Bottle Typing/Diagnostic Shapes

1906 Illinois Glass Co. Bottle Catalog
HOME: Bottle Typing/Diagnostic Shapes: 1906 I.G.Co. Bottle Catalog

One of the best sources for determining bottle types based on the shape are old glass/bottle makers catalogs.  An assortment of catalogs have been used in the preparation of this website to assist with bottle dating, and in particular, bottle typing - i.e., what a bottle likely contained or was used for.  A very few bottle makers catalog were reproduced in the 1960s and 1970s, but all are long out of print and variably difficult to obtain.  However, there is no better source for determining potential use and period shape names than these old catalogs. 

Because of this utility I have reproduced the entire 1906 Illinois Glass Company (IGCo.) catalog on this website; a catalog never reproduced to the authors knowledge.  The IGCo. was one of the largest producers of bottles during the late 19th and early 20th centuries (and still is in its current manifestation as the Owens-Illinois, Inc.©)  having almost certainly the most comprehensive array of offerings of any bottle maker at the time within all important bottle type categories.  Given this dominance, the bottle styles listed in their catalogs - and to a large degree the style names used - are typical of the offerings of most bottle makers of that time making the IGCo. catalogs one of the more important catalogs of the era to researchers.

The first decade of the 1900s was a pivotal time in glassmaking history as the first serious assaults on mouth-blown manufacturing methods were just beginning to be made by machines.  By 1906, there were some semi-automatic machines beginning to produce wide-mouth jars and bottles in quantity.  Pages 278-287 of the 1906 IGCo. catalog lists an assortment of wide mouth "Machine Made Bottles" that the IGCo. was producing; items which were not listed in the previous (1903-1904) catalog.  These "Machine Made Bottles" were almost certainly made by semi-automatic press-and-blow machines where the glass had to be hand fed into the machine since the IGCo. was not licensed to use the Owens Automatic Bottle Machines - the first fully automatic bottle machines - until 1911 (Miller & McNichol 2002).  Given this fact, it is certain that all of the bottles in this catalog were mouth-blown with the exception of noted wide mouth items listed at the end of the catalog which would exhibit machine-made characteristics (see the Machine-made Bottles dating page for more information) .

For a complete history of the Illinois Glass Company consult the following reference; a pdf copy of this article is included on this website:

Lockhart, Bill, Pete Schulz, Beau Schriever, Bill Lindsey, and Carol Serr with contributions from Russ Hoenig and David Whitten.  2016p.  Illinois Glass Company.  Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website, E-published August 2016.  Article on probably the largest bottle maker during the last third of the 19th through the first quarter of the 20th century.  This updated article is available at this link: http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/IGCo.pdf    This article is part of the Encyclopedia of Manufacturers Marks on Glass Containers.  This article also has an appendix of soda bottle mold/catalog codes used from 1896 to 1920.  It is available at this link: Appendix A - Illinois Glass Co. Catalog Codes (Mold Numbers) for Soda Bottles 1896-1920.

All of the individual pages in the 1906 IGCo. catalog are hyperlinked in the boxes below in the order they appear in the catalog, reading from left to right and down the page. 

Click on the thumbnail pictures to view a reasonably good quality enlargement of each two page scan (jpeg files).  The subject matter of the pages is briefly noted as are the actual page numbers from the catalog.

If a user wishes to search for a particular bottle type  (or other catalog listing) in the catalogs "General Classified Index," these pages are linked immediately below.  Determine the page number of the item you are interested in then find that page link further down this page and click on it.  Just be aware that some of the proprietary names that the company (and all bottle making companies) used are not always intuitively clear as to what type of bottle it is referring to:

After viewing an enlarged scan, use the back arrow on your browser to return to this page.  Unfortunately, a user can not move from one page scan to the next without returning to this page.

Title pages - pages 0-1	Introduction information - pages 2-3	Index - pages 4-5	Index - pages 6-7
Index - pages 8-9	Index & liquor mold numbers - pages 10-11	Liquor mold numbers - pages 12-13	Discount tables - pages 14-15
Discount tables - pages 16-17	Discount tables - pages 18-19	Molds and Finishes - pages 20-21	Druggist - pages 22-23
Druggist - pages 24-25	Druggist  - pages 26-27	Druggist - pages 28-29	Druggist - pages 30-31
Extracts & Misc. - pages 32-33	Ginger, Bromo, Packing - pages 34-35	Embalming & Pomades - pages 36-37	Pomades & Tooth Powders - pages 38-39
Nursing & Talcum - pages 40-41	Pill & Paneled  - pages 42-43	Extracts & Panels - pages 44-45	Extracts & Castor Oil - pages 46-47
Extract & Toilet - pages 48-49	Oil & Paneled - pages 50-51	Citrate, Hand Grenade, Misc. - pages 52-53	Ink - pages 54-55
Candy & Cigar jars - pages 56-57	Candy jars - pages 58-59	Stoppered Inks, Perfume & Misc. - pages 60-61	Stoppered Extracts & Misc. - pages 62-63
Stoppered Colognes & Toilets - pages 64-65	Colognes & Extracts - pages 66-67	Toilet & Fish Globes - pages 68-69	Fish Globes & Fountain Syrup - pages 70-71
Battery Jars - pages 72-73	Ointment & Patch Boxes - pages 74-75	Dose Glasses & Druggists sundries - pages 76-77	Druggist Sundries & Labels - pages 78-79
Labels for shop furniture - pages 80-81	Shop Furniture - pages 82-83	Shop Furniture - pages 84-85	Test Tubes & Misc. - pages 86-87
Tube Vials - pages 88-89	Syringes & Vials - pages 90-91	Acid Bottles & Misc. - pages 92-93	Round Packing & Prescription - pages 94-95
Round & Oval Extracts - pages 96-97	Paneled Medicines - pages 98-99	Paneled Medicines - pages 100-101	Florida Water, Castor oil & Misc. - pages 102-103
Inks & Shoe Polish - pages 104-105	Citrate, Toilet & Snuff - pages 106-107	Water Cooler & mailing cases - pages 108-109	Carboys & cases - pages 110-111
Carboys & cases - pages 112-113	Carboys & cases - pages 114-115	Oil Can - pages 116-117	Bar Bottles & Liquor Cylinders - pages 118-119
Cylinder & Square Liquor - pages 120-121	Cylinder Liquor - pages 122-123	Cylinder & Square Liquor - pages 124-125	Cylinder & Square Liquor - pages 126-127
Cylinder & Decanter Liquor - pages 128-129	Cylinder & Square Liquor - pages 130-131	Cylinder & Square Liquor - pages 132-133	Cylinder & Square Liquor - pages 134-135
Liquor & Wine - pages 136-137	Liquor & Wine - pages 138-139	Gin & Wine - pages 140-141	Liquor & Wine - pages 142-143
Liquor & Wine - pages 144-145	Liquor & Wine - pages 146-147	Cylinder & Square Liquor - pages 148-149	Schnapps, Bitters, Tonics - pages 150-151
Liquor & Bitters - pages 152-153	Bitters - pages 154-155	Liquor Flasks - pages 156-157	Liquor Flasks - pages 158-159
Liquor Flasks - pages 160-161	Liquor Flasks - pages 162-163	Liquor Flasks - pages 164-165	Misc. & Wickered Liquor - pages 166-167
Wickered  Liquor - pages 168-169	Wickered & Liquor Flasks - pages 170-171	Liquor Flasks - pages 172-173	Liquor Flasks - pages 174-175
Misc. Liquor - pages 176-177	Packing Cases - pages 178-179	Packing Cases - pages 180-181	Packing materials - pages 182-183
Packing materials - pages 184-185	Pickle & Preserve Ware - pages 186-187	Pickle & Preserve Ware - pages 188-189	Pickle & Horse Radish - pages 190-191
Pickle  & Horse Radish - pages 192-193	Olive Bottles - pages 194-195	Olive Bottles - pages 196-197	Olive Bottles - pages 198-199
Catsups, Grape Juice & Sauces - pages 200-201	Catsups & Sauces - pages 202-203	Catsups, Club & Pepper Sauce - pages 204-205	Olive Oil & Mustard - Pages 206-207
Mustards - pages 208-209	Mustard & Mugs - pages 210-211	Honey, Capers & Jelly - Pages 212-213	Preserve Jars - pages 214-215
Preserve Jars - pages 216-217	Preserve & Display Jars - pages 218-219	Preserve Jars - pages 220-221	Preserve & Fruit Jars - pages 222-223
Milk & Beef Extract - pages 224-225	Beef Extract, Tabasco & Salad Dressing - pages 226-227	Salad Dressing & Salt - pages 228-229	Spice - pages 230-231
Condiment jars & Siphons - pages 232-233	Siphon Heads - 234-235	Siphon Parts & Sodas - pages 236-237	Sodas - pages 238-239
Sodas - pages 240-241	Sodas - pages 242-243	Sodas - pages 244-245	Sodas - pages 246-247
Sodas & Ginger Ale - pages 248-249	Export Beers & Apollinaris - pages 250-251	Champagne Beers - pages 252-253	Champagne Beers & Misc. - pages 254-255
Cham-pagne Beers - pages 256-257	Weiss Beers & Malt Ext. - pages 258-259	Packers, Spring Water & Porter - pages 260-261	Beer & Soda Closures, Boxes - pages 262-263
Boxes - pages 264-265	Boxes - pages 266-267	Boxes - pages 268-269	Box Access. - pages 270-271
Box Access. - pages 272-273	Paperweights & Misc. - pages 274-275	Graduated & Milk Testing Equip. - pages 276-277	Machine Made Items - pages 278-279
Machine Made Items - pages 280-281	Machine Made Items - pages 282-283	Machine Made Items - pages 284-285	Machine Made Items - pages 286-287

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1/1/2024

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Bill Lindsey
Bureau of Land Management (retired) - Klamath Falls, Oregon
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