Wistarburgh medicine vial and a cylinder small utility bottle.

[swizzle]

Whoa, Those are sweet as hell. They look like candy. Very awesome bottles and color. I love it. Swiz

 

[RED Matthews]

Hi Steve, That collection of solid glass would have had to, have been on the bottom of the gather, wouldn't it?. It seems like if it was there, it could have become cone shape when the glass was blown into the form for the parison. It could have been one of those things they used to fool around with to reduce the quantity of the product being bottled. Like the cheater push-ups. This type would accomplish the same thing.

When the governments thought they were not getting enough tax money for the contents, was when they started insisted the bottle shoulders had to be mold formed instead of free formed to assure the capacity control.
That is a unique bottle. RED Matthews

 

[blobbottlebob]

Hey Steve,
Once again, cool post. Would it be safe to assume that the gall you refer to is some kind of impurity (inadvertently) added to the glass when the punty rod was applied?

 

[Steve/sewell]

Hi Bob, the impurity is deeper into the glass area not even touching the pontil sometimes.Its hard to say if it was the technique of one individual or
a chemical reaction between say the punti rod and the batch of glass.I have seen it also on the lower sides of the bottles attributed to Wistarburgh.
It almost looks like a potstone type of material but its different then that.It is swirled into the glass and comes out like vains in a marble slab .Hard to explain but seen quite often on Wistar made glass.

If you go to oldsouthjerseyglass.com choose the email tab you can ask William (Hank) Flowers the ultimate expert on Wistarburgh products a question in an email.He always returns his emails.He has numerous spackle buckets of shards from the glass house site in his possesion along with quite a few glass pieces from Wistarburgh.He is a great guy to get to know,and has unlimited first hand knowledge about colonial New jersey glass and any colonial glass for that matter.

 

[JOETHECROW]

Steve,...Great to further my early glass education thru you once again! ....Thanks for the cool post and great pictures. Joe

 

[WEB44]

Wistarburgh Glass ID.

My on-line research of a glass bottle has led me to early New Jersey glass, in particular, to Wistarburgh.

There is several similaries :

Wistar pale green color, thin walled glass


Wistar applied heavy mushroom lip tooled to shape



Wistar glass gall - a yellowy sandy substance with the texture of cement grout.

The bottle (10") is most likely non utilitarian, there is no signs of wear or use, most likely a whimsy / show piece. The only Continental bottle that comes close in shape is the Riga Balsam hip flask, but is thicker walled and has different finishes.

If the bottle is 18th cent., there is one oddity, there is no rough pontil scar. But there is several signs the bottle has been (German) double dipped on the bottom third, providing a smooth base that enclosed the scar (as shown above)

Have been in touch with Dr. Victor Owen in regards to having chemical analysis done, but the process is quite expensive.

Am interested in any comments

 

[Harry Pristis]

Again gall in the pontil of the utility bottle.

I'm confused now. In the image, your red line appears to be pointing to a ridge of glass, associated with the pontil scar, that's been ground down (probably because it was too sharp or protuberant). Are you saying that that coarse-appearing rim is something else?

What do you mean by "gall"? I am familiar with "glass gall", a contaminent of glass which leaves an opaque-turquoise, qlossy deposit that "swims" on the surface of the glass. Willie Van den Bossche describes "glassgall" as a salt of sodium sulphate. In German, the term for this phenomenon is "Glassgalle" or "Glasspeck". In French, it is "la graisse du verre."

I'm sure I have some black bottles with glass gall contamination around the pontil scar. I appears simply as a discoloration of the glass, with no difference in texture from the rest of the bottle.

Either or both of these bottles could pass for French, or even for German.

The cone-shaped kick-up was formed by pushing it up with an iron rod, sometime with a toothed-cogwheel on the end for a broader kick-up. This tool is called the "molette". Here's the trace of a toothed molette:

​

 

[nhpharm]

That is a neat bottle...the round bottom (with no pontil) is an odd form for Wistarburgh. Was the bottle found in the US?

 

[WEB44]

Wistarburgh Glass ID.

Yes, the bottle was found in Maine app. 12 years ago.

What I first thought was a large bubble on the bottom





Now I believe it is a polished pontil scar that was enclosed in glass by (German connection) the double dipping
of the bottom section. The gl. thickness is double the top part of the main body. There is a thick ripple of gl. that happened during the double dipping as shown below





As I mentioned in my first post, am considering chemical analysis, which would resolve the debate.
The process will cost app. $200. & require a small gl. sample (about the size of a course grain of sand)

Need some informed comments on the chances the bottle is a Wistarburgh non utilitarian piece.

 

[Harry Pristis]

Yes, the bottle was found in Maine app. 12 years ago.

What I first thought was a large bubble on the bottom



View attachment 168522

Now I believe it is a polished rough pontil scar that was enclosed in glass by (German connection) the double dipping
of the bottom section. The gl. thickness is double the top part of the main body. There is a thick ripple of gl. that happened during the double dipping as shown below



View attachment 168525

Consider the possibility that you've misinterpreted the features of the glass. Pontil scars are never as clean as the margins of a glass bubble.

A pontil scar would have to be annealed - cooled - before it could be ground. Once annealed, the bottle could not be dipped into molten glass without destruction. Therefor, the seam you point out on the side of the bottle must be something other than the margin of a 'double-dip.'

You are confused about the German half-post mold technique. It is at the parison stage that the glass is dipped in molten glass. Once the bottle is formed, it is not dipped.

A well-formed bottle like this one was probably started in a dip mold, at a minimum. The seam you see on the side of the bottle is likely to be a mold seam (which is almost inevitable as a consequence of overblow in a dip mold).

The thick glass you point out, as well as the bubble, are common features of hand-blown bottles.