Wistar Stiegel and Amelung how to tell them apart by color.

The early American colonial glass houses produced very common green vial bottles as they were a needed item that held primarily medicines.
Here are four small vial bottle all from the 1700s and I beleive through color identification three seperate glass houses.The two to the left are from John Frederick Amelungs Glassmanufactory.The third from the left was manufactured at the United Glass Company in Alloway New Jersey (WIstarburgh).The bottle on the far right with the flared lip is from Wilelm Henry Stiegels American Flint glass Manufactory.Notice the Amelung bottles are a paler more olive shade of green.The pontils on the Amelung bottles have the red dirt substance I have spoke often about.The Wistar made bottle has the (Gall) a yellowy sandy substance in the pontil labeled by J. Victor Owen the Canadian proffesor who can tell by percentage the breakdown of each trace element in glass from a particular manufactory. The gall seen in the pontils time and time again from that manufactory.Last the Stiegel bottle. Stiegels common green bottles have a light turquoise blue hue in the green when viewd in direct light.This can be seen in the bottle with the flared lip when looking at the three bases of the bottles in a picture I will show later.

Ok again pretty good ways to tell where the glass may have come from.1st-Amelung has orangey red dirt like matter in a lot of their pontils and the green color of the common bottle has a hue of olive in it.2nd-Wistarburgh is the purest green and a lot of the time gall can be seen in the pontils.The gall almost looks like sulfur not quite as yellow.3rd-Stiegel glass has the turqoise hue in the green on a lot of the common bottles manufactored there.
I hope this is helpfull in helping to identify which colonial glass maker might have made a bottle in your collection.The first picture of four vials.

One of each manufacturer for the color comparison.Left to right Amelung (Olive green),Wistar more (kelly green) and Stiegel the (turquoise hue)

The pontil of the Amelung bottle on the left.You can clearly see the red dirt like substance in the pontil ring.

The pontils of the Wistar left with the (gall) in the pontil and Stiegel right with the turquoise hue.

Anyone wishing to add any information or thoughts on the bottles please do as I value any collectors opinion.

Those are absolutely incredible![sm=tongue.gif]

Well Steve, This type of information and presentation is just fantastic, because the facts are covered so people interested in glass identity and detail, can learn so much from your explanations. Thank you sincerely.
RED Matthews

Steve,

I am scanning through some of these posts fast and furiously... nice stuff.

Can I throw in ther mix Temple, NH's "New England Glass Works"... the Robert Hewes factory that was short lived from 1780 until 1782. This glass is almost non-existent, but here is some bullseye glass (from Temple), shards from the site, and a vial that I found right within the vicinity which matches identical to the shards (form and color). The small New England wine is a strong Temple suspect as well, identical to the one Ken Wilson labels as "early New England".

Mike

Beautifull glass Mike, I know I slight New England Glass sometimes and should include it more often.There is just so much available down here
from all these early works in Southern New Jersey,Pennsylvania and Maryland it is hard for me financially to add New England glass to my collection.
Glass from New england I would like to find and aquire one day would be Chestnuts,Pitkin type flasks, and historical flasks. They have amazing color to them compared to the historical flasks of the Mid Atlantic region.Here are two Wistar meds actually one is the same Wistar vial pictured in this thread.The med uitility bottle looks very similar to yours in color and shape.

Wow....pretty impressive stuff, from both of you! Thanks for providing the "upper end" of this forum with interesting and educational material, both Steve and Mike . Keep it coming please. I find the shards, parts, pieces and other oddities fascinating and it's SO cool when shards can be matched to a glasshouse! Also that bullseye glass in the old sash is very cool, along with the vial, or small med....