Hello! I found this bottle unexpectedly in the wild. I honestly thought it was a mass-produced piece of junk at first, because of the color. But, I inspected it more closely, and it has the makings of antique glassware. (Most notably the imperfections, micro bubbles, etc.) I've never seen an antique glass bottle so purple, and a quick image search told me that manganese glass can turn purple when exposed to UV light for a prolonged amount of time. Supposedly this bottle can glow, but I tried my 395 black light on it and I couldn't tell if it had the faintest trace of glow or not. (I'm on vacation and sadly, I didn't bring my 365 light with me; manganese purportedly glows better under 365.)
I would say the biggest reason it is probably late 1800s is the fact that it is manganese glass which stopped being produced in 1915. The top of the bottle is also a cork top vs. A screw top which becomes more common place in the 1920s and later.
As other said, late 1800s to early 1900s, and contains Manganese, which has turned purple.
Unfortunately the hue of purple yours is means it was artificially done via strong UV light; the dark purples can only be achieved through this direct exposure. Natural purpling from the sun is a much more light shade.
I was just reading up further on manganese purpling and suspected this might be the case with this one. 🥲 I'll still cherish it. If it has that green flash at all, it'll go in my glowing glass cabinet.
Certainly! While artificial purpling is looked down on by some collectors, it can make it slightly more affordable for people to get purple bottles. Natural ones are somewhat rare given it takes years of exposure to the sun for any sort of noticeable shading to occur, and can demand a premium.
Me too. 😍💜 The glare in the picture really detracts from the vibrancy of the color in real life. This thing is PURPLE. I saw it in an antique shop and was like "nah, ain't no way—" And the fact that my favorite animal is embossed on it makes the find so much better!
It’s purple because of sun exposure on the manganese glass. Manganese glass is easily dated as pre WW1 even when just a shard on a beach, because the factory which exported much of it was bombed.
It came from the Gillett-Sherer company in Chicago. I'm pretty sure that this was a flavoring extract (that's was the bottom lettering spells) bottle, and in its heyday, there was a paper sticker/label adhered to the flat side opposite of the owl insignia. What specific extract remains a mystery.
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u/Itchy-Carpenter-9542 Jan 22 '26
Mid 1800s - 1920s
Edit: late 1800s