That’s kind of what I figured. Everything is around the dates you mentioned, so why would this be any different.
I dug this up. no pun intended.
I really like this bottle; the form is a very old one that has been kept up to this day.
Is that an iron pontil mark?
The evolution of bottle shapes during the 18th century made possible the storing and ageing of wines; or perhaps it was the realisation that some wines benefited from ageing that prompted the development of a bottle shape more suitable for “binning” – that is, storing bottles on their side to keep the cork wet, and therefore the seal intact for a longer period.
In the 17th century wine bottles generally had fat, round bodies with squarish shoulders and rather long necks. The shape is well named “shaft and globe.” It was also during the 17th century that cork became more widely used, replacing glass stoppers (rather like the stoppers in modern decanters). By the end of the century the bottle-screw (now known as a cork-screw) was developed, which allowed corks to be inserted deeply and more snugly into the bottle neck.
The bottle shape continued to evolve in the 18th century, first into a flatter round belly with a long neck, known as an onion shape. In rapid sequence other shapes were developed, first the bladder or balloon shape (fat and round but with slightly more vertical sides, and long sloping shoulders), then the mallet (straight sided but with the foot of the bottle rather wider than the shoulder) and finally by mid-century, the first cylindrical bottles. These still had a short fat shape albeit with vertical sides, and a long neck, but evolved by the early 19th century into a taller narrower body with a shorter neck, not too far away from modern shapes, only a bit more square-shouldered. In 1821 Ricketts & Co Glassworks of Bristol (England) patented a machine which could mould bottles of uniform size and shape.
Throughout this period, and well into the 19th century, wine was sold by measure, e.g. a cask or pipe. The buyer would either keep the wine in cask at home, and only use a bottle to carry the wine from cask to table, or the wealthy buyer might have their own bottles which a merchant would fill for him. Private bottles had some kind of boss impressed with a seal to identify the owner (not the wine), and are prized collector’s items now. Even the moulded bottles of the 19th and early 20th centuries were finished by hand and are worth keeping if you have the good fortune to find one
It won’t scrape off with my fingernail.I was referring to the whitish stuff on the bottom, not the 'button'. Can you scrape that stuff off with a fingernail?
If you look at old Drambuie bottles there is an area for a wax seal to be placed. I'm not saying it's a Drambuie, but I'll bet it's a brandy or Liqueur bottle.
Boston's back Bay area and the public gardens were made from old glass etc that was brought in to create more building space in the city.
If you ever walk through there look at the soil in the flower beds; you will see chips of china,, glass etc in the soil.
The banks of the Charles River are loaded with old bottles. Years back they were doing construction along the shore on Storrow Drive. The guys running the excavators dug up hordes of old bottles which they took home and collected or sold.
Some of the material used for the dike may have been fill brought in from somewhere else.
Ya never know.....
