A bottle is a vessel, often made of glass, that holds something. This might include a liquid such as water or alcohol, but also could be a solid such as sand or salt. Bottles have been used for many purposes throughout history and can be found in a wide range of cultures around the world. Some bottles are embossed with the name of the product inside, while others are not. Even if the bottle is not labeled or embossed, however, its shape can often be indicative of what it held.
Generally, the most reliable method for determining what a particular bottle once contained is to run it through a series of questions. The questions on the Bottle Dating page are a good place to start. These question ask about the manufacturing related characteristics that might suggest what the bottle was likely used for, i.e. the relative probability of that determination being correct. This information, like all of the information on this site, cannot be completely or even partly guaranteed to be accurate, but it can provide a strong starting point.
A common way for a bottle to reach someone in another part of the world is to send it into the ocean. This is a fun and adventurous project that can potentially result in a person receiving your message in a distant land.
Bottle episodes are becoming rarer in the streaming era, thanks to the increasing trend of TV writers and producers writing and directing entire seasons at once, then filming all eight episodes in sequence over an extended period of time. Because of this, it’s hard for an episode to look very different from its siblings – it all sort of blends together. But every now and then, an episode will stand out for its uniqueness. It might have an interesting setting or a very unique cast of characters, or it might tell a story that feels more self-contained than most other episodes. A bottle episode is one of those special moments.
This website contains a large variety of pictures and discussion of various bottle shapes and types from a wide range of historical eras. These pages are arranged in eight distinct categories, each of which has its own general discussion and dozens of thumbnail pictures of different bottle shapes within the category. These are based primarily on old glass company catalog illustrations and other references. Clicking on each picture will open a larger version of that image. To close this “pop-up” window when you are done, just click the X in the upper right corner.