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A 7 inch tall one-pint cylinder-shaped light SUN COLORED AMETHYST color antique TIN TOP milk bottle. About 99.9 % of the milk bottles you see are machine made bottles with a seam that encircles the top of lip to prove it. This is a super-early super-unique hand Blown Into Mold bottle (BIM) with a tooled top, dating back to the 1800's. It is a "TIN TOP" milk bottle, as these early milk bottles were called as they had a tin cap (top) connected to a wire 'lightning' style clamp that seated the tin cap down into the neck of the bottle to seal it. Again, 99.9 % of the milk bottles that you see are newer post - 1900 machine made bottles. This one clearly precedes all of these and dates back to the 1800's.

Bottle embossed in slug plate: "MATTHEW'S / JERSEY MILK / ALBUQUERQUE, N.M." Lower half of back side is embossed "WASH / AND RETURN".
Base of bottle embossed: "ACME / THE CREAMERY PACKAGE MFG. CO. / CHICAGO".
Condition: Bottle has typical milk bottle 'case wear' from rattling around with others in the back of the old horse drawn milk wagon. Included in this wear are scratches, scuffs, scrapes, tiny nicks and dings, all common and typical of most old milk bottles. There is nothing specifically wrong with it, NO cracks, chips, dings, damage, etc. PLEASE see pictures to get a good idea of bottle's overall appearance and condition.
Age: A TRUE ORIGINAL ANTIQUE hand Blown Into Mold milk bottle (BIM) with a tooled top, ca. late 1800's.
Shipping: FREE domestic shipping. We DO ship Internationally but we do NOT insure International orders unless buyer specifically requests this and we are able to provide an insurance estimate. If an international shipping charge is much more than the actual shipping cost, we will refund the excess so what YOU pay for shipping/insurance is very close to, if not exactly, the ACTUAL shipping costs! This is important for foreign buyers to know as most of our foreign shipping charges are estimates. We do not falsify information on the Customs Form, such as a price other than what the actual purchase price is, so please do not request us to do so. We ship several times a week and your prompt payment will hasten the turn-around time.

Hand blown (BIM) embossed milk bottles from New Mexico are scarce at best, most are rare and very difficult to find. This one is just that , a BIM embossed milk bottle that we have had in our collection for some time. Note that these old hand blown milks all have one thing in common, they are embossed on the back with instructions for recycling. This one is no exception, the back is embossed simply "WASH AND RETURN". A milk bottle collector notified us about the Creamery Package Manufacturing Co. that was out of Chicago (embossed on the base) and provided us with a link to learn about their role in the milk bottle industry. The Creamery Package Mfg. Co was not a milk bottle supplier but functioned more as a mediator between the small dairies and the glass houses. This company approached rural dairies to fill orders for custom made bottles. Once they had several orders they would then approach a large glass house and put in a large order for custom made bottles, from different dairies. That way they could provide custom made bottles for even the small out-of-the-way dairies, at an affordable price, which explains how and why a dairy in Albuquerque was using embossed bottles at this early date. The milk bottles that were in circulation at this time are refered to as 'TIN TOP' bottles, as they had a thin tin cap that was pressed into place and held down by a "lightning" closure, like the wiring that the old glass-top fruit jars used. The glass blower's had to get it right, for the cap to seat or tin - top to sit properly in the groove on the lip to seal the bottle, was most important. This is one of the reasons milk bottles were some of the earliest of the machine made bottles, so that the tops could be machine molded to perfection instead of a glass blower trying his best to form the lip by hand. You will see this base embossing on some of the nation's most desirable antique milk bottles that were ever made, and this is one of the few from the Southwest. I do not know what it is worth. The last one we had like this was from Wyoming and though the local collectors there told me it was worth $15 - $25, it went on to sell for $600, thus the price here, check it out!

Terms of Sale: Our goal is 100% customer satisfaction. We put our 30+ years of experience in antiques to use in describing every item we list. Items are sold in a store front format and your purchase is a binding contract, so please don't be hasty when looking over the listing. We find that communication is the key to successful transactions so PLEASE completely read the item description AND ask questions before purchasing, thank you!

5129-34z

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