One of the nicest inks I've ever seen

[RIBottleguy]

Without the slightest doubt in my mind a modern fantasy piece. I'm willing to bet my entire collection (worth tens of thousands) on it.

 

[relic rescuer]

I have found three inkwells so far Scuba Diving two from the 1920s or 1930s and then this one. What do you think?

Is that Vaseline glass? Sure looks like it.

 

[farmkiti]

I don't know if it's new or old, but I like the color. It's beautiful. Since I also collect fountain pens, this one really caught my eye.

 

[Oldsdigger]

Robbybobby64, what you found was a Victorian Penny Ink. They were usually from the UK with sheared tops opossed to a tooled lip. There are a lot of different varients ! Here is a grouping of several of my Penny Inks.

 

[Nickneff]

Robbybobby64, what you found was a Victorian Penny Ink. They were usually from the UK with sheared tops opossed to a tooled lip. There are a lot of different varients ! Here is a grouping of several of my Penny Inks. View attachment 217938

Very nice assortment of inks beautiful colors thanks for sharing

 

[saratogadriver]

Unfortunately for the original poster that is definitely a repro or fantasy piece from the 1970s. Great color though. The mold seam going all the way up through the lip is a dead giveaway of machine made. I don't know if all wheaton repros have that marked on them... it may be a japanese repro. There are some of those out there also and there are definitely unmarked repros.

I don't know of an actual pre-1900 ink bottle in exactly that form, which is why I'd say it's more fantasy than repro...

Jim G

 

[Shades of History]

Still 50/50 on this myself and by the consensus. I agree that the mold seems are very odd for a repro and actually accurate for early ABM/SABM. If it is a repro, they have some very odd and unconventional machinery in their factory or shop-as I've said, repros I've seen are either blown in mold to mimic original 19th century bottles, or unashamedly machine made on more modern machines that would leave more modern mold seams. This doesn't jive with that, which makes it just as much of an odd duck as a repro as it does for a real piece.

I'm not convinced either way. Either it is a particularly odd repro, or it is one of those "holy grail" bottles, a legit transitional/early machine made piece with great color which would make it worth quite a bit. I can see how that's very unlikely and could cause people to want to shoot it down automatically with no objective proof other than "that looks too good to be true and I'd be so jelly". I'm not saying I know it isn't a repro, just saying I'm going to need a better argument than that as to why it "is a repro". I did all the research. This being a real bottle is improbable but definitely not impossible.

So, still up in the air. Hey, no loss if its a repro. Like I said, I didn't pay more than twice what a good repro should be worth. On the other hand if it's legit, big score whether I keep it or sell it to somebody really hardcore.

 

[RIBottleguy]

It was made overseas, they don't even try to make it look real. They had someone make a garbage bottle mold with poorly formed seams and make it a pretty color. That's just what they do in a third world country. Technology is behind.
It's really hard to tell apart experts from amateurs just spitting out the first thing that comes to mind in this forum unfortunately. If you want to really settle the debate your should email a picture of the bottle to one of the major American bottle auction houses (Hecklers, Glassworks, American Bottle Auction). They will tell you if it's real or not. Please don't be one of those ignorant fools who thinks they know better than the experts.

 

[sandchip]

It was made overseas, they don't even try to make it look real. They had someone make a garbage bottle mold with poorly formed seams and make it a pretty color. That's just what they do in a third world country. Technology is behind.
It's really hard to tell apart experts from amateurs just spitting out the first thing that comes to mind in this forum unfortunately. If you want to really settle the debate your should email a picture of the bottle to one of the major American bottle auction houses (Hecklers, Glassworks, American Bottle Auction). They will tell you if it's real or not. Please don't be one of those ignorant fools who thinks they know better than the experts.

Exactly.

Also, it's not a "repro" because there are no early inks of this shape to reproduce. (The closest mold that comes to mind is the A.B. Laird, but the proportions are completely different.) It's a fantasy mold of modern production, plain and simple. Take advantage of the centuries of combined knowledge and experience being offered by the members on this site and accept it for what it is.

 

[saratogadriver]

One thing needs to be said as well. There aren't hard dates for what was blown when vs what was some form of ABM when. The ONLY hard date there is the date of the patenting of the first owens bottle making machine. Some places blew glass even decades after that, particularly in Britain and Europe, but also some here as well. We've all seen blown bottles for companies known to have come into existence after the ABM machine. Recently there was a bottle catalogue posted on here showing both blown and abm bottles available for sale from the same glass company. And there are now lots of different ABM machines using somewhat different techniques. I wish we still had Red alive, he actually worked in the industry much of his life and he could have told us lots about those techniques.

Jim G