Flask time

[pepperj]

I've mounted a glass shelf perpendicular to the viewer screen, so I can move a bottle out to 30" from the screen. Typically, though, I position a bottle 15" out.

You could do the same thing from a sunny window sill. You'd just have to elevate the window-end of the glass shelf above the window frame and abutting the window glass -- not an arrangement to leave in place when not in use. You wouldn't want to punch out your window with the glass shelf.

I use translucent, flexible "Chopping Mats" from a dollar store to mask lines of shelf junctions and edges. The Mats are 12" x 15" so their edges are cropped from the image. If you have trees or horizon beyond your sunny window, you could try taping a Chopping Mat to the window glass to obscure the scenery in the image.

Here are some basic suggestions I haven't posted for a good while:

Do you have editing software that came with your camera or with your scanner? Use the image-editing software (or download shareware from the Internet).


You can be as creative as you want to be with the editing software, but the following basic things will improve anyone's images:


GROUP IMAGES of more than one or two bottles are not effective. The more individual bottles in an image, the greater the amount of table-top is in the image. Viewers cannot see the details of a bottle that might take up less than five percent of the total image. Photograph a single bottle (or two or three, if they're tiny), and post that image.

DON'T OBSCURE details of the bottle by pinching it between your fingers. If you want to use fingers to provide scale, support the bottle from below ... that is, on top of your fingers. To improve the focus, rest your hand with the bottle on a stable surface like a table or desk. But, it?s usually best to avoid cluttering the background of the image with anything extraneous.


SCALE is important. Provide measurements of your bottle in millimeters and inches for the widest audience. Don't use a coin for scale; there are many foreign subscribers who don't know your coin's size.


LIGHT IT UP. Use as much ambient light as possible to reduce shadows...two light sources are a minimum. Ambient light is usually more effective than flash which produces flares. Eliminate yellowed images caused by tungsten filament bulbs by switching to the new compact flourescent bulbs. CFLs come in a "daylight" (6500K) version that you can use in any (non-dimming) fixture and produce very little heat. Some LEDs produce a near-daylight effect.


ELIMINATE SHADOWS by elevating the bottle on a glass or colorless plastic stage a couple of inches above the background. Illuminate the bottle AND THE BACKGROUND in this configuration. There are numerous things around the house to use for this purpose, from scrap window-glass to disposable plastic food/drink containers. Colorless glass is best placed 3 or 4 feet from a diffuse light source like a lampshade or bright window.


BRIGHTEN AND CONTRAST. BRIGHTEN the image in the imaging software until the bottle appears slightly washed, then adjust the CONTRAST until the bottle is bright and sharp and is a good color-match. Practice this until you get a feel for it.

Great explanation on how to photograph glass. Thank you

 

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[Harry Pristis]

Here's a sunburst flask, GVIII-29.

 

[pepperj]

Here's a sunburst flask, GVIII-29.

Love the colour of this one.
Thanks for sharing it Harry
(sorry for the tardy reply also-summer spaced it)

 

[epackage]

The SEVEN 1/2 pint flasks from A.L. Schwarz in Paterson N.J., in all I have around 25-30 of his flasks in all sizes...

 

[pepperj]

Impressive collection
Out of the 25-30 in the collection how many different variations have you got, and how many variations were made?

 

[Harry Pristis]

Here's a little flask:

 

[epackage]

Impressive collection
Out of the 25-30 in the collection how many different variations have you got, and how many variations were made?

All of them are different in one form or another, I would say there are probably 35-40 in total. There is one more 1/2 pint I know of that I'm trying to acquire...

here is one more 1/2 pint I know of that I'm trying to acquire...

 

[pepperj]

All of them are different in one form or another, I would say there are probably 35-40 in total. TView attachment 1986150here is one more 1/2 pint I know of that I'm trying to acquire...

That's a really sweet amber, best of luck getting it into the collection.
That's quite the variety from one maker.

 

[pepperj]

Here's a little flask:

View attachment 1986121View attachment 1986122

That's one crazy flask! Love it, something that I've only seen in books.
What age would it be Harry?

 

[villagenut]

Here's a little flask:

View attachment 1986121View attachment 1986122

Thats a real beauty right there!

 

[Harry Pristis]

The little scroll flask dates to the 1840s-50s, I think.

Here is a handled flask from the 1850s:

 

[epackage]

That's a really sweet amber, best of luck getting it into the collection.
That's quite the variety from one maker.

I have other bottles from him too, maybe 10-12 round whiskey bottles in quart size and several beer bottles. I also have about 25 stoneware flasks from him...

 

[Harry Pristis]

It's interesting to note that with all the flask variants, SCHWARZ didn't have a proprietary mold for his liquor. All of those illustrated here were blown in plate molds. Plate molds were the later 19th Century development that made embossed bottles much less expensive and more accessible. That made sense (and cents) to Schwarz, apparently. In this case, it may bespeak a blue-collar marketing strategy which ignored the more prestigious proprietary bottle mold in favor of lower costs.

 

[pepperj]

That's a cool bit of history Harry, thanks for sharing it. 👍

 

[Harry Pristis]

Charles Wharton’s business address was 116 Walnut Street, a five-story building where a sign announced "Chestnut Grove Whiskey", and "Chas. Wharton Jr., Sole Agent." Not only was Charles the agent for this brand, he almost certainly was blending and compounding it from supplies of raw whiskeys obtained from the many Pennsylvania distillers of his era. Unlike other rectifiers who fancied many brands, Wharton appears to have preferred to be the master of just one - Chestnut Grove.

From the outset the proprietor had determined that a key to success was to package his whiskey in attractive glass bottles, often embossed with his name and the date of his founding (not the age of the whiskey). There is an unusual ewer-like container that appeals to collectors for its unusual shape and distinctive pouring lip. Wharton also featured a round bottle, shown here, that carries a 'slug plate' that reads "Chestnut Grove Whiskey" and carried his initials.

 

[Harry Pristis]

Here is the ewer-like flask without the Chestnut Grove embossing. This one was probably made in 1870s after Chestnut Grove Whiskey disappeared from the market.

 

[epackage]

The Paterson NJ flask I desire the most, it was in the collection of a fellow collector who passed away, at this time I have no idea what happened to entire collection, but my buddy is going to be asking his kids where the bottles went to...

North Paterson became Hawthorne N.J., but it's still very local and desirable to someone like myself. Frederick committed suicide in July of 1911, about 7 months after his wife Hettie passed away, very little is known about Mr. Kinnaird...

 

[Truth]

yours is a "Pumpkin Seed" bottle , mid-late 1800's

That is awesome eye!!! Thank you

 

[pepperj]

View attachment 1996922View attachment 1996923
Charles Wharton’s business address was 116 Walnut Street, a five-story building where a sign announced "Chestnut Grove Whiskey", and "Chas. Wharton Jr., Sole Agent." Not only was Charles the agent for this brand, he almost certainly was blending and compounding it from supplies of raw whiskeys obtained from the many Pennsylvania distillers of his era. Unlike other rectifiers who fancied many brands, Wharton appears to have preferred to be the master of just one - Chestnut Grove.

From the outset the proprietor had determined that a key to success was to package his whiskey in attractive glass bottles, often embossed with his name and the date of his founding (not the age of the whiskey). There is an unusual ewer-like container that appeals to collectors for its unusual shape and distinctive pouring lip. Wharton also featured a round bottle, shown here, that carries a 'slug plate' that reads "Chestnut Grove Whiskey" and carried his initials.

That is such a beauty, a dream piece to recover from the soils.

 

[JVA5th]

Finally went through all these since the post revived. Such cool stuff I'm jealous. Stuff like that is hard to find around here jn California. I don't know if I have any what you'd call flasks but years back I on Google earth in the mountains saw a weird square shaped thing and hiked out to it and it was a thing full of old bottles from 1920s - 1950s.