Is this a pontil mark?

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SavageBud

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CanadianBottles

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It looks like it to me, but with fancy glass like that a pontil mark doesn't necessarily mean it predates the Civil War like it usually does for more utilitarian US bottles.
 

sandchip

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I do not think it's a pontil mark, but the remnants of where the gather was twisted as it was withdrawn from the batch and clipped off by the gaffer's assistant. Sometimes, whether it's the consistency of the batch, temperature of the mold or a combination of the two, these factors prevent this from being obliterated as the bottle was blown into the mold. I have a blown salt shaker with this same characteristic.

Any chance we could get some clear picture of the top? Some of the lines on the bottom still have me wondering about this piece.
 

Patagoniandigger

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Seeing the mold lines I can tell the bottle base was twisted by the center. That means to me it's a pontil.
What about the top?
Is it an applied glass or tooled finish?
Could you take a picture of the top (a close up if possible )?
Please steady your camera or phone on something.
 

sandchip

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Seeing the mold lines I can tell the bottle base was twisted by the center. That means to me it's a pontil...

I'm afraid you are mistaken. Pontil rods are rotated simultaneously or in unison with the bottle attached to them while the blowpipe is detached and the mouth is finished. They are not twisted on to, while attached, or off of the bottle. Watch a glass blower and his or her assistant from start to finish on a vessel and you'll see what I mean by my statements in my earlier post. I've looked at literally thousands of pontil marks in over 45 years of collecting and not once have I seen this characteristic associated with the pontil itself. With all that said, like you, I would like to see more and better photographs of this piece.
 

SavageBud

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Here are pics
 

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Patagoniandigger

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I'm afraid you are mistaken. Pontil rods are rotated simultaneously or in unison with the bottle attached to them while the blowpipe is detached and the mouth is finished. They are not twisted on to, while attached, or off of the bottle. Watch a glass blower and his or her assistant from start to finish on a vessel and you'll see what I mean by my statements in my earlier post. I've looked at literally thousands of pontil marks in over 45 years of collecting and not once have I seen this characteristic associated with the pontil itself. With all that said, like you, I would like to see more and better photographs of this piece.
That seems to be the rare fenomena you explained.
There are 2 lines that confused me. They run across the outer part of the base. Maybe they are marks made by the block on the Parison that remains. What do you think?
 

sandchip

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I keep looking at those too. The upper one looks like a fold or wrinkle left from the original parison, while the one(s) at the bottom almost look like surface cracks or cooling lines. Really hard to say. One of those pieces better inspected in hand.
 

Patagoniandigger

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I keep looking at those too. The upper one looks like a fold or wrinkle left from the original parison, while the one(s) at the bottom almost look like surface cracks or cooling lines. Really hard to say. One of those pieces better inspected in hand.
I agree 100% with you.
Ithink these phenomena are due to an operator(s) new to the job.
SavageBud thanks for all these images. Because of the glass is transparent it's hard to take good pictures of the surface.
 

Patagoniandigger

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One more thing. If you follow the upper line towards down it gets to the very center. It's hard to see.
The downer lines are twisted and seems to disappear near the center.
 

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