Age of Wine bottle?

[NicksRelics]

Hey guys,

Today I went out metal detecting a new spot of forest along a creek branch in a continuation of a sawmill town exploration. Town dates to 1880.

Found a ton of the usual bullets, an 1899 V nickel, and a few small bottle dumps from the 1940's or so on up, old homestead dumps. The usual, milk glass, cobalt blue Milk of Magnesia, etc. But I saw this presumably wine bottle sticking out the ground and when I pulled it out it looked older than anything I've found in this spot. It doesn't look machine made, it's a cork top but I cant tell what type (applied or not) it has bubbles in it and it has X K on the bottom. Very thick glass.

Did I find something worthwhile or just a more modern piece?

PS, been finding shards of the purple glass here and there, I know there is a very old bottle dump somewhere, just have to find it.

 

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[Harry Pristis]

​It's an ale bottle circa 1870-80.

 

[NicksRelics]

WOW!

 

[Red-Coat]

If you look more closely, it’s actually ‘XI K’ with a raised 'pimple' separating the lettering groups, which is a mark found on British-origin stout bottles from ca. 1900 to 1910 and perhaps a bit later. Stout is a strong, dark beer made with roasted malts.

The mark is believed to be one of those used by the Kinghorn Bottleworks, established around 1900/1901 by William Bailey (of Mid-Lothian Glass Works, Portobello) on the site of an old Saltworks at Pettycur Bay in Scotland. I doubt that they exported empty bottles to America, but this is a generic stout bottle and certainly a number of breweries using it in Scotland and the North of England did export their finished products. The bottle has turned up in a number of American locations.

The bottleworks was only open for about a year but then re-opened in 1908 as the ‘Kinghorn Bottle Company’ until they were taken over by United Glass in 1937.

PS: Welcome to Tnet

 

[NicksRelics]

Nice info. Crazy it ended up here.

I actually did read it as XI K at first, but then second guessed myself and thought the "I" might me an impression otherwise unintended.

Still neat!!

 

[Harry Pristis]

Finally, a reasonable, authoritative-sounding explanation for these black bottles! I have heard more than a few guesses about these bottles, including that the "K" represents "Kentucky Glass Works." Thank you, Red-Coat.

 

[Red-Coat]

Finally, a reasonable, authoritative-sounding explanation for these black bottles! I have heard more than a few guesses about these bottles, including that the "K" represents "Kentucky Glass Works." Thank you, Red-Coat.

You're welcome Harry. The bottles are usually dense green glass, with the appearance of black until you shine a bright light through them.

Kinghorn are reported as using ‘K’ marks with numerals in various forms until perhaps as late as 1920. Apart from the XI•K mark which is probably from their early period of operation, the mark is also seen on stout bottles here as II•K, K•8, and K•IX plus K/ • /14 among others.

After 1920, the Kinghorn factory was in the ownership of Distillers Co., Ltd., and using a simple KX mark until the takeover by United Glass in 1937.

The attribution of the mark comes from Julian Harrison Toulouse’s publication “Bottle Makers and Their Marks” [1971].

 

[NicksRelics]

Tell you what, if someone was to get hit over the head with this Ale bottle, they probably wouldnt survive lol

 

[JordanMichael]

It's possible that you may have found a valuable vintage wine bottle. The cork top and the thick glass are indications that it could be an older bottle.

 

[Red-Coat]

It's possible that you may have found a valuable vintage wine bottle. The cork top and the thick glass are indications that it could be an older bottle.

Welcome to Tnet... but it's a (not uncommon) ale bottle from the early 1900s and almost certainly produced by Kinghorn in Scotland.