Help with a Black Glass Bottle

bottlehunterofcoscob

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Dec 25, 2012
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Hope everyone is having a good Thanksgiving!

Here is a nice, crude black glass bottle I found this summer. Does anyone have an idea on age? The top isn't like the kind I'm used to seeing but maybe that's just me. It's fairly misshapen and has a sand pontil scar. I don't find a lot of black glass so I don't know much about it.

Thanks! ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1448548682.602371.jpgImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1448548697.967158.jpgImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1448548713.788806.jpgImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1448548730.068078.jpg
 

the bottle is an 1790s 1800s . the lip is an early attempt at hand tooled .once the Rickets three pace mold came in also the lip tooling device also was invented .
 

Nice find! That's an unusual lip treatment, at least in my experience. I think this ale bottle was blown in 1830s - 1850s era. By this time, the lower lip collar is no longer a separately-applied string of glass, but is created by the lipping tool. Use of a three-piece mold was common but not universal. (Did you give a mold description?) What color is the glass?

What seems unusual about the bottle is that the common lip finish by that time is a sloping double-collar or a bead double-collar. What would you call this one . . . a "disk" or "cylindrical double-collar"? I looked at my black bottles just now, and noted a number of different lip finishes, but none just like yours. "Different" is the key to interesting!
 

Nice find! That's an unusual lip treatment, at least in my experience. I think this ale bottle was blown in 1830s - 1850s era. By this time, the lower lip collar is no longer a separately-applied string of glass, but is created by the lipping tool. Use of a three-piece mold was common but not universal. (Did you give a mold description?) What color is the glass?

What seems unusual about the bottle is that the common lip finish by that time is a sloping double-collar or a bead double-collar. What would you call this one . . . a "disk" or "cylindrical double-collar"? I looked at my black bottles just now, and noted a number of different lip finishes, but none just like yours. "Different" is the key to interesting!

Thanks for the info, Harry! There are no mold seams on this bottle, but there is a slight line that wraps around the bottle on the shoulder. I would most likely call the lip a cylindrical double collar. As far as color, here are a couple pictures (not sure exactly how to describe it). ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1448557564.147010.jpgImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1448557686.607021.jpgImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1448557848.399360.jpg
 

Thanks for the info, Harry! There are no mold seams on this bottle, but there is a slight line that wraps around the bottle on the shoulder. I would most likely call the lip a cylindrical double collar. As far as color, here are a couple pictures (not sure exactly how to describe it). View attachment 1240046View attachment 1240052View attachment 1240055

The olive-amber glass indicates a reduction kiln was used, but by the early mid-1800s, coal-fired reduction furnaces had mostly replaced the wood-fired furnaces in European glassworks which had produced olive-green glass. (There were some exceptions - Black Forest glass from Southern Germany comes to mind.) There are always exceptions, it seems.

The mark around the shoulder (from blow-over) indicates a dip mold was used to produce your bottle. Dip molds were the first bottle molds, but they remained in use for much of the 19th Century.

black_ale_pair.JPG
 

The olive-amber glass indicates a reduction kiln was used, but by the early mid-1800s, coal-fired reduction furnaces had mostly replaced the wood-fired furnaces in European glassworks which had produced olive-green glass. (There were some exceptions - Black Forest glass from Southern Germany comes to mind.) There are always exceptions, it seems.

The mark around the shoulder (from blow-over) indicates a dip mold was used to produce your bottle. Dip molds were the first bottle molds, but they remained in use for much of the 19th Century.


Thank you for your wealth of knowledge, Harry!
 

That is sweet bottle. I have found similar tops in a circa
1850's dump here in Mass. I haven't dug very many
whole black glass bottles, but I did find four pontiled ales in a dump last year. Like you, I was intrigued by the lip treatment.
IMG_20151127_131659.jpgIMG_20151127_131402.jpgIMG_20151127_131413.jpg
 

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