Kelpdog
Well-Known Member
Clearing to expand our garden we found an interesting old bottle with "Federal Law Prevents Sale or Re-Use of This Bottle" stamped on it. It is 4/5's of a quart and has a rose design on the upper part of the bottle.
Does anyone know the history of the label preventing sale or reuse? Was this printed on alcohol bottles in the past or could this have been used for some garden product like fertilizer?
Okay, took the time to do a search and came up with this:
"In January of 1935,- federal legislation took effect prohibiting the resale or use of used liquor bottles and required that the following statement be embossed on them: FEDERAL LAW FORBIDS SALE OR RE-USE OF THIS BOTTLE (Busch 1987); see the picture to the above right. (It should be noted that implementation of this requirement began in late 1934, so some bottles made that year will have the noted embossing.) This regulation was repealed in 1964 giving an effective dating tool of 1935 to the mid 1960s for this diagnostic feature (Munsey 1970). Be aware however that for some years after 1964 liquor could still be found in bottles with this embossing since not all liquor producers switched immediately to new bottles due to the expense of new molds or to deplete an existing supply of bottles (Ferraro 1966). Bottles known to date as late as 1974 still had that inscription on them; click 1970s liquor bottle to see an example which is also covered later on this page." http://www.sha.org/bottle/liquor.htm
Our little driftwood cabin was built in 1974 so this might be a possibility....looking up more info. Anyone every clean, sanitize, and reuse an old found bottle like this?
Does anyone know the history of the label preventing sale or reuse? Was this printed on alcohol bottles in the past or could this have been used for some garden product like fertilizer?
Okay, took the time to do a search and came up with this:
"In January of 1935,- federal legislation took effect prohibiting the resale or use of used liquor bottles and required that the following statement be embossed on them: FEDERAL LAW FORBIDS SALE OR RE-USE OF THIS BOTTLE (Busch 1987); see the picture to the above right. (It should be noted that implementation of this requirement began in late 1934, so some bottles made that year will have the noted embossing.) This regulation was repealed in 1964 giving an effective dating tool of 1935 to the mid 1960s for this diagnostic feature (Munsey 1970). Be aware however that for some years after 1964 liquor could still be found in bottles with this embossing since not all liquor producers switched immediately to new bottles due to the expense of new molds or to deplete an existing supply of bottles (Ferraro 1966). Bottles known to date as late as 1974 still had that inscription on them; click 1970s liquor bottle to see an example which is also covered later on this page." http://www.sha.org/bottle/liquor.htm
Our little driftwood cabin was built in 1974 so this might be a possibility....looking up more info. Anyone every clean, sanitize, and reuse an old found bottle like this?