Reworked Molds...

[Staunton Dan]

The discussion recently about errors in bottles made me think of this subject. I have found 2 bottles where the original molds were modified for one reason or another. My 1st was a pontiled M. McCormack soda where the original "M" was made in error in the original mold and was made into an "N" by accident. Note how the "N" was then made into an "M" by reworking the mold. It was suggested that it would have been very costly to make a new mold just to correct the error so the mold was reworked instead.

 

[Staunton Dan]

The 2nd bottle was this Abbott Bros. Rheumatic Remedy which was originally made by the Chicago facility. This mold was obviously reworked when the Berwyn, Illinois plant started making the same bottle. Who else has found similar bottles from reworked molds that they would like to share?

 

[RED Matthews]

Nice pictures Stauntin Dan; In both of these occurrences the method looks like what we referred to as peening. In this action the iron was hammered with a blunt end chisel. This action was not always satisfactory because the shadow of the change like in the N to an M in your first picture, could show up in the glass against the disturbed mold iron. In the older Type "A" graphite bottle molds the iron didn't have a good ductility for staking the iron flat enough to cut the corrected lettering. The skill of this work depended a lot on the skill of the mold repair person.

Your ABOTT BROS. bottle was obviously altered the same way. I don't know the date of this bottle, but if it was after 1860 it could have been a mold that was made of chilled cast iron which produced the Dendritic graphite structure in the firs half inch of the iron in the cavity area. The light reflection cuts down on the authetic iron surface evaluation. But I thank you for your showing them to us. RED Matthews

 

[Staunton Dan]

Thanks Red. I was hoping that you would comment on these 2 bottles. I would also hoping that others would post their finds similar to these.