old black bottle found in melbourne

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kendolbottles1black

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here is some pics of a black bottle found in melbourne would it be early english 1800s or late 1800s it is three piece mould with a sharp pontil thanks ken[:D]

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Harry Pristis

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This is a really interesting bottle. The lip appears to be earlier than the 1820s Ricketts patent 3PM bottles.

Roger Dumbrell in his book, UNDERSTANDING ANTIQUE WINE BOTTLES, mentions that A few three-piece mould bottles exist c. 1810-11 but have no base markings to indicate their place of manufacture. It is thought, however, that they were early Ricketts bottles made before the advent of the company's policy of mould-marking the base.

This 1810-11 date is consistent with the lip of your bottle.

You can see an 1820s Ricketts patent bottle here: RICKETTS PATENT BOTTLE

Good hunting!

------------Harry Pristis
 

kendolbottles1black

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thanks harry this one had me confused we get plenty of goldfields blacks c,1860s -70s but this is the first i have seen of these thanks ken[:D]
 

IRISH

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The lip on that black look's pre 1820s but the base does not, much as I would like to see a bottle that early found here I would say it's more like 1830s after the start of the town of Melbourne. There has been older bottles found but they where probably from the crew's from sealers or whale ships that set up camp in the bay.

Even if it is 1830s it's still 20 years older than most of the bottles found here and still a very nice black [;)] .
 

Harry Pristis

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That is an interesting diagnosis, Irish.

Can you show us your Rickett's squat cylinders from the 1830s that resemble this one?

I have only a few of these Rickett's bottles myself; most of my squat cylinders are earlier. The only match I have for this base-rim is the bottle on the web-page in my earlier post. Here is the link again: http://members.aol.com/pristis/whatisit.html

My other Rickett's bottles have ribs on the margins of the bevelled base-rim.
These bottles were pontil-scarred to about 1840, so that is not very useful in fine-dating the bottle.

The lip of Ken's bottle, OTOH, is a very nice fit in the 1810s style that Roger Dumbrell illustrates.

Of the evolution of the lip on these squat cylinders, Dumbrell says:
The string-rim [of the 1820-50 period] had altered drastically and was now a neat, cone-shaped two-tiered affair which altered just a little over the next three decades or so....

The lips on my Rickett's squat cylinder bottles fit that description, more or less.

Perhaps I am relying too much on Dumbrell's analysis. I am always eager to learn more about this early glass. Thanks!

------------Harry Pristis
 

oz-riley

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Harry,
I really don’t know who made this bottle or an Age however, here is a page from one of Ken Arnolds books which has a short history of Rickett's patent.
If the bottle is pre 1821 it could have been made by Chubsee of Bradley, Ensall & Holt Glassworks, Stourbridge? The bottle could also be a Rickett's knockoff made by another glassworks of the same period.
If it is one of the early Rickett's Patents, before they embossed the bases, it could date around 1822 to say 1827 (just a guess), this would give the bottle time to be filled by the producer, shipping to Melbourne took around 12 months in the 1830's.
This would allow the bottle to arrive around the late 1820's or 1830.
What I am getting at is we just don't see bottles found in Melbourne pre 1830, The first Settlement was established around 1835. There were Sealers and Whale Hunters also Pastoral Leases for a short period before the major settlement was established.
So this bottle being from the 1810 period it is not out of the question just very unusual for Melbourne.


Ken,
Do you know which area in Melbourne this bottle was found?
My guess would be either right in the CBD around Flinders Street or in Port Melbourne or Dived in Port Phillip Bay.
The earliest bottle I have ever found in Melbourne was in Port Melbourne and that was a Salad Oil that had a registration diamond which dated it to 1838.


Thanks

Chris

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IRISH

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Harry I don't have Rickett's bottles of that type but I have seen a few 1850's blacks with a base the same as that, different tops but the same base.
Chris's post say's pretty much everything else I was going to post [;)] (before my computer spat the dummy and killed my post [:mad:] ).
 

kendolbottles1black

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oz ;the fellow i got it off told me it came from an early part of melbourne he also had a few ricketts bottles would you class it as rare in australia what would it be worth thanks guys ken[:D] ps has anyone seen black penfolds bottles [:D]
 

Harry Pristis

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This is interesting!

I don't know much about the history of Melbourne. I accept the evidence of the bottle (and its sketchy provenience). I don't put much reliance on probabilities based on history when the bottle is in hand.

It is fruitless to speculate on how long this bottle was in transit or anything else about it except for its date and style of manufacture -- there is no archeological context to support such speculation. The bottle could have been refilled many times over a long period of time before it came to its resting place in Melbourne.

The only things we know are that it was made in England (almost certainly) using a revolutionary bottle-making technique (3PM) that helps us date it. We can refine the date of its manufacture by comparing subtle lip and base details to dated seal bottles. The rest is romance.

Not that there is anything wrong with romance! That is a great attraction to collecting these old bottles. For example, I have posted below the pic of a bottle I found years ago on the bank (private property) of the Suwannee River on the Gulf Coast of Florida. The bottle is an English onion from about 1700 (+/- 10 years).

At that time, the only European settlement in peninsular Florida was Spanish St. Augustine on the Atlantic Coast. At the same time, English soldiers and slavers from the Carolina colonies were wiping out the Spanish missions to the Indians in the interior of the state. By 1710, the aboriginal Indians in North Florida had either moved westward out of Florida or were living in the immediate area of St. Augustine.

So, was my onion bottle brought to this remote area on the Gulf Coast of Florida by English soldiers and slavers? Maybe. This river does reach the area of the Spanish missions, and rivers were the routes of access to the interior.

But wait. At this same time, William Teach, the famous English pirate known as "Blackbeard" is reputed to have sheltered in the river. My onion bottle was found not far from the place where local lore holds that Blackbeard buried some treasure!

Wooden vessels were sailed up freshwater rivers in order to careen them. The sailors would tie ropes to trees on the bank and use winches to tip the ship. Once the hull was exposed, the sailors would scrape away the marine growth. Then they reversed the ship to clean the other side of the hull.

A clean hull meant less drag in the water. Less drag meant greater speed. Speed could be crucial if you were a pirate. Blackbeard was slain in 1718 in a fight with a British warship off the coast of Virginia.

So, was Blackbeard the last person to drink from this onion bottle? Maybe. It's fun to think about it.

---------------Harry Pristis

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