rare 1/2 pint double eagle before/after

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druggistnut

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I was told by two Pittsburgh fellas that there might be another one of these 1/2 pints, in this green color, in a Ohio collection. That, along with estimates of it's worth, made Tom and I decide to have it professionally cleaned. Tom and I both have tumblers, but we didn't want to risk this one.
The guy who did this used tiny #14 or #16 pieces of copper on the inside and plastic pellets on the outside. The total turn time was three weeks.
It's hard to get the real sense of the color of this thing, so I put a couple aqua bottles next to it in the last picture.
This is going to John Pastor's American Glass Gallery for auction (unless someone makes a ridiculous offer first).


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buriedtreasuretime

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This is a beautiful piece but why do we have to make these amazing pieces of history look like they have no history. Yes I know that we love our shiny bottles but maybe that should be those that are found under houses or in attics or towers or ash dumps not affected by water or content stain. I remember as a boy at just the thrill of finding these beautiful things covered in muck and then washed off they have that wonderful hazy softness of being buried 140+ years. I own two of these flasks in the pale aqua, a large and a small and I bought them on EBAY and they are tumbled to death and so they look so "new". This wonderful green flask seemed to have such a great overall softness to it before anything was done. I hope that we dont do that to everything we unearth. But that is just my thought, you will probably throw tomatoes at me now! I just had to say it... Tim
 

RICKJJ59W

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ORIGINAL: buriedtreasuretime

This is a beautiful piece but why do we have to make these amazing pieces of history look like they have no history. Yes I know that we love our shiny bottles but maybe that should be those that are found under houses or in attics or towers or ash dumps not affected by water or content stain. I remember as a boy at just the thrill of finding these beautiful things covered in muck and then washed off they have that wonderful hazy softness of being buried 140+ years. I own two of these flasks in the pale aqua, a large and a small and I bought them on EBAY and they are tumbled to death and so they look so "new". This wonderful green flask seemed to have such a great overall softness to it before anything was done. I hope that we dont do that to everything we unearth. But that is just my thought, you will probably throw tomatoes at me now! I just had to say it... Tim

I'm going to have to side with BTT.The first shot of the bottle looks like it should after that long nap.
When dug bottles are cleaned "spotless" its kinda of like the history was just wiped off of it.
Everyone has there own way,spotless and crystal clean takes the 19th century look right off.
I dont care if you throw rocks at me thats my 2 cents [:D]
 

epackage

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ORIGINAL: RICKJJ59W


ORIGINAL: buriedtreasuretime

This is a beautiful piece but why do we have to make these amazing pieces of history look like they have no history. Yes I know that we love our shiny bottles but maybe that should be those that are found under houses or in attics or towers or ash dumps not affected by water or content stain. I remember as a boy at just the thrill of finding these beautiful things covered in muck and then washed off they have that wonderful hazy softness of being buried 140+ years. I own two of these flasks in the pale aqua, a large and a small and I bought them on EBAY and they are tumbled to death and so they look so "new". This wonderful green flask seemed to have such a great overall softness to it before anything was done. I hope that we dont do that to everything we unearth. But that is just my thought, you will probably throw tomatoes at me now! I just had to say it... Tim

I'm going to have to side with BTT.The first shot of the bottle looks like it should after that long nap.
When dug bottles are cleaned "spotless" its kinda of like the history was just wiped off of it.
Everyone has there own way,spotless and crystal clean takes the 19th century look right off.
I dont care if you throw rocks at me thats my 2 cents [:D]
I thought the same exact thing before reading these two posts, now it looks like it was made last week, but if that helps it sell I guess it's better for you....Jim
 

sandchip

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I'm a mint bug if there ever was one, but I gotta say it did look better before cleaning. It's still a beautiful bottle, man, but it just seemed older and more primitive, especially with the field and trees in the background. The top looked better and the embossing looked more defined. Not to say that the thought never crossed my mind, but I wouldn't clean this one for all the money in the world.

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CanYaDigIt

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I've wrestled with the notion of cleaning some of the ones I've got, and still do on occasion. It's hard to see whittle under stain. I think the flask looks great cleaned up, although it looked great before too. The best part about it is the fact that plastic pellets were used on the exterior. It kept most if not all of the texture intact. It certainly doesn't look over tumbled or super slick like so many sodas we see. Most of the flasks you see in any major glass auction were cleaned to one extent or another anyways. I think you made a decision that will more then pay for itself. Nice flask. One question I've got though is why are you selling it? It would take a team of wild horses to get that away from me if I dug it.
 

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