An amethyst-colored Victorian lady’s flask found during a bottle dig at a site where an outhouse once sat. The owner of the flask used WorthPoint’s Ask a Worthologist service to determine its idently and fair-market value.

WorthPoint member Suzanne from Massachusetts must have had that same rush of excitement when, in 1980, when she found an incredible, cut-glass flask with a sterling top. Suzanne told me that she found the flask during a bottle dig. You must be thinking, “a big hole with a bunch of bottles just waiting to be discovered? “ And then think, “How did those bottles get there?”

Bottle digs are mostly nothing more than the excavation of an outhouse. There were no weekly garbage pickups. Much of the everyday trash was placed in the outhouse. Outhouse were known by many different names: Nessy, Privy, Thunder Box, Crapper, Back House; whatever it was called, they all served the same purpose. Every house and business had one prior to indoor running water and plumbing. Enquiring minds: Yes, everything that can decompose has decomposed over time.

The valuation on Suzanne’s flask was done by Audra Blevens, a generalist Worthologist for WorthPoint. The flask that Suzanne found was a ladies flask, very ornate, with a sterling hinged top. The glass flask was made of a layer of amethyst-colored glass and a layer of clear glass. The design is made when the amethyst layer was cut away to reveal the clear glass. There are English Hallmarks in the silver top, which dates the flask to Birmingham, England, and the year 1901. The maker’s marks B&F remain unidentified, but a fair market value of $300 to $350 was placed on the flask. Today flasks are highly desirable and collected, particularly ladies’ flasks, which were very ornate.

Some examples of Victorian ladies’ flasks. These items are available for purchase on GoAntiques.

Ladies did have flasks. There were many different reasons for ladies to carry a pocket flask like the one Suzanne found. Apparently, there was much more imbibing going on than is generally thought. Social drinking was widely acceptable in Victorian times, and doctors frequently prescribed alcoholic beverages to alleviate a host of ailments. It would be quite reasonable for a lady to have a flask full of brandy, gin, absinthe or any numbers of homemade or quack cures. Laudanum, a liquid made of opium and alcohol, was prescribed for pain, as a cough suppressant, for sleeping problems and to calm down fussy babies. Many doctors neglected to inform their patients that laudanum was highly addictive, which is just one more reason to carry a flask.

Who knows how that flask ended up where it did at the bottle dig. It could have been secretly hidden away in the Privy for years and forgotten, or dropped in the hole by mistake, with the owner not daring to go in after it. Perhaps, during prohibition, someone felt the need to discard it. However the flask landed where it did, Suzanne was very happy to have found it and is happy knowing just a little bit of history about it. If only the flask could talk.

If you have an item you’d like to know more about, Ask a Worthologist.

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Collecting has gone global, thanks to the Internet. As a result, antiques and collectibles divide into two groups: (1) those that have a global market and (2) those with only a national or regional market. Beatles memorabilia and Royal Doulton are two examples of collecting categories that have a global market. Ceramic categories such as Hall, Hull, Roseville, Weller, etc., illustrate categories whose marketplace is limited to their country of origin.

America is the mother lode for antiques and collectibles. After World War I, during the Depression and in the two decades following World War II, American collectors and dealers raided the antiques and collectibles treasures of Africa, Asia, Europe, Central and South America, and other parts of the world.

Foreign items returning home

As the economic power of these countries increases, especially through the creation of a viable upper-middle and lower-upper class, private individuals and others are coming to American to buy back their historical heritage. Large quantities of Asian and European objects sold at auction are going back over the east or west horizon.

After World War II, the world was influenced by American movies, music and television. Licensed product associated with these three categories is collected worldwide. While some foreign licensed rights were issued, foreign collectors want the products sold in America, most of which did not appear abroad. A French Coca-Cola collector has far more American than French objects in his collection.

The trend toward investing in antiques and collectibles is increasing, thanks to the current world economic situation. Investors are moving from intangibles, such as bonds and stocks, to tangibles, such as gold and antiques and collectibles. Whereas Japanese investors played a significant role in the 1990s and early-21st-century market, today’s investors are likely to be from Arabic countries or Russia. These investors want the best of the best. They buy it wherever they find it, at home or abroad.

Online auctions broaden collectibles and antiques markets

Thanks to eBayliveauctions, no longer in business, worldwide collectors, dealers and investors want ready access to the American auction marketplace. Several firms, e.g., Artfact and Proxibid.com, have created platforms to replace eBayliveauctions. The viewing audience for these sites is smaller than for eBayliveauctions. The number will grow. Some sites will fall by the wayside; others merge. What will not change is the appetite of foreign buyers to play an active role in the American auction scene.

Some things sell better in one market than another, the result of personal preference and other considerations. When I visited antiques shops in Germany, I was astonished at the prices asked for pearl-handled fruit-knife sets, double to triple what they bring in the United States. Check out the clock and music box prices in Amsterdam’s antiques row, three to 10 times those for the same pieces in the United States market. Likewise, German collectors have little to no interest in late-19th/early-20th-century inkwells. Buy them in Germany, and sell them in the United States at triple what you paid.

Americans are jingoistic and isolationist when it comes to the antiques and collectibles marketplace. It is time to remove the blinders. The market is global. The next step is to determine the where, when and how.

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Rinker Enterprises and Harry L. Rinker are on the Internet. Check out his Web site.

You can listen and participate in “WHATCHA GOT?,” Harry’s antiques-and-collectibles radio call-in show on Sunday mornings between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Eastern Time. If you cannot find it on a station in your area, WHATCHA GOT?” streams live and is archived on the Internet.

“SELL, KEEP OR TOSS? HOW TO DOWNSIZE A HOME, SETTLE AN ESTATE, AND APPRAISE PERSONAL PROPERTY” (House of Collectibles, an imprint of the Random House Information Group), Harry’s latest book, is available at your favorite bookstore and via Harry’s Web site.

Harry L. Rinker welcomes questions from readers about collectibles, those mass-produced items from the 20th century. Selected letters will be answered on this site. Harry cannot provide personal answers. Photos and other material submitted cannot be returned. Send your questions to: Rinker on Collectibles, 5093 Vera Cruz Road, Emmaus, PA 18049. You also can e-mail your questions to harrylrinker@aol.com. Only e-mails containing a full name and mailing address will be considered. Please indicate that these are questions for WorthPoint.

Meet Harry Rinker in person at the 8th Annual Northeastern Pennsylvania Home & Garden Show, Jan. 23-25, in Wilkes-Barre. He will also be appearing at the 8th Annual Southeast Pennsylvania Home & Garden Show, March 13-15, in Reading.

WorthPoint—Get the Most from Your Antiques & Collectibles

There were no more than eight of the moss-green colored glass bottles, which stand just a tad over nine inches high and are valued as high as $10,000, known to exist when a business dealing with a New Englander on another bottle led to the rare tonic bottle emerging from an attic.

Sachems Bottle

“That’s the thing about the bottle market, there are still new discoveries and surprises,” Lindsey said. “Not quite as many as there used to be, but just enough to keep things interesting.”

The tradition of bottle collecting started out West, digging at old mining and logging camps, ghost town and whistle stops. That’s how Lindsey, who lives in Klamath Falls, Ore., started digging for bottles at Pacific Northwest mining and logging sites as a boy. “These were family outings,” Lindsey said.

Starting in the 1950s, the growing popularity of bottle collecting was driven by such “diggers,” and while digging started in the mining camps out west, it soon spread east. “Urban renewal opened a lot of land in big cities like New York and Philadelphia, and people started to hunt,” Lindsey said. “Wherever people lived, you find bottles, and for a long time, bottles were valuable, they were reused, so recycling goes back a long way. It was only after the Civil War that bottles became a common throwaway item.”

The collectible bottle market has focused on the period of blown-glass bottles—stretching in the U.S. from the late 1700s to the early 20th century, Lindsey said. In the 1920s, machine-produced glass containers supplanted hand-blown glass. Although now even some machine-made items like vintage milk and applied color label (aka ACL) soda bottles are seeing a market, Lindsey said.

And what makes a bottle a valuable collectible?

First, it generally can’t be machine made. It has to be hand-blown glass. “If one compares similar bottles made by both methods, one will easily be able to see the difference—the hand-blown example will have more ‘character’ to the glass,” Lindsey advised.

Cottle Bottle

Second, the brighter or odder the color, the greater the chances it is more valuable. “Color is king,” Lindsey said. There are, for instance, the soda bottles of Cottle, Post & Co., a Portland, Ore., beverage maker during the late 1870s. Most of the Cottle soda bottles were made in a blue-green glass that now fetches around $350 a bottle. There were, however, a few bottles blown in amber glass, and those go for about $2,000, Lindsey said.

Third, the odder the shape, the more valuable the bottle will be, both for its oddity and the fact that fewer of these will manage to survive making them rarer. Consider the elegant cathedral or “Gothic” pickle bottles of the mid-19th century. These long and graceful bottles broke easily, and so they are rare and can fetch upward of $40,000 for the extremely rare, deep amber glass examples produced in New England.

Pickle Bottle

Fourth, the bottle’s embossing can add to its value. Embossing took the place of labels early on, Lindsey explained. While many of the bottles sported just the name of the product and the manufacturer, others have embossing and motifs that were artistic, historical or commercial. There are, for example, the “Corn for the World” flasks with a large, heavily embossed ear of corn and the motto “Corn for the World.” These flasks run a few hundred dollars in aqua color, with the much rarer and aesthetic shades of deep green, various blues and blue-greens, and amber examples (someone once said, “Color is king”) being worth up to $4,000 or more.

Corn Front Bottle

A lot of historical details and information can be found on Lindsey’s website and at the Historic Glass and Bottle Identification & Information website, sponsored by the Society for Historic Archaeology and the federal Bureau of Land Management of which Lindsey is creator and author.

Bottle collecting got a big boost in the 1980s when several big auction houses held regular auctions featuring bottles, Lindsey said, and then got another market jolt with the advent of the Internet.

“Everything started to escalate, and in that flush of excitement, everything went,” Lindsey said. The glass bubble has, however, burst, and a little wiser and savvier approach is called for. “Most of the good stuff has been found,” Lindsey said, and then added, “But you know out in Virginia City, Nev., which has been the mecca for Western bottle diggers since the 1950s, they still turn up a good piece now and then.”

WorthPoint—Get the Most from Your Antiques & Collectibles

One of the earliest types of American made bottles used for liquor are known generically as “chestnut flasks”; they are also sometimes called “New England chestnut flasks” by collectors.  These type of bottles or flasks (hard to say which is more accurate, but I will call them flasks) were made in many sizes from a few inches tall to several gallons in capacity.

The chestnut flask shown in image #2 is a typical early American example that was most likely produced by a New England or possibly New Jersey glasshouse between 1790 and 1820s – the heyday for this style.  It is about 8″ tall, free-blown (that is, blown without the aid of a full body mold), has a blowpipe type pontil scar within a pushed up base, a crudely applied one-part lip (or “finish” in glassmaker parlance), and is medium olive green in color.  Click on the following links to view more pictures of this chestnut flask: side view; base view showing the blowpipe pontil scar.

Chestnut style flasks were almost certainly produced by most of the earliest viable American glasshouses and date as far back as the 1770s up through the 1830s.  The smallest (5″ or less) ones may have been primarily used for medicines, but medium and larger sizes were very commonly used for beverages including wine and various spirits.  Although often referred to as New England chestnut flasks, they were undoubtedly made by many different glasshouses up and down the Eastern Seaboard as it was a popular style during the noted era (McKearin & Wilson 1978).

Chestnut flasks are typically oval to a flattened oval in cross-section with an overall squatty “teardrop” shape when viewed straight on.  These flasks are free-blown typically (and thus have no mold seams in evidence) with glass tipped or blow-pipe pontil scars.  Because they are free-blown, the actual shapes are quite variable with some approaching round in cross-section to very compressed and “flask-like” on the other end of the scale. Typically the body of these flasks are about 1.5 to 2 times as wide as they are deep.  Finishes (aka “lip”) are applied and quite crude, varying much in shape and often defying simple categorization.  Occasionally, these flasks have a simple cracked-off/sheared and refired finish, but usually the finish is some type of one-part example made with applied glass that was crudely tooled to form a collar.

Colors vary with a large majority being some shade of olive green or olive amber; aqua to amber to teal blue have also been noted by this author, but are rare.  These flasks are usually very crudely formed with bubbles and ripples in the glass, flattened spots and bulges, and an overall lack of symmetry reflecting the free-blown manufacturing and early American heritage.  They usually have very light and thin glass for their size, though this is variable.  Similar bottles made in Europe go back at least to the late 17th century (McKearin & Wilson 1978; Van den Bossche 2001).

The grouping of five chestnut flasks pictured in image #1 are also likely products of the early New England glass companies although the tallest example in the group (9″ with a two-part finish instead of a one-part) may be the product of an early Pennsylvania or New Jersey glass company, as may some of the others in the grouping which range to as small as 5″ tall (McKearin & Wilson 1978).  All of these free-blown flasks share the same early manufacturing characteristics as the image #1 example and show some of the subtle range of glass colors that these bottles were made in.

American made chestnut flasks – although fairly abundant (relatively speaking considering the age of them) - are highly sought out by collectors in the U. S. as they are among the earliest utilitarian bottles known to have been made in America.

Values for American made chestnut flasks in good condition (i.e., no chips, cracks, or other post-production damage; some wear on the sides and base is typical) range from a $200-$300 to $1000 or more depending on size (very small and very large are highly desireable), color, crudity (the more the better…to a point), and condition.  Some times provenience matters in that examples known to have come from “famous” collections can demand a small premium.

For more information on the subject of bottle dating and typology – and the terminology used in the above descriptions – please consult my Historic Bottle Website at: www.sha.org/bottle/index.htm The references noted in the write-ups above are found on that sites “References” page at this link: www.sha.org/bottle/References.htm

For further information on early American bottles and flasks consult these references:

McKearin, Helen and Kenneth M. Wilson. 1978. American Bottles & Flasks and Their Ancestry. Crown Publishers, Inc., New York.

Wilson, Kenneth. 1972. New England Glass & Glassmaking. Thomas Y. Crowell Co., New York.

One of the easier to identify and most consistently accurate indicators that a bottle was manufactured during or prior to the American Civil War (i.e., the 1860s or before) is the pontil scar present on the base.

A pontil mark is a variably sized and type of scar left on the base of a bottle by a pontil rod. A typical pontil rod or “punte” was a long (4-6 feet) iron rod which was securely attached to the base of the just blown hot bottle. This attachment process was called “empontilling.” The rod had to be long enough so that the heat transference from the extremely hot (2000°+ F.) bottle did not reach the hands of the pontil rod holder. A pontil rod held the bottle during the steps in the bottle blowing process where the blowpipe is removed (“cracked-off”) from the bottle and that break-off point is “finished”, i.e. the lip or “finish” is completed in some fashion, with or without additional glass. (The process of “finishing” a bottle will be the subject of a future article.)

Once the bottle is “finished,” the pontil rod itself is sharply tapped which breaks it free of the bottle. The base of a bottle which was held with a pontil rod will almost always retain some evidence of the pontil rod attachment. (For more information on the production processes of making bottles, please see my “Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website” (HBW for short) at www.sha.org/bottle/index.htm . In particular see the “Glassmaking & Glassmakers” page at www.sha.org/bottle/glassmaking.htm )

Four types of pontil scars

There were four main types of empontilling methods – all of which leave more or less distinctively different base markings. These are briefly discussed below:

1. Glass-tipped pontil scar (image #1) – This type pontil scar was formed by the use of a solid iron bar as the pontil rod. One slightly widened end of the bar was tipped with molten glass then applied and fused to the base of the bottle. A glass tipped pontil rod made contact with most – or all – of the bottle base within the confines of the diameter of the pontil rod tip. When the rod was broken free of the bottle, a generally round but fragmented scar was left behind on the base.

This is usually manifested primarily by an assortment of glass fragments protruding above the base of the bottle. See image #1 which is a mid-19th century sauce bottle. In addition, the rod would usually take with it some small glass fragments from the base of the bottle leaving a scar which is a round scattering of “bumps and gouges” without a distinctly unmarred scar center – like the blowpipe pontil scar described next.

2. Blowpipe or “open” pontil scar (image #2) – This type of pontil mark – which was also called the “ring pontil” or “open pontil” – was formed when a hollow blowpipe was used as the pontil rod. It is at least as common on American made bottles as the glass tipped pontil mark (Boow 1991). Using a blowpipe for empontilling was likely done to both save on the number of tools used by the glass blower and to save time.

When a blowpipe was used as a pontil, it left behind a distinctive ring shaped scar that is usually sharp edged, hollow in the middle, and round to slightly oval with an overall diameter that is roughly the size of the bottles upper neck. This is circumstantial proof that one blowpipe was usually used for both blowing and empontilling. Image #2 shows a very large and distinct blowpipe pontil on the base of a “Jenny Lind calabash” bottle that dates from about 1850.

3. Sand pontil scar (image #3) – The sand pontil scar was also a common method of empontilling a bottle to hold it for finishing, though less common on American made bottles than the other three primary methods described here. This mark was formed when the hot glass on the flared or ball shaped tip of a solid iron pontil rod was dipped in sand (or small glass chips) prior to application to the bottle base. The sand/glass chips were apparently intended to keep the pontil rod from adhering too closely to the bottle, facilitating easier removal.

A larger connecting surface at the end of the pontil rod was necessary with this method in order to ensure an adequate adherence to the bottle base and was of particular use with the ever increasing numbers of molded bottles during the first half of the 19th century. The sand pontil apparently conformed better than other pontil types to molded base shapes without distorting it (Jones 1971; McDougall 1990).

This type of pontil can be very subtle and hard to identify at times (it is also hard to photograph). It often must be confirmed by running ones finger over the base and feeling for the presence of a finger grabbing “sandpaper effect.” It feels and visually appears to be a generally round, sparse scattering of very fine sand, glass, or quartz grains imbedded onto and into the surface glass of the base. Some have described this as an “orange peel” effect (McDougall 1990). See image #3 which shows the base of an 1830s to 1840s patent medicine (“Health Restorative”) bottle from New York.

The sand pontil will usually (though lightly) cover a much larger diameter area on the base than typically affected by the other three empontilling methods covered here (although iron pontil marks can be wide also; see the next section). The base of a sand pontiled bottle will often show some distortion made by the red hot pontil rod ball tip/head application to the bottle base which often more or less outlines the sand pontil area. The noted image shows a sand pontil with the distortion (indented slightly) made by the pontil ball tip in evidence.

4. Iron or” improved” pontil scar (image #4) – This fascinating type of pontil mark is also referred to as simply an “iron pontil” or “improved pontil.” It is also commonly referred to as a “graphite pontil.” This is erroneous as there is no graphite (carbon) associated with any improved or iron pontil mark. Apparently the term originated from the fact that the substance often looks like a graphite smear. In actuality, the residual red, reddish black, gray, or black deposits are iron, typically oxidized iron – ferric (red) and ferrous (gray, black) oxides (Toulouse 1968; McKearin & Wilson 1978).

The iron pontil scar is the result of using a bare iron pontil rod with an appropriate shaped tip or head which was heated red hot and directly applied and fused to the base of the bottle to be held. There was no glass added (like the glass-tipped pontil rod) or remaining (like using the blowpipe for a pontil) on the iron tip of this type pontil rod.

Like the other pontil rod types, this one was probably removed by sharply tapping the rod near the attachment point. The iron deposits which form the iron pontil mark are very small fragments or residue from the tip of the bare iron pontil rod itself. Image #4 is of a “gothic peppersauce” bottle from the 1850s with a classic dark gray iron pontil mark.

For more detailed information on the fascinating world of pontil marks or scars – including many more images and illustrations – check out the “Pontil Scars” page of my Historic Bottle Website at www.sha.org/bottle/pontil_scars.htm

Dating bottles with pontil scars

Pontil rods and the resultant pontil scars go back to antiquity, having been used for bottle making as early as Roman times (McKearin 1941). All of the different pontil scars noted can be found on American made utilitarian bottles that date to or before the American Civil War (mid-1860s). Pontil scars on all types of “utilitarian bottles” (discussed below) became ever increasingly unusual as the 1860s progressed and largely disappeared by the late 1860s or early 1870s as various “snap” or snap case tools dominated the task of grasping the hot bottle for finishing.

However, the transition time for conversion from the pontil rod to the snap case was lengthy. The first use of the grasping snap tool in the United States may have been in the 1840s, but its use was definitely evident by at least the early 1850s. Thus, utilitarian bottles without a pontil scar can date as early as the late 1840s to early 1850s (though rarely earlier) and pontil scars can be found – though very infrequently – on utilitarian bottles made in the late 1860s and even early 1870s

More specifically, glass tipped, blowpipe, and sand pontil marks may all be found on most all bottles dating well before bottles were even made in any quantity in the New World, i.e. before the late 18th century, and continued to be common on a large majority of bottles up until the American Civil War. Some utilitarian bottles (though a relatively small percentage) were still being produced with these pontil marks as late as the early 1870s. After that time, those types of pontil scars are very unusual and related mostly to the production of low volume “specialty” bottles (e.g., fancy liquor decanters, barber bottles).

The bare iron pontil apparently had a fairly narrow lifespan as the majority of these bottles date between about 1845 and the mid-1860s, though they can be as early as 1830s and possibly as late as the early 1870s. They are particularly common on mid-19th century soda/mineral water bottles but can be found on a wide variety of bottle types (Toulouse 1968; Watson & Skrill 1971; McKearin & Wilson 1978; Cannon 1990; Boow 1991; Van den Bossche 2001).

Pontil scars and bottle values

It is very simple to summarize the impact of pontil scars on historic bottles: pontil scars of all types enhance the value of a bottle almost without exception (and I can’t think of any exceptions). The attraction of pontil scars/marks to collectors is largely connected with the fact that the mark proves a Civil War (or earlier) heritage and is a visual, physical connection of that bottle with the primitive, craft based bottle manufacturing methods of old.

As an example of how a pontil mark affects value, consider a “Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters” bottle – one of the most common bitters bottles made during the last half of the 19th century — which may be worth $10 to $500 depending on color (plain ambers at the lower end; various shades of green – like image #5 – or black glass at the upper end of the scale). However, if that same Hostetter’s bottle has a distinct iron pontil scar the value increases at least 10-fold! (Pontiled Hostetter’s bottles are extremely rare, but do exist.) Although the spread in value usually isn’t that great, most bottles are worth significantly more if the base exhibits a pontil scar than if it does not and is “smooth” to use collector jargon.

To view the references noted in this article view the HBW “References” page at www.sha.org/bottle/References.htm
For viewers unfamiliar with some of the terminology used in the descriptions, please see the HBW “Bottle Glossary” page at www.sha.org/bottle/glossary.htm

I will join (pay) when someone will help me. Someone from no where. I would like to learn, but have alot to deal with. I just want one person to tell me about my perfume bottle. Without a hassell

One of the most pervasive and longest running myths in the world of bottle dating is that the side mold seam can be read like a thermometer to determine the age of a bottle.(See image #1, which is an illustration pointing out the major “parts” of a bottle, including the side mold seam. Illustration from my Historic Bottle Website – a purely educational website.)

The concept is that the higher the side mold seam on the bottle (i.e., the closer to the lip) the later it was made – at least in the era from the early to mid 19th century until the first few decades of the 20th century. This dating tool was first devised by Grace Kendrick in her 1963 book “The Antique Bottle Collector.” This book was pioneering and reprinted many times into the 1970s and is probably the most common and widely quoted bottle book ever written, containing a wealth of generally good information.

This concept was articulated by Kendrick’s in a chapter entitled the “The Applied Lip” which contains an “Age Gauge: Mold Seams of Bottles” chart (Figure 9). Kendrick’s explains in the text (pages 45-47) that:

It is true that the mold seams can be used like a thermometer to determine the approximate age of a bottle. The closer to the top of the bottle the seams extend, the more recent was the production of the bottle.

The chart accompanying this statement notes that bottles made before 1860 have a side mold seam ending on the shoulder or low on the neck, between 1860 and 1880 the seam ends just below the finish (the glassmaker term for a bottle lip), between 1880 and 1900 the seam ends within the finish just below the finish rim (top lip surface), and those made after 1900 have mold seams ending right at the top surface of the finish, i.e., rim (Kendrick 1963).

Dating bottles is complicated

There are examples of bottles having mold seams that fit these date ranges properly. For instance the newest of bottles – those that were machine-made – do have seams ending right at the top (or on top of) the lip or finish. However, the issue of dating bottles is much more complicated than the simple reading of side mold seams. If it were indeed that simple a large chunk of my Historic Bottle Website would be unnecessary!

For example, the mouth-blown process that produces a “tooled” finish frequently erases traces of the side mold seam an inch or more below the base of the finish whereas the typical – and older – “applied” finish has the seam ending higher – right at the base of the finish (Lockhart et. al. 2005e). See image #2 which shows the side mold seam on a “malt tonic” bottle (entire bottle shown in image #3) dating from 1906 to 1916 based on information from business directories, other references, and additional manufacturing related features present on the bottle (the subject of future articles). As a side note, this bottle also has a crown cap accepting lip which was not even invented until 1892. Using the dating “thermometer,” this bottle would presumably date from the 1860 to 1880 period.

The reason I address this issue is that the concept keeps popping up in the literature of bottle dating and identification, ranging from Sellari’s books (Sellari 1970:5) published shortly after Kendrick’s book to as recent as Fike (1998:4) and Heetderk (2002:15). It is also frequently noted by sellers on websites such as eBay® when describing their offerings. For a broader discussion of this subject see the Bottles and Extras magazine article, which I co-authored, entitled Debunking the Myth of the Side Seam Thermometer (Lockhart et al. 2005e). This article is available on the Historic Bottle Website at this link: http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/Thermometer_BLockhart.pdf

The complicated issue of mold seams and dating is explored in various portions of my Historic Bottle Website (www.sha.org/bottle/index.htm), though in particular on the Bottle Body Characteristics & Mold Seams page (www.sha.org/bottle/moldseams.htm) and the Bottle Bases page (www.sha.org/bottle/bases.htm).

(For more information on the subject of bottle dating and typology – and the terminology used in the above descriptions – please consult my Historic Bottle Website at www.sha.org/bottle/index.htm. The references used in this article can be found listed on my website’s References page at: www.sha.org/bottle/References.htm)

As a child in Kentucky, I remember collectors would often go to the old buildings around town to dig for antique bottles. Out in the country was also a favorite place to search for antique bottle treasures, because the farmers often used their trash to fill gullies to stop erosion. In fact, anywhere trash had been disposed of is a place people would hunt for antique bottles.

If you are new to collecting these great pieces from our country’s past or considering collecting or dealing in antique bottles, it’s important to know that there are a lot of fakes out there. While there are excellent bottle guides on the market, increasing your knowledge and depending on an expert you’ve cultivated a relationship with is a good idea. It’s also very important to have a good close up look at many bottles and to handle them over and over again before you begin to trust your own judgment.

One of the best places I’ve found to learn more about antique bottles is through the Society of Historical Archaeology and Bureau of Land Management’s Historic Glass Bottle Identification and Information Website. It’s possible to spend an untold number of hours looking at their examples, reading, and going through their links.
While they don’t discuss value on the site, many of the sites they refer will discuss value.

There are many different types of bottles, and there are collectors for all of them. Some of the bottle types are liquor/spirits bottles, medicinal bottles which the druggists used, food and canning jars, beer and ale bottles, soda and mineral water bottles, and ink wells, just to name a few.

As in all categories of antiques and collectibles, there are those items that are considered more valuable and sought after than others, and antique bottles are no different. Rarity, color, condition, and age are a few important components when evaluating whether or not you’ve run across a valuable bottle. An old, rare bottle in poor condition might not be worth much.

Bottles that have raised lettering can be very desirable, and colors in blue, green, yellow, amber, grayish purple and variations of these are highly desirable. Clear or aqua colored bottles are generally less desired, and so, less valuable. There are exceptions, however.

If you find a bottle that has a circular indentation on the bottom of its base, chances are the bottle was made before 1860. This indentation (the pontil) shows where the bottle was separated from the rod after it was made.

I run across many bottles and flasks at many of the sales I attend, however, this is not one of my strongest areas. I have probably passed by terrific finds while I was out looking at paintings or pottery, however, I’m seriously considering expanding my horizons after reading Maine Antique Digest’s bottle auction results. The results showed that a brilliant yellow railroad flask made by Lancaster Glass Works of Lancaster, New York, estimated to sell between $10,000 – $20,000, sold for a whopping $29,000. While the remaining bottles weren’t hammered at such an astonishing price, these bottles managed to top over $3,000, and several came in over $10,000. It makes me wonder if it might be a good idea to risk a few dollars if I run across some at a garage sale.

Bottle collecting is of great interest to many, and there are many antique bottle clubs, magazines, and guides to help you start a collection or aid in adding antique bottles to your list of items for trade. When you come across a real find, I can safely say there will be multiple buyers lined up for it.

Everyday, members of the 31 Club, which I lead, are increasing their knowledge base about antique and collectible items just like these antique bottles. 31 Club helps take the mystery out of spotting valuable items, instructs members how to make money in these markets, and then we show how to grow your profits into lifetime wealth. All by buying, selling and reinvesting in antiques, collectibles and art.

Find out more about The 31 Club, based upon the book, “31 Steps to Your Millions in Antiques & Collectibles” at http://www.31corp.co…

Resources:

The Society of Historical Archaeology together with the U.S Department of the Interior/Bureau of Land Management
www.sha.org/bottle

www.AmericanBottle.c… has a good history of glass

www.NationalBottleMu…

www.antiquebottles.c…

The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors
www.fohbc.com/ ]]> http://www.worthpoint.com/research_library/learning-about-and-spotting-value-antique-bottles/feed 5