unmistakably in that late-Victorian transition period: heavy glass, sloping shoulders, registered embossing, and a lip that’s clearly shaped for a cork-and-wire stop, not a crown. These were typically hand-finished, so no two tops are exactly identical.

Condition:

• Attic mint

• No chips

• No cracks

• No repairs

• No haze, no stain, no sick glass

• Embossing is bold and clean

• Glass remains bright, clear, and shiny

• Long, arching stripe of crude seed bubbles along the side (see pics).

• Simply a superb example

If you’ve handled Robinson Bros before, you already know: this is about as good as they come.