Forums » Bottle ID - How old is my bottle, When was my bourbon made

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  April 4, 2019 12:12 PM PDT

   Owens-Illinois Glass

   

  • From 1873 to 1929, the Illinois Glass Company's trademark was an "I" inside a diamond and "I.G. Co." on the bottle bottom. The 1 or 2 digit number to the right of the trademark indicates the year the bottle was made
  • From 1918 to 1929, the Owens Bottle Company's trademark was a circle inside a square . The 1or 2 digit number to the right of the trademark indicates the year the bottle was made.
  • On January 16, 1920 Prohibition started in the United States, and lasted until December 5, 1933.

  The Owens-Illinois Glass Company (known now as "O-I") formed in 1929 when Owens Glass Company merged with Illinois Glass Compan, and quickly became the leading glass manufacturing operation in the bourbon-whiskey market.  Their bottles are recognized  by the trademark impression located on the bottom of the glass bottle.

  Between 1929 and 1954, they used a company specific “diamond IO mark,” trademark that looked like the letter ‘I’ within an oval superimposed on an elongated diamond.  

  

   

  After 1954, they removed the diamond and only used the letter ‘I’ within an upright oval (as seen below) and all associated plant and date codes as before.

  

  Since they included these trademarks on the bottle of glass bottles, we are able to use them in figuring out roughly when our bourbon or whiskey was produced. Here is a stepwise process on how to decipher the code:

  • If you see the trademark with the diamond, your bottle was produced in the 1930s, 1940s, or 1950s.
  • If the bottle says “Duraglass” in raised letters, you can rule out the 1930s because that didn’t come along until 1940.
  • If the diamond isn’t there and you just see the oval and the I, then your bottle was produced after 1954.

  Now that we know the manufacturer and the general time-frame, we can use the raised numbers on the bottom to get the exact year when the glass bottle was manufactured. Here’s how it works for this manufacturer:

  • The number to the right of the trademark is the date code
  • A single digit date code generally means the bottle was produced before 1947
  • A single digit date code with no period “.” indicates a date in the 1930s. For example, “5” is “1935”, “2” is “1932”, etc.
  • A single digit date code followed by a period (“4.”) indicates a date in the 1940s. For example,”5.” is “1945”; “2.” is “1942”, etc.
  • From 1947 forward, all date codes were presented with 2 digits. For example, “53” is “1953”, etc.
  • If the date codes are worn or damaged, you can also guess at the date using the number to the left of the trademark. That is the Plant/Factory code, and the factories had specific years of operation as described further in Table 1.

   

   

  Owens-Illinois Glass Co. plant numbers, corresponding plant locations, and dates of operation of each plant.

   

   The BOURBON EXCHANGE - www.bourbonex.com

  
  This post was edited by admin at April 4, 2019 4:32 PM PDT