Any time I have to remove sticky gunk from a bottle I use oven cleaner. The stuff in the bottle will typically be
organic. Oven cleaner will dissolve it. It might take a few days. And you may have to rotate or reposition the bottle
to get to hard to reach areas.
I don't know much about Bellermine jugs. But always found them quite interesting. If someone did make repro's of them
I would have to wonder about it. What I don't see in the pictures provided is wear. A jug that has been around for over
three hundred yeas is going to show evidence of that. I...
There is no guess work involved here. Your teal green soda is in fact a Porter style bottle. These bottles contained brewed
alcoholic beverages. There is one from Wilmington Del that has PORTER / ALE / CIDER embossed on the back. I don't see
a pontil scar on yours. So it would date to 1858 or...
I have to agree with butchndad. Collectors are born not made. It's in our genes.
I too, since I was quite young, was fascinated with old things. From coins to arrowheads.
Then to Insulators then bottles. Next was 1858 dated Mason jars. And finally back to
insulators. And lately I've been...
All three appear to be 20Th century reproductions. Or fantasy pieces. What I refer to as Mexican glass.
Definitely not from the early/mid 19th century.
That is indeed a very nice bottle. I think that Iron Pontil sodas in that very light aqua color are very cool.
They are probably more rare than the green one. But not being a colored bottle they are likely less desirable.
But I also wanted to address the comments about when Iron Pontil bottles...
Definitely a decanter. Could even be cut glass. But the photos are too out of focus to tell.
It kind of looks like its paneled rather than ribbed. A couple of better photos would help.
And I would expect to see a polished pontil mark on the base.
I picked this bottle a few weeks ago. In an antique mall. Along with a number of other nice bottles. I did a Google search on this one. And found nothing relating to this bottle. Or the bottler. But what did come up was a bottler in Chicago by the name of I Levinson. And curiously he used a lion...
Unfortunately there are no pontil scars on any of those bottles. They are far to recent for that.
I think what you are refering to as a pontil is simply the mold seam on the base of the bottle.
And they never closed the bottom of a bottle when blown. I would suggest doing a little reading
on how...
The best thing about this piece is that it has not been dug. It was never in the ground. And is in very near mint condition as a result. A very nice example.
There is absolutely no doubt that it is a repro. Any colored Mason's patent jar with a cross on the back is a fake.
The one exception would be the midget pint size. Which I think is listed in amber. And possibly a few other colors other that aqua. But I don't have my Red Book handy to verify...
I've never seen one as large as this. There are small stoneware bottles shaped like that. Which have a Pharmacy's
name on them. I've seen Llewellyn in the small size. As well as at least one other Philly Pharmacy/drug store.
I doubt that they were beer bottles. I would place these in the 1890 to...
It looks to me like it's an irradiated purple authentic jar. Although it's difficult to say for sure from that photo.
It could very well be a modern repro. I've been collecting ground lip Mason's 1858 jars for a long time. Please
post some better photos when you receive it.