Osborns Liquid Polish

[baltbottles]

Matt,

I don't think anyone is sure where these come from all I know for sure is that there seem to be a few floating around and they mostly seem to be attic mint bottles. It makes me wonder if they just never got used and all turned up in one hoard years ago? And have been distributed since. Perhaps the company had the bottles produced and never got off the ground... Which would explain the lack of advertising.

Chris

 

[earlyglass]

I agree that they have a Baltimore look, but I don't think anyone really knows where they came from. The story goes that there was a small cache of them all found together quite some time ago, and they are the only known examples. I believe they were found in New Orleans? Maybe some veteran collectors have more info.

Since they could easily pass as New England bottles, they were desired by the collectors in the Northeast... so it seems that many of them have circulated around that area. I have one and have had a few over the years. They are great looking bottles! They have traded as high as $1500, but seem to usually sell around $750-900 range.

Mike

 

[baltbottles]

Mike,

Thanks for the information. It just struck me as odd that everyone you see is pretty much a mint bottle where are the stained up dug examples at? So I assumed the ones known must have came from the same source. It wouldn't surprise me if these turned out to be an early southern bottle which makes sense because Baltimore supplied quite a bit of glass to the south...

I just always saw them being sold out of the New England area so I thought they must have been found there

Chris

 

[cowseatmaize]

For what it's worth, Kovels had this.
Household Blacking, Osborn's Liquid Polish, Aqua, Rolled Lip, C.1850s, 3 3/4 In.

 

[casperwhiskey]

The Rumour told to me by Jim Mills a great bottle cleaner from Mongomery, Al. says that a case of them were dug in Montgomery in the 1970's in a pontiled dump near the Capital. The pontils were so large that many could not sit down straight. There is another pontiled med. from there Coster & Cox. One of them later moved to Mobile and the other moved to New Orleans.