green bottle with 'c' logo

[Gunsmoke47]

I believe the main function of a kick up was to catch sediment. My wine bottles have a kick up of about 1 1/2".

 

[woody]

Here's a picture of a pontil scar, Jean.
The black stuff you see is dirt, as I haven't cleaned this one yet, but it gives you an idea of what a pontil scar is.
Notice the jagged glass on the bottom of the jar.

 

[woody]

Another pontil on a Turlington bottle.

 

[Harry Pristis]

Hello, Jean . . .

I agree with Woody, that looks like a smooth base; that is, no pontil scar. If you can't find something in that kick-up that will shred your fingernail, it has no pontil.

The pontil scar is just that, a scar. This is a rough place that may be circular, or donut-shaped, or even as a scatter of sharp grains on the bottle base. I always feel stupid when I cut a finger-tip searching for the pontil scar, but it can and does happen when you collect these older bottles.

This is on page 163 of Betty Zumwalt's book:

A G
Monogramed intitials attributed to Alfred Gounelle.

Alfred Gounelle of Marseilles, France, registered many trademarks and patents for containers. Suspect these beautiful and unusual [sic] designed bottles contained products from France. Trademarks 13,798 through 13,802 were issued in November of 1886 for olive oil to Gounelle. This gives a possible range of business years from 1860s to late 1880s. Rated as extremely rare in this country does not apply to their native land.

[Figured below:] Emerald green barrel, approx. 11.5"x3"w, w/2" wide mouth, open pontil, ext. rare.

I am still guessing that the skeletal "A" is an attempt to represent the Eiffel tower as well as the owner's first name. Without the pontil, your bottle probably dates to the 1880-90s, possibly into the early 1900s.

-------------Harry Pristis

 

[Harry Pristis]

Gunsmoke47 is correct. The nominal reason for the kick-up is to trap sediment in the narrow groove at the bottom of the bottle.

Be that as it may, sometimes it appears that the kick-up is unreasonably exaggerated, perhaps to make the bottle appear as though it contains more wine than it really does. This is significant if you have enough wine to fill 2,000 bottles. A little extra kick-up in your bottles, and you might have enough wine to fill say 2,200 bottles.

It's all in the packaging! The bottle below is 12" tall, and the kick-up is 3.5". Fill this bottle with an opaque bordeaux and it looks like a good deal more wine than it really is. Manufacturers of all sorts are still using packaging tricks like this.

-------------Harry Pristis

 

[Gunsmoke47]

And I found out just how UN fun tumbling one of those puppy's can be!!! The copper really likes to get stuck in the kick up! []

 

[Jean_Kramer]

THank you!! Thank you so much.
- Jean