case gins

[Erik T]

I recently went to a flea market and bought 2 case gins for 10 bucks canadian. I would like to know more about their age value and makers if possible. If anyone knows anything about these that would be great!

The first bottle has ribbed sides and EK embossed in the bottom the second one has a slight indentation on one side as to where a paper label probably would have gone and nothing but a dot on the bottom.

 

[Erik T]

The bottoms

 

[JOETHECROW]

Red Matthews might be your "go to" guy!

He's a member here under his own name.

 

[glass man]

YOU DID GOOD. NOT MUCH MORE MONEY IN THEM THEN WHAT YOU GAVE,BECAUSE THEY ARE UNEMBOSSED[CEPT THE BOTTOM MARKINGS]. STILL COOL![&:] JAMIE

 

[Erik T]

yeah I didn't think they were worth much either. From what I've seen similar to this would it be late 1800s? And i'll ask mr. mathews Thanks.

 

[RED Matthews]

Well here I am, Erik T: Your bottles have to be well worth your $10 Candian money. The one with the vertical ribbing is no doubt the oldest of the two. This ribbing was to help the blown bottle lift out of the dip mold portion of the mold system. It would require clearer pictures of the necks and shoulders to see the path of the mold seams. They could come up towards the finish on the two diagonal corners, or they could come up to the finish on the top center of the flat panel's curved top edge. The pictures should also show if it is a straight tapered applied finish that was tooled and also might show some sloppy glass left by the tooling.
There were lots of different mold venting methods used for these Case Gins. Mold venting is required to let the glass between the hot glass parison and the mold cavity surfaces. The center dot on the right hand one is no doubt the point developed in the center venting hole.
I could see the "/ E " on the left bottom and the center stem of the E could have been enlarged by a vent hole. I could not see the "/ K ".
I did notice that the bottle on the right has an extremely rough edging on the mold seam at the top. This could also have been an effort of venting.,RED Matthews

 

[Wangan]

Red,the K on his bottles base is directly below the E.

Nice bottles Erik!Welcome to the forum.I think this is about the best place for info.and help on antique bottles and glass.

I dug shards of a case gin on my very first dig.It had similarities of both,ribs that ran down the sides like the first one and a vent dot on the base like the second and a tapered lip like both.Some day I will find one to keep because I think these are really cool bottles.There is a pig snout lip finish which I believe is older and more like a flared lip that is cool too.I dont know what they are worth,but I would pay $10.00 for one so I think you did good.Although like glassman said,unembossed or unlabeled examples are worth less to most,some would pay a little more to get what they like. -Tim

 

[RED Matthews]

Well I guess I will have to give you guys some more information, since you seem interested. I went to my Microsoft directory and found that there were 19 files of text on my computer. I subject reviewed them and decided it was too big a project.
The Gin product was developed about 1650. The production life of these bottles covered a full 350 years of development.

The export quantities grew to the point that there was a lot of innovation in their making processes. There just isn't time to do it now.

I will no doubt have to wait until fall to get it put together. I will just have to nibble at your questions until then. RED Matthews

 

[canada]

Nice gins, I remember the thrill of digging my first one, many years ago. They were blown-in- mould well into the 1910s.
The EK on the base could stand for E. Kiderlen, Rotterdam, Holland.

Dave

 

[Erik T]

Thank you everyone! I was wondering about why the one bottle had the ribbed sides....I will look in to E. kinderlen and thanks mr. matthews can't wait till you get that put together in fall.