TWO LARGE APOTHECARY JARS

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epgorge

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Any idea the age and origin of these two large apothecary jars. There was no top with them when I purchased them many years ago. The bottom looks like a mold of some kind though there are no radial or side seams. The top is definitely tooled. No pontil, no seams but there is a centric turn on the bottom. I wondered if they were a counter jar for a country store. There is a bit of internal "crud". It is a darker substance like plug tobacco.Joel
 

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sunrunner

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the lip and the finish dos not look right to me , to be very old.Thay maybe repos.
 

botlguy

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I do not believe these are repros, nothing to attract attention. They look like bulk medicine type of apothecary bottles that used a cork to seal meaning probably dry / non-liquid contents. They appear to be late 1800s early 1900s to me, nice display pieces but not worth a bunch, maybe as much as $25.00 each. But then, what do I know?
 

epgorge

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Well, Jim you hit on the price on the head, only, I got them both for that. Eric, please expand my knowledge by explaining turn/paste to me. I thought it was a snap case but without the radial or side seam it seemed (no pun intended) wrong. They do have considerable wear on the bottom.
 

mctaggart67

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It's my understanding that they made turn-mold apothecary shop ware like these in Europe by hand until at least the 1930s. When I lived in Dublin, Ireland, I'd see them in chemist shop displays, usually in and around the dispensary at the back of the shop. One chemist, whose family had owned the business for a couple of generations, told me that he thought they were from the former Czechoslovakia (Bohemia?).
 

RED Matthews

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Well I like the looks of them. If they were blown in a paste lined mold set-up, there will be horizontal turn lines showing and some lift in them to the left hand end of the lines. Also many or the paste molds had a taper built in the vertical diameter to help turn and lift them out of the mold. Nice jars - so I would be interested in them. RED Matthews
 

RED Matthews

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Joel, I was reading yesterday in an old glass bottle book I had here in NY. And found a description saying that paste products were also used in wooden molds for the purpose of turning the glass to remove the mold seams The seams of wooden molds burned to the extent that they made a very large seam line. I have several bottles that may be older than I thought they were - so I will have to re-examine three or four that I remember having, that may be older than I thought they were. Depending on the neck size many turned bottles had off vertical left handed turn twist lines in the neck glass. The side wall glass often had produced turn lines in the side wall of the product. This also brings up the question of whether any of the wooden molds or fired ceramic molds, had a taper in the cavity to help lifting out the glass product. There is a lot of technology recreation to show up in the collecting of these old bottles. I really get into it. RED M.
 

RED Matthews

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Joel after more reading I found out that some of these were also made if fired ceramic molds. I also read that these ceramic molds were also pasted - so now I have to assume that pasting and turning in the mold was also older than I thought. Email me at bottlemysteries@yahoo.com RED
 

cowseatmaize

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Feel free to differ Red but I had wondered things like that for years. I'm not sure if the old books from the the 10' 20' 30's and such were closer to the truth in years so more informed or less informed than today with all the new information available.I have yet to see something that doesn't quote most of the old books so maybe not much new has been found or maybe people just aren't looking like the should. Many corrections can be/have been made to McKearin/Wilson from even the 1978 work but much of that came as direct copy of the 1941 book. It still all quoted Knittle, Van Rensselaer etc.. Muncey and others all did the same and are all great works but basically the same except they did debunk some ideas that have also been questioned now.I know I've found a bit of stuff in the maker mark area that has filled in a few blanks that were unsure of before but it's not easy, even today. Dave Whitten, Bill Lockhart and well, many others have done much more.It's a tough call really, I think.
 

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