Early American bottles

bostaurus · Mar 1, 2012

What is the earliest American-made bottle that can be found in a museum or collection?
Not.."Well, it is theorized that so and so could been making glass at this time, but no known examples survive". Curious as to what is the earliest that has survived.

AntiqueMeds · Mar 1, 2012

I would check the Jamestown finds since they made glass in 1608 there.

AntiqueMeds · Mar 1, 2012

Glassblowers were working at Jamestown in 1608-09, and again in 1621-24. The trial glass they made in 1608 was sent to Englandâ€”the first glass manufactured by Englishmen in the New World. The small glass fragments excavated at the furnace sites do not reveal what was produced, but probably nothing more complicated than window glass, bottles and vials, and plain drinking glasses. It is believed that the small glass factory at Jamestown was the first English â€œfactoryâ€ in America.

bostaurus · Mar 1, 2012

I figured that Jamestown was probably the first but did not know if any whole bottles survive.

AntiqueMeds · Mar 1, 2012

any whole bottles survive

it sounds like they did not. problem with early freeblown bottles like that is once you take them out of the historic context they become much harder to associate with the original site. Who knows what happened to the items they shipped back to england. Who would be able to tell even if they saw them?
+1 point for the Archaeologists[

]

div2roty · Mar 1, 2012

+1 point for the Archaeologists

Haha. Stirring up some trouble. Don't you know that bottle collectors / diggers have to hate the archies?

DruggistBottles · Mar 1, 2012

I thought I saw a mostly whole bottle in the Jamestown museum that was made there. However this article states â€œArchaeological excavations have not revealed what glass items were made at Jamestown, although experts who have studied the fragments believe drinking glasses may have been manufacturedâ€. This local glass was a pale green due to the sand used. Documents from the time indicate â€œglasseâ€ was sent back to England.

http://www.gregorylefever.com/pdfs/Jamestown%20Glass2.pdf

However, this web site mentions they send back bottles â€œMost of it was window glass, bottles, vials and plain drinking glasses. The glass factory at Jamestown was believed to be the first manufactory in America.â€

And if Jamestown does not have a proven bottle, then one would have to look at the next glass factories to come along: â€œAmerican glass manufactories were founded first in New York in 1732 and then in South Jersey by Caspar Wistar in 1739. The 1730s saw an increasing proliferation of forms.â€

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_glass

The last time I went to Jamestown I was lucky and had a behind the scenes tour. Oh the glass in the storerooms!!! The highlight was being able to walk on the dig site and handle some freshly dug glass fragments. Also while I was there they found this and let me hold it. Sadly my wife was too slow with the cameraâ€¦

http://historicjamestowne.org/featured_find/featured_find.php?id=17

Here are some more interesting article about bottles found around Jamestown:

Wine
http://www.historicjamestowne.org/the_dig/dig_2007_07_25.php

Case
http://www.historicjamestowne.org/the_dig/dig_2005_07_22.php

These were made in England but still cool that they found them:
http://historicjamestowne.org/featured_find/featured_find.php?id=4

Early American bottles

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