Bottle experts - I need your help!

[LHHScurator]

Hello everyone! I'm a museum curator at a historic house in Kentucky. Last week, a man came to see me and gave me a glass bottle that he found in our gardens along the bank of the Kentucky River. He wanted us to have it in case it had some type of historic significance to the house. It’s hard to say whether or not it belonged the families that lived here during the 19th century or found its way down stream.

I don’t know much about glass bottles, and I’d love to hear what you bottle experts and enthusiasts have to say about it. It’s a glass bottle with a blue/green tint to it and has the remains of what looks like a iridescent blue, green, and purple paint on it. The dimensions are as follows:

Height: 7.125â€
Depth: 1.312â€
Width: 2.75â€
Diameter of top opening: .75"
Length of bottle neck: 2"
Lip at top of bottle neck height: 0.5625"

The bottom has a circular impression with the letters: S G Co. This can be seen in one of the images I’ve attached to this message. I'm wondering if this could be the marking of the Southern Glass Company from Louisville, Kentucky.

Here is a link to the images I have of the bottle: Bottle images

Do you have any suggestions of what this bottle was likely used for or a ballpark estimation on the date?

Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate any information or references you can share with me!

 

[Dugout]

Well, that didn't work....

 

[Blackglass]

Hello LHHScurator,

The bottle appears to be a circa 1880-1910 medicine or household (Blueing, polish, detergent ect.) bottle. The "Paint" is actually what collectors refere to as "Haze" or "Sickness", and it is caused by the glass reacting with chemicals in the ground. It appears to be hand blown in a mold.

I could not view the other photos, it said they either did not exist or I could not gain access.

All the best,
``Michael

 

[botlguy]

Welcome Curator. You will find this group most willing to help. Fine and knowledgeable folks.

I could not access your Picasa photo file but the attached photo suggests that your bottle is from the last quarter of the 19th century and probably held any number of liquid products, perhaps ammonia, some sort of medicine, cosmedics, etc. Typically the size and shape give clues. The coloration you descibe is from chemical oxidation , elements in the soil and water reacting with the glass. It was not manufactured that way.

I am sure others will add their expertise. If that bottle wasn't actually used on the property it could have been.

 

[LHHScurator]

Thank you so much for that information! I'm eager to learn all about new bottle terms that I have never had the chance to use before. I'm sorry that link didn't work for the other pictures. I've attached the other picture that I think is important to share with the makers mark displayed.

 

[botlguy]

One or more of our members is an expert with glass manufacturer marks. Hopefully they will chime in. My GUESS is Southern Glass Company.
From the look of the base mold seam I am sure the time frame of manufacture is 1870 - 1890. A close look at the finish (collar or mouth) could pin it down closer.

 

[LHHScurator]

Here is a closer look at the top...

 

[epackage]

S G Co. possiblities....



S.G.CO.................Several glass factories used this mark (possibly four or five), and here are three that I am certain actually did, at least on some items they produced:
Scranton Glass Company, Scranton, PA (1881-c.1895)
Southern Glass Company/Works, Louisville, KY (1877-c.1885)


S. G. CO. ............. Yet ANOTHER possibility (actually a very strong probability, it seems) for the SGCO mark is pertaining to certain bottles (usually flasks or beer bottles in either amber or aqua) found in the Baltimore, Maryland and surrounding area. The S.G.Co. mark is usually on the heel or the base, and in some cases is accompanied by an anchor. Information uncovered by researcher Tod Von Mechow indicate that a little-known firm, the Severn Glass Company, Annapolis, MD (c.1897-1901), is almost certainly the user of the mark on these bottles from Baltimore. Several dozen different beer bottle variants from Baltimore and surrounding area are known with this mark.

 

[GuntherHess]

I would say your Southern Glass Co. guess is probably accurate.
It is an early post mold. The lip looks like the thin applied types typical from the midwestern glass houses.
I would guess mid 1870s to early 1880s. That style was typical for patent medicines like Jamaica Gingers.

 

[cc6pack]

http://www.sha.org/bottle/index.htm