2012.007

Lukacs, Claire

Gift

Museum Collections. Gift of a Friend of the Museum.

1910 - 1920

Date: 1910-1920

Good

Notes: Information regarding the bottle maker as found 2012 at: http://dairyantiques.com/Milk_Bottle_Makers.html J. T. & A. Hamilton Company This glass company was started in 1879 by Albert Hamilton and his brother James T. Hamilton. Albert had worked for W. H. Hamilton & Company prior to that. The original glass plant was located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and later factories were added at Butler and Blairsville, Pennsylvania. They manufactured some amber milk bottles as well as flint glass milk bottles. Thatcher Manufacturing Company purchased the milk bottle portion of their business in 1919. J. T. & A. Hamilton Company resumed manufacturing milk bottles again some time after the sale because in 1937 the company was again listed as a milk bottle manufacturer and in 1938 the company was assigned a design patent for a milk bottle. We have yet to see a milk bottle that has the features of this patent however. The remainder of the company was purchased by the Knox Glass Bottle Company in 1943 and the name was changed to the Seaboard Glass Bottle Company. The mark they used was J.T. & A.H. Co. or J.T. & A.H. The J.T. & A.H. mark is often followed by the number 14. That was the number the company registered in New Jersey and New York. J. T. & A. Hamilton Company also registered a mark of an H in a triangle in 1915. In the trademark papers they claimed continuous use of that mark, molded into glassware, since January 1, 1900. We have seen the H in a triangle mark on milk bottles, sometimes along with the word Climax. Climax was embossed on milk bottles sold by the Climax Stopper and Bottle Company which was a jobber or reseller of milk bottles. We believe that J. T. & H. Hamilton Company manufactured milk bottles for the Climax Stopper and Bottle Company. An interesting note is that in the late 1890s J. T. & A. Hamilton Company or it's owners purchased interest in the Climax Stopper and Bottle Company which was the company of Charles Nightingale who patented the first square milk bottle in 1898. In fact Albert Hamilton was murdered on October 17, 1902 by the former president of the Climax Bottle and Manufacturing Company during a meeting to discuss 2700 dollars in missing funds. Status: OK Status By: dw Status Date: 2012-04-09