scarce all original chicago-dug antique nineteenth century colorless glass blobtop bottle manufactured for chicago bottler conrad seipp. the front body features a clean strike in the form of a rounded slug, text embossed within reading "conrad seipp / br'g co. / chicago". on the reverse is embossed, "this bottle / not to / be sold". the tall, slim body tapers into a long, narrow neck and an intact applied blobtop. the base is smooth with a central logo embossed, of an "s" inside a shield -- a maker's mark that is not attributed to a known glass works. crudities are typical of its age and date of manufacture, including bubbles and whittling. the bottle is intact but does exhibit irridization and discoloration from having been buried. the conrad seipp brewing company was one of the massive historic generational businesses in chicago. it was located for most of its early history on johnson avenue, between 26th and 27th. conrad seipp was an immigrant from germany, who started making beer in chicago in 1854, after buying a small brewery from mathias best. by 1856 seipp had six employees, who helped him produce about 1,100 barrels of beer each year. in 1858 frederick lehman joined the company, which became seipp & lehman. by the end of the 1860's when seipp & lehman was one of chicago's leading brewers, about 50 employees made more than 50,000 barrels of beer per year. after lehman died in 1872, seipp organized the conrad seipp brewing co. dominating the chicago beer market by the late 1870's, seipp was among the largest breweries in the united states, producing over 100,000 barrels a year. after seipp died in 1890, the company merged with several smaller chicago breweries. at the turn of the century seipp was still active with annual output reaching 250,000 barrels. the company suffered through prohibition years by producing low-alcohol "near beer" and distributing soda pop. seipp operations ceased in 1933, just before prohibition was lifted. despite the scale of the operations during the late nineteenth century, seipp embossed bottle varieties are scarce. this bottle was likely produced as part of an 1873 advertising effort at the time of the transition to the seipp brewing company. measures 9 1/2 inches.