BERRY BOTTLES OR WIDE-MOUTH JARS?

[Harry Pristis]

Here are three wide-mouth bottles (or jars, if you prefer). I'll tell you what I know about them, and perhaps some of you will tell me more.

All three were found in France. The bottles on the left and in the center have pontil scars on the bases. All are seamless, being hand-blown after a start in a dip mold. The center bottle has a sheared lip with no string reinforcement. The smaller bottles have applied strings of glass at, or below, the lips. I believe they all date from the early to mid-1800s.

I think of the bottle on the left as a "berry bottle," though I am sure that other foodstuffs were preserved in such bottles. Brandied fruits were popular, I believe. Brandied peaches and French brandied cherries (in more modern bottles) were among the cargo of the steamboat Bertrand in 1865 when it sank in the Missouri River in the Nebraska Territory.

The center bottle, a jar really, is the smallest of this form in my collection. Others I have appear to have about a gallon capacity, but I have seen much larger at recent bottle shows. Some have pontil scars, some don't. Van den Bossche figures jars similar to this one from the Baltic Region, Germany, and from France. His bottles range in age from 1760 to 1840.

Anyone else like these wide-mouth bottles as much as I do?

---------Harry Pristis

 

[deepwoods]

Harry- Those are very cool. Everytime you post pictures I feel like Im violating the 11th commandment "thou shall not lust after thy neighbors bottles".

 

[Pontiled]

Okay, Harry, you're making my bottle and jar collection look a little bare! Shall I post pictures of one of my cobalt-blue U.S.A. Hosp. Dept. bottles now or should I post a picture of my pontiled, cobalt-blue Harrison's ink?

Really, those are nice photos of some great bottles!

 

[Harry Pristis]

Thank you for the comments, fella's.

I do like these wide-mouth bottles/jars! Here is a comparison of the center jar (above) with an American jar. This jar resembles jars illustrated in McKearin- Wilson's AMERICAN BOTTLES AND FLASKS AND THEIR ANCESTRY in Plate Vll. The illustrated jars are from New England glassworks circa 1830-50.

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

 

[tazmainiendigger]

Hi Harry! What do you think of my spare change jar ?[] Taz

 

[Harry Pristis]

That's a super jar, Taz! I could find room on my shelf for one like that.

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

 

[Harry Pristis]

Here is another wide-mouth jar that I like. This is the largest one of a series of big jars, each one larger than the other. This one is 15.25" tall and more than 9" in diameter at the base. The mouth is about 5" in diameter.

Originally, this big jar was covered with wicker/osier much like a demijohn. I have several that still have this covering.

Note the rolled lip. Inside this jar (for scale) is the 9.25" wide-mouth bottle from the first post in this thread. I think this big jar is probably German or French from the latter half of the 1800s.

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