Old bottle identification

[Jrr]

These bottles were deliberately smashed by a Seminole war party during the 2nd Seminole war. The bottle fragments were carefully excavated from private property that was once a large sugar plantation in the early 1800's. The bottles were painstakingly reassembled and filled with clear epoxy to provide total support. I hope to get these into the local museum but would like to know possible date ranges and place or country of origin. Aside from the Phoenix bitters bottle I have no idea about the rest. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[gdog68]

Can you post images of the bottoms of your bottles

 

[Jrr]

Very difficult to see due to lighting. The wine bottles are very deep. There are no makers marks or stamps of any kind

 

[sandchip]

1840-1860 would be my guess, the Phoenix Bitters being the heartbreak of the bunch, although a couple of the champagnes might be a tad earlier. I applaud your patience in reconstructing them.

 

[Skoda]

Wow, that is some absolutely mind blowing reconstructive work! I would back up that mid-1800's estimation, and given the 2nd Seminole war date range of 1835-1842, all those bottles could fit into that timeframe. All the ones in the back contained champagne as mentioned, and the 3 in the front contained porter, ale, beer, etc. The ales are almost certainly imports from the UK, Spain, Portugal, or somewhere else in Europe, and the champagnes likely are too.

 

[jwpevahouse]

These bottles were deliberately smashed by a Seminole war party during the 2nd Seminole war. The bottle fragments were carefully excavated from private property that was once a large sugar plantation in the early 1800's. The bottles were painstakingly reassembled and filled with clear epoxy to provide total support. I hope to get these into the local museum but would like to know possible date ranges and place or country of origin. Aside from the Phoenix bitters bottle I have no idea about the rest. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Those black glass bottles most likely date to the 1840s, possibly as early as the mid to late 1830s. There's also the possibility of early to mid 1850s but my guess is 1840s. Unembossed black glass bottles are a generic type which survived until the late Victorian era, particularly in the British Isles. The champagne bottles are a generic type used until the present.