Another posting in the series of vintage glass water bottles. We have just purchased from the USA a further glass water bottle – further information on the Great Bear Water Bottles can be found on our main blog.
The detail we could find on Great Bear is surprisingly limited though. The Great Bear Spring Company manufactures and markets bottled spring water. The company was founded in 1888 and is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut. Great Bear Spring Company operates as a subsidiary of Nestlé Waters North America Inc.
The company takes its name from a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem about the father of Hiawatha who, desperate for water, found a spring and named it Mishemokwa, which means great bear.
If any other customers have more glass (19 litre / five gallon) water bottles please email us on contact(@)thewaterdeliverycompany.com.
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15th January 2012
We have been sent in some more photos of an original great bear water bottle in it’s original wooden crate by Brendan Fisher from the USA. Of note is the high quality of the crate and also the fact that it has been adapted by someone who has covered it in pieces of paper to create an artisitic effect.
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22nd February 2012
yet more – please keep them coming. We have been sent in some more photos of three original great bear water bottle in it’s original wooden crate by another person from the USA. Of note is the high quality of the crate and also that one of the bottles has made in Italy on the bottom of it.
Hi, I have one of these, it is in excellent shape, circa 1925 made in Mexico, no crate though…im interested in selling it, we are moving back to California and would prefer not to have to try to haul it. It looks just like the one in the photo…no chips or cracks email me if interested, I was going to list it on ebay but I will hold it in case you are interested in it…I also have one that is “pine hills crystal springs” also circa 1925/made in mexico…this one has nice lettering on it, though I have not been able to find another one like it online…any info would be great. Thanks
Anna
Many thanks for your email. The bottles sound of great interest to us. We are trying to keep an archive of all different styles of glass water cooler bottles that were available in the market before plastic water bottles took over as the default in the industry.
We fell in love with the variations of design that were used on these glass bottles many years ago.
If you can send us in some photos to us contact(@)thewaterdeliverycompany.com we would love to archive them on our site. We would also be interested in purchasing them at a fair price. We can arrange for collection or pay for delivery to our warehouse in Dallas where we will export them to the UK from.
Many thanks
Rob Innes
Historical discovery for you, possible ad idea…
My name is Charles Hayes and I do photography for the City of Peekskill
NY plus have been a well-published writer for a number of years. I
edited the most comprehensive collection of Native American
myths (and art) of the Hudson (17th century). I also will soon
return to Bicardi (in Paramus) to talk more about ad ideas given
them 1 1 / 2 years go, for their next cycle. Regarding Great Bear,
I want to share something that’s relevant to Great Bear, historically and,
possibly, as an ad idea of some sort.
Recently, while reading a wonderful book of journal entries by
a 19th century Hudson River explorer, W. T. Howell, among
the more-than-one-century old journal entries, there
was reference to him and friends coming down the
mountains from a hike and drinking Great Bear to refresh!!
Ad idea: Recreate this man (William Thompson Howell) who
worked as a phone rep for the New York Phone Company
in the late 19th and early 20th century… He is with friends
in period costume… bringing out bottle of Great Bear…
and saying: To Those who Will Take out Place in the Great
Outdoors, this is also for you! (He holds up a bottle
to us… )