RARE - antique MICHIGAN N DAKOTA bottle SODA water PURPLE bottle HEALTHFUL!

Description: An 8 1/4" tall deep PURPLE AMETHYST colored round-cylinder-shaped antique SPRING WATER bottle from MICHIGAN NORTH DAKOTA. This bottle has great EMBOSSING on the front of it and THIS IS the RARE variant with the embossing is in the SLUG PLATE, the first style of this bottle blown. This is an ORIGINAL ANTIQUE hand Blown Into Mold bottle (BIM) with a tooled top, dating it all the way back to the late 1800 - early 1900's era! Bottle embossed: "BOTTLED AT SPRINGS / HEALTHFUL - SPARKLING - PALATABLE / GSW (monogram) / MICHIGAN, N.D." Then, the base of the bottle has a large embossed capital "G". Condition: Bottle is in GOOD STURDY condition. It has typical soda bottle type wear, case wear, age wear, but there's nothing specifically wrong with it. NO cracks, chips, dings, damage, etc. PLEASE see pictures to get overall idea of appearance. Age: An ORIGINAL ANTIQUE hand-blown bottle (Blown-In-Mold = BIM) with a tooled-top, ca. late - 1800 - early 1900's.. Shipping: FREE DOMESTIC shipping. We DO ship Internationally but we do NOT insure International orders unless winning buyer specifically requests this and we are able to provide an insurance quote. We do not falsify information on the Customs Form, such as a price other than what the actual purchase price is, so please do not request us to do so. We ship several times a week and send payment acknowledgments and shipping confirmations. Your prompt payment will assure a very quick turn-around time. IMPORTANT NOTE: If our shipping charge is much more than the actual shipping cost, we will refund the excess so what YOU pay for shipping/insurance is very close to, if not exactly, the ACTUAL shipping costs! This is especially important for foreign buyers to know as most of our foreign shipping charges are rough estimates. This is a strange, but wonderful bottle. Strange in the fact that there is an embossed bottle from such a dinky little town as Michigan North Dakota, and besides this bottle, I don't think there is any old bottles from Michigan North Dakota. Even this bottle was part of a one-time single find, from what we can tell. A cache of these bottles showed up near Livingston, Montana, back in the 1980's and before these or since, they are the only ones that seem to exist. The monogram "SW" after the letter "G" would indicate Spring Water or a Soda Works operation and the "G" would be the name of the company, probably the first letter of the last name of the proprietor, or the place where the water came from. Likewise the "G" is embossed on the base. And note too that the spring water was marketed as HEALTHFUL, not to mention palatable and sparkling? During the last half of the 1800's it seems that all of the bottled 'water' was marketed as healthful, starting with the Saratoga waters from the age-old springs in Saratoga and even continuing into the soda pop world, where Root Beer was advertised as a healthful tonic and even Coca Cola, with the cocaine ingredient, was advertising as a healthful and vigorous pep drink. By early 1900 the Pure Food and Drug Administration was shutting down bottling companies from using such suggestions in their advertising and their bottled 'spring' waters could no longer be referred to as Healthful and Curative ... but refreshing and delicious. Anyway, from the amount of these bottles known of in collections today, it would be safe to say that after one run of these bottles were made, the "GSW" company was down the road, never to be heard of again, and that was about it for this bottle. But then we heard from another bottle collector and he had some input on these bottles. Here's what he said: "I've spent three years trying to figure out this company. Even when it was around, the town was tiny. The style of the bottle (early BIM crown-top soda) suggests pre-1910 but post-1900 manufacture. This is the fifth one I've seen and two variants (1)embossed in round slug plate, 2)embossing in NO slug plate). I can only guess that a grouping of these were recovered in the mid 1960s, sold, and only occasional individuals surface. We used to also think it rare, but empirical evidence suggests multiple molds were made albeit the bottler must have been tiny ... but to date, very few of the bottles have shown up so even at that, it is very rare. The 'city' of Michigan, N.D., had hopes of a promising railroad-town future, with a 45% growth from 1900 to 1910-- the period of the bottles-- and had amassed about 500 people. All those bottles I've seen show signs of being dug but exhibit very little to no case-wear. The "G" on the base possibly stood for for Gordon springs, a well known spring that was near Michigan, North Dakota. This would mean that the GSW embossed represented Gordon Spring Water, no Gordon Soda Works. It is probable that the company went under as the population growth slowed in the 1910s, or the spring became poisoned, or because water was not as popular as it once was. The town had stores and businesses, a Church and entertainment, and a popular lake. They had clubs and organizations and a lot of interest in making the unlikely town work. It all burned down in 1906 but was quickly rebuilt. Sadly, the Depression really killed the town. The town had already slowed and realized it would be only a town, never a city, so it was just another blow to its pride. Then farms were eaten by a plague of insects, damaging its economy further. The war came and took away all its strong men. A massive snow storm did a lot of damage at the end of the war. The fifties and sixties saw it revive, and they built a shopping mall. But by the 1980s, it was all falling apart again. They now no longer have a school for the few kids that live there, as it's mostly older adults. The town that desired to be a city, no longer has any real hope of a future." And then there is the purple color ... you hear about old glass turning purple in the sunlight ...the purple color is the result of having manganese in the glass. Manganese is a mineral, a rock, that was mined, crushed, and pulverized into a powder, then added to vats of molten liquid glass, and acted as a decolorizing agent to turn the natural aqua-tinted glass into a pure crystal clear colorless glass. Then it was blown into a mold to create a bottle, jar, or other object. But when exposed to the ultraviolet rays of the sun or other sources of UV rays, it triggers a chemical reaction and the manganese starts to oxidize and slowly turns a lavender or amethyst color. The end result is what collectors refer to as SCA (Sun Colored Amethyst) glass. The longer it is in the sun the purpler it becomes. This bottle was passed through some concentrated UV rays. which has the same affect as the sun, but a lot faster. It has not been colored, stained, or altered. No matter how a bottle or jar has turned purple (direct sunlight or UV rays in controlled environment) they all turn the same purple color as it is the same chemical reaction taking place. The only difference is the time it took to turn purple. What is important is that a bottle or jar has to be old enough to turn purple as with few exceptions, only clear glass from before 1915 has manganese in it and will turn SCA. Then, with the beginning of WWI, manganese was no longer available as foreign imports deceased and domestic resources turned towards the war effort. Selenium sulphate then replaced manganese as a glass de-colorizer and when exposed to UV rays, it turns a yellow / straw color, and a dark burnt amber color. Not only does this deep purple/amethyst color make this a great looking antique bottle, but it also authenticates it as being truly antique. This is the last one we have and unique among these as the embossing is in a slug plate. This may be the last PURPLE ONE you will see for quite some time, check it out!Terms of Sale: Our goal is 100% customer satisfaction. We put our 30+ years of experience in antiques to use in describing every item we list. Items are sold in a store front format and your purchase is a binding contract, so please don't be hasty when looking over the listing. We find that communication is the key to successful transactions so PLEASE completely read the item description AND ask questions before purchasing, thank you!ALABAMA ALASKA ARIZONA ARKANSAS CALIFORNIA COLORADO CONNECTICUT DELAWARE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA FLORIDA GEORGIA HAWAII IDAHO ILLINOIS INDIANA IOWA KANSAS KENTUCKY LOUISIANA MAINE MARYLAND MASSACHUSETTS MICHIGAN MINNESOTA MISSISSIPPI MISSOURI MONTANA NEBRASKA NEVADA NEW HAMPSHIRE NEW JERSEY NEW MEXICO NEW YORK NORTH CAROLINA NORTH DAKOTA OHIO OKLAHOMA OREGON PENNSYLVANIA RHODE ISLAND SOUTH CAROLINA SOUTH DAKOTA TENNESSEE TEXAS UTAH VERMONT VIRGINIA WASHINGTON WEST VIRGINIA WISCONSIN WYOMING.4126-28x, 6269-71x, 4096-98x

Price: 149.99 USD

Location: Clancy, Montana

End Time: 2025-01-19T02:01:01.000Z

Shipping Cost: 12.01 USD