P. KEARNS, Shamokin PA squat found and need a bit of help

[timeinabottle]

I went to pick up some small items from an auction house today and they had a wicker covered squat bottle for sale. The wicker was in horrid shape so I removed it once I got home. It’s a nice blue/aqua squat or pony (beer I presume) blob top bottle embossed with:
P. KEARNS // PA // SHAMOKIN all in a slug plate. The only reference I can find is in the sodas and beers.com website which no longer seems to be valid. I even searched the towns cemetery records to no avail! It also has the look of a sand pontil on the base but it is fairly smooth to the touch so I'm assuming it is just mold induced roughness. If anybody has any insight on this bottle it sure would be appreciated! Thanks in advance!

 

[nhpharm]

That's a good looking bottle! I had one of them a number of years ago-looking at my photos it was definitely the same slug plate but it wasn't nearly as crude and I think it had a tooled lip while yours looks like it has an applied lip. Being slug-plated, I suspect it is early 1880's. I know there is at least one version of hutch soda from this fellow as well. Patrick Kearns ran a hotel in Shamokin for a number of years and I suspect had a soda stand in the hotel.

 

[timeinabottle]

That's a good looking bottle! I had one of them a number of years ago-looking at my photos it was definitely the same slug plate but it wasn't nearly as crude and I think it had a tooled lip while yours looks like it has an applied lip. Being slug-plated, I suspect it is early 1880's. I know there is at least one version of hutch soda from this fellow as well. Patrick Kearns ran a hotel in Shamokin for a number of years and I suspect had a soda stand in the hotel.

He also is in a Pottsville business directory from 1875-1876. Being out west I don't see sand ponitils often. Do you think that is just mold induced roughness? Yes, it does have an applied too. Thanks for your comment. That's interesting info on the hotel!

 

[Roy]

He also is in a Pottsville business directory from 1875-1876. Being out west I don't see sand ponitils often. Do you think that is just mold induced roughness? Yes, it does have an applied too. Thanks for your comment. That's interesting info on the hotel!

Nice bottle, very nice of someone to preserve it with the wicker all these years for you. It sure looks a sand pontil to me but I'm far from a pontil expert. I'll be watching to see what others think.
Roy

 

[nhpharm]

It is not a pontil. Just some mold ripple or whatever you want to call it. The use of these round slug plates post-dates pontils by quite a bit.

 

[timeinabottle]

It is not a pontil. Just some mold ripple or whatever you want to call it. The use of these round slug plates post-dates pontils by quite a bit.

Thanks for confirming what I thought. Under 10X magnification I couldn’t see any sand or other particles plus it felt too smooth.

 

[Roy]

It is not a pontil. Just some mold ripple or whatever you want to call it. The use of these round slug plates post-dates pontils by quite a bit.

Thanks, that makes sense and answers a few questions that I had regarding the sand pontils.
Roy

 

[timeinabottle]

Thanks, that makes sense and answers a few questions that I had regarding the sand pontils.
Roy

Roy, here is a great article on plates and when they were first used in the US. Slug plates were used as early as 1850 but those all seemed to be rectangular in shape. When circular ones first appeared is unknown to me. The site also has s great Pontil scar section and in my opinion is the Bible for anything historic bottle related.!!

Body & Mold Seams

 

[Roy]

Roy, here is a great article on plates and when they were first used in the US. Slug plates were used as early as 1850 but those all seemed to be rectangular in shape. When circular ones first appeared is unknown to me. The site also has s great Pontil scar section and in my opinion is the Bible for anything historic bottle related.!!

Body & Mold Seams

timeinabottle:
Great article, I have it bookmarked.
Thank you. Roy

 

[jwpevahouse]

I went to pick up some small items from an auction house today and they had a wicker covered squat bottle for sale. The wicker was in horrid shape so I removed it once I got home. It’s a nice blue/aqua squat or pony (beer I presume) blob top bottle embossed with:
P. KEARNS // PA // SHAMOKIN all in a slug plate. The only reference I can find is in the sodas and beers.com website which no longer seems to be valid. I even searched the towns cemetery records to no avail! It also has the look of a sand pontil on the base but it is fairly smooth to the touch so I'm assuming it is just mold induced roughness. If anybody has any insight on this bottle it sure would be appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Those squat style blob top bottles with the round slug plate date much later than some collectors would think, 1890s to turn of the century. I even have a couple with a crown lip. The squat/porter style lost it's popularity with bottlers after1880 and was replaced by the 9 inch champagne beer bottle. Long story, but there was a temporary revival in the late 1800s of the use of that style of early mold blown bottle.