Pontil?

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Ryan

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Hi everyone, great forum here! I mostly collect insulators but found this little 5" tall G.W. Merchant Lockport NY bottle in a local antique shop. I haven't seen very many pontiled bottles so don't really know what I'm looking at, and I was wondering if this could be a faint pontil? It looks like a smooth base but has a weird little extra glop of glass slopped on there... Any opinions? There is currently a similar one on ebay here


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3257043133&category=895

(except it has a longer neck) and I don't see much of a pontil on that one though they are saying it is a pontil...

I've included a picture,

Thanks for any info!

-Ryan

Ay74929.jpg
 

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Pontiled

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Hi Ryan, well, it's not a pontil mark, but it is an
hinge mold. This is the hinge mold that was used during the early 1860's period that many people seek. You've got yourself a real "ggodie" for sure!
 

Pontiled

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Sorry about that "early" remark. It is an EARLY hinge mold.

Mike
 

Ryan

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Thanks for the info! I've never heard of a hinge mold. Wouldn't a pontil be more desirable on this bottle or am I wrong?

-Ryan
 

Harry Pristis

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I think the earliest of these G. W. Merchant bottles are pontil-scarred. Later ones were not. Pontil-scar or no, they may be hinge-mold bottles.

Here is an example of a pontil-scarred hinge-mold bottle.

---------Harry Pristis

Sq45836.jpg
 

Harry Pristis

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Ayup, Woody. You can see the whole blacking bottle at
Bottle Showcase

Someone else probably has a better example of hinge-mold bottles, both pontil-scarred and unscarred; but here a pair of bottles of which I am fond. They are different shades of aqua, and from different molds.

They are both blown in hinge-molds. The lighter color bottle is pontil-scarred, the darker is not scarred. I believe that both must have been produced in the 1850-60s the period in which the snap-case replaced the "punty" or pontil rod in bottle-making in the USA (English bottle-makers started using bottle-cradling devices like the snap-case in the 1830s).

It is hard to make out the hinge seam on the non-scarred peppersauce bottle. That diagonal seam is more evident on the lighter (scarred) bottle. Full bottle image in follow-on post.

---------Harry Pristis

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