http://www.sha.org/bottle/machinemadedating.htm#Question%2010 QUESTION #10: Does the bottle have the following statement embossed on its side or on the base?
FEDERAL LAW FORBIDS SALE OR REUSE OF THIS BOTTLE
Mid-20th century liquor flask with the Federally required embossed statement.
FEDERAL LAW FORBIDS SALE OR RE-USE OF THIS BOTTLE inscription on the shoulder of a machine-made pint liquor flask manufactured in 1956 by the Owens-Illinois Glass Company. This embossing was required on all liquor bottles sold in the U.S. between 1935 and 1964.
In the U.S., National Prohibition was repealed in late 1933 and was subsequently followed by the passage of Federal laws prohibiting the reuse or sale of used liquor bottles. This requirement was intended to discourage the re-use of bottles by bootleggers and moonshiners, though the biggest discouragement to that illicit activity was that liquor was now legally available. On January 1st, 1935 all liquor sold in the United States was required to be in bottles that had the above statement embossed in the glass (Busch 1981). The statement was not required on wine or beer bottles, the latter category which was - and to some degree still is - bottled in re-useable bottles.
If your bottle has this statement embossed in the glass, it is a liquor bottle that dates between 1935 and the 1960s.
In 1964, the law requiring this statement was repealed. Be aware however that for some years after 1964, liquor could still be found in bottles with this phrase since not all liquor producers switched immediately to new bottles due to the expense of new molds or to deplete an existing supply of bottles (Ferraro 1966) Click 1974 liquor bottle to view a picture of the base of a liquor bottle which has the reuse prohibition embossing though was made well after (10 years) the regulations requiring the statement were eliminated. The linked bottle was made by the Thatcher Glass Manufacturing Company (Elmira, NY.) and has a date code for 1974. The company used the stylized "TMC" mark from 1949 to 1985 (Toulouse 1971; Giarde 1989; Whitten 2005).
If your machine-made bottle does not have this phrase embossed in the glass it is probably either not a spirits or liquor bottle, made outside the era the statement was required, or the bottle was originally sold outside the U.S. If you know the bottle is a U. S. made/sold spirits bottle (i.e. distinctly a spirits bottle in shape or design or it has other conclusive features like brand embossing or labeling) it could date prior to 1935, though is more likely to be a post-1964 product. A pre-1935 date is possible since some spirits - particularly whiskey and brandy - were available to a limited degree by prescription through pharmacists to be used "for medicinal purposes only." Most pre-Prohibition (pre-1920) liquor/spirits bottles exhibit mouth-blown manufacturing characteristics, i.e., they are uncommonly machine-made. This is because Prohibition occurred individually in most states between 1912 and 1918, with National Prohibition finally passed in 1919 and effective in early 1920. This time span was the peak changeover from hand to automated bottle production methods. Visit the liquor bottle section of the Bottle Typing/Diagnostic Shapes page for more information on spirits bottles.
NOTE: Some references and many people believe that there are liquor bottles embossed with FEDERAL LAW PROHIBITS SALE OR RE-USE OF THIS BOTTLE, i.e., PROHIBITS instead of the word FORBIDS (Ferraro 1966). No PROHIBITS bottles have ever been observed by the author or other consultants to this website and it is believed to be a myth, though the author would welcome conclusive proof (an image) that PROHIBITS was indeed used in this context.
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Bottle Dating
http://www.sha.org/bottle/machinemadedating.htm
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