I was happy to improve my run of Jacob Wirth bottles. As one of the most successful bottlers in the
state, his newer blobs and crown tops are easily acquired. I had eight different bottles from Mr. Wirth
until this purchase, when I acquired two of his earliest Providence bottles. Jacob
Wirth started in Boston around 1868, and
opened a new branch in Providence in
1880. The first bottle, a crude applied
lip aqua blob dates from 1880-1885, and the second example, the earliest
example of his signature diamond design likely dates from 1885-1890. Roger Heatley is the expert on Jacob Wirth
bottles, and more info can be found at his excellent website here:
Among Al’s unlisted bottles were a few examples I would
refer to as “specimen” bottles. They are
badly damaged which means they have little or no value, but they have a lot of
historic value since they are rare and unlisted. One of these was a H. Gorman & Co. Providence, RI midsize blob. This intermediate size (8”) between a squat
soda and tall blob was a transitional bottle, and dates to ca. 1870-1885. There is a tall blob Gorman listed, but not
this small size!
Probably the biggest heartbreaker was a beautiful amber Chas. F. Young 38 S-Main St. Providence, RI
amber blob. He made the only amber
colored squat blob from RI, which is quite rare. An example like this is exciting because it
shows he was in business until the era of the "tall blobs", and the embossing is
nearly identical to what is found on the squat blob.
Another uncommon bottle was a quart-sized blob top from the German Seltzer Co. 7 Ticknor Ave.
Providence, RI. Quart blobs are
considerably less common than you average 10-12oz. blobs. This example has 27 Oz. embossed in the
slugplate, making it unlisted.
Another nice smaller-town blob was a Sanitary Bottling Co. Webster Ave. Arlington, RI. Arlington (now
Silver Lake)
was a town in Cranston, and amusingly enough the
porcelain stopper on this bottle is marked Cranston.
This bottle is only listed as a crown top, so this blob is new!
