Cobalt Blue Milk Bottles

[Indian Steve]

I was wondering if any of you have found or bought a cobalt blue milk bottle? Back in 1979, I was set up at an indoor flea/ antique market in Knoxville Tennessee. Next to my booth was a guy selling old bottles. Front & center in his booth was a "rare" cobalt blue milk bottle priced at $200. He had lots of lookers and eventually sold it. An hour later another one came out from under the table and took it's place. After a while, we got to talking and he told us that he had picked up an xray machine at a surplus auction and was running batches of bottles through it and now and then getting one to turn cobalt blue. He had a whole box of them under his table. He took $5 bottles and got $200 for them. I never ran into him again but wonder how many he actually sold and if he died as a result of radiation poisoning.

 

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[alloy_II]

The glass insulator below started out as clear glass after many years of exposure to UV light has turned the glass from clear to amethyst.

Some folks will store their clear glass milk bottles and canning jars on the roof of a backyard shed to achieve color modification.

One of my favorite glass colors cranberry glass which is made with a small addition of gold ions.

This page has some very good information on glass colors and dating. Bottle/Glass Colors

 

[Red-Coat]

There are lots of colours which can be produced by irradiation but I'm not aware of 'cobalt blue' being a possibility with a bottle that was clear to begin with. Purple hues, yes, but not blue as such.

Cobalt blue milk bottles began appearing as reproductions in large quantities during the 1970s and 1980s, almost all imported from Asia (usually China) but were made from blue glass to begin with. Like this one... a reproduction Brookfield 'Baby Face' milk bottle, for which the original would have been clear or nearly clear glass:



If the guy selling those bottles was actually putting them through an X-ray machine (I'm doubtful about that) he wouldn't have been in any danger if he was operating it correctly and the shielding was in good condition. Also, X-raying a bottle doesn't actually make the bottle radioactive.

 

[UnderMiner]

UV turns many types of old clear glass violet, not cobalt blue, that's the work of reproductions - even more worthless than UV-exposed clear glass. I have an original glass motor oil bottle that's worth about $200, I saw a cobalt blue version of this bottle for sale on Ebay for $45 - some morons buy these thinking they're original and rare but if they just did a little reserch they would know there is no such thing outside bootleg Chinese glass. The one way you can tell bootleg glass from original is the seam lines - bootlegs have thin clear and pronounced seams from where they are molded, older bottles are usually hand-tooled and seamless.

Just to reiterate, it is impossible the X-Ray a color into glass and UV exposure only produces a violet hue, it sounds like this guy was mixing up these stories to make something people found fascinating.

 

[Indian Steve]

UV turns many types of old clear glass violet, not cobalt blue, that's the work of reproductions - even more worthless than UV-exposed clear glass. I have an original glass motor oil bottle that's worth about $200, I saw a cobalt blue version of this bottle for sale on Ebay for $45 - some morons buy these thinking they're original and rare but if they just did a little reserch they would know there is no such thing outside bootleg Chinese glass. The one way you can tell bootleg glass from original is the seam lines - bootlegs have thin clear and pronounced seams from where they are molded, older bottles are usually hand-tooled and seamless.

Just to reiterate, it is impossible the X-Ray a color into glass and UV exposure only produces a violet hue, it sounds like this guy was mixing up these stories to make something people found fascinating.

Nice to know. I just remembered what he told us. It was 1979 so i doubt that they were chinese glass but who knows. I did see a box full of them under his table and took his story as is. They were deep cobalt blue.

 

[Red-Coat]

It was 1979 so i doubt that they were chinese glass...

But that's bang-slap in the middle of the time-frame when fake Chinese cobalt blue milk bottles first hit the US market!

 

[UnderMiner]

But that's bang-slap in the middle of the time-frame when fake Chinese cobalt blue milk bottles first hit the US market!

Indeed, that was their primary export at the time - seeing as filling them with milk and selling them legitimately was too expensive. XD

 

[Datil_mountain_muse]

There was many coming from Taiwan ROC.

 

[GreenHorn]

The glass insulator below started out as clear glass after many years of exposure to UV light has turned the glass from clear to amethyst.

Some folks will store their clear glass milk bottles and canning jars on the roof of a backyard shed to achieve color modification.

One of my favorite glass colors cranberry glass which is made with a small addition of gold ions.

This page has some very good information on glass colors and dating. Bottle/Glass Colors

View attachment 2006768
View attachment 2006769

This is a CD154 hemingray that never came in or would have turned this color. This has been dyed or stained. 100% not a legit color