The United Glass Company (Wistarburgh) shot glass or drinking vessel.

[Steve/sewell]

I acquired this glass earlier this week and was quite surprised when it arrived.The drinking glass has all of the traits of being manufactured sometime between 1739 and 1780.There is the usual gall (yellowy white substance) found around the pontils of Wistarburgh attributed glass.The color is yellow green and is a perfect match with other Wistarburgh glass in my collection.The glass is 3 and 5/8ths inches tall,2 and a half inches wide at the top and 1 and 1/4 inches at the base.The glass is also seated on a footed disc 3/8ths thick and is a 1/4 inch wider in circumference then the base of the glass.There are small potstones and other glass striations.The glass although pretty symmetrical is not completely round and is uneven at the top of the glass.I believe the glass was free blown.The glass is quite thin in nature except at the footed base.

The United Glass Company (Wistarburgh) was America's first successful glassworks. It operated largely prior to the American Revolution.Glass made at the site can now be attributed to this factory because of analysis of alkali-lime glass shards from the glassworks site (one shown here in this post) that green Wistarburgh bottle glass is much more calcic and is enriched in various trace elements (notably the rare-earth elements) compared with later south Jersey glass for which analytical data is also available for. The compositional data indicates that Wistarburgh's proprietors made use of a batch recipe containing approximately 68 wt.% local sand, 24% dolomitic limestone, and 3% each of soda ash and potash. In addition to green bottle glass, blue, aquamarine, and colorless potash–lead glass and colorless potash glass were also recovered from the Wistarburgh factory site, suggesting that a range of specialized glassware was produced by this factory.

The method for determining Wistarburgh authenticity was patented by J. Victor Owen. (check out his resume quite impressive)
http://www.smu.ca/academic/science/geology/bios/victor_owen.html

I plan to send this drinking glass to Mr. Owen for his analytical review although I am already very confident it is a product of the United Glass Company.The glass is pictured next to a medicine vial which has already had review from Mr Owen and a glass shard found in the pasture in Alloway New Jersey which is where Wistarburgh once stood.

 

[Steve/sewell]

Number 2. Pictured with a glass vial with solid Wistarburgh attribution.

 

[Steve/sewell]

Number 3 Pictured withn the same vial and a glass shard found in the farm field in Alloway where Wistarburgh once stood.

 

[Steve/sewell]

Number 4 A close up of the footed base.This type of footed base was used quite extensivley throughout the mid and late 1700s in Colonial America.

 

[Steve/sewell]

Number 5 The base with good wear in two areas and a large sticky base.

 

[Steve/sewell]

Number 6 The glass upside down.

 

[Steve/sewell]

Number 7 Pictured again with the Shard and the medicine vial from Wistarburgh.

 

[Steve/sewell]

Number 8 Looking into the glass you can see the irregular shape of the top of the glass.

 

[Steve/sewell]

Number 9 The last pictue, another group shot for color comparison.I have never seen another glass like this one before and I am pretty excited to own it.