Glass From The Past - Harlan, KY

06/07/2026

Chicago Hutchinson bottle!
Henry Weaber

06/07/2026

Very nice hutch bottle from Chicago. In the late 1800’s Henry Weaber was business partners with a man named Darley, bottling different carbonated beverages and mineral waters. Henry Weaber also operated his own bottling company later in the 1800’s around 1890. His plant operated on 685 Fulton Street. This specific bottle was part of the Weaber/Darley partnership and is an earlier example. Beautiful embossing, nice aqua color, and very light wear on this bottle. Not a very rare bottle by any means but still a nice one to have in my eyes nonetheless.

06/03/2026

06/03/2026

The history of the East Tennessee Nova Kola Company of Lenoir City, Tennessee, is somewhat obscure today, but it was part of the wave of regional soft drink bottlers that flourished across East Tennessee during the early 20th century. The company appears to have operated in Lenoir City, Tennessee, likely during the 1910s through the 1930s, when hundreds of independent bottlers produced local cola and fruit-flavored drinks throughout the South. Lenoir City itself was a growing industrial town that developed rapidly after its founding in the 1890s, benefiting from rail connections and expanding manufacturing. Nova Kola” was one of many regional cola brands created during the era when Coca-Cola’s success inspired countless competitors with similar-sounding names. Across the South, consumers could find drinks such as Nova-Kola, Koca-Nola, Afri-Kola, and many others. These brands were usually produced by independent bottlers serving only a limited geographic territory. The East Tennessee Nova Kola Company bottled its own cola beverage and may have also produced flavored sodas. Like many local bottlers, the company likely purchased syrup concentrate and bottled the finished drink under franchise or license arrangements. Small regional bottlers faced increasing competition from national brands such as The Coca-Cola Company and larger regional bottling networks. By the mid-20th century, many independent soda companies had either closed, merged, or switched to bottling nationally distributed beverages.

05/25/2026

Very nice Keen bottling Inc Gay-Ola from Oneida, TN. Very scarce.

05/25/2026

The story of the Keen Gay-Ola bottling operation in Oneida is one of those Appalachian soda tales that feels half business history, half frontier folklore. Gay-Ola itself was born in 1910 as “Glee-Ola,” a cola syrup developed in Birmingham, Alabama by J.C. Wells and associates. The company aggressively expanded across the South through franchised bottlers. The drink quickly became controversial because it looked and tasted suspiciously close to Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola sued Gay-Ola multiple times over trademarks, bottle styling, and marketing tactics. Those legal fights became part of the famous early “Kola Wars.” Despite the lawsuits, Gay-Ola spread rapidly through Tennessee and neighboring states using small independent bottlers in mining towns and railroad communities. The Keen operation appears to have started in the New River and South Pittsburg region before expanding into Oneida. Collector research and bottling references identify the company as the Keen Gay-Ola Bottling Company, operated by the Keen family. One fascinating detail is that the Keens first bottled another rival cola called Koca Nola. According to bottle history sources, the Keen family’s Koca Nola franchise only lasted about six months before they pivoted to Gay-Ola. At the time, Oneida was rapidly growing because of the railroad, coal mining, and timber industries. The town officially incorporated in 1917 and quickly developed paved streets, banks, wholesale businesses, and freight connections. A Gay-Ola bottling plant in Oneida would have supplied surrounding Scott County communities and mining settlements scattered through the Cumberland Plateau like a fizzy spiderweb. The old wild-west soda market of the 1910s slowly consolidated into the giant bottling empires collectors recognize today. Keen bottle is basically a glass time capsule from the era when every railroad town tried to bottle its own cola and challenge Coca-Cola head-on. Tiny local bottlers were fizzing like fireworks across the South before the giants swallowed the map. This very scarce bottle is a very nice addition to the collection, thanks to my buddy Buzz Malone for getting it to me!

05/23/2026

Few patent medicines from the Victorian era became as famous, aggressively advertised, or culturally recognizable as Paine’s Celery Compound. It was part nerve tonic, part “blood purifier,” part alcohol delivery system in a medicine bottle shaped like liquid optimism. By the 1890s, it had become one of the most heavily marketed remedies in America and beyond. The story begins in Windsor, Vermont, with druggist Milton Kendall Paine, usually called M.K. Paine. Born in 1834, Paine apprenticed in a pharmacy as a teenager before opening his own drugstore in 1856. He gained a reputation as an inventive and capable apothecary who constantly experimented with formulas, salves, perfumes, and tonics. According to company histories and later accounts, the original formula for the compound was developed around the 1870s by Dr. Edward E. Phelps, a professor at Dartmouth Medical College. Phelps reportedly created a tonic formula featuring celery seed as a principal ingredient. Paine adopted and marketed the preparation under his own name, and it soon became known as “Paine’s Celery Compound.” first, the medicine was sold regionally through Paine’s Windsor drugstore. Demand grew rapidly during the late 19th century, an era when Americans eagerly consumed patent medicines promising energy, vitality, nerve repair, and cures for vague conditions like “female weakness,” “impure blood,” “brain exhaustion,” and “nervous debility.” The timing was perfect. America was industrializing at full steam. People were exhausted, anxious, overworked, and medically underserved. Paine’s Celery Compound arrived like a bottled lightning storm with a cork. In 1887, M.K. Paine sold the rights to the formula to the Vermont pharmaceutical wholesaler Wells, Richardson & Company. Wells, Richardson & Company had been founded by Civil War veterans including General William Wells of Vermont. Under their control, Paine’s Celery Compound transformed from a successful regional tonic into an international commercial phenomenon. The formula changed somewhat over time, but analyses and company descriptions indicate the medicine contained ingredients such as:

* Celery seed
* Cinchona bark
* Sarsaparilla
* Ginger
* Dandelion
* Senna
* Chamomile
* Various herbal extracts
* Sugar syrup and glycerin
* Alcohol

Most notably: alcohol content often measured between 18% and 21%. That means a large dose of Paine’s Celery Compound could rival fortified wine or strong liquor. Some later analyses and collectors’ sources also claimed traces of coca derivatives may have been present in certain formulas, though the evidence varies and formulations likely evolved over time. The company poured enormous sums into advertising. Their annual advertising budget reportedly exploded from about $4,000 to more than $500,000 within roughly 25 years. One famous 1897 advertisement featured Welsh cycling champion James Michael endorsing the tonic. Celebrity endorsements were already roaring through the advertising world by the late 19th century. Eventually, The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, Changed Everything. Exposing Paines Celery Compound of containing large amounts of alcohol and traces of coca. Although the company itself rebranded and survived by diversifying into other products, Paines Celery Compound ceased to exist.

05/18/2026

A couple of Hutch bottles I’m getting cleaned up and ready to post.
Pittsburgh, South Sharon, and a Chicago bottle.