remarkable and intact early american privy-dug early 1840's light to medium emerald green pontiled mineral bottle manufactured for philadelphia bottler william heiss jr. the crude, early bottle has significantly worn, just visible side seams, and a very visible circular seam at the neck evidencing manufacture with a 3-piece mold. the soda shaped bottle has a long narrow applied neck finished with an applied collar. the front body is deeply embossed "w.heiss jr / superior/ mineral water" with a line below that has almost completely worn away, but most likely spelled out the place of business "north second st". the base has a deep kick-up with little iron residue, and indentations in the rounded heel. allover pitting, surface wear, and discoloration around the bottom of the collar are typical crudities for the age and date of manufacture. william heiss jr. (b. 1812) worked as a coppersmith on north second street in philadelphia, and later branched out into the bottled mineral water business. he took over his father's business around 1837 or 1838. in a june 4, 1849 advertisement, william jr. claimed to have over 12 years experience in manufacturing mineral water apparatuses. william jr. appears to have been an early competitor of roussel, if not the first. he was one of the most successful bottlers in the area, and was advertising extensively by 1845. he continued to operate the coppersmith business in the later years of the 1840's when a devastating fire burned down much of the area around vine and north second street in july 1850. heiss' business was not spared and the following year the mineral water business was moved to jillian above willow street. strong competition from his old rival roussel, who had sold his perfumery to focus on the mineral water business, and recent upstarts andrew mcfarland, william riddle, george twitchell, and the fire must have taken its toll on william jr. as an ad in the new york tribune from november 1852 sought to sell his entire enterprise. the attempt to sell the bottles was unsuccessful and in the spring of the following year an ad appearing in the sunday dispatch authorized eugene roussel to collect and take possession of all bottles marked with heiss' name. william jr. appears to have withdrawn from the coppersmith business over the next couple years and it was taken over by his brother goddard heiss. william jr. died in may 1858. heiss bottles date from about 1842 and none of his bottles appear to be of dyottville manufacture (who worked for his rival eugene roussel). heiss utilized union glass works for his later manufactured bottles, and the earliest bottles have the appearance of south jersey manufacture.