Cracked Top or Not?

[Coled18]

Hello, I just got this bottle recently, strap sided slugplate 1870s-80s whiskey. It reads

AH Robinson and Co
No 1114
Market St
Philadelphia
Pat Applied For

Could the “pat applied for” be for a metal cap/top perhaps?

Was the top broken at one point, or was it meant to be a sort of sheared/cracked off finish? What do yall think?

 

[hemihampton]

I'm guessing top is broke off. Leon.

 

[Cola-Coca]

I agree, bummer.

 

[Toma777]

I'd guess when the lip was applied, the bottle or the lip wasn't hot enough, and it created a defect in the glass, which gave it that clean break later.

 

[hemihampton]

I've dug bottles, with cleanly broken off tops many times. makes them easy to repair. Leon.

 

[sandchip]

I agree with Leon. Broken off at some point. I've never seen a sheared top strapside.

 

[Old sodas]

Could have been shaved.

 

[Old man digger]

What I think what you have is a ground top. The bottle was placed in a grinding machine and the sharp edges were ground off. So a cork could still be put in the bottle without the total loss of use. I have many ground top bottles some even have threads in the neck for a screw on cap. A Distillery here in Pa. used these bottles for their Whiskey. Look up "Faust Distillery Nippers" and you can see how many of these ground top bottles were used.

 

[Old man digger]

I just magnified that photo and it looks like a clean break.!!! So all I posted previous is a moot point. But this would be a good candidate for the grinding process if that company wanted to save the cost of making another bottle.

 

[Mudbug]

I just magnified that photo and it looks like a clean break.!!! So all I posted previous is a moot point. But this would be a good candidate for the grinding process if that company wanted to save the cost of making another bottle.

All good info anyways Pops. sometimes, way back when, we used to use, reuse and then use again things until they could not be used again. If I were a rancher and wanted to put this bottle into use to hold turpentine, but not cut me, what better way than to grind the sharp edges. We gotta understand, these people, our forefathers, had little but did lots with what they had. There’s a true story (or said to be true) of a “bottle man” in the 1870’s in Algiers, LA that repurposed bottles for such weird uses. I’ve dug bottle with weird stuff that was never originally in it.
Nice flask at any rate IMHO.