Bottle Newsletter #14
Nov/Dec 1996
Reggie Lynch was gracious enough to put together a home page listing all of the past newsletters on his home page, you can find all of the back issues as well as a direct subject listing of articles within the newsletters, this is a very nice setup for these pages, and one that I hope everyone will vist. The address is as follows --
http://www.ipass.net/~rlynch/bottles/newsletr.html (corrected)
The Canadian auction of bottles closes this week and can be found at:
http://www.glassco.comthe catalog has picture links to almost all of the listings on line, put your bid in, and who knows maybe you will get something.
I would like members to submit finds, and wants, along with articles - I will be issuing a deadline for the future newsletters, which will be about one week in advance of the newsletter being distributed!
Stoneware beer bottles were often re-used by American bottlers during the 1850-1890 period. These durable containers seldom were broken, and survived many trips from the bottler to the consumer, and back. There are several examples of this type of bottle in the display of Northern Illinois stoneware located in the center of the display room.
In glass, a standard beer bottle shape was adopted by the 1870's. Around this time, the eastern and midwestern areas of the country used beer bottles with embossments. Many of these bottles were embossed by the plate mold process. By 1890 the western half of the country, too, had an abundance of embossed beer bottles.
With the invention of the Lightning stopper by Charles de Quillfeldt of New York City in 1875, the beer industry had a new practical closure. Along with the Lightning stopper, the Baltimore loop seal was a favored closure for a number of years after being invented by William Painter, of Baltimore, about 1887.
The period of particular interest to the beer bottle specialist is between 1870 and 1920 approximately; it was during these years that the most interesting specimens of bottles and closures were produced. After Prohibition, beer bottles with crown corks, paper labels, applied color labels, and eventually cans, were the common containers for beer.
With beer bottles, shape is not of special importance. Most were of standard beer bottle shape, perhaps with slight modifications. Size too is not of great significance although there are some untypical specimens.
These bottles generally came in varying shades of aqua, green and amber. Because of the theory that dark glass has a superior preserving effect, many bottles were produced in amber glass, so a collection of beer bottles would be predominantly this color.
Embossments could, perhaps, be considered the most interesting aspect of collecting beer bottles. In addition to the great number of firm names in embossed lettering, many of the companies added embossments of animals, symbols, and the like.
The beer bottles in this display are fairly representative of most of the different styles of beer bottles available to the collector in the Chicago, and Northern Illinois area. There are many options available for you to collect, glass, stoneware, by color or shape, city or town, age, etc.
Information extracted from the book AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO COLLECTING BOTTLES, by Cecil Munsey
martha204@worldnet.att.net
The collecting of ink bottles is a very interesting branch of bottle collecting. These bottles are found in many sizes and types, ranging in capacity from a thimble full, up to and including a gallon. They were made in many shapes, such as conical, cylindrical, square, rectangular, domed, multi-sided, log cabin, house, barrel, locomotive, shoe, and many odd shapes.
A collector can specialize in one shape such as the conical (cones), conical paneled (umbrellas), etc. A few collect only the master sizes which include all shapes and sizes from quarter pint up to and including the gallon sizes. However, the collecting of the master sizes has its drawbacks due to the amount of space taken up by such a collection.
One may also specialize in one particular company such as Carters, Diamond, Sandfords, Staffords, etc. Several collectors specialize in just pontiled bottles, a field which is now becoming out of reach for the average collector due to the cost. Several collectors in this group have gone into other groups due to the limitations.
Many collectors prefer only pontiled bottles in color. However, many of the early bottles in either aqua or clear and with the embossing of a particular company may be very rare. One such bottle is aqua and embossed HEATHS INDELIBLE BLACK, WRITING INK.
Collecting only those bottles having labels is very interesting due to their being colorful and having the complete address of the company.
The bottles made by the automatic bottle machine is also an interesting field. These are classed as junk by most collectors. However, many bottles made by this method are as rare as some pontiled bottles. This is an excellent group to collect as the cost would be nominal for most bottles.
The rarity of some ink bottles is much greater than that of many historical flasks. Although hundreds of all sizes and types of ink bottles must have been produced, in many instances, only one or two examples of some bottles are known. The scarcity of some ink bottles is mainly due to the quantity ordered. One New England glass house in 1840 received an order for five gross (720) each of 4 oz. and 8 oz. sizes, both embossed with the ink makers initials. To date, not one of these bottles has ever been recorded.
Early ink bottles served as inkwells over a long period, being re-filled from a master ink bottle.
Since the book "INK BOTTLES AND INKWELLS" was completed and published by William Covill Jr., in 1971, many additional ink bottles have been recorded. There seems to be no end in sight yet of the different ink bottles used in this country. It will be many years before a complete listing can be accomplished.
The book INK BOTTLES AND INKWELLS is still an excellent starting point as a reference guide for both new, and experienced collectors.
please respond to booratav@wantree.com.au (if you have any info on the
above)
cbarb@concentric.net Clifford Barbara
Happy Collecting!