Keystone Bottling Company – Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Quart-size, hand-blown, tooled blob-top soda bottle
Striking amethyst (“sun-purple”) glass with a bold eagle-on-keystone emblem
This bottle hits multiple collector sweet spots at once:
Large quart size (harder to find than pints)
Amethyst glass (UV-reactive manganese glass, pre-WWI)
Bold embossing with strong regional identity
Patriotic Keystone + Eagle motif
Early hand-blown construction
Scarcer Pennsylvania coal-region bottler
Dating
Everything about this bottle lines up beautifully:
Manufacturing clues
Hand-blown body with natural waviness and stretch marks
Tooled blob lip (not applied, not machine-finished)
Heavy glass, especially at the base
Manganese glass that has turned amethyst from sun exposure
These features firmly place it in the circa 1895–1915 window, with ~1900–1910 being the sweet spot.
Once automatic bottle machines took over after 1915, bottles like this disappeared fast.
The base mark: “C.G. CO.”
This mark is attributed to Cunningham Glass Co., one of the major bottle manufacturers supplying soda bottlers in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic around the turn of the century.
Cunningham glass is well-known for soda and beer bottles, and their output frequently shows up on higher-quality, thick-walled examples like this one.
In short:
This bottle was not made cheaply, casually, or late.
The Keystone Bottling Company – Wilkes-Barre, PA
Wilkes-Barre around 1900 was booming:
Local bottlers like Keystone supplied:
Carbonated mineral water
Ginger ale
Birch beer
Lemon soda
The keystone symbol isn’t decorative fluff—it’s a statement of Pennsylvania pride, reinforced by the eagle, which gives this bottle a bold, almost governmental authority.
It’s basically saying:
“This soda is official. Probably safer than the mine water. Definitely fizzy.”
Color: why this amethyst is special
Originally clear, this bottle turned purple due to manganese dioxide used as a glass clarifier. Decades of sunlight transformed it into this rich amethyst tone.
Collectors prize:
Even coloration (which yours has)
Depth of purple (excellent here)
Large formats that survived intact (rare)
A quart this tall—11¾ inches—in amethyst is significantly scarcer than pints.
Condition
Tiny open air bubble on the lower neck (see pic) - this in all likelihood was put on the retail shelf like this originally.
Small scuff patch to the upper left of of the slug plate (see pics).
No chips
No cracks
Only light surface wear
Clean interior
Strong embossing with crisp definition
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