"Billiken - The God of Things As They Ought to Be"

The title notes what is embossed on the four sides of the pedestalled base of this cool little bottle. What a great saying! Should be the "god" we burn incense too in these trying economic times I suppose.

These bottles were used for salt/pepper shakers and possible for other products like hard candy. (All the pictured examples have caps with holes in it denoting use for salt/pepper.) Dating from their patent in 1908, these bottles as well as a host of other Billiken items - dishes, book ends, tokens, cards with cute sayings, etc.. - were a fun fad for a few years, then it died out...as all fads do. Fortunately, a lot of neat Billiken memorabilia still survives today and makes for an interesting collection.

The bottles are known in the two glass colors as shown in the images - milk glass and colorless/clear glass. Many times the bottles were painted in part (like the third image) or entirely; the latter typically being done to the colorless bottles.