Here are some picts. of a "C&I" McKennas and the more familiar western base McKennas. Note the differences in lettering style or font, C&I is a more slender bottle, top is a bit different on the C&I.
I have had a couple of light yellow amber "traditional" ones over the years and one that was quite "greenish". I think it is still hanging out with Dennis R. I keep selling them off to pay for other bottles, then I find I really can't live without one. The C&I examples tend to be medium amber to darker amber. Haven't seen a real yellow or green C&I McKennas in my travels. Another strange thing, the C&I S.H.M.s, that I have seen, are all a beautiful light yellow amber. That is a whole new set of questions.... the S.H.M.
Again, more questions than answers about the two different McKennas. These two bottles appear to be in service roughly the same time period. I believe the C&I possibly started just a bit later (late '70's) than the Western base. ??
Why the different molds?
Size reduction? The C&I bottle is an ounce or two smaller. Don't think that is it.. The non C&I is a transitional bottle, glob and toolie, used well into the '80s. Well past the start of the C&I's.
???????
I am no expert to be sure, but I have always wondered why the impression that the C&I McKenna's are later? I saw one dug in Gold Hill Nevada in 1996 that was in a early to mid 70s hole. If the non C&I mold comes tooled (from the exact mold), and the C&I version does not come tooled to my knowledge, why is it later? It has non curved Rs which just means it was blown in a Eastern mold shipped West right? Or was it indeed blown in the East? The one I saw came out of the ground sparkling and all the Eastern stuff was stained...just wondering.
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M.E.
ReplyDeleteLot of questions about the origin and use of these C&I bottles. I agree, they seem to be good quality western glass. I can believe that they are eastern molds shipped West for use in a San Francisco glass factory... I have a little problem with the top. Kinda different than we see on most all western globs. Tops are tops, lots of different tops so that might not mean anything.
As far as age, just a theory, we all know how hard it is to date bottles. My references are "Borax Town", big from 1873 to 1878. Plenty of Wilmerding stuff there, heavy on SHM's and very heavy McKennas town. No C&I's in there that I have ever seen. Ruby,NV..peaking 1878 to 1882. Both varieties in there. We find McKennas here in UT. Found several broken C&I's at a mill site that was in operation from 1879-1882. One thing for sure, the C&I's are scarce, probably just used for a short time, I'm thinking sometime during the longer run of the Western base examples.
Just theory...if there is one good thing about a theory...it might lead to more research.
There is a not too far away Sacramento Valley burg that is also "McKenna heavy", with at least a half dozen non-C&I examples found there, plus more that were broken. Hopefully, this year's digs will turn up a mint one.
ReplyDeleteSole Agent;
ReplyDeleteJust forwarded you an email with a photo. I think that I may have stumbled on the reason why we are seeing both variants out west.
Feel free to add to the post and to attach the photo. It quite possibly answers a lot of questions.
KG
Not a real good picture but you can tell it's not amber
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