Welch’s Grape Juice Glass Carboy Used at Westfield Ny Factory in 1950’s

When I was a teenager in Westfield New York, home of Welch’s Grape Juice, many fine old homes, including ours (Now a Bed and Breakfast on South Portage Street) had a Welch carboy or bottle sitting on their front porch or in the hall, and they were sold in antique shops. Today they seem long gone. Edgar T. Welch was a strict Methodist and opposed to serving wine at communion, so invented the first pasteurized grape juice. He built his processing plant on North Portage Street and began pressing grapes in 1871. Glass carboys were used to store grape juice from that time until late 1950’s, when they were replaced by steel tanks. This is one of those 1950’s bottles; which though the neck and molding appear older, is actually a modern machine era machine molded glass item produced by Owens-Illinois Glass Company, a company established in 1929. The bottom plate knurling and patterning seen on the base were innovations Owens -Illinois developed in the mid 1940’s to help prevent base cracks during the annealing process.. The specific trade mark visible on the base, an I and O was first used in 1954, dating this bottle after that. In that companies’ 1933 catalogue, there are large ware bottles without stippling, and the old previous trademark of an I and O inside a diamond. I am no longer in Westfield New York,, but this greenish glass reminds me of my old home in Westfield New York, Grape Juice Capitol of the World.