How to date a commercial perfume bottle

As a gemercial perfume bottle collector I am always interested in the date of the perfume bottle before I purchase it. Just as a note-gemercial perfume bottles are those that are sold full of perfume and have a label on them. Just a few quick instant expert tips will help you date a perfume. If you pull out the stopper and find plastic on the dowell end in any form you can be certain that the perfume bottle was made after 1970. If you see a shrink type of plastic label on the bottom you can also be certain that the bottle is fairly recent. Many collectors realize that a zip code anywhere on an item means a date of post 1963. Also the statement of a percentage of alcohol dates the bottle as more recent with the % symbol used.
Several quick tips place a perfume bottle in the 1940's era. The presence of the Federal excise tax statement or the initial SDA for Specially denatured alcohol place the bottle into the 1940's as does the notation of Drams for contents.
Finally and most important is presence of numbers on the bottom of the perfume which should match the numbers on the bottom of the perfume bottle stopper. Many collectors mistake the numbers and letters for a signature on the perfume bottle-this isn't the case. The numbers were used by high quality perfumers in the factory to match each bottle with its very own stopper. Ground to fit stoppers are used today only very rarely and collectors seek this type of perfume as a sign of age and quality. For the most part such numbering is only on vintage perfumes prior to about 1950.
Thus with just a few tips you can date that perfume bottle in your hand to a general era and if you search as I do for more vintage perfumes these ideas will help you find that very special older perfume bottle.