The Vintage Bottle That's Worth A Fortune Today

While some vintage items are simply cute and charming pieces great for decorating (especially if you aren't a fan of the all-white modern kitchen and prefer a more nostalgic style), others can actually be worth a lot of money. Even something as simple as an old bottle can net you a big payout at an antique sale. For instance, a vintage Coke bottle from the 1890s can sell for well over $1,000, depending on its exact origin. These numbers, however, pale in comparison to the value of a California Grapine syrup bottle.

On the site Antique Advertising, which posts the price of antique items previously sold at auctions, a California Grapine syrup bottle is listed as having sold at Wm Morford Antiques for $12,650. The site describes the item as a "scarce, early label under glass soda fountain syrup display bottle for California Grapine brand soda, w/ hand applied lip and beautiful label." While the exact origins of the brand are hard to track, other listings for California Grapine bottles date them around 1910, making them a true piece of soda fountain history. Note that the $12,650 price includes the buyer's premium paid to the auctioneer, so the seller did not actually receive the full amount. Still, it's undoubtedly a crazy price for a seemingly innocuous bottle, which begs the question: what makes it so valuable?

Given that most vintage items are sold at auctions, their value can be hard to objectively determine. Some pieces will make way more money at certain auctions than others, simply because there weren't multiple interested buyers driving the price up. On the other hand, scarcity lends itself to value, and this unique bottle of California Grapine seems to be a rare find, which may have inspired collectors to bid high.

The history of the California Grapine syrup brand is very hard to track, but it may have come from the California Syrup & Extract Company, Inc., which was founded in 1910, according to Emeryville Historical Society. Other searches only net you only results for vintage drinkware or articles about more modern grape syrup brands. This hard-to-track history may be part of the reason why the bottle has sold for so much; it's one of the only remaining remnants of a mysterious yet fascinating part of soda history. Vintage items are often also sought after for their high quality. For instance, vintage Weck jars, which can sometimes be found at thrift stores, are beloved for their thicker glass and pressure-seal technology, meaning that jars made over 100 years ago are still perfectly functional and usable today. The bottle's description mentions its hand-applied lip, so its quality and careful preservation also likely raised its selling price.

If you have a similar bottle, there's no guaranteeing you'll get a similar price for it, as it comes down to quality and demand. Still, it's definitely worth looking around for the bottle at thrift stores or garage sales (along with other valuable antiques like these vintage kitchen storage jars), as it will likely be worth a pretty penny regardless, or could make a wonderful talking piece in a collection.