Steve/sewell
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This is a real neat pick up of late the first new bottle to the collection in about 2 and a half months.
The bottle hobby has been on the back burner for the past few months although I still enjoy checking in here and helping other members with requests I may be familiar with. I have reached the point as a collector where it has to be a real eye opener to attract my attention anymore. This new bottle is one I always sought,knew it existed and now I have one. Glass historians have often wondered whether or not Wistarburgh produced any true black glass such as the mother country England was producing in large amounts in the mid 1700s. This bottle is a very dark olive amber green color which changes color when held to various types of lighting. The bottle also has a lot of blue flux contamination indicative of a wood driven furnace blast, versus the coal fired type used extensively at the time in England.
Two professional archaeological digs at the Wistarburgh glass factory site along with amateur glass collectors combing the plowed fields which were once the furnace site, have yielded enormous amounts of black glass shards, moils bases,and lips of so called mallet bottles that it is absolutely conclusive Wistarburghs United Glass Company produced quite a bit of this glass. A little known fact about Caspar Wistar's Brother John who spelled his last name as Wister was that he was a very good business man and quite the wealthy Wine merchant in the city of Philadelphia from 1740 to 1760. You can bet for sure who supplied John with his wine bottles which needed to look like the English type to be sold here and abroad.The liquor trade has always been a profitable one and in Wistars time the case was no different
John Wister relied on his brother Caspar for cases of empty wine bottles waiting to be filled with fermented grapes from Johns Northern Delaware Brandywine Valley Grape vineyards.John owned over a thousand acres of land in which now is northern Delaware. Yes window glass and common house hold bottles and glass were manufactured and sold in abundance by Caspar Wistar no doubt, I do however believe much more money was made selling Wine and other bottled liquors to other areas in the states and abroad. Although Caspar was not a distiller like his brother you can bet he was the main supplier of glass bottle needs for Johns business. To give you an Idea as to just how wealthy and Influential the Wistars were consider the following:
Caspar Wistar was the second largest land owner in the state of Pennsylvania second only to William Penn and his two sons. Caspar made a fortune as a brass button maker 10 years before he would even think about the glass business.His glass factory was the first cooperative business venture between a principal financier and smaller company's working within a larger corporation Hence the first General Motors type business in America. Caspar built a Mansion and a large store in what now is known as Center City Philadelphia. Caspar and his son Richard who inherited the business from his father owned 66 percent of which is now considered the boundaries of modern day Philadelphia. Richard was one of only 100 Philadelphians who owned their own Horse drawn Carriages.Caspar and his son Richard and Richards sisters and other brothers along with their children owned 100s of thousand of acres of land throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
John Wister the wine/liquor merchant was no financial slouch by a long shot. He would build at the time 1744 the largest private home (GRUMBLETHORPE )in the state of Pennsylvania just 5 miles north of Philadelphia in a place which is still called the same today simply Germantown. Germantown in the mid 1700s was the wealthiest area in the United States. Financial business man and revolutionary war financier savior Robert Morris stayed at the same home as a summer vacation place. George Washington would stay at the home for weeks on end after the war for the same reason in the summer time. Yes the Wistars were one of Americas most wealthy and influential families even after being accused by some as being Tory sympathizers. With John needing wine bottles for his business it is quite certain Caspars United Glass Company was the provider of this need. The rolled lip, the long neck, the shallower push up on the base and the wider shoulders then base stance all point to American Manufacture not British. Here is the bottle on the left along with another early yellow green Wistar string type porter or wine bottle from the 1740 era I posted earlier last year in November.
The bottle hobby has been on the back burner for the past few months although I still enjoy checking in here and helping other members with requests I may be familiar with. I have reached the point as a collector where it has to be a real eye opener to attract my attention anymore. This new bottle is one I always sought,knew it existed and now I have one. Glass historians have often wondered whether or not Wistarburgh produced any true black glass such as the mother country England was producing in large amounts in the mid 1700s. This bottle is a very dark olive amber green color which changes color when held to various types of lighting. The bottle also has a lot of blue flux contamination indicative of a wood driven furnace blast, versus the coal fired type used extensively at the time in England.
Two professional archaeological digs at the Wistarburgh glass factory site along with amateur glass collectors combing the plowed fields which were once the furnace site, have yielded enormous amounts of black glass shards, moils bases,and lips of so called mallet bottles that it is absolutely conclusive Wistarburghs United Glass Company produced quite a bit of this glass. A little known fact about Caspar Wistar's Brother John who spelled his last name as Wister was that he was a very good business man and quite the wealthy Wine merchant in the city of Philadelphia from 1740 to 1760. You can bet for sure who supplied John with his wine bottles which needed to look like the English type to be sold here and abroad.The liquor trade has always been a profitable one and in Wistars time the case was no different
John Wister relied on his brother Caspar for cases of empty wine bottles waiting to be filled with fermented grapes from Johns Northern Delaware Brandywine Valley Grape vineyards.John owned over a thousand acres of land in which now is northern Delaware. Yes window glass and common house hold bottles and glass were manufactured and sold in abundance by Caspar Wistar no doubt, I do however believe much more money was made selling Wine and other bottled liquors to other areas in the states and abroad. Although Caspar was not a distiller like his brother you can bet he was the main supplier of glass bottle needs for Johns business. To give you an Idea as to just how wealthy and Influential the Wistars were consider the following:
Caspar Wistar was the second largest land owner in the state of Pennsylvania second only to William Penn and his two sons. Caspar made a fortune as a brass button maker 10 years before he would even think about the glass business.His glass factory was the first cooperative business venture between a principal financier and smaller company's working within a larger corporation Hence the first General Motors type business in America. Caspar built a Mansion and a large store in what now is known as Center City Philadelphia. Caspar and his son Richard who inherited the business from his father owned 66 percent of which is now considered the boundaries of modern day Philadelphia. Richard was one of only 100 Philadelphians who owned their own Horse drawn Carriages.Caspar and his son Richard and Richards sisters and other brothers along with their children owned 100s of thousand of acres of land throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
John Wister the wine/liquor merchant was no financial slouch by a long shot. He would build at the time 1744 the largest private home (GRUMBLETHORPE )in the state of Pennsylvania just 5 miles north of Philadelphia in a place which is still called the same today simply Germantown. Germantown in the mid 1700s was the wealthiest area in the United States. Financial business man and revolutionary war financier savior Robert Morris stayed at the same home as a summer vacation place. George Washington would stay at the home for weeks on end after the war for the same reason in the summer time. Yes the Wistars were one of Americas most wealthy and influential families even after being accused by some as being Tory sympathizers. With John needing wine bottles for his business it is quite certain Caspars United Glass Company was the provider of this need. The rolled lip, the long neck, the shallower push up on the base and the wider shoulders then base stance all point to American Manufacture not British. Here is the bottle on the left along with another early yellow green Wistar string type porter or wine bottle from the 1740 era I posted earlier last year in November.
