GI-121 Columbia bust / eagle B&W

[Ohiosulator]

heres another favorite from my collection. The bust of columbia is just so outstanding on these flasks its hard not to love them. The tag on the piece reads Burgin and Wood 1827-1829. Truely a neat piece of american history, now only if I can find its more unusual based counterpart. I love early glass like this, the molds and designs are truely remarkable.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Steve/sewell]

Nice flask, I have the same one,for a long time people including the Mckearins and other famous collectors have been trying to decide what the B & W stood for. Who knows maybe your tagged bottle has solved the mystery!! I was beginning to think the flasks initials were B G W a very fancy G for the Baltimore Glass works but everyone I ask including 10 year old nieces and nephews say it is an & symbol.[8D] So that kind of kills that theory...Here are two of mine pictured with a Bridgeton New Jersey Washington Eagle Flask The reason I pictured these two Columbia flasks along side of the Washington Flask was the nearly identical Eagles on each bottle suggesting the same mold shop or mold maker.

 

[Steve/sewell]

The Columbia side of the flasks.

 

[Steve/sewell]

3.

 

[Ohiosulator]

Hi Steve! Great Post! Great Flasks! I appreciate the reply!

Heres my GI-121 and my GI-26 Varient I got from Chris (Baltobottles). My GI-26 is the B version, 9 vertical bars and sharper stars with other small details. My friend has the GI-26A with the keyed base. Ill post a picture of the two together!

The Eagles like you said are VERY similar! I didnt even think about it till I read your replys hah!

Here are my two

That differnt base columbia is truely outstanding! I need one! Haha


Thanks again Steve!

 

[Steve/sewell]

Ohiosulator Check this link out from February of 2010 Mr Helpfull!! You have made someones day for sure!![] awesome just awesome information you simply provided last evening.

https://www.antique-bottles.net/forum/Columbia-Eagle/m-289307/tm.htm

After you said the name on the tag was Burgin and Wood I knew I just knew I had heard that name mentioned before in the glass world. A simple search of all of my glass files looking for Burgin and wood helped to seal the deal.

Here is where I got my information, from MY OWN POST!!! https://www.antique-bottles.net/forum/m-410637/mpage-1/tm.htm#411383
Stay in touch over the next few weeks If you keep feeding me your historical flasks Ill keep you busy with mine!! It is fun to share them as they are truly great bottles. Thanks for sharing yours and solving a mystery as old as when Stephen VanRensalear and George Mckearin were in their hey days!!!

 

[Ohiosulator]

Hi Steve!

Very very cool! I'm glad I was able to help solve a mystery this is exciting! I knew there was something special about that little tag its so old its just barely hanging on but I'm going to save it! Im glad i was able to help!

Ill be posting some more later on today and can't wait to see what you post as well. This is my favorite section of the forum because of all the history shown and revealed about some if the earliest American history and art.

Cody

 

[Steve/sewell]

Hey Cody,keep on posting your historical flasks,lots of history and beautiful glass. All of the glass works in the citys of Millville and Bridgeton New Jertsey were so underrated by the Mckearins,they literally had no Idea of the enormity of the factory's outputs and that they too were producing historical flasks. At one point in the 1830s there were over 8 glass factorys operating within a 20 mile square mile area of these two towns,by the 1840s there were 16,by the 1850s there were twenty,by the 1860s there were 22,by the 1870s there were 26 and by the 1880s the pinnacle years there were still in operation 32 glass works of those twenty two of them produced hollow ware and window glass while the other 10 just produced window glass.If you enlarge the same area to the north and east another 15 miles you can ad another 15 glass works still operating in 1880 putting 47 of them in use. It stands to reason a few of them were producing historical flasks with the likes of Samuel Huffsey ,the Bodines the Coffins the Hays and the most famous early American glass blowers,The Stangers who really trained and helped to start a lot of the glass works in the United States as far away west as Louisville and to areas of North of New jersey into New England.The area under these two towns in the middle of the Cohansey sand sediments,to this day have the finest silca available in the world to make clean glass. This is why Caspar Wistar chose Alloway in Salem County to begin his 1739 glass making venture,the pure glass was all over the top of the earths surface making mining it very easy.This same reason applied to all of the above number of glass works locating in this region. The glass was in fact so pure,factory's as far away as New Hampshire and the Sandwich and New England glass company's in Boston Mass. each imported Southern New Jersey Cohansey sand.