how old is that bottle

[maineahh62]

here is a sight that gives you an age and description and year that a bottle was made and more info about pontil marks and how they can tell you some thing about the age of your bottles.

How old is that Bottle

 

[old digger]

maineahh62, lots of good info and fast read at this site. thanks for the posting. I'm thinking about doing some work with Civil War reinactment group when I retire, this info will help, thanks.

 

[Harry Pristis]

"Quick and dirty" is how I think of the info on this site.

There is a glaring typo in the first paragraph -- it should read "Until ca. 1790." not "Until ca. 1709."

Dip molds go back much further in history than 1790-1810.

Octagonal medicine bottles didn't first appear in 1825. There are many small octagonal bottles from the 18th century which undoubtedly contained medical preparations. Here is a pic of one from my shelf.

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

 

[Pontiled]

That Civil War info site missed the mark on pontiled bottles. He says that none were made after 1850. Historical research has yielded many, many bottle WITH pontil marks, coming from the early sites (about 1861-1862) mixed with non-pontiled but crude bottles as well from the later years (1863+).

There really isn't much else of value there, in my opinion.

 

[BRIAN S.]

Hi ,
I have to agree with Mike. There were bottles still being made with a pontil rod after 1850. One example is a iron pontiled Drake's Plantation copy..... It was copied after the very popular at that time Drake's Plantation Bitters. And the Drake's is circa 1870. So , the copy cat company was using a pontil on their bottles well into the 1860's and early 1870's.

 

[old digger]

Thanks for all the added info, I'll be sitting up Civil War camp hospitals after retireing hope to find out much more about med. bottles used during that time,and to own a few more than we have at this time.