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This is a mid-19th-century soda or mineral water bottle from W. Fulton of Philadelphia, with a very attractive example in aqua-teal glass with strong embossing and an applied double-collar top.
Embossing:
W. FULTON / PHILA / F
Form:Blob-top soda or mineral water bottle
Height: ≈ 6½ inches
Color: Aqua-teal (typical mid-century soda glass)
Finish: Applied double-collar (or “blob”) top — common 1845–1870
Base: Smooth (no pontil scar)
Texture: Loaded with seed bubbles and flow striations — hand-blown in a dip-mold
Embossing style: Tall serifed letters in a shallow arc, hand-cut into the mold
Condition: no chips, no cracks, no dirt, no ghosting. Bright/clean/shiny example. Lots of beautiful seed bubbles. There is a fold/wave of glass in the applied lip (not a crack, but how it was hand-formed).
Maker / Proprietor
W. Fulton was William Fulton, a Philadelphia soda-water and ginger-beer bottler active roughly 1845 – 1865.
He is documented in several city directories:
1848–1855: “W. Fulton, Soda Water, 103 South 9th Street.”
1856–1864: “Fulton & Co., Bottlers,” near Chestnut Street.
Fulton was among many small “artesian soda” producers supplying mineral water, sarsaparilla, and early carbonated drinks to taverns and pharmacies. Bottles like this were filled, wired, and reused repeatedly — hence the thick glass.
Dating FeaturesFeatureDiagnostic RangeEvidenceApplied double-collar finishc. 1845 – 1865clearly hand-tooled blobMold seam stops short of lippre-machine erayesSmooth (non-pontiled) baseafter ~1855consistentHeavy aqua glass with seed bubbles1840s–60svery strong example
Estimated manufacturing window: 1855–1865.
Historical Context
Philadelphia was a hub of glass production (notably Dyottville and Kensington glassworks). Bottles of this color and heft were produced nearby, so this example was almost certainly blown locally, possibly at the Dyottville Glass Works, which made many soda bottles for Philadelphia bottlers. The double-collar allowed wiring of a cork and sometimes a tin foil seal — the design just precedes the Hutchinson spring-stopper era (patented 1879). By the late 1860s, most Fultons were replaced by machine-mold or gravitated Hutchinson bottles.
Comparable Examples
W. Fulton / Phila, aqua blob, smooth base, listed in McKearin & Wilson, “American Bottles & Flasks” (plate 218, type 7).
Similar molds documented in Tod Von Mechow’s “Soda & Beer Bottles of Pennsylvania” database.
1. “Blob Top” – the Collector’s Term
In bottle collecting, “blob top” is a broad collector’s category, not a technical one.
It refers to any thick, rounded, applied lip used on soda, porter, or mineral water bottles from roughly 1840–1880, before the introduction of crown and Hutchinson closures.
So yes — your bottle does fall under the “blob top” family in collector shorthand, but more precisely it has a double-applied collar blob top.
2. Technically Speaking
Your example shows:
A lower rounded ring where the first gather of glass was tooled (the first “collar”), and
A second thicker band applied over it to strengthen and form the finished lip.
That’s why it’s often described by specialists as a:
“Double-applied collar blob finish”
or sometimes
“Two-part blob top.”
This design was common on Philadelphia sodas and mineral waters from the 1850s–1860s, especially from Dyottville and Kensington Glass Works molds.
3. Why It Matters
The distinction can hint at:
Age: The double-applied blob style predates the single thick blob used 1870s–1880s.
Quality: These were hand-tooled — you can often see the seam stopping well below the lip and the slumped transition line.
Regional practice: Philadelphia and Baltimore glasshouses favored this neat double-band finish.
4. Correct Terminology Options
If you want technical accuracy:
“Applied double-collar finish”
or
“Double-applied blob top”
If you want collector familiarity (for or antique listings): “Blob top soda bottle (double-applied collar)”
Scene: Philadelphia, 1888 — A Summer Afternoon
The cobblestone alley behind a rowhouse in North Philadelphia is warm from the sun, sending heat waves up against brick walls. Laundry hangs overhead between clotheslines strung across windows. The smell of coal smoke drifts in from the street and the faint tang of hop-laced soda from Dr. Fulton’s nearby apothecary.
Inside a small kitchen just off the alley, Margaret O’Connell, wife of a carriage maker, stands cooling a batch of ginger-ale soda syrup in an enamelware pan. Her fingers are stained with molasses. On the shelf beside her are clear glass soda bottles — the one most used right now is the teal-blue W. Fulton soda bottle, embossed “W. FULTON PHILA.” It has a double-applied lip, the craftsmanship heavy and proud.
She rinses the bottle, then fills it with carbonated water from a “soda fountain rig” in the corner—an angled brass spigot, cooled by passing through a block of ice. A round cork is forced in and the bottle is set aside to chill in a wooden ice chest near the kitchen door.
Outside, the street is energetic. A horse-drawn omnibus trundles past, belching coal black smoke. A manufactured tin sign above Fulton’s apothecary reads Fulton & Son, Soda & Mineral Waters. Next door, people line up for medicinal tonics, elixirs, and soda water.
In the front yard, a gleaming black phaeton carriage stands, ready to take the family to Mass tomorrow. A teenage daughter sweeps the sidewalk, humming a hymn. Children run after a hoop, and a streetcar bell clatters in the distance.
Inside, the kitchen is modest but tidy. A wood-burning range glows its last embers, above which hangs a small shelf with mason jars of pickled vegetables, herbs, and preserved cherries. A brass candlestick lamp with a glass shade stands in the window. The walls are painted a pale green; a lithograph of Niagara Falls is framed over the mantel. A wooden dry goods box sits in one corner, stenciled with “Salt — 100 lbs.”
Margaret turns to pour a glass of freshly made soda for her youngest, who sits at the pine kitchen table, wiping sticky fingers on a checkered cloth. The fizz hisses. The teal bottle glints in the half-shadow. Outside, the distant clang of a foundry hammer echoes. Life is gritty, hot, industrious, hopeful.
