Color is very important when classifying bottles. This page provides info and many examples of the different color names used to identify antique bottles.

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Examples

Ingredients

Irradiated

Recolored

Misc

Some of the typical color terms used for identifying bottles are amber (brown), aqua (light blue-green tint), puce (purple), straw (yellow), strawberry puce (amethyst with strong pink tendancies), emerald green, black glass (very, very dark olive green), and more.

Aqua and clear colors were quite common for most bottles (except poisons). Clear is rare for embossed poisons. Amber and black are rare colors for fruit jars. Cobalt blue is rare for flasks.

Color rarity has a tremendous impact on the value of a bottle. While a historical flask may be worth $100 in the common aqua coloration, the exact same bottle but in amber or cobalt blue will be worth several thousand dollars.

Bottle Colors

Aqua Green Cottage Ink	Aqua Blue McDonald Steam System Poison	Ice Blue Scroll Flask with iron pontil
Light Cobalt or Cornflower Blue CARTERs Cathedral Master Ink	Medium Cobalt I. SUTTON CINCINNATI pontilled soda	Deep Cobalt Catherdral Peppersauce
Teal Blue RUMFORD CHEMICAL WORKS	Peacock Blue AYERS HAIR VIGOR	Deep Amethyst ALLENS WORLD HAIR RESTORER
Burgundy Puce Puce Iron Pontilled Whiskey	Pink Puce ARNAS Whiskey	Deep Copper Puce GXIII-19 Flora Temple Flask
Plum Puce Drake's Plantation Bitters	Strawberry Puce	Ruby Red CARTERs Ink Reproduction
Black Glass Squat Cylinder	Medium Green CARTERs Master Ink	Deep Emerald Green Dagger Boat Ink
Lockport Green Gargling Oil	Deep Teal Green HENRY LUBS soda	Emerald Green NTBT Irreg Hex Poison
Citron KYGW Wax Sealer Fruit Jar	Deep Citron Poison Flask
Deep Olive Green Master Ink with Iron Pontil	Olive Amber Snuff pontilled	Yellow Olive Green Demijohn pontilled
Brilliant Yellow Gun Wa's Chinese Remedy	Golden Yellow O.W. Daley / Pharmacist / White River Junction, VT	Yellow Amber NTBT Hex Poison
Honey Amber BFC Demijohn	Medium Amber Pontilled Umbrella Ink	Reddish Amber RADAMS MICROBE KILLER

Color Ingredients

Page 11 of McKearin's American Bottles book describes Dossie's Treatise, which lists some of the ingredients used to produce the different colors found in antique bottles:

1. opaque whiteness: calcined tin (putty), calcined antimony, arsenic, calcined horns or bones and sometimes common salt.
2. red: gold, iron, copper, magnesia or antimony.
3. blue: zaffer (impure oxide of cobalt) and copper.
4. yellow: silver, iron, antimony and magnesia with tartar.
5. greens: copper, Bohemian granite and those that will produce yellow and blue.
6. purple: such as will produce red and blue.
7. orange: antimony, and all those which will produce red and yellow.
8. black: Zaffer, magnesia, copper and iron in various combinations.

Irradiated Bottles

Bottles left in direct sunlight for prolonged periods of time (years and years), will change from to clear to an amethyst tint. This color is called sun-colored amethyst is quite attractive.

Some dealers will irradiate bottles to quicken the process and deepen the color. Clear bottles, especially straight-sided Cokes and Pepsi, will turn a medium to deep purple. This color is not natural and not rare, so buyer beware.

The same process is done to green hobbleskirt Cokes, and the result is an amber hobbleskirt. While attractive and novel, it is also not rare and not natural. So don't be lead on by stories that it is a rare one-of-a-kind prototype bottle.

For additional info on irradiated bottles, see the April 2002 issue of the Raleigh Bottle Club newsletter.

Recolored Bottles

First seen in England some 6 years back in the form of SELTZER BOTTLES, these turned up all over the place and in some parts of the STATES in cobalt blue, yellow, red and other colours. All were originally clear glass.

You can find the one table at large antique fairs like ARDINGLEY and others in England, selling aqua and clearglass old bottles painted or dipped in a variety of colours. These are sold cheaply at up to $5 apiece. They are described rightly as recoloured old bottles. The problem is they fall into the hands of unscrupulous dealers, or even the experienced collector who thinks it's a new colour for that type of bottle.

The modern paints used to recolour baths etc which I believe are used on these coloured bottles have such a hard finish that they are practically scratch proof and one of the only ways to tell if they are painted is the face test. Take any bottle and it will feel cold against your cheek, the painted ones will feel slightly warm. Colours are many shades of blue, greens, yellow , red, deep amethyst/violet. There may well be other colours not listed here.

Advice: only buy from reputable collectors or dealers and do not buy recoloured bottles to start with on EBAY, or sooner or later some poor unsuspecting collector is going to pay out good money for a new colour and eventually find that its a FAKE!

This info provided courtesy of Rob Goodacre.

Emily advised me that the paint on recolored bottles will come off with nail polish removed (a sure way to tell a fake).

Misc Info

1. Fruit Jar Colors

2. See Antique Bitters Bottles for examples of some different colors of bitters bottles.

3. See Glenn Poch's newsletter article on Colors.