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Offered here is a wonderful antique Emerson & Co. Bottlers bottle from Rochester, New Hampshire, dating to approximately circa 1895–1902. Standing an impressive 9 1/2 inches tall, this is a beautifully proportioned clear-glass bottle with a heavy rounded blob top and exceptionally attractive cursive-script embossing.
The front is boldly embossed:
REGISTERED
Emerson & Co
Bottlers
Rochester
N.H.
The sweeping script is unusually decorative for a regional beverage bottle—the sort of lettering that practically glows when displayed in a sunny window.
The Company
Eugene W. Emerson began in the drug trade, taking control of an established Rochester pharmacy in 1889. By the early 1890s, Emerson & Co. was also distributing bottled beverages. Period documentation places crates from the company in commercial circulation around 1891, and Emerson & Co. was among Rochester’s relatively small number of telephone subscribers in 1895.
By 1902, Eugene W. Emerson was listed specifically as a bottler at 25 Summer Street, Rochester. A 1904 New Hampshire report identified the firm as bottlers of beer and mineral waters. In April 1904, the trade publication American Bottler announced that Emerson & Co. had sold the bottling business to the Cocheco Bottling Company—giving surviving Emerson bottles a relatively limited production window.
Bottle Details
- Approximately 9 1/2 inches tall
- Clear glass
- Heavy rounded blob top
- Large recessed front slug plate
- Elaborate cursive-script lettering
- Strong, highly legible embossing
- “REGISTERED” embossed above the slug plate
- Embossed “2” on the underside of the base
- Late-19th-century molded construction
The bottom “2” is most likely a mold or shop identification number used during production—not a date.
Condition
Excellent, bright condition for an approximately 125-year-old returnable beverage bottle. The glass is bright, clean, and shiny, with no chips, no cracks, and no haze. There are two small patches of genuine period case-wear scuffing immediately above and to the upper-left of the slug plate, along with a few minor traces of normal bottle-use wear (see finger point pics). The embossing remains remarkably strong and crisp.
Because these were working returnable bottles, they were routinely transported in wooden cases, collected, washed, and refilled. Finding one this clean—with brilliant glass and such forceful script embossing—is especially desirable.
Historical Appeal
At the turn of the twentieth century, Rochester was a busy New England manufacturing community. Bottled beer, mineral water, ginger ale, root beer, and other carbonated beverages were delivered locally in reusable embossed bottles bearing the bottler’s name. The “REGISTERED” marking asserted Emerson & Co.’s ownership of the container and warned competing bottlers against appropriating it.
This example survives as both an attractive early beverage bottle and a tangible artifact from Rochester’s local commercial history
