# Rare bottle defects



## reach44 (Oct 22, 2013)

Do you own any rare or treasured bottles with a chip or crack in them but still covet them?  It always irks me to have a damaged bottle even if its slight.  But sometimes one comes up that is rare enough that the damage has to be overlooked.


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## epackage (Oct 22, 2013)

Many


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## antlerman23 (Oct 22, 2013)

I have a few. a busted top iron pontil cobalt soda and a open pontil cathedral peppersauce to name a couple.


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## ScottBSA (Oct 22, 2013)

Most of my bottle are soda and beer bottles, as a result, most of my bottles have some kind of damage or haze or defect on them.  I have only paid to have two bottles cleaned.  I bought both of them way under value and with the cleaning they were still way under value.  I have lost several bottles that had cracks or pot stones or through mishandling, but most of them were trashed at one time or another.

 Scott


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## Ohiosulator (Oct 22, 2013)

I have some rare pieces with damage because they are still historically significant no matter what and after being around so long they deserve to have some sort of damage, its just part of their story. There are some who cant have any sort of flaw while others enjoy them no matter what


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## botlguy (Oct 22, 2013)

I have had quite a number of damaged bottles in my collections over the years and while I prefer pristine just like everyone else they were / are welcome additions. I once observed a rare Historical Flask with half of the mouth gone sell for $24,000 at a Heckler auction. I was sort of a newbie and was flabbergasted. The buyer was ecstatic.


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## reach44 (Oct 22, 2013)

I've found a medicine variant I want and it has a lip chip.  I suppose I just wanted a little backup to justify the purchase []


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## botlguy (Oct 22, 2013)

> ORIGINAL:  reach44
> I've found a medicine variant I want and it has a lip chip.  I suppose I just wanted a little backup to justify the purchase []


 I just bought, off eBay, a pharmacy from the Owl Pharmacy, Bellingham, Wash., with a lip chip, for about $20 with mailing. It goes with my Granddaughters Owl bottle collection. It would go for at least 5 times that if perfect so it's worth it to me. She won't care when she gets the collection.


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## RED Matthews (Nov 18, 2013)

Well  I have tried to collect bottles with marks on them that show where the bottle had to something special to finish his work.  I have several bottles with long bar marks where they had a hot zone of glass on their blown parison and touched a wet wooden paddle to the side wall to cool that part of the parison.  I have found these marks on demijohns mainly.  I have several mold cavity repair marks: round bar inserts and rectangular metal inserts are the most common ones.  I have spotter bar marks for several typs and shapes usually needed for multi layer applied color labels.  The most recent new one was on the 2001 egg plant bottle that didn't show any mold seams because it was made in Italy and the whole bottle to the top of the neck was painted - a strange blueish color.  I never get down on a damaged bottle if it shows other merit for being in my collection.RED Matthews


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## Sir.Bottles (Nov 18, 2013)

actually there is many. I also got some too...


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## RED Matthews (Nov 19, 2013)

I am looking for book or magazine coverage of bottles that were blown in metal pierced sleeves.  I have at least six product pieces of this type of creation.  The first two were decanters and now I have a large bottle and four small double shot glasses made by someone that knew how to do it.   I have no idea of how they were formed without checking the glass, so I have to assume the metal sleeves were preheated before the glass was blown in them.  As soon as I can get my camera working I will post some pictures.  The metal sleeves have been stamped with diamond square holes with protruding glass in each one.  I will appreciate any possible help.   RED Mathews


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## UncleBruce (Nov 19, 2013)

Going back to the original post I have a few that are damaged.  Here are two:


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## LC (Nov 19, 2013)

That White Beer bottle is an interesting looking bottle , shame it is damaged , Is that a rare bottle ?


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## UncleBruce (Nov 19, 2013)

I believe both are rare.  That is why I will keep them until a better one comes along... if ever!!!


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## FitSandTic (Nov 23, 2013)

I try to avoid damage when possible but sometimes you have to buy what you can get. I recently picked up a Baltimore ink in puce that has a damaged lip and after showing it to a Baltimore digger I was told of the few examples he had seen all of them have had lip damage. I understand not liking damage and avoiding it but sometimes the only opportunity for the harder to find pieces is having a damaged piece. Yes it does hurt the value, but it may be the only way to have an example. You guys know as well as anyone that you can't always buy rare pieces because they never hit the market. That is what is so great about digging, it is your best chance at owning that rare one of a kind piece. I recently emailed a member that is from Ohio who dug a rare colored mineral water from my area and asked him if he still had the shards. He said he would try to find them and I could have them if he did. There is not much or any value to them money wise but they were like gold to me because it was documented history that one exists.


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## Sir.Bottles (Nov 29, 2013)

Here is mine...


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## Sir.Bottles (Nov 29, 2013)

take a look at the condition...it's terrible is it? crack here & there. yet I still keep it, it's a rare variant of E.Kiderlen gin bottle.


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## Sir.Bottles (Nov 29, 2013)

here's the close up of the seal.


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## RICKJJ59W (Nov 29, 2013)

sometimes the scarce/rare/old broken ones are more fun to find then the common whole ones we find all the time.


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## sandchip (Nov 29, 2013)

Don't want to sound like a chump getting all technical here, but I see a difference between defects and damage.  Most of the stuff posted here looks to be rare bottles that were broken or damaged, as opposed to bottles with seldom seen (rare) manufacturing defects, like folds, birdswings or whatever that is with the amber Wood's Black Ink cone on ebay right now.  I've got several broken rare bottles, some sitting on the shelf with my good stuff, and probably only a couple with good manufacturing defects.


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## Dcravosa (Nov 30, 2013)

Recently found a bottle from my grandfather's delivery business from the '30s (one of only a few we know to exist).  Had a small chip up inside the lip where they'd used a clip to pop the cap out back in the day, which is not that uncommon.  Still love it. --- Dean


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## RED Matthews (Dec 11, 2013)

Well I recently ended up with a bottle that I expressed an interest in because it had a neat little mark on it that showed where a rectangular block of mold metal was inserted to correct a damage in the mold.  I got freaked out when I studied the bottle, it had so many examples of no-no in it that it should never been used to deliver a product to be sold.First of all the parison hung too long in the mold before the final blow so there are two webs of extra glass on each internal bottom of the side panels.  Secondly the tool used to form the lip twisted the neck about 35 degrees by my measuring device and the tool also created a blob of glass inside the finish ring.  The next thing was the mold seams on the shoulder were badly worn causing such high seam ribs on top of the shoulder. one would think it was a wooden mold.  It wasn't though because the main label panel was embossed in beautiful lettering;"/ FOLGER'S "  over "/ Golden Gate " over "/ FLAVORING ".  The last outstanding goofy thing is that the bottle was obviously held with some different type of snap case that made odd marks on the bottom of each panel.  The bottle is about 5" tall and I would like a one that was delivered without all those troubles - for my brief case samples for discussion at visited bottle clubs.  RED Matthews


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## sandchip (Dec 12, 2013)

Would love to see a picture of it, Mr. Red.  If you want to email them to me, I'll be glad to post them here.


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## Rebecque (May 29, 2019)

*Perfect condition Owl Pharmacy glass bottle  & Horlick's Malted Milk*

I dug up this Owl Pharmacy bottle in my yard when I was planting trees (Bellingham, Washington). It came out of a buried, large tin bucket filled with glass bottles, tin pill boxes, an eye dropper, spoon, ceramic lid and other bits. The other bottle I really like from the bunch is a green Horlick's malted milk bottle (from Racine, WI).


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