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discarded "w.h.h." soda bottle unearthed after 155 years reawakens a mostly dormant interest in old bottles

since the day i discovered a light blue cobalt glass william h. hutchinson soda or mineral water bottle resting on a thick privy wood floor discovered behind the john kent russell house, i've been buying each and every virtually identical " w.h.h."cobalt bottle as if i'm trying to desperately recapture that initial euphoric experience over and over again (despite the fact that i was kneeling deep within a "privy vault" or oversized hole designed for human and horse fecal matter, coupled with a mixture of household trash).

that and perhaps this fantastically cool image of a massive wall of these wonderfully displayed and backlit cobalt blue bottles burned into my brain. imagining the seemingly endless shades and/or intensity of blue-colored glass, coupled with distinctive and desirable crudities unique to each hand blown bottle, only intensifies my obsession over this unique bottle that can be admired alone or preferentially, with hundreds gathered together.

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the pony style high and low-shouldered hinged mold bottles were fabricated by william h. hutchinson sometime in the mid-1850's and lasted well into the 1860's, if not the early 1870's. every bottle contains lightly embossed lettering (the initials of the bottler), along with the city located below.

the earliest w.h.h. dark cobalt blue bottles (i.e., 1855-58) tend to have a lower shoulder and/or longer neck, along with a deep kick-up with an iron-pontiled base and distinctive block lettering that (as shown in the image below).

by 1860 the pontiled variation was replaced by the smooth base bottles with variations containing multiple embossed markings, in the form of the letter "h" for hutchinson, stars, dots, dashes, numbers and the distinctive outline from the key and/or hinge molds used to fabricate the bottles. in addition, most bottles dating to the 1860's contain the bottle fabricator (i.e., wm. m. mcully) along the heel of the bottle's backside, opposite of the larger lettering (mccully glassworks was located in pittsburgh, pa).

interestingly, only two distinctive variations in overall body morphology were ever produced for this particular bottled product (strictly between the 1850's-1870's). the other version contained a "mug" style base, where the lower body and heel contains faceted panels encircling the bottle. this style was likely produced during the last years this product was bottled. furthermore, the widespread use of cobalt blue in the earlier, "pony" style bottles fell out of favor since most of the "attic" or "dug" mug base w.h.h. bottles are much lighter (e.g., aqua blue).

every time i acquire another w.h.h. cobalt bottle, i compare them closely with the existing ones in my collection. at this point, and aside from gathering as many as i can to create my wall of bottles as imagined in my head, i like to tease out any and all the subtle disparities, such as the shape of the applied blob top, the placement of the letters and even the style of the lettering.

for example, just the other day, i discovered that the smooth base "pony" style bottles with a visible key hinge mold marking contain a much more condensed "w" then all the others. clearly, this "run" of bottles with the condensed "w" provide insight into the use of molds and even perhaps their lifespan before being replaced.

i just recently learned that this condensed or the use of two overlapping "v" letters to form the "w" were produced in the 1870's. i can prattle on about of these morphological characteristics, but at this point, i've likely lost the attention of most of my readers who don't hold much interest in old bottles. i don't blame them.

despite my rapidly growing collection of other w.h.h. style bottles (see featured image) and other types of soda bottles, espeically my most recent infatuation with very early "philly greens" and any and all iron-pontiled sodas i've amassed from several cities across the county, i will continue purchasing the cobalt w.h.h. bottle time and again, in the hopes that i will someday have that towering wall of hundreds of backlit w.h.h. cobalt sodas, which all began when i discovered just a single one tossed into a "privy vault" constructed shortly after the john kent russell was built, likely by mr. russell himself, who was a highly skilled carpenter and owner of his own sawmill, known as russell & company. that special bottle and the section of tongue and groove poplar wood floor (where it was discovered) will have their own special place for display.

several embossed cobalt and teal-colored iron and smooth-based "whh" embossed william h. hutchinson bottles from my collection (dating from the early 1850's to the 1870's are displayed below. no two are alike, or rather, identical. 



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