Black glass with White?!?

Flaschenjager · Apr 3, 2004

Here's one that confused me. Is this typical or normal?

The first mystery: Why was this at the 2-3 foot level of the privy that had a use layer from the 30s, along with a few other pieces that were much earlier?

The second: What's the deal with the white layer or section in this shard, which seems to be a large section of an onion or mallet? It actually has a thin layer of black glass, light blue, then white, light blue again, and once again, black glass.

Harry Pristis · Jun 29, 2004

Hello, Meech . . .

My best (and only) guess is that this is glass gall. How the glass gall was introduced to this bottle, I don't know. Perhaps the parison was contaminated, or the parison had a "swirl" of glass gall that stretched to give the layered effect we see now.

Here is a link to a thread that touches on glass gall.https://www.antique-bottles.net/forum/m_801/mpage_1/key_glass,gall/anchor/tm.htm#1151

Never found more of this bottle?

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

Flaschenjager · Jun 30, 2004

Hello all-

Harry, Thanks very much for the reply, link and help. I figured that you may have missed this. That's basically why I e-mailed you and because you deal with black glass.

I can see how this gall, which seems like a larger formation of potstones, may settle or end up on the bottom more. This piece shown above really seems to be from a side of a vessel. My best guess would be possibly from a horses hoof type. I did find an additional large section of black glass a couple of feet down from this, but not in the use layer of the privy. That piece was from the bottom or the heel of the bottle, rounded inwards to form a kick up. The section above is approx. 3" X 4" and the heel piece is quite large also.

These were the only sections of black glass in the privy. This also isn't the first privy that I've dug when the earlier pieces are above the much later finds. My guess would be that the fill dirt was taken from an earlier source or dump. The trick is to find this source and the treasure it may hold. Easier said than done at most sites.

PS- This winter, at a bottle show, I examined a bottle a dealer was offering that had the largest potstone I'd ever seen. It was clearly over 2" and maybe 3/4" wide. It may have been bigger than this and maybe I need to get out more, but wow this was crude and unusual.

Black glass with White?!?

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Flaschenjager

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