How Good Are You At ID'ing Shards?

[downeastdigger]

The "Mother of all Shards"
This shard was dug by a friend, and I traded whole bottles for it. It is a thick panel from a bottle that lines up almost exactly with a Townsends. It is olive amber, and is embosse " , N.H. "
It's not a Kimballs, or a Sweets or any other known med.
My best guess, after a lot of research is that it might be an embossed variant of a "Fowler's Stomach Bitters", which is a rare bottle from the small town of Bristol NH, but it is a "label only" bottle. The bottle itself is a tall paneled bottle, so if the same proprietor had an embossed bottle, it could possibly be this.
My hope is to find a whole one

 

[capsoda]

Great shards Bram. I used to collect them and probable still have a few of my favorites hidden[] but the wife said bottles or broken glass but not both. I already have bottles in evry room of the house.[]

 

[Mainepontil]

There is a whole lota heartbreak there. Isn't it funny how you can dig a dump full of broken pontil shards then that one whole bottle is a 3 in 1 oil ???

 

[swizzle]

I'll be posting some shard pics a little later. I just wanted to say that I started to compare the shards that I dug yesterday with the shards that I dug last time and was I surprized. Not only did I dig more shards to a success to the railroad flask but I dug another shard to a different success to the railroad flask. I have the back legs of the horse pulling the wagon and the other shard you can see part of the horses leg and the wagon wheel. I also have a bunch of shards that I can't identify yet. I also have what I believe to be a piece of a pontil rod. The one olive amber pontiled 8 sided umbrella looks to have some light embossing on the base. I'm starting to wonder about this 8 foot round hole that I found all of these in. I'm hitting undisturbed dirt and water only a foot down. I'm thinking this hole is only shards. There has got to be a good pontil hole here somewhere. HELP!!! It may be a while before I get the pics posted but it will be sometime today. swizzle

 

[earlyglass]

Swizzle, I'm anxious to see your shards. I will post some as well.

Bram, I have looked at that "N.H." shard a dozen times already. Can you tell me if this label only Fowler's bottle was a Stoddard square and in the Townsend size?

Being an unlisted colored pontilled NH bitters... this would be the mother of all New England bottles! I have to see a whole one in my lifetime.

Mike

 

[downeastdigger]

Hi Mike,
The Fowlers bottle is in the Ring Bitters book, it is F-74

I'm at work now, but I cant remember the exact shape, but it is close to a Townsends but a more sloped shoulder. It is only embossed "FOWLERS - STOMACH BITTERS" but not BRISTOL , N.H. which is what I'm guessing could be a variant that I dug. Just a possibility, since I havn't been able to come up with a better guess.

Bram

 

[swizzle]

Dang it batteries are dead once again. I got 4 on the charger and I only need 2. I'm gonna try to get the pics posted before 3pm. That's some awesome black glass you got downeastdigger. After staring at the base of the ink until I got a headache I still can't read the embossing. I'm not sure if it's symbols or numbers and letters. It looks like 4 X 4 only the 4's are backwards and the X is missing a good portion of the bottom and looks like or could be a V (weird). All three of the ink bases that I dug have a little dimple on the bottom in the same spot. Dang it I wish those batteries were charged already. Are pontil rods swirled? I have a 4" piece of swirled glass thats broken off at both ends. I'm thinking that the rod got to short so they busted it off and tossed it. Anyone have any info on the cornicopia flasks? Swizzle

 

[earlyglass]

The "4x4" is known to be embossed on some of the umbrella and cone inkwells from Stoddard. Funny that you see this as well on the bases of the Gibbs Bone Liniment bottles, as I had believed those to have been produced at the Mt Pleasant Glassworks in NY. Not quite sure what the 4x4 means, but your eyesight is fine. There is often a "002" as well.

Mike

 

[swizzle]

Kinda strange to find stoddard glass at a glasshouse that made saratoga mineral spring water bottles don't ya think? So there very well may be a lot of fake stoddards out there? That's what it sounds like to me. Swizzle

 

[earlyglass]

Well, there is no doubt that the lines are very blurred between the Stoddard NH glasshouses and the Mt. Vernon and Mt Pleasant glasshouses of NY. The glass color and consistency is almost identical. Both produced an abundance of utilitarian type bottles. You mention spring waters... both produced an abundance of spring waters as well. Looking at these "larger" quart bottles it is a little easier to tell the difference. Overall, the Stoddard glass comes in mostly amber tones, and I would say that the "light golden amber" color is almost all Stoddard. Most of the upstate NY glass is a darker olive green and somewhat murky.

Getting back to the 4x4... I beleive it is used on the base of the GV-2 Success To The Railroad flask from upstate NY as well. I have personally dug cone inks with the 4x4 base at the Stoddard glasshouses. Can you add any information about the NY glasshouses? Have you dug these sites? Just curious, because this stuff can drive you nuts! I may be confusing the "4x4" with the "2x2"... where are my notes! []

Mike