Hello.
Mrs Stewart's Bluing has been made since 1883. Luther Ford & Company,
the manufacturer of the product, is still in business. Contact
details, including mailing address and telephone number, are on the
company's web site:
http://www.mrsstewart.com/
Your bottle would have been made some time before the early 1960s
because that's when the company discontinued using corks to seal the
product.
From the History of Mrs Smith's Bluing:
"Starting in 1962 in the U.S. and in 1965 in Canada, plastic screw
caps replaced the wooden corks which were previously used."
http://www.mrsstewart.com/pages/msbhistory.htm
Thus, we can say that your bottle is at least 40 years old. It could
be much older, though. The history pages offers a number of additional
details that may help you identify the age of the bottle:
"Highly Sought-After MSB Bottles
The earliest Mrs. Stewart's Bluing bottles were hand-blown. Starting
in about 1907, bottles were manufactured on automatic bottle-blowing
machines. The words "This contains Mrs. Stewart's Bluing" were
embossed into the face of the bottles, as insurance against
unauthorized reuse by others.
Around 1920, the embossing on the bottle face was discontinued and
replaced with a similar embossment around the shoulder of the bottle.
In the spring of 1933, Robert Ford's newly designed machinery was used
to apply hot wax around the rim of each bottle to prevent the liquid
from running down the side of the bottle when dispensing the product."
http://www.mrsstewart.com/pages/msbhistory.htm
Ghe best thing to do to determine the age of the bottle would be to
contact the company directly using the information on this page:
http://www.mrsstewart.com/
search strategy: "stewart's bluing"
I hope this helps. |
