rare 1850's teal-colored ainsworth and lomax glass bottle recently unearthed from chicago privy

an excavation at van buren & morgan yielded an interesting find this week, to add to the store of objects comprising a "city beneath the city." unearthed there was an exceptionally rare bottle, one of only three known examples in this color, and the only one that is intact.

1862

1886

the vibrantly colored early glass soda bottle, dating from 1855-1856, was fabricated for ainsworth & lomax. it dates to the first iteration of business which john a. lomax was involved in. the pontiled teal or deep aqua glass is finished with a long, narrow neck and intact applied blobtop. the front body has a clean strike in the form of embossed text identifying the manufacturer. on the reverse is a mark from where a single letter was likely peened-out. the base has a kickup with little residue from the iron pontil, and appears to have been fabricated in pittsburgh or st. louis.

prior to establishing his own company, john lomax served as an apprentice and junior partner in the soda and mineral water bottling operations of robert ainsworth, and possibly edward k. bebbington. john a. lomax entered the bottling operations in 1858, distributing soda water from 38 w. lake street.

in 1859, the plant was destroyed by fire and operations were moved to a two-story frame building located at 16 charles place. as business grew, john and his son erected a large masonry building in 1871, which was consumed by the great chicago fire the same year. shortly after, lomax rebuilt an even larger four-story facility that was advertised as being the "largest bottling house in the world.” during their peak production years, lomax serviced more than five thousand of the approximately seven thousand saloons across the city of chicago. their bottling works furnished soda-waters, ginger ale, mineral and spring water, ales and other drinks. the company ceased operations in 1885. after 1886 the lomax bottling works became the chicago consolidated bottling company (ccbc) by combining with 15 other bottling plants, most of which john lomax had purchased. the consolidated chicago was badly damaged by a fire in 1891. after presumably recovering, lomax continued as president and chief owner until his death in 1899.

the "a & l" bottle fleshes out a collection of lomax bottles at urban remains that represent the entire span of the multi-generational company's timeline, at nearly every location of production. these include pre-civil war era glass marked by initials "jal" on the body, which indicate lomax was the sole proprietor (as opposed to the previous partnerships with ainsworth and bebbington). pictured in the gallery are a selection of c.1871-1872 bottles in vibrant colors, embossed with address "14 & 16 charles place." the 4-bottle trademark logo was introduced in this era but appears more commonly on c. 1873-1880 bottles (exhibiting the address "14, 16 & 18 charles place"), which also often exhibit distinct brand names embossed on the body. the collection includes various quart, round base, and porter style glass from this period. of note is an olive green blob-top quart that was produced in london -- only one of two known bottles in an american style manufactured by foreign glassworks. during the 1880's, a number of hutchinson-style blobtops were produced, and lastly, the final iteration of the company is marked by embossing "chicago consolidated bottling company."

update: a w.h.h. cobalt blue glass bottle with key hinge mold base dating to 1859-1865 was discovered on 5-3-2016.