posted 02-01-2014 11:40 PM
WEV,I haven't found any marks, but I did find an additional patent issued to Alonzo Hebbard, besides the ones you list. This one is for a volatile-salts bottle stopper, issued Jan 1, 1873:
You probably missed this patent because there's an OCR error in Hebbard's name in the listing (it's under "Alonzo Hebbakd"). Interestingly, the patent was witnessed by H.B. Dominick (of Dominick & Haff fame) and C.L. Barrett (I think that must be supposed to be Charles Edward Barrett), also in this list of makers whose marks you're missing. Hebbard renewed this patent on Aug. 1, 1882.
I found the patent while searching for bottle-stopper patents in the late-coin-silver, aesthetic-period decades. I just bought a c. 1860s-70s smelling-salts bottle with an odd stopper that I can't figure out how to take off the bottle, marked "Pat. App. For"--I thought if I could find the patent, it might tell me how to unscrew the lid.
(Sadly, I haven't found the right patent, if it was ever issued. My bottle's lid is clearly missing a piece, but there's a little bar sticking out of the top with a spring that pushes it up, and Hebbard's patent has no spring. If anyone comes across a smelling-salts bottle-stopper patent from the right period that DOES have a spring, please tell me! General advice about how to take strange lids off old silver bottles also welcome.)