c. 1870'w antique american chicago privy-dug deep blue aqua squat soda bottle manufactured for chicago bottler gottlieb wurster. the thick glass bottle has an unusually wide neck with a crude applied oval-blob top. the body features a clean strike in the form of a simple but well-embossed "g. wurster". the base is flat with the initials "g.w." centrally stamped (or debossed), and key hinge mold seams visibly running through the center. crudities typical of age and date of manufacture include allover seeding and some discoloration. gottlieb wurster was first listed in the chicago city directories in 1868 as a grocer operating at 550 n. clark. in 1869 and 1870, he was listed as a bottler of mineral water at 730 n. wells and then as a "mineral water dealer" at 55 sigel. in the early 1870s, wurster bottled soda water in partnership with john huttenlocher as "wurster & huttenlocher" before becoming senior partner and changing the name to "gottlieb wurster & co". from 1874 onward, wurster bottled alone at the same address until the business closed in 1882. in the 1877 city directory only, george and frederick wurster were listed as operating the bottling works and gottlieb was not mentioned. the wurster company is listed in the 1880 census as having produced an annual value of bottled products estimated at $12,000. toward the end of the 1870s he switched over to using the new-style hutchinson internal stopper bottles, four embossed styles of which are known.