Steve/sewell
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After the bottle show on Sunday at Batsto a quick drive down 2.5 miles east to Crowleytown to show my wife Crowleys landing and the site of the glass works turned into a good detective story on my part.You could say I found good bottle DNA today. Bill Lindsey states on his web site http://www.sha.org/bottle that shards from a couple of the most ornate pickle jars were found at Crowleytown. He doesn't mention who it was but it was in fact by a renowned local South Jersey glass historian Ed Pfeiffer. This guy found these same shards I found today back in the 1960s. Here is the description written by Bill Lindsey.
The two sizes (9" and 7.5") of small but highly ornate gothic pickle bottles pictured in the upper left corner of this section are among the most ornate of all Gothic food bottles (McKearin & Wilson 1978; Gerth 2006). (Photo by George Salmon Photography, courtesy of Odyssey Marine Exploration.) Both have elaborate crisscross lattice work in the large lower body and smaller shoulder panels on three sides; the fourth side had the label and does not have the lattice. Both have iron or improved pontil scars on the base, typical (for the style) rolled and tooled one-part "bead" finishes, lack any evidence of mold air venting, and were blown in key base (hinge) molds. These bottles are known to date from 1865 as they were recovered from the Steamship Republic� which sank off the coast of Georgia during late October of 1865. Fragmental examples of Gothic pickle bottles with this particular ornate design were found on the site of the Crowleytown Glass Works (aka Atlantic Glass Works) in New Jersey indicating that these bottles were likely made at that location which was in operation from 1851 to 1866. This glass works burned down in 1866 - a common fate for 18th and 19th century glass houses - and was not rebuilt (McKearin & Wilson 1978). This style is also commonly found on Civil War campsites (Russell 1998). Similar/identical examples of the smaller bottle were also found on the Steamship Bertrand (which sank in April 1865) still inside the original intact packing cases which indicated the bottles contained honey (Switzer 1974).
The first picture is all of the shards recovered today.
The two sizes (9" and 7.5") of small but highly ornate gothic pickle bottles pictured in the upper left corner of this section are among the most ornate of all Gothic food bottles (McKearin & Wilson 1978; Gerth 2006). (Photo by George Salmon Photography, courtesy of Odyssey Marine Exploration.) Both have elaborate crisscross lattice work in the large lower body and smaller shoulder panels on three sides; the fourth side had the label and does not have the lattice. Both have iron or improved pontil scars on the base, typical (for the style) rolled and tooled one-part "bead" finishes, lack any evidence of mold air venting, and were blown in key base (hinge) molds. These bottles are known to date from 1865 as they were recovered from the Steamship Republic� which sank off the coast of Georgia during late October of 1865. Fragmental examples of Gothic pickle bottles with this particular ornate design were found on the site of the Crowleytown Glass Works (aka Atlantic Glass Works) in New Jersey indicating that these bottles were likely made at that location which was in operation from 1851 to 1866. This glass works burned down in 1866 - a common fate for 18th and 19th century glass houses - and was not rebuilt (McKearin & Wilson 1978). This style is also commonly found on Civil War campsites (Russell 1998). Similar/identical examples of the smaller bottle were also found on the Steamship Bertrand (which sank in April 1865) still inside the original intact packing cases which indicated the bottles contained honey (Switzer 1974).
The first picture is all of the shards recovered today.
