February 2014 Newsletter

Welchs Grape Refreshment Wine

Thomas Bramwell Welch started the Welch's legacy in 1869 with a process to produce a refreshing concord grape juice that did not ferment into a wine. Being a devout Wesleyan and prohibitionist, Welch was in search of a way to make grape juice that did not become wine, primarily for his congregation, then the grape juice would be in line with the strict Wesleyan guidelines prohibiting members from consuming alcohol. By the early 1930's Welchs had become a commercial icon and dominated the US market for grape juice production.

Advertising contracts with other icons of the early 20th century such as Walt Disney, Howdy Doody and other childrens TV shows gave Welchs a large market in the USA. Until 1954, Welch's never made or intended to make wine. However, in 1952 when the Welch's company was bought out by the National Grape Co-Op, it did not take long for the new owners to decide to use the powerful Welch's name to market a refreshing alcholic beverage.



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A Controversial Combination: Kids and Wine

Between 1954 and 1955, Welch's produced a refreshing, sparkling grape wine and sold it in bottles manufactured by Hazel Atlas. Three TV commercial appeared in late 1954, touting a kosher wine. At the same time, Welchs was a sponsor of The Mickey Mouse Club in 1955, they also had sponsored Howdy Doody with live spots on the show.

It is unclear as to why they only produced this wine product for less than 1 year (late 1954 to mid 1955), speculation says that the company realized manufacturing an alcoholic beverage when they were also marketing to children may have been in bad taste. Another theory is that pressure from companies such as Walt Disney did not want their name associated with alcohol. It is interesting to note that no information regarding the production of wine by Welch's exists in the official Welch's history webpage.

Hazel Atlas produced these charming wine bottles in the 1954-1955 time period. It is generally accepted that Hazel Atlas ceased prodcution of the bottles after they lost the contract when Welch's stopped production of their wine.

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Oddities and Rarities

Finding a bottle with the label is a rare occurence, althugh the bottles were produced by the thousands, (primarily at the Hazel #1 plant in Washington PA), labels did not survive as much as the bottles. The half gallon red bottle with white drizzle is harder to find than the white bottles. It seems the blue, green and orange drizzle pattern are less available than the black and red.

The hang tag is even more difficult to find, so if you see this, snag it up! The original hang tag gave recipes, serving suggestions and instructions on how to make the bottle into a lamp. Which brings us to another oddity; Hazel Atlas did not make lamps from these bottles, it was a creative idea that crafters would make their own lamps from bottles. If you find a Welchs wine bottle lamp. it is not rare! However, there is a small market among collectors. If you acquire several bottles, try your hand at making some lamps to decorate your space or sell them!

Price Trends

*Please note: prices quoted are retail prices, if you are selling to a dealer, you should expect at least 30% less
A typical bottle without label in any color scheme will retail for around $8-$10. The larger (half gallon) usually retails for the same. The hang tag (only one style known) is worth around $10, and appeals to both ephemera collectors as well as advertising collectors. Price values have been quite stable for the bottles wiothout label.

A bottle with a label will retail anywhere from $35 to $50, depending on condition of the label. All color schemes are the same in price. This bottle had seen some higher prices in the late 1990's and early 2000's between $50 and $75. The large bottle (half gallon) has not been priced with label as to date very few are known to exist.

A lamp made from the Welch's wine bottle will retail around $12-15 wothout a label and in the $25 to $30 range with a label.

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Color Schemes and Pattern Name

The treatment on the glass is a solid white platonite (heavier than the usual dinnerware platonite), with a spattering of colored glass glaze randomly applied over the entire bottle. There are a variety of names that collectors and dealers call this particular glass treatment, which adds to the difficulty in finding pieces. The known pattern names used by collectors are; spaghetti, drizzle (usually with the color as in red rizzle, blue drizzle, etc), spatter, string, and spaghetti string. However, the only official name given by Hazel Atlas for this treatement was in one of their dinnerware lines which had the black treatment; the name of that pattern was Midnite Magic.

There are two known sizes of the bottle, a 4/5 quart and a half gallon. The half gallon is found in red opaque glass with white drizzle only, while the 4/5 quart is found in white opaque glass with the following color drizzles; red, orange, blue, black and green. The original cap was a screw on plastic, although a metal cap will fit and sometimes is used by dealers to complete the bottle.