antique bottlesThe Cape May Lighthouse Bitters Bottle ebay
By Kevin A. Sives
.......When we think of figural bottles, it's usually figural whiskey decanters or cologne bottles that come to mind. But of course there is also a group of figural bitters bottles, the most common, being the Drake's cabins, the Indian Queens, or the National Bitters ear of corn.
Several of these figural bitters bottles depict buildings. But as far as I know, very few depict a building that still exists. And I'd be willing to bet that there's only one that depicts an existing lighthouse -- the Cape May Lighthouse to be specific. Of course the bottle I'm talking about is the Seaworth Bitters bottle, manufactured by the Seaworth Bitters Company of Cape May, New Jersey.
Before we get into the specifics about the bottle, let's delve a little into the history of the lighthouse, and the town from which it takes its name.
Today, the town of Cape May is full of Victorian architecture; much of it restored and preserved. And it is one of the nation's oldest seashore resorts. But her place in history begins even before the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts.
Cape May is located at the southern-most tip of
New Jersey, with the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Delaware
Bay to the west. Originally called Cape Island, Henry Hudson,
sailed his ship the Half Moon past the small peninsula, and noted
its existence in his captain's logs in August of 1609. But the
first actual exploration of the area took place in 1620, when a
Dutch captain, Cornelius Jacobsen Mey, while exploring the
Delaware River, chose to name the peninsula Cape Mey, after
himself. The spelling was later changed to Cape May.
The next person to take an interest in the area was William Penn, who built a large manor house on Cape Island, and had intentions of developing the area. Between 1685 and 1688, when the first government was actually formed, many of the Quaker's beliefs and way of doing things were incorporated into the original government charter for the area.
During this same period, much migration was taking place across the newly settled New World. Families from the British Isles settled the area, in addition to some whom moved from New York and New England. Many of these families were involved in the whaling industry, and brought whaling to the Cape May area. Eventually, however, whaling died out in the area, as whaling centers developed in New England. But with the demise of whaling, a new industry, tourism, took hold and began to develop.
During the 1700s and 1800s, Cape May had become an area where well to do city families would spend the summer months. With the advent of railroad and steamship service from Philadelphia and Camden to Cape May, travelling became very easy. Thus by about 1850, Philadelphia's elite began to consider Cape May as their very own personal summer playground.
The very rare "sample size" Seaworthy Lighthouse Bitters (center), is approximately 6 1/2" high, with a tooled lip.
An interesting footnote in Cape May's history involves its being on the route of the "Underground Railroad". One of the most famous 'conductors', Harriet Tubman, lived and worked in Cape May in the early 1850s. And several historians have supposed that Tubman remembered this area as a good place for escaped slaves to stop and 'lay low' as they made their northward trek toward Canada.
After the Civil War, as America's Industrial Revolution gathered speed, people began to desire leisure time. Many hotels were built in Cape May, for the expressed purpose of catering to the well-to-do visitors from New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. Tourism continued to be a mainstay of the economy of Cape May, right into the present time.
Many mammoth hotels existed in Cape May, including the Mount Vernon and Christian Admiral (which at the time they were built were the largest hotels in the world), and the Inn of Cape May and Congress Hall (which are the only two of the grand hotels which are still standing).
Amongst Cape May's visitors in the past were such famous people as composer John Philip Sousa; showman P.T. Barnum; Generals Robert E. Lee and William T. Sherman; Abe Lincoln (before he became president); and such Presidents as James Buchanan, Franklin Pierce, Ulysses S. Grant and Benjamin Harrison.
Cape May continues as a tourist destination, with its full time population of 5,000 swelling to 85,000 visitors on most summer weekends. Because of its long and rich history, the entire town of Cape May was designated a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of the Interior in 1976.
One of the landmarks that distinguishes Cape May from any of the other hundreds of small coastal towns is the historic Cape May Lighthouse. The history of Cape May is intertwined with the history of its famous lighthouse.
The present day lighthouse is actually the third (or possibly fourth) lighthouse built at Cape May point and was constructed beginning in 1857. There is some evidence that as early as 1744, the English undertook to build a lighthouse, but there is no positive proof that one was built, or even started for that matter.
In 1821, Congress appropriated money for a lighthouse. It was completed in October 1823, and stood 70 feet high, and had 15 revolving lamps. It was abandoned in May of 1847, after the sea had eroded the beach to such an extent, that the lighthouse was surrounded by water at high tide.
Soon, a second lighthouse was constructed about one third of a mile inland and on a high bluff of land. Unfortunately, by 1859, the sea had again reclaimed the land, and the second Cape May lighthouse was razed. But prior to that, in 1857, the Army Corps of Engineers had begun work on the present Cape May lighthouse.
The lighthouse stands 170 feet tall, has a base diameter of 27 feet, with walls 8 feet thick at the bottom, tapering to a mere 2 feet thick at the top. At the top, the diameter of the lighthouse is only 15 feet. A 36-inch rotating lens, equipped with a 1,000-watt bulb, produces 350,000 candlepower, and is set to flash every fifteen seconds, and can be seen from 24 miles out at sea.
Seaworth Bitters Company & The Cape May Glass Company
Because of all this wonderful history and the fact that so many nearby glass houses were in operation at the time, it seems fitting that Cape May's historic lighthouse was memorialized in glass. It was with a wise marketing idea that the Seaworth Bitters Company of Cape May, when they were deciding on a package for their product, chose to memorialize the Cape May Lighthouse in glass.
Although their choice of a container was great, unfortunately, their enterprise was short lived. I tried, without avail, to locate information about the Seaworth Bitters Company. I consulted Business Directories. I searched the Internet. I spoke with a half dozen bitters collectors. And the end result was the same -- nearly no information at all about the Seaworth Bitters Company of Cape May, New Jersey.
Fortunately, I was able to locate a little more information on the company that made these great bottles. There were two glass houses in operation in Cape May around the turn of the century. The first, started around 1901, was named after its founders Taylor and Stites. The second factory, the Hereford Glass Company, was started in 1908.
Soon, the Taylor and Stites factory began to be
called "the Upper Factory", while Hereford
became "the Lower Factory". 
Soon, the Hereford, or Lower Factory, decided to cease independent operation, and in 1909 was taken over by the Upper Factory, and became known as "The Cape May Glass Company". This enterprise continued to operate until December of 1924.
Thus, knowing that the Seaworth's bottles were made in Cape May, we can safely assume that these bottles date to the earliest part of the 20th century.
Bottles and Variants
Seaworth Bitters bottles can be found in two sizes – large and small. The large bottle, which stands 11 1/2" tall, can be found in yellow olive (extremely rare), amber (rare), and aquamarine (extremely rare) glass. I've also seen an example in clear glass, and another in nearly clear with a very slight greenish cast.
The bottles themselves are figural, and are made to resemble the Cape May Lighthouse, which was completed in 1859. All of the bottles are smooth based, and all are embossed in six horizontal lines:
Embossed "Seaworth Bitters Co. Cape May, New Jersey U.S.A.", (S-81) in 'Bitters Bottles' by Ham and Ring. Can be found in amber, aquamarine and yellow olive. Approximately 11 1/2" high with a tooled lip. Most of the known aquamarine examples were dug in New Jersey in 1974.
SEAWORTH BITTERS CO. CAPE MAY NEW JERSEY U.S. A.
On the lettered side, there is a window high up, and on the reverse is a door near the base.
The smaller size, which stands about 6 1/2" tall, and is documented in amber (very rare), but I've heard of aquamarine examples also. Sometimes mistakenly called a "sample size", it should more correctly be called a "cough syrup size". The reason for this distinction is because a partially labeled example exists, which indicates that the bottle was indeed used to hold cough syrup.
These smaller bottles have the same full embossing that the larger size has, with an indented ring around the bottle, near the base. On the labeled example, there is a dark green label (nearly black now), with light green lettering, which goes nearly around the entire bottle. In three lines is written:
“Discount (unreadable) a day for children/complaints 75 c 1 teaspoon whenever cough is troublesome/10 drops”
Although it certainly doesn't make much sense as written above, perhaps what they were trying to say was something like:
“Discount 75 c”
“10 drops a day for children complaints”
“1 teaspoon whenever cough is troublesome”
Of course the fact that at least one labeled example exists which is marked for cough syrup does not mean that these smaller sized bottles were made for cough syrup. It's of course possible that some of these smaller bottles were sold, perhaps after Seaworth's closed, as empty containers that were used by another manufacturer to hold his cough syrup. This theory is even more plausible because no where on the label is there any indication that the cough syrup was manufactured by Seaworth's.
Also of note are the bottles of the Skilton Foote & Co's Trade Mark Bunker Hill Pickles. The company was located in Somerville, near Charlestown, Massachusetts, where the Battle of Bunker Hill was fought. Apparently this company either purchased the molds when Seaworth's went out of business, or perhaps had the Cape May Glass Company make bottles for them in the old Seaworth's molds. According to Betty Zumwalt in "Ketchup Pickles Sauces, 19th Century Food in Glass", there is a Bunker Hill Pickles bottle with all of the embossing blocked out (apparently for a label). However, later versions of the bottle, which contains Skilton Foote & Co.'s trademark emblem, indicate that a new mold, which is quite similar to the original Seaworth mold, was used. Zumwalt notes that in addition to the amber and aquamarines, there is at least one lime green example known to exist.
Summary
The figural bottles of the Cape May Lighthouse, made by the Seaworth Bitters Company, are one of the most interesting of all of the figural bitters. They not only combine a testament to a historically significant lighthouse, but they also are one of the most highly collectible bottles around. And if you try to collect examples in the two sizes, in as many colors as you can, you can bet that your pocketbook will be much lighter than it is right now.
For more information, the Greater Cape May Historical Society is open daily from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (June 15 - September 15). There are additional monthly meetings, September through June, with guest speakers. Individual membership costs $10.00, joint membership $15.00, business membership $35.00. Their mailing address is: The Greater Cape May Historical Society, Box 495, Cape May, NJ 08204. Telephone: (609) 884-9100. And they are located at 653 1/2 Washington St., Cape May, New Jersey.
Bibliography
Pepper, Adeline, “The Glass Gaffers of New Jersey”, Charles Scribner's Sons. 1979.
Ring, Carlyn, "For Bitters Only", Boston:The Nimrod Press Inc., 1980.
Ring, Carlyn, Ham, W. C., "Bitters Bottles", Boyertown:Boyertown Publishing Co., 1998.
Watson, Richard, "Bitters Bottles", New York:Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1965.
Zumwalt, Betty, "Ketchup Pickles Sauces, 19th Century Food in Glass", Fulton:Mark West Publishers, 1980.
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