Hello! Thank you for your question. According to our Assistant Curator of Modern Glass:
Long before the 18th century, natural mineral waters and springs were often considered as medicinal cures for ailments. Eventually, spas developed around springs which were celebrated for their curative waters. This water was also commercially bottled and sold to provide relief to those who could travel to the spa or spring itself.
By the end of the 18th century, bottling of spring waters was so common that it was mentioned in the Encyclopaedia Britannica: “The virtues of … waters depend on their being well bottled and corked, otherwise they lose both their taste and smell. To preserve them, it is necessary that the bottles be filled up to the mouth, that all air may be excluded… The cork is further secured with a cement…”
Mold-Blown Glass Bottles
Glass bottles used to transport the curative waters were often created by mold-blowing. This entails inflating a parison of hot glass into a mold; the glass is forced against the inner surfaces of the mold and assumes its shape, along with any decoration that the mold bears. This technique was ideal for creating glass bottles to transport spring water because the name of the source spring and proprietors could be incorporated in the mold, and thus on the bottle itself.
"Moses Striking the Rock" and Other Variants
In America, there were many springs which bottled and sold water in glass containers. Poland Spring in Maine had an atypical bottle in the form of a bearded man. It is known to collectors as “Moses Striking the Rock.”
There are more than thirty variants of Moses bottles known to exist. At first, Poland Spring water was offered in wooden barrels and earthenware jugs. The Ricker family, proprietors of the spring, began using glass bottles in the likeness of Moses in the mid-1870s.
The earliest Moses bottles were all one-quart size in either light amber, aqua, or clear glass and are is inscribed with “Poland/Water” vertically on the front, on the back with “POLAND WATER” in a circle around “PMS”, and on the base with “H. RICKER & SON, PROPRIETORS.” The Moses bottle was reissued at least three times, starting in 1906.
In the mid-1920s, a machine-made bottle was produced in clear, emerald green, and moss green. These later bottles include the following inscription “THE MOSES BOTTLE/FAC-SIMILE OF FIRST POLAND WATER BOTTLE/HIRAM RICKER & SONS, INC.”
And, in the 1930s, a miniature one-cup version of the bottle was produced which included the inscription “Federal Law Forbids Sale or Reuse of this Bottle.”
More Information
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McKearin, Helen, and Kenneth M. Wilson, American Bottles and Flasks and Their Ancestry (New York: Crown Publishers, 1978), especially “Spring, Mineral, and Soda Water Bottles,” pp. 233–244.
- Humphrey, Walt. “Moses’s Bottles.” The Western Collector 7, no. 1 (January 1969), pp. 48-52, ill.
Additional Reading
- Lemasters, Larry. “Poland Spring Moses Bottles: Vessels of Health.” Antique Week 50, no. 2529 (Mar. 5, 2018), p. 2+, ill.
- "Moses Bottle Variations, a Summary.” The Bottle Muse (Aug./Sept. 1996), pp. 7-8.
- O’Connell, Annette. “Moses Bottles.” Old Bottle Magazine 11, no. 8 (Aug. 1978), pp. 6-11, ill..
- Vincent, Pal. The Moses Bottle. 1st ed. Poland Spring, Me.: Palabra Shop, 1969.
Borrowing Library Materials
If you wish to borrow copies of library items, please contact your local library. The Rakow Research Library will lend designated books from its collection and will send copies of articles requested by other libraries. Your library can request items through the OCLC WorldShare Interlibrary Loan (ILL) system or by direct request through email at ill@cmog.org. For more information, please see our ILL policies and procedures.
Please do not hesitate to contact us in the future with your glass-related questions!
