9661 ? Koepke & Co. West Bend, Wisconsin

This is another very rare antique soda bottle brought to the gallery by Dan Gross. Thanks, Dan! This bottle features an odd little arched 'plate' (for lack of a better word) inside the slug plate that has the company name on it. I have never seen another Wisconsin hutchinson like it. My guess is that the arched 'plate' was placed over another earlier mold from West Bend (maybe Klug & Koepke) and allowed the bottler to change the name without changing the slug plate. I would guess that it was a last minute change or the slug plate itself could have been changed. Very unusual. The embossing reads, "KOEPKE & CO WEST BEND" in a ring around the inside of the slug plate. Dan Gross has held this bottle side-by-side with the Klug & Koepke bottle and he thinks that it is possible that my guess above is correct but he notes a slight height difference between the two slug plates.