Girolamo Pagliamo : medicine, grass green color

[ND_IXL]

Your welcome Red! I will post more detailed pictures later tonight or tomorrow. I would be interested in hearing more about the bottle as well.

 

[ND_IXL]

Sorry red I've been having trouble with uploading the pictures.. Trying again tonight

 

[ND_IXL]

Here's the best picture I could take! Hope these work for ya Red, let me know what ya think 3 more pics coming in a minute

 

[ND_IXL]

3 more

 

[sandchip]

Thanks, I was thinking it might be Italian. When I purchased it I at first thought it was American with just an Italian maker simply because it was purchased from an American collection with no other foreign bottles. I payed $70 for it, anyway I think it's an interesting bottle.

I always wondered because it sure looks American made. Great looking bottle.

 

[ND_IXL]

Yeah me too Jimbo. This bottle has an amazing amount of whittle and orange peel look as well, not to mention the strange grass green color! From what I've gathered so far I believe it dates from 1835-1845 a very early example. Let me know what you guys think of my start of my first color run. I'm trying for all the G.W Merchant variations in as many colors as I can find, 2 of these examples were dug by yours truly from left to right we have A Deep forest green 5 1/2 in by 3 1/2 in by 2in with applied sloping collar and embossing on 3 sides and extreme tubular pontil mark, then we have a medium Lockport green 5in by 2.75in by 1.25in with applied sloping collar, embossing only on the front, and a strong tubular open pontil, next is a very scarce two tone Emerald green GW with the same features as the last one mentioned (I dug this myself in an 1850s privy pit in upstate NY!) has a chipped lip unfortunately. the last bottle has the same features as the first mentioned except it is 1/3in shorter and the color is a pronounced teal/aqua with just a hint of green in it and this one has an extremely pronounced graphite pontil scar (Also a dug bottle!) I'll post better pictures this evening if anyone is interested

 

[ND_IXL]

All of the G.W are sparkling *MINT* examples except the yellow/emerald green one with a chipped lip (otherwise mint)

 

[RED Matthews]

NICE OLD BOTTLE. i smile when I look at the bottoms of bottles like this because of the corners of the bottom are so thin. This is because the parison didn;t have enough glass to fill in the corners when the glass was blown out to these corners. It is called "Heal Tap" because that is all it would take to break the glass and loose the contents. The bottle seems to show some texture in the glass. Interesting - because there are a lot of different glass textures caused by a lot of different things. RED M.

 

[RED Matthews]

"Well I was just fooling around today and ended up back on this thread. The thing that gives these old bottles the whittle look, wasn't because they used a knife in the mole making. The molds were made of cast iron at this time; and the cavity had to be machined after the parting face and outside top and bottom of the mold were machined. The mold had to have a locking face on the insede surfaces. On a small bottle like this it was usually a vertical tongue and groove. On larger molds it was a dovetail locking by having the top of the tongue wider than the bottle cavity. The cavities of early molds were not always cast against a cold iron piece of the cavity form. This was done to chill the cast iron in the objective cavity in the mold halves. This chilling of the molten metal created a different graphite structure, called dendritic iron. The dendrites were linear lines of graphite progressing back in the iron, away from the cavity. This structure slowed the thermal conductivity of the heat and kept the mold hotter to accomplish a more uniform clear flat bottle contact surface. The so called whittle was a dumb name for variable thickness of the blown glass. I worked in Thatcher Glass's Central Mold Shop, and researched and made a lot of different developments in the 15 years I was there.The people in my management line taught me a heck of a lot - that I will always appreciate. I even developed a metal formula change that let me leave there, and travel the worlds glass industry selling them on trying this metal, for better glass making and longer mold equipment life. It was all a great smile maker in my memories. RED Matthews

 

[ND_IXL]

Wow! That was an amazing story Red, thanks for sharing it. Very interesting the way the glass exhibits variable thickness which causes the whittled apperence. Another thing I was wondering about Red, two of my books have this bottle listed as American from between 1840-1860. Is it possible that this bottle could have also been made in America?