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Roy

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A few questions on this one. I dug this bottle in a dump that I think dated back to about 1900. Unfortunately it was in two pieces about 2 feet apart. Found the top first and with dirt on it I thought it was a hock wine top and set it to the side. A short time later I found the bottom and then realized they matched.
The seam runs around the base and up and ends at the base of the neck.
One of the pictures shows the color with sunlight behind it. Anything you can tell me about this bottle and what type of glue or epoxy I should use would be greatly appreciated...
Thank you, Roy
 

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Roy

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Thank you,
I thought it might possibly be of German origin or somewhere near that area.
That gives me a great starting point.
 

hemihampton

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That's a nice desirable color. not a common color. Congrats. LEON.
 
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Roy

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That's a nice desirable color. not a common color. Congrats. LEON.
Thanks, I've been digging off and on for a long time and don't remember ever finding a piece of one of these so I would guess they are not that common at all in my neighborhood. Roy
 

willong

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Hi Roy,

More than fifty years ago, I had good results gluing a "The Great Dr. Kilmer's Swamp-Root Kidney Liver & Bladder Cure Specific" bottle back together using hobbyist "epoxy casting resin."

That "cure" bottle was my first BIMAL* embossed find after I had begun deliberately hunting for antique bottles. I dug it out of a small, moss-cover mound of forest litter and crumbling tin cans. Unfortunately, thinking it a soft, clean surface, I laid the bottle upon a patch of snow behind where I was kneeling as I returned to excavating other goodies. When I turned around to deposit another find, I discovered the Swamp-Root bottle lying in three pieces! I then realized that even though there were probably very few degrees difference between the bottle's insulated nest in the forest duff and the surface of the snow it was enough that the thermal shock of rapid cooling had cracked the bottle through material contraction. Today, it always makes me cringe when I see some of the YouTube diggers placing freshly excavated bottles on adjacent snow and ice patches!

Although I didn't add dye to the epoxy I used to repair the Swamp-Root bottle, colored dyes were available for tinting the resin before adding the catalyst (hardener) in preparation for use. You might want to check into what's available today to potentially use for your repair project. If you are artistic you likely already have color-blending skills. If not, plenty of painting tutorials online address the subject.

*It is one of the earlier variants, but still might just be a "tooled top" instead of BIMAL**. I have it packed away somewhere and can't remember for certain. Should I stumble across it, and find it still together after half-a-century, I will add a photo to this message.

Welcome to the forum,


Will

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Fruitjar

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A few questions on this one. I dug this bottle in a dump that I think dated back to about 1900. Unfortunately it was in two pieces about 2 feet apart. Found the top first and with dirt on it I thought it was a hock wine top and set it to the side. A short time later I found the bottom and then realized they matched.
The seam runs around the base and up and ends at the base of the neck.
One of the pictures shows the color with sunlight behind it. Anything you can tell me about this bottle and what type of glue or epoxy I should use would be greatly appreciated...
Thank you, Roy
Looks a lot older than 1930. I have one similar without the handle. Always thought it was a brandy.
 
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Roy

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Hi Roy,

More than fifty years ago, I had good results gluing a "The Great Dr. Kilmer's Swamp-Root Kidney Liver & Bladder Cure Specific" bottle back together using hobbyist "epoxy casting resin."

That "cure" bottle was my first BIMAL* embossed find after I had begun deliberately hunting for antique bottles. I dug it out of a small, moss-cover mound of forest litter and crumbling tin cans. Unfortunately, thinking it a soft, clean surface, I laid the bottle upon a patch of snow behind where I was kneeling as I returned to excavating other goodies. When I turned around to deposit another find, I discovered the Swamp-Root bottle lying in three pieces! I then realized that even though there were probably very few degrees difference between the bottle's insulated nest in the forest duff and the surface of the snow it was enough that the thermal shock of rapid cooling had cracked the bottle through material contraction. Today, it always makes me cringe when I see some of the YouTube diggers placing freshly excavated bottles on adjacent snow and ice patches!

Although I didn't add dye to the epoxy I used to repair the Swamp-Root bottle, colored dyes were available for tinting the resin before adding the catalyst (hardener) in preparation for use. You might want to check into what's available today to potentially use for your repair project. If you are artistic you likely already have color-blending skills. If not, plenty of painting tutorials online address the subject.

*It is one of the earlier variants, but still might just be a "tooled top" instead of BIMAL**. I have it packed away somewhere and can't remember for certain. Should I stumble across it, and find it still together after half-a-century, I will add a photo to this message.

Welcome to the forum,


Will

**Blown In Mold, Applied Lip
Thank you Will,

I appreciate your experience with the epoxy casting resin and will look into it a bit more before I do anything. The break on my bottle is so clean that family members saw it sitting on a window sill and thought I had already glued it together... I love the story about your Kilmer's bottle. We always seem to remember those first bottle finds.
I went to the show in Saratoga last week and it was terrific, 2 barns full of bottles. More than a 2 hour drive but I will be going again next year for sure. After the show we stopped by the National Bottle Museum and that was also terrific. At the museum they had a bocksbeutel bottle exactly like mine but I didn't think to ask about it until we were driving home. I emailed the museum and Avonlea Stiles, the assistant director emailed me the next day. She said that bottle was never made in the US. She would guess by the mold lines and the bottle was made between 1880 and about 1900. I want to say thank to everyone on this forum and especially to Harry Pristis for telling me it was a bocksbeutel wine bottle...
 

Roy

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Thank you Will,

I appreciate your experience with the epoxy casting resin and will look into it a bit more before I do anything. The break on my bottle is so clean that family members saw it sitting on a window sill and thought I had already glued it together... I love the story about your Kilmer's bottle. We always seem to remember those first bottle finds.
I went to the show in Saratoga last week and it was terrific, 2 barns full of bottles. More than a 2 hour drive but I will be going again next year for sure. After the show we stopped by the National Bottle Museum and that was also terrific. At the museum they had a bocksbeutel bottle exactly like mine but I didn't think to ask about it until we were driving home. I emailed the museum and Avonlea Stiles, the assistant director emailed me the next day. She said that bottle was never made in the US. She would guess by the mold lines and the bottle was made between 1880 and about 1900. I want to say thank to everyone on this forum and especially to Harry Pristis for telling me it was a bocksbeutel wine bottle...
Should have said mold lines and applied ring.
Roy
 

willong

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Between Harry's response and the information Roy obtained from Ms Avonlea Stiles, it piqued my curiosity enough that I had to learn more about "Bocksbeutel" as I was not familiar with the name. If members haven't done so already, I think they might want to check out the Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bocksbeutel
I found it not only informative, but amusing as well.

PS for Roy: Information in the article makes it clear why the bottle would not have been produced in the US.
 
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