Found a Barr Bottle?

Introduction

Every year we receive many enquiries from the public about the origins of our glass bottle packaging some of which can be dated as far back as the 1880's.

In order to make information about our historic glass bottle packaging more readily available we have created this archive resource page which we hope you will find useful.

If you have a Barr's glass bottle and would like to find out more information about it then please scroll down this page until you find a similar bottle.

This page contains pictures and background information about many of the different types of glass bottles and other packaging formats that we have filled and sold to our consumers since our business was founded by Robert Barr in 1875.

If you can't find the right reference then please send a digital photograph of your bottle to marieholcroft@agbarr.co.uk and we will respond back with any additional information that we have available.

Valuation

If you are interested in finding out a valuation on your Barr's glass bottle then regrettably we will be unable to assist you as we are not aware of a significant trading market for our historic glass bottles.

Of course in themselves they are an interesting historical artifact and each one tells its own story of the time and place that it came from.

1880's
BARR LEMONADE CORK MOUTH RETURNABLE 10 fl.oz. BOTTLE, c1880
	With its rounded base this bottle was designed to lie on its side so that the cork was always wet. If the cork dried out it would shrink and the lemonade would lose its fizz.
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BARR ‘CODD’ RETURNABLE 10 fl.oz. BOTTLE, 1880’s
	The ingenious Hiram Codd patented this bottle which used a marble as the stopper. Gas pressure held the trapped marble against the seal. At that time returnable bottles did not bear any deposit charge and Codd bottles were only used for a short time since too many children broke the bottles to get the marbles out.
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1890's
BARR RETURNABLE ‘SWING STOPPER’ 26 2/3 fl.oz. BOTTLE, c1890
	This bottle – with the rubber ringed stopper attached by wire to the bottle neck – was introduced as a resealable alternative to the cork mouthed bottles of that time. These were however very awkward to wash on their return, and soon gave way to the first internal screw finish bottles with separate screw stoppers.
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BARR RETURNABLE 30 fl.oz. SYPHON, c1890
	; Syphon bottles at the time were generally imported from Bohemia (now known as the Czech Republic and Slovakia) because of the quality of the glass from the area at that time. The syphon head was made from pewter. Refilling could be a dangerous task as the bottles, if damaged, could explode. The sandblasted label shows that this bottle was used by R.F. Barr’s business in Glasgow
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1900's
BARR GREEN CORK MOUTH RETURNABLE 26 2/3 fl.oz. BOTTLE, EMBOSSED ROBERT BARR FALKIRK, 1880’s TO EARLY 1900’s
	A large version of a cork stoppered bottle used by Robert Barr Falkirk, this returnable bottle was eventually replaced by the revolutionary internal screw bottle
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BARR GREEN CORK MOUTH RETURNABLE 26 fl.oz. BOTTLE, EMBOSSED A.G. BARR & COGLASGOW, 1880’s TO EARLY 1900’s
	A large version of a cork stoppered bottle used by A.G. Barr & Co. Glasgow, this returnable bottle was eventually replaced by the revolutionary internal screw bottle
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BARR PALE GREEN 26 2/3 fl.oz. INTERNAL SCREW RETURNABLE BOTTLE, EARLY 1900’s
	This bottle was used by Barr from the early 1900’s until all bottles were reduced in size to 20 fl.oz. due to a soft drinks tax introduced to help the Government pay for the First World War. In order to avoid passing the tax increase onto consumers, manufacturers agreed to gradually reduce the size of all bottles from 26 2/3 fl.oz. to 20 fl.oz. and were thus able to maintain the same price even with the new tax charge
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1901
BARR’S IRON BREW 26 2/3 fl.oz. INTERNAL SCREW RETURNABLE BOTTLE, 1901
	This is how IRON BREW was originally packaged when it was launched in 1901. The colours of the label have faded over time
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1905
BARR TRADITIONAL 10 fl.oz. STONE GINGER BEER RETURNABLE BOTTLE, 1905
	This bottle was used from 1905 until the late 1920’s when all manufacturers discontinued the use of stone bottles (because they could not be visually inspected), after the famous Donoghue v Stevenson legal case. This action against David Stevenson, who was a soft drinks manufacturer in Paisley, was known as ‘the snail in the ginger beer bottle’ case and became one of the most famous legal cases in the world. It was of fundamental importance to the whole concept of product liability in relation to goods sold by a manufacturer
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1920's
BARR 20 fl.oz. INTERNAL SCREW RETURNABLE BOTTLE, 1920’s
	The 20 fl.oz. size was the standard size during the 1920’s and into the 1930’s. However in the mid 1930’s Tizer Ltd opened a branch in Glasgow and Tizer was introduced in 26 2/3 fl.oz. bottles for the same price that Glasgow manufacturers sold their 20 fl.oz. bottles. This led to the reintroduction of the 26 2/3 fl.oz. bottles and the gradual discontinuation of 20 fl.oz. by Scottish soft drinks manufacturers
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1930's
BARR 26 2/3 fl.oz. INTERNAL SCREW RETURNABLE BOTTLE, 1930’s
	Introduced in the 1930’s this bottle took over entirely from the 20 fl.oz. size shortly after the Second World War. It was still an internal screw stopper bottle and was later superseded by the new external cap bottles in the 1950’s
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1942-1947
BARR WAR TIME LEMONADE BOTTLE, 1942 TO 1947
	The Second World War quickly resulted in shortages of raw materials. The Government had little choice but to ‘concentrate’ the soft drinks industry across the UK. It shut down many manufacturers, and those that remained were given a production number - A.G. Barr’s was No.6. Each was only allowed to produce six standard drink recipes like lemonade. IRON BREW was not a designated ‘standard drink’ and so the brand went off sale for the remainder of the war and beyond
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1948
BARR BA-BRU DESIGN 6 2/3 fl.oz. CROWN CORK BOTTLE, 1948
	This shaped bottle was designed in the form of Ba-Bru who with his Scots friend Sandy appeared in our long running advertising cartoon strip. Small returnable bottles were phased out in the 1970’s in favour of non-returnable packs. However the company still continued to sell its large returnable bottles as it still does to-day
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1952
BARR RETURNABLE 26 2/3 fl.oz. BOTTLE WITH PLASTIC CAP, 1952
	These superseded the internal screw finish bottles – the plastic caps had an internal rubber sealing ring and, like screw stoppers, were washed on return prior to re-use
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1956
40 fl oz INTERNAL SCREW
	40fl.oz. internal screw bottle used at Bradford after the purchase of J.Hollows in 1954. The bottle was replaced by the external screw cap bottle in the early 1960's.
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1962
BARR BESPOKE 6fl.oz (180ML) CROWN CORK GLASS BOTTLE
	Relaunched in the early 1960's this bottle redesign was sold into the on-trade (pubs and clubs). It was called the 'Twist Bottle' and newspaper adverts of the day headlined it as 'The Twist You Can't Resist'. The bottle top is for a crown cork cap as opposed to a screw cap. Crown cork closures are still used on on-trade packaging to this day. The face of BA-BRU was embossed into the neck of the bottle as the Adventures of Ba-Bru and Sandy were still popular in Scotland during the 1960's having first appeared in Scottish newspapers in the 1930's.
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1968
BARR RETURNABLE 26 2/3 fl.oz. BOTTLE WITH METAL ROLL ON CAP, 1968
	Introduced in Scotland to replace the external plastic capped bottles. In turn this bottle was replaced in the late 1970’s by a metric 750ml size of a similar type
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1972
TIZER LTD. IS ACQUIRED BY BARR FOR £2.5M, 1972
	Barr achieved national distribution throughout Scotland, England and Wales as a result of the purchase of the business which had been started by the Pickup family in Bristol in 1907 and became a public company in 1936
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1973
40 fl oz Returnable Bottle
	40fl.oz. Returnable Bottle with 28mm finish used in England / Wales during the 1970's - superceded by the 1lt Returnable.
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1974
IRN-BRU 330ML CAN DESIGN, 1974
	The purchase of Stotherts Ltd. Atherton in 1967 brought soft drinks cans into the Barr portfolio for the first time. In 1974 a new IRN-BRU design was introduced across the range of packs including 330ml cans. This design was replaced in 1988
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1976
NON RETURNABLE 1LT PLASTISHIELD BOTTLE, 1976
	Plastishield covered glass bottles enabled the supermarkets to sell large bottles of soft drinks for the first time. The covering made it safe to sell glass although the maximum pack size was only 1lt
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1978
1 Litre Returnable Bottle
	1lt returnable bottle with 28mm external metal cap introduced in England / Wales in the late 1970's. This bottle replaced the 40fl.oz. returnable bottle.
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1979
THE FIRST PLASTIC BOTTLES GO ON SALE IN SUPERMARKETS, 1979
	PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) packaging was introduced and quickly replaced Plastishield glass bottles, since 2 litre, or even 3 litre, bottles could be manufactured and distributed with no safety issues
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1985
IRN-BRU LOW CALORIE 330ML CAN, 1985
	In 1979 a new low calorie IRN-BRU variant had been launched in glass and plastic bottles. Low calorie IRN-BRU became available in 330ml cans from 1985
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