Flavoring bottle

[sgmorgan1966]

Hey all, I'm new to this and could use some help. I bought this one today and can't find any info on it. It's 4 3/4 x 1 1/2. Embossed T&K Flavoring Extracts. On one side it says, "full 2 oz" and on the other "First Quality" There is a faint pontil mark and the bottle seam stops at the base of the neck. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[CanadianBottles]

T&K stood for Thurston and Kingsbury and the bottle comes from Bangor Maine.

Looks like they were wholesale grocers, I think the very unusual font they used is meant to indicate that they imported things from Asia. You can find a bit of info on them here https://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/spc_bangor_images/39/

Also, that isn't a pontil mark on the base. Your bottle is too new for that, and probably dates to around 1890-1920.

 

[sgmorgan1966]

Thanks! I can see now, comparing to my other bottles, that the bottom is different. More questions then. From reading it seems that where the bottle seem stops is a good dating tool. It almost looks like there are brush marks on the neck. Does this mean that it was joined there? Also, I attached two pic from a different bottle. What kind of mark. It seems to be a version of a pontil mark.

 

[CanadianBottles]

Where the seam stops is only a good dating tool in the sense that if it goes all the way to the top it's definitely post-1900, and if it doesn't then it's probably pre-1920 or so although that depends on where the bottle is from. You'll find some guides saying that the lower the seam stops on the neck the older it is, but that's not true at all. The brush marks on the neck are where someone used a tool to finish the lip by hand, which is the way they made the top back when bottles were mouth-blown.

I'm not sure if that circular thing on the bottom has a name or not, it's something that is fairly commonly seen on that style of bottle from around the turn of the 20th century. It isn't a pontil though.

 

[sgmorgan1966]

Yes, What I've read says the seam helps some, but there are a lot of exceptions. I have that same mark on the base of quite a few bottles that I believe are 1880-1890's. I'm thinking it's some kind of mold mark. What about venting. Several of my bottles have obvious venting holes and quite a few have none. How helpful is this in dating a bottle?