Blue Bird Beverages of West Barrington

After a long search, I was able to obtain an elusive RI deco soda bottle.  It is embossed Blue Bird on the shoulder (embossed blue birds), and W. Barrington, RI on the bottom.  My past research had turned up very little on this bottle, so I decided to try to track it down for good.  The results were a little varied, but interesting!

The Blue Bird deco soda

Base embossing

Blue Bird was a grape flavored soda.  The bottle design was patented in 1925 by the Citrus Products Co. of Chicago.  This was the parent company of brands such as Kist and Chocolate Soldier.   

Bottle design patent.  Paul Ginter was a prolific designer of deco soda bottles

Blue Bird never achieved the success of brands like Kist, but it did well enough to make its way to the east coast.   

Advertising sign

Later ACL Blue Bird soda

There were only two bottling companies in West Barrington in the 1925-1930s time period this bottle was used.  The Sherba Beverage Co. and Deep Rock Inc.  Due to personal favoritism and educated guessing, I believe that Deep Rock Inc. was the likely bottler.  They bottled a small multitude of brands including 7-Up, Hires, and Tru-Ade.  Sherba does not have any brands listed in their advertisements (at least the ones I have seen so far).

UPDATE:  Mystery solved!  Local collector David C. had the good fortune of coming across this crate that confirms that Deep Rock was indeed the bottler of Blue Bird.