Photos by Jeff Tessier

The shovel struck glass for local business owner Sean Burak when he was renovating his Cannon Street storefront in the fall of 2008. Burak, who owns Downtown Bike Hounds, recently replaced a portion of the original hardwood floor (much of which was luckily saved). In the process, he uncovered thirty glass bottles in various sizes, shapes and colours; plain, painted and even some with embossed lettering and logos. The rear third of the bike shop was originally attached to the building abutting its west wall and fronting on James North. At some point in history, this portion was severed from the James Street address and a new storefront was added, facing Cannon. The bottles discovered under the floor of this rear section were likely the lunchtime left-behinds of the construction workers who built the building in the 1890s. Curious about the history of the artifacts, Burak spoke to avid local bottle collector, Alex Turner, who told him some of the bottles he’d uncovered date back to the late 1800’s.

1. Bellboy Beverages were bottled by Hamilton’s own Majestic Beverage Company. This example of a screen-printed “applied colour label” (ACL) bottle probably dates to the late thirties or early forties.

2. Many of the bottles still have their internal metal/rubber stoppers inside. These stoppers gave rise to the name “pop bottle” since they would pop into the bottle when opened by the customer.

3. Bigger than your average beer, this bottle from Toronto’s T. Davies & Co., contained a lager. This bottle is estimated to be from 1890.

4. The tiny bottle from Detroit likely contained ladies perfume, bottled by the Seely Perfume Company in the 1890s.

5. This bottle, from Hamilton’s George Bilton & Co., is a Hutchinson bottle (like the bottles in image #2). Hutchinsons did away with the old cork and wire closure, which was the standard until the 1880’s. The Hutchinson used an internal rubber seal/flange device to seal the bottles with the help of the pressure of the carbonated drinks inside. To open the bottle, the user wold push the stopper in. When the bottles were returned, they would be cleaned and reused, stopper and all.

6. Another Hutchison style bottle which would have originally contained flavoured soda – bottled by L. Sherk of Hamilton.

7. The back of the Bellboy Beverages bottle reads “This beverage is made from the choicest ingredients obtainable, and supplied in a sterilized bottle for your protection and enjoyment. Bottled by Majestic Beverage Co. Hamilton Canada. Contents 6.5 fluid ozs.”

8. This “C.L. Fletcher” bottle has a “blob top.” The long, skinny air bubbles in the neck are evidence the bottle was stretched to create a rounded lip which would have been closed with a cork held in place with twisted wire. It likely came from the Spring Brewery in Sherbrooke, Quebec in the late 1800s.

9. Pilgrim started in Hamilton in 1862 under the name “Pilgrim and Co” by Robert A. Pilgrim, who was located at Cannon Street and East Avenue. After his death in 1882, the company was operated by his four sons under the name “Pilgrim Bros” until 1893, when John H. Cummer joined and the name changed to “Pilgrim Bros. & Co”. Over the years, the business also had locations on Upper Cathcart and Main Street East. The trade mark on this bottle (as in #2) indicates a late 1880s or early 1890s manufacture date.

10. The dark green Geneva gin bottle was so named because (go figure) it contained gin. The reason for its interesting shape however, with its four flat sides, is less obvious. The bottles were shaped like this so they could lay flat in the holds of the ships that brought them from overseas. The shape was acheived by blowing the glass into a wooden mould – in fact the lines of the wood are still visible on the surface of the glass.

11. This blank bottle also has the telltale side seam, so you know it was cast from a mould, and not hand blown. After removal from the mould, the top of this bottle would have been tooled by hand.

12. The pumpkin seed bottle was flat and round – shaped to save buyers the trouble of transferring it to their own flasks. Perfect for the back pocket, this pumpkin seed flask likely contained whiskey, making for an easy a nip of booze on the job.

Originally published in the print edition of H Magazine in November 2008.