A bunch of broken Pontiled locals, and what they taught me

[Plumbata]

Earlier this week (before the sway-bar on the truck broke []) I spent a day exploring along the Illinois River. I started with the idea that I wanted to find some dumped slag glass, but that mission morphed into a general quest for whatever I could find. Located 2 areas along the river with victorian ash dump layers showing, around/under very old riverbank trees, where more recent dumped rubble didn't cover the areas very well. Might have to bring a saw and check the spots out.

Anyway, along 1 particular stretch of river there was the normal modern broken glass, but interspersed were plenty of fragments from open pontiled bottles. It struck me as odd, so I decided to spend a while seeing how many pieces I could collect.

I'm pretty certain that every single one was a local "H.G. Farrell's Arabian Liniment Peoria." I think the stuff washed out of rubble and dirt dumped along there sometime in the 40s or 50s. It would be nice if there was a pontil era bottle dump there that I could go crazy in, but won't be holding my breath.

H.G. Farrell on ebay

Only 1 base is larger than the others, and it may have just been the larger size of the liniment. After arranging and sorting the pieces I noticed that the bottles with the thickest glass had the biggest and most deeply set pontils, and the thinnest bases had very delicate and small pontils. Makes sense, but I had never really thought about how each pontil was consciously created specifically for the bottle at hand; tailored according to the requirements of each piece.

Also, I noticed where what appeared to be a string of glass from the pontil "blob" had fallen across the base of the bottle, extending from the pontil to the edge of the base. The only way I can imagine this happening would be if the bottle was upside down, or at least horizontal when being empontiled.

So this leads to a few questions; in what position was an open pontiled bottle held when being affixed? Did it differ by the glasshouse or individual, or was there a proven and tested process employed by most manufacturers back then?

 

[AntiqueMeds]

There have been many cases where large numbers of the same bottles have been dumped.
Probably unused stock for whatever reason. Often they will all be smashed too.


http://www.bottlebooks.com/cachedig/cache_digging.htm

 

[AntiqueMeds]

broken but still enough to get your heart beating faster, huh

 

[cyberdigger]

It's an interesting observation about pontil scar size being proportionate to thickness of bottle.. I rarely feel compelled to admit to someone that they caused me to raise an eyebrow and behold a thought.. thanks Steve..!

 

[JOETHECROW]

ORIGINAL: Plumbata

Earlier this week (before the sway-bar on the truck broke []) I spent a day exploring along the Illinois River. I started with the idea that I wanted to find some dumped slag glass, but that mission morphed into a general quest for whatever I could find. Located 2 areas along the river with victorian ash dump layers showing, around/under very old riverbank trees, where more recent dumped rubble didn't cover the areas very well. Might have to bring a saw and check the spots out.

Anyway, along 1 particular stretch of river there was the normal modern broken glass, but interspersed were plenty of fragments from open pontiled bottles. It struck me as odd, so I decided to spend a while seeing how many pieces I could collect.

I'm pretty certain that every single one was a local "H.G. Farrell's Arabian Liniment Peoria." I think the stuff washed out of rubble and dirt dumped along there sometime in the 40s or 50s. It would be nice if there was a pontil era bottle dump there that I could go crazy in, but won't be holding my breath.

H.G. Farrell on ebay

Only 1 base is larger than the others, and it may have just been the larger size of the liniment. After arranging and sorting the pieces I noticed that the bottles with the thickest glass had the biggest and most deeply set pontils, and the thinnest bases had very delicate and small pontils. Makes sense, but I had never really thought about how each pontil was consciously created specifically for the bottle at hand; tailored according to the requirements of each piece.

Also, I noticed where what appeared to be a string of glass from the pontil "blob" had fallen across the base of the bottle, extending from the pontil to the edge of the base. The only way I can imagine this happening would be if the bottle was upside down, or at least horizontal when being empontiled.

So this leads to a few questions; in what position was an open pontiled bottle held when being affixed? Did it differ by the glasshouse or individual, or was there a proven and tested process employed by most manufacturers back then?

Pretty cool find...

 

[botlguy]

Well now. I'm impressed. To me, those pictures define the term: "Bitter Sweet".

 

[coldwater diver]

Hi Plumbata,
My business is located in an old mill that houses many cool businesses and one was(victim of the economy) a glass company called salamandra glass. On my breaks I would go down to watch the guys blow rondelles, goblets, vases and Chrismas balls. I would watch for hours, I noticed after they dipped the blow rod and blew air in the gather, they would always sit and roll the blow pipe with the glass . When ready the helper would dip a tiny amount of glass with the punty rod and stick it to the base. Then the glass blower would (for lack of a better description)then cut away the glass holding the blow rod. Then the helper would switch to sitting and roll the punty rod and the blower would fashion the opening to whatever they wanted the piece to be. When done off to the annealing oven. I dont believe this could be done safely any other way as its dangerously hot. The piece(xtra glass) you found probably happened when the were blowing the gather straight down into the mold. Just my guess. Kevin

 

[RICKJJ59W]

All the the above comments are good but who knows there may be a pontiled dump up river somewhere. I would walk and check it out. Yeah the odds are agonist it but weird things happen in the bottle digging world.[]


I would put all the shards in a jar. "The pontiled Jar" []

 

[Penn Digger]

There are also some weird people in the digging world. See above.[8D]

PD

 

[RICKJJ59W]

ORIGINAL: Penn Digger

There are also some weird people in the digging world. See above.[8D]

PD

LOL I am glad i read over the forums officer ,I'll be good please don't run me in []