# some of my hoard of bottles



## kendolbottles1black (Jan 17, 2004)

just a couple of my bottles


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## dhgb2 (Mar 23, 2004)

I love that NO.4 One of the crudiest bottle,s I have ever had was an English ale Black glass no2. I lost it when it fell off the shelf from a semi truck going by the house on a gravel rd  and it broke on a demi john. I have never seen another like it.


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## Harry Pristis (Mar 23, 2004)

Hi, Ken . . .

 Nice group of bottles!  Are these all "gold field bottles" (I think that is the term) from the 1850s and 1860s?  

 I suppose that such bottles are mainly British.  Did Australian glassworks produce black glass bottles?  

 Is there a good deal of information available about the origins (who made 'em) of these bottles from England?

 ---------Harry Pristis


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## IRISH (Mar 23, 2004)

Harry,  there is sadly very little info on where our goldfields blacks (as we call them) came from.   The first successful attempt at glass making here was around the 1820s but I don't know if they made bottles, also they didn't last long.
 The majority of our glassworks started after 1870,  too late to have made those bottles.
 I would say that around 90 percent of our bottles are British up until the 1870s,  there is no proof of that though and there would be American black glass among them.


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## Harry Pristis (Mar 23, 2004)

*RE: some of my bottles - Black Glass Bottle*

Thank you, Irish.  It is difficult to attribute these mid-century black bottles to any glassworks, and sometimes even to the country of origin, it seems.

 The reason I was curious is that I have a bottle that I am wondering about.  I recovered the bottle at a river landing in Florida that has a long history starting in the early 1800s.

 It is a black-glass fifth bottle, 11.25" tall, three-piece mold -- fairly routine, really.  No pontil scar indicates it is no earlier than the 1850s if American, and the 1840s if British.

 The bottle does have going for it a rather extravagant lip ring, and it is embossed within the kickup.  It has a "P" opposite two nipples.  On the other compass points it has a "C" or possibly a "G" (faint and smaller than the "P") and a "2".

 I have searched the McKearin & Wilson book, AMERICAN BOTTLES & FLASKS AND THEIR ANCESTRY, and have found that the Phoenix Glass Works in Boston produced  black-glass bottles (1820-70).   There are other other glassworks of the time with a "P" name, but this is the one that produced many of these bottles over a long period.

 I can't really eliminate the other American glassworks, nor can I eliminate the possibility that this bottle is of English manufacture.  Anyone have any ideas of the origin and age of this bottle?

 -------------Harry Pristis


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## IRISH (Mar 23, 2004)

most bottles of that style and base type with lettering and a "pimple" seem to date from around the late 1860's till 1880 or so,  they are very common here in tip's of those ages,  no one here seems to care whats on the base of blacks but I always keep any different ones.
 I have one exactly the same as your one with the P on the base,  it came from a creek not far from here last year.


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## kendolbottles1black (Mar 24, 2004)

hey harry, most of my bottles are from the gold fields as i collect mainly black glass i have about 15 differant base embossed bottles plus a few sealed ones and afew embossed on the front there hard to come by out here in oz. i think most of mine would be of english decent. my oldest bottle is a 1760s english cylinder sent over to me from america by a mate of mine working over there. anyway by for now ken[]   PS HEY IRISH HAVE YOU DUG ANY NO.4 BLACK BOTTLES .IS THERE ANY OTHER NUMBERS.[]


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