black glass bases

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digger dun

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so, they are digging in the basement of a building where I work on the lower east side of Manhattan NY. they are about 13 feet below grade in east river landfill. From the old maps I've looked over I believe the area where the building sits was landfilled between 1780ish to 1830ish. My question goes out as this, from the fragments I have colelcted here from the excavation pile, what would the age of this fill be? more towards the late 1700s, or towards the early 1800s?

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cowseatmaize

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From what I see it's later than the 1830's but my eyes aren't that great. Better pics would help me for sure.
 

digger dun

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here's a closer view of 6 of the most intact bases. I was leaning towards pre 1830s not only because of the supposed time tha area was land filled, but because of the crude form of the bases. I tried to research them as best I could before I brought my question here. I believe they are dip mold, sand pontiled english ales. Am I on the right track, or am I "off base"[;)]


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cowseatmaize

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or am I "off base"[;)]
Very punny.[:D] I'm still seeing later, 1870's give or take but I'll agree with UK ale or similar. Those two necks looks around that time also. To me anyway.
 

baltbottles

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I'd say you are looking at mostly 1830s with a few things that could be later and a couple things that are a bit earlier. Its hard to tell without having them in hand.

Chris
 

andy volkerts

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Those bases are kinda all over the date map, some are late 1700 and some are 1840-70. The real problem is this. Some are from England and some are from U.S. glasshouses. And they didnt use the same glassmaking processes at the same times, making accurate dating a hazardous guess. I would think that your map research with landfill dates, if you can be sure the info is accurate would be more in line for dating purposes. The glassmaking industry just didnt evolve in a straight line from older to newer uses of tools and processes. some houses evolved pretty fast and others lagged behind as much as fifty years. As an example, the automatic bottle machine developed by Owens was patented in 1906, but some glasshouses were hand tooling bottle necks into the teens. So it is kinda a cra_ shoot to accurately date your shards by how they were made. I think that Red Mathews would know more about this, maybe he will chime in for us.......Andy
 

TROG

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Most glass looks to be English. The largest would think dates around 1790 -1800 and most others in the 1850- 1860 period
 

j.dinets

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I am getting a pretty good feel of 1830 -1840 on these fragments, especially based on the lip finishes. This would be consistent with the transfer printed fragments as well, my archaeological experiences have shown a lot more pearlware fragments, and different lip finishes when dealing with the late 1700 -1820's trash pits and features.
 

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