By John Panella and Joe Widman
AN OLD QUESTION, WITH AGE EXCEPTIONS Probably the most asked question about American antique bottles is, “How old is it?” If you know the history of bottle making you can probably answer this question with over ninety percent accuracy, and get within ten to thirty years of the bottle’s true age. The problem is that there are many exceptions to this known history. In this article I will list some of the usual exceptions and one very big documented exception. Here is a list of the history of the most common ways bottles were made: • Blown-in-Mold with Open Pontil — Bottles were made this way until about 1850. • Blown-in-Mold with Iron or Improved Pontil — Bottles were made this way from about 1850 to 1860. • Blown-in-Mold without Pontil and with Applied Lip — Bottles were made this way from about 1860 to 1890. • Blown-in-Mold without Pontil and with a Tooled Top Lip — Bottles were made this way from about 1890 until 1903 or a little later. • Machine-Made — From 1903 to the present day. The only certain date on this list is 1903. No machine-made bottles were produced before this time. There are many exceptions and overlaps for all the other methods. The overlaps happened between areas of the country, dealers and individual bottle blowers. RIGHT: Side views of the man-made Potasafras bottle, embossed Established 1914.
June 2020
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