Robacks Barrel with Iron Pontil

Those barrel bitters are extremely appealing and eye-catching even from a long distance. I like the fresh IP on the bottom

Nice bottle, though I do like the history associated with the Pike's Peak flasks as well. I need to get one as a present for my father someday soon.

Great looking bottle. Never had one, but always liked them. Maybe, one day.

Great looking bottle. Makes me miss the one I used to have. Hang onto it!

I've been very hesitant to comment on this because I don't want to sound the fool or sound offensive. I have to now so maybe I can learn. I have a problem with the IP. I do agree that it may be IP but I'm not sure about it's looks. To me it looks like like a skim coat of Bondo®. I have no idea why that would be done and that's why I'm asking.
It's a terrific bottle. I'm just curious and fool or not, I'm asking.

I understand why you might say that. Most iron pontils I see do not look like this one; they have the darker graphite appearance. The smooth base Robacks are configured very differently on the base and the iron pontiled ones I've seen all look similar to this one, but then I've only seen four. Someone here on the forum probably has a better answer than what I can offer. I can only speculate that it has to do with the physical make up of the particular iron deposit and that some deposits react differently to the moisture in the atmosphere over time. Can someone else shed some light on this question?

That is good question, logically we would have to assume as bottles have been both dug and found undug with both the red and blackish grey pontil that the mineral composition of whatever was used to empontil the bottle was different...

Since Eric was talking about the pontil associated with this great example rraack has, I wanted to show mine to maybe help compare and to see the pontil it has.

All the best,
~Tim

Hello all you pontil people. I started a post and got about half-way through it’s creation when I hit a wrong key and lost my work. “Dar n Computersâ€.

Anyway, I have a blog for my homepage that was started a few years ago and I am still not satisfied enough to put it there. I had listed some of the key book references and was just starting to discuss the various pontil marks when I lost it. “Ba Humbugâ€.

My objective was to point out some information regarding the punty rod types and the contact material application that resulted in different pontil marks.
Ø The punty rods were made different for many different size bottles and contact. The intent was to put the handle on a hot first stage bottle for the neck finish application; tooling or what ever had to be done while they used a handle to hold it.
Ø The ends of the punty rod were designed for the job. And some were flat on the round end, domed to fit a bottom, tapered to fit a push-up, what ever was needed.
Ø The working end of a punty rod was heated. so it wouldn’t shock cool the bottom of a bottle in the process. I am sure they had them laid near or nearly in the glory hole to heat them.
Ø The first thing they did was put an attaching paste on the contact end of the punty end, that they were going to use. This paste, as far as we know, was graphite, red lead, or white lead.
Ø From there they had working wooden boxes in a line with segments that contained: sand, glass dust, glass chips, and powdered iron (from the machining of mold iron).
Ø The paste coated rod was rolled or dipped in these materials depending on what the bottle maker liked to use or depending on what would hold the size of bottle he wanted a handle on. Sometimes they just rolled the outside edge of the punty face to attach it to the bottle being made.

There just isn’t enough written about these methods. I have visited the Corning Museum and obtained some help getting description of these methods being used, but the early bottle books didn’t spend much time covering such a mundane detail. I hope this will help your understanding – from my limited knowledge. RED Matthews

They are a nice looking bottle congratulations.They make for a nice window bottle.I own one barrel bottle I found as a kid.It is exactly like yours minus the embossing (it is a plain paper label where your embossing is).

Hey RED,
I appreciate your informative post on the various punty rod types and contact material.