Who Collects Black Glass?

[Road Dog]

Very Nice ! One heck of a kick -up too!

 

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[Harry Pristis]

Very Nice ! One heck of a kick -up too!

It IS a remarkable kick-up, isn't it!

I have a common Bordeaux bottle that I keep just because it has such a deep kick-up. It dates to the mid-1800s. You can compare it to the XERES (sherry) wine bottle.

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The "standard" wine bottle volume is 0.75 to 0.78 liters. The volume of this bottle is 0.69 liters.

This is no "cheat" bottle such as Van den Bossche features on the dust-jacket of his book, but you can see that such big kick-ups work in favor of the vintner (and against the consumer). Later, mold-blown and machine-blown bottles ended the variations in volume.

 

[Harry Pristis]

Here's another black glass bottle with a special purpose. It's a preserving bottle used to hold truffles (not the chocolates!). Truffles are fungi which grow underground on the roots of oak trees (I believe it's oaks). They are searched out by specially trained dogs or pigs. They are an expensive delicacy.

This French bottle is perhaps the blackest glass I own. It was recovered near London. It's heavy with a an applied string lip. It's free-blown with an iron pontil scar. I have seen these rarely in colorless glass, but most are this super-black color. This is a traditional shape for truffles bottles.

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[Harry Pristis]

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Here are two black glass bottles I like. One is a an "octagonal" (notice the bevelled corners). It dates to the late 1700s. This little bottle could have contained almost anything from medicine to whiskey.

The onion is often called a horse's hoof onion because of the shape. It was probably made in Belgium in the early part of the 1700s. Again, such a bottle could have contained anything, but it was commonly used for spirits.

No one else got a black glass bottle to show off

 

[Road Dog]

Dude you are happinin in Black Glass! Here is a 3 piece Mold I have. Excuse my kitchen light pics.

I can't say I remember seeing a Truffle Bottle. WOW!

 

[Harry Pristis]

Dude you are happinin in Black Glass! Here is a 3 piece Mold I have. Excuse my kitchen light pics.

I can't say I remember seeing a Truffle Bottle. WOW!

Who does not admire these durable utility bottles! Your bottle looks to fall into that 1830-1860 range -- not unlike the two 3-mold bottles I posted earlier in this thread (I didn't label them, but you can see the mold-marks). Your bottle appears to have the satin patina of a river bottle -- are you a river diver, 'Road Dog'?

Here's one you'll appreciate: iron ("improved") pontil, HOPKINS / CHALYBEATE / BALTIMORE

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[Road Dog]

Not a diver , but I have waded in some sounds and river for stuff. LOL. The Hopkins..........What can ya say? I know some Baltimore collectors that would love that one not to mention myself. I have a old Houck's bottle from Baltimore.
I once entertained tumbling that bottle, but I think the patina adds to the character.

 

[Harry Pristis]

Not a diver , but I have waded in some sounds and river for stuff. LOL. The Hopkins..........What can ya say? I know some Baltimore collectors that would love that one not to mention myself. I have a old Houck's bottle from Baltimore.
I once entertained tumbling that bottle, but I think the patina adds to the character.

I understand about the patina; I have a few on my shelf that have the same satin finish.

After posting here a few of my older images, I decided that I need to do some over. Here's one I did this afternoon. It fits this thread 'cause the bottle is about the same age as your black glass bottle, probably 1850s. It's a 3-mold bottle, made in a Ricketts patent mold. The bottle appears more yellow-olive than in this image, I think.

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[Road Dog]

Great Bottle! Almost bought one with the Ricketts embossed around the base a month ago. I'll get one sooner or later.

 

[Harry Pristis]

Great Bottle! Almost bought one with the Ricketts embossed around the base a month ago. I'll get one sooner or later.

Here's an uncommon Ricketts patent (or a knock-off) bottle. The bottle looks fairly routine, unremarkable even, UNTIL you turn it downside-up. In the underside, you can see the 18th century heritage of glass-blowing in the early 19th century.

The Ricketts patent was issued in 1821, and there was a rush to take advantage of this revolutionary technology for producing uniform bottles at a rapid rate. Apparently, Archibald Sinclair invested in one of these early 3-piece mold machines.

I don't know anyone else with one of these A. Sinclair bottles. I finally managed to find someone in Liverpool who looked into the old city directories for the information I have.

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[Harry Pristis]

Here's a bottle that was made for a considerable while in the 1800s -- this one probably dates to the 1840s. Later bottles are found in many color variants from loden to teal. The embossing on four panels reads:

DR. TOWNSEND'S
SARSAPARILLA
ALBANY, N.Y.
II​

[size=14pt]The base has a glass pontil scar. It's very heavy and is a very dark yellow-olive amber.

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[Road Dog]

I've always liked those Townsends. I'll have one if the price is right. I use to have some Wolfies back in the day. The large pontilled ones are shaped similar.

 

[Harry Pristis]

Wolfies?? Is that the schnapps bottle?

I found one of these Dr. Townsend's bottles in a river. It was covered in slime and barnacles -- I thought it was a brick when I picked it up. Imagine my surprise and delight! This is the one I found:

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[Road Dog]

Yeah ,the Schnapps. WOW!, what a find. Did you give it a acid bath?

 

[Road Dog]

Sold this beauty a few years ago.

 

[Harry Pristis]

Yeah ,the Schnapps. WOW!, what a find. Did you give it a acid bath?

Yes, I am mighty proud of that Dr. Townsend's bottle. Acid bath? It's been so long ago that I don't remember. Probably used vinegar (acetic acid) -- is there a better way to clean it up?

Your blob-top sodas look so clean. Do you tumble your own bottles? (I ask because you said earlier that you were tempted to tumble your black glass utility bottle.) I've thought about investing in a tumbler, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

I really like your snuff bottle! I would have had a hard time letting it go. Those little American utility bottles are fascinating, but they are expensive to collect 'cause they're in such demand. Did the label add a lot to the value of your snuff?

Here's another American form that I like:

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[Road Dog]

The label did not add as much value as I would have liked. Those little beauties are very collectible! Stoddard?
I don't have a tumbler, I know some folks here and there that have them though.
I was thinking muriatic acid cleaning. Your method is safer.

 

[Harry Pristis]

Here are a couple of food preserving jars from the first half of the nineteenth century. Both of these are free-blown with glass pontil scars.

While these jars appear olive-green and not "black," bottle collectors accept early glass in all of these shades - pale olive-green to green-black - as "black glass."

These jars were closed with a bit of waxed cloth secured with string around the neck.

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[BuckleBoy]

Yeah ,the Schnapps. WOW!, what a find. Did you give it a acid bath?

[size=14pt]Yes, I am mighty proud of that Dr. Townsend's bottle. Acid bath? It's been so long ago that I don't remember. Probably used vinegar (acetic acid) -- is there a better way to clean it up?

In the absence of a bottle tumbler, will vinegar do a comparable job in removing the "haze" from old bottle digs?

 

[Harry Pristis]

Yeah ,the Schnapps. WOW!, what a find. Did you give it a acid bath?

Yes, I am mighty proud of that Dr. Townsend's bottle. Acid bath? It's been so long ago that I don't remember. Probably used vinegar (acetic acid) -- is there a better way to clean it up?

In the absence of a bottle tumbler, will vinegar do a comparable job in removing the "haze" from old bottle digs?

[size=14pt]I think 'Road Dog' had barnacle traces in mind when he asked about the acid bath.

The "haze" - the sickness - usually is not caused by mineral stains. Mineral stains are easily removed with vinegar or commercial bathroom cleaners.

The sickness is a result of the decomposition of the glass . . . some of the components of the glass are dissolving. The silica is more resistant to this process than the soda and lime, so the glass is dissolving irregularly (on a microscopic scale). This irregular (or etched) surface refracts light so that the glass appears cloudy.

There is no good way to restore the surface of the glass except by abrasive polishing it. This is done by tumbling the bottle with abrasive grit and bits of copper wire (to give the grit some heft).

Oiling the surface is about as good as you can do short of tumble-polishing a bottle.

How about showing us some of your black glass, 'Buckleboy'!