# Gin Bottle with Asterisk on bottom



## Toma777 (Jun 17, 2021)

Anybody have any information about this olive green "Asterisk" gin bottle?









I inherited it from my father who probably bought it back around 1970.


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## Toma777 (Jun 17, 2021)

I've only found one other example, and it has 2 dots around the asterisk.









						Antique Gin Bottle Glass Dark Emerald Green   | eBay
					

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">Antique Gin Bottle Glass Dark Emerald Green. Condition is "Used". Shipped with USPS.</p> <br> <p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">This bottle is from a collection gathered nearly 50 years ago in the Panama Canal Zone in Panama...



					www.ebay.com


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## Toma777 (Jun 17, 2021)

Edit: I made a mistake, it's a six sided star.

Edit again. It turns out the San Francisco & Pacific Glass Works (1875-1902) also used a 6 pointed start.

Link: https://sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/Symbolsarticle.pdf

San Francisco & Pacific Glass Works history: https://sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/SanFrancisco.pdf


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## Toma777 (Jun 17, 2021)

Toma777 said:


> I've only found one other example, and it has 2 dots around the asterisk.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




I find this type of history fascinating, because this bottle was found underwater at a Panama dump site, which means it traveled down from San Fransisco with people who were part of the great migration gold rush from the East Coast to the West Coast.

I have a relative (with wife) that made the overland trip from the midwest to the Sacramento area, around 1846. His name is Samual Kyburz, and there's a little town named after him. He located the site for Sutter's Mill, where gold was discovered, which started the stampede west.


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## Toma777 (Jun 17, 2021)

This blob top with a 6 pointed star is attributed to SFPGW SAN FRANCISCO & PACIFIC GLASS WORKS:









						OLD TEIL GREEN BOTTLE SFPGW SAN FRANCISCO & PACIFIC GLASS WORKS 1880 SODA LIQUOR  | eBay
					

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for OLD TEIL GREEN BOTTLE SFPGW SAN FRANCISCO & PACIFIC GLASS WORKS 1880 SODA LIQUOR at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!



					www.ebay.com


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## Toma777 (Jun 17, 2021)

I'm starting to think this bottle is pretty rare.


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## Toma777 (Jun 18, 2021)

I asked my mother about where she thinks they bought the gin bottle, and she couldn't remember, so it's someplace between Santa Barbara, CA and Portland, OR, where they did their antique shopping.

The San Francisco Glass Works bottles in Panama and Hawaii make sense, because shipping to and from San Francisco went to those places.


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## CanadianBottles (Jun 18, 2021)

That's a Dutch bottle, not American.  I'm pretty certain it wasn't made in California, I've never heard of case gins being made in the US at all and that one is typical of late 19th century or early 20th century Dutch design and not at all typical of US design from that era.  I don't know what the asterisk represents, but I'm sure it's just a coincidence that it was also used by the San Francisco & Pacific Glass Works.


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## epackage (Jun 18, 2021)

I don't know the manufacturer but it's a common mark on a common bottle, I've had many of them that I've sold...


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## Toma777 (Jun 18, 2021)

Thanks, that helps solve part of that mystery.

Now I have to find Holland bottle marks.


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## Toma777 (Jun 18, 2021)

From my reading it sounds like they were mass produced mostly in what is now Belgium. I am finding other case gin bottles with stars and x's with dots around them. There's probably a meaning to the amount of dots around the stars, but I have yet to find anything.


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## Toma777 (Jun 18, 2021)

Here we go:

_*"However, some case gin type bottles were made in the U.S. during the time span of popularity for this bottle type from at least the early 19th century (McKearin & Wilson 1978)."*_

Link: https://sha.org/bottle/liquor.htm#Case Gin bottles

So there's still a possibility my case gin bottle was made in San Francisco, although I highly doubt it.


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## CanadianBottles (Jun 18, 2021)

Toma777 said:


> Here we go:
> 
> _*"However, some case gin type bottles were made in the U.S. during the time span of popularity for this bottle type from at least the early 19th century (McKearin & Wilson 1978)."*_
> 
> ...


I'd be curious to see an American case gin, I imagine that it would have the look of American glass rather than European.  Different countries would typically have a certain look to their glass, and American glass would typically not look like your bottle does, at least not since the mid-19th century.


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## Toma777 (Jun 18, 2021)

*"One additional mold related feature essentially unique to European-made case gin bottles is a vertically corrugated texture to the body sides."*

*"These are sometimes referred to by collectors as "shingle mold gins" due to the resemblance of the glass surface texture with that of wooden shingles."*

My bottle is a "shingle mold gin," so it's not an American made bottle.

They didn't have any pictures of an American made case gin bottle, and only said it would very difficult to tell the difference, because of the imported materials.


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## Bohdan (Jun 23, 2021)

CanadianBottles said:


> That's a Dutch bottle, not American.  I'm pretty certain it wasn't made in California, I've never heard of case gins being made in the US at all and that one is typical of late 19th century or early 20th century Dutch design and not at all typical of US design from that era.  I don't know what the asterisk represents, but I'm sure it's just a coincidence that it was also used by the San Francisco & Pacific Glass Works.



Case gins were also made in Canada.


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## CanadianBottles (Jun 23, 2021)

Bohdan said:


> Case gins were also made in Canada.


Do you have any links to examples of those?  I'd be curious to see what they looked like.


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## Bohdan (Jun 24, 2021)

I'll have to look for them. I'll get back.


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## willong (Jun 24, 2021)

Toma777 said:


> My bottle is a "shingle mold gin," so it's not an American made bottle.



I don't think your bottle would be considered a "shingle mold" style, at least not by way of comparison to case gins, albeit early machine made examples*, which exhibit the pattern, and which I dug near Ainsworth, BC in 1971.

* Site was turn-of-century mining area with BIM bottles discarded in same small dump.

I have much too much on my plate right now, so I will not make a promise; but I will try to find and photograph one of the bottles within the next week to illustrate the (strongly) vertically-corrugated side panels.

Edit: I did find a photo online of an older BIM bottle showing the pattern: 



Forgive my statement if your bottle does exhibit the same patterning--it is not evident to my vision in the photo you posted.

WL


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## Harry Pristis (Jun 24, 2021)

*I have seen American-made replications of the European case bottles.  The ones I've seen were from the early 20th C.  I've seen more than a few "shingle mold" case bottles, but I have only one on my shelf -- and it's clearly a Dutch bottle, the A vanHOBOKEN bottle.  
  On my first web-site, I invited speculation about the purpose for the vertical corrugations in the walls of these late bottles.  I recall the best idea was to give added rigidity to avoid slumping as the nascent bottle was removed from the mold.  The corrugations also increase the surface area which radiates heat faster, allowing the new bottle to "set" faster.  Even modest improvement could be important to overall production. 




*


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## Bohdan (Jun 24, 2021)

CanadianBottles said:


> Do you have any links to examples of those?  I'd be curious to see what they looked like.


Found it !
Search "Melchers" or better yet:





						Embossed Melchers case bottle
					

I can't fins out anything on this recent find. Bottles from this dig I have been able to find are circa 1890. There is no case wear on the bottle. It could use a good cleaning. When held up to the light it looks more reddish than anything. No green or olive at all. The only thing similar I've...




					www.antique-bottles.net
				



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## CanadianBottles (Jun 26, 2021)

Bohdan said:


> Found it !
> Search "Melchers" or better yet:
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks for the link!  That's interesting, looks like there was a Melcher's in Montreal and a Melcher's in Schiedam, not sure how exactly they were connected or if the companies are even related.  Based on the labels it looks like they were using crude applied top case gins and ABM case gins around the same time, I'm guessing the applied top ones were imported from Europe because the labels on some of them look too modern to date from the era when Canadian glasshouses were using techniques like that.  
This is the only one of theirs I've been able to find which we can be certain made in Canada https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/melchers-canadian-geneva-maple-leaf-1786825877, but it wouldn't surprise me if all the other ABM ones were as well - maybe even used side by side with the applied top gins depending on which supplier they were getting a shipment from.  I've got a De Kuyper ABM mini case gin which I think might be made in Canada as well, not marked on the base but looks similar to ABM bottles of that era.
I wonder if there are any pre-ABM case gins which we can be confident were made in Canada.  I would expect them to have tooled lips if they were made after the 1880s or so, but can't remember seeing a tooled lip case gin before.


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## American (Jun 28, 2021)

epackage said:


> I don't know the manufacturer but it's a common mark on a common bottle, I've had many of them that I've sold...


Most of us probably bought one when we first started collecting, tried to sell it and then ended up giving it away.


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