Vintage History: Wheaton Bottles
I love little objects, which is why you'll find a lot of Wheaton bottles in our altar sets. They make great vessels for moon water, vinegar, oils, or any spells involving liquid.
Though they look like they came from the 19th Century era of patent medicines, the Wheaton bottles found these days were manufactured in the 1970s as part of a commemorative. They're replicas of old nostrum bottles like Dr. Fisch's Bitters, Frank's Safe Kidney & Liver Cure, and Ball & Claw Bitters. My favorite style is commonly referred to as "pear," found in our Swamp Witch Dragonfly Set, Hearth Witch Bungalow Set, Hedge Witch Bee Set, and Green Witch Violet Set. Especially popular are the coffin-shaped poison bottle, found in our Green Witch Poison Set, and skull bottle (unfortunately not yet in our collection).
The firm began in 1888 as T.C. Wheaton & Co., focusing on pharmaceutical, laboratory, and perfumery glass. In 1901, the name changed subtly to T.C. Wheaton Co., and soon a couple executives split off to form the Millville Bottle Co., which Wheaton acquired in 1926. During these early years, the factory had some trouble with major fires, burning in 1889, 1908, 1912, and 1925, but the firm kept growing, expanding into household glass (ie: glass knobs) while still maintaining its hand-blown process. In 1937, the company switched to automation. It split off the Wheaton Glass Co. in 1946 then re-merged in 1970 into Wheaton Industries. The Wheaton family remained in control of the business until 1996, when it sold and once again split into Wheaton Glass Co. and Wheaton Glass Products.
You can see why people simply refer to them as "Wheaton bottles."
Most of the bottles found these days come from the Wheaton Industries commemorative line from the 1970s. These vintage bottles are marked Wheaton N.J. (most of those found in our altar sets fall into this category).
Those bottles manufactured before the commemorative period feature marks such as T.C.W., T.C.W. Co. U.S.A., a W in a circle, a diamond with a number, Wheaton, WI, or Wheaton Glass Co. These antiques are usually worth more than the commemorative bottles.
Any marked with Taiwan are reproductions and not as valuable.
Look for more on the history of items included in our altar sets and spell kits in future blog posts. Are there any items from our collection that you'd like to know more about? Let us know.
