# Robacks Barrel with Iron Pontil



## rraack (Mar 1, 2011)

I wasn't planning on buying any bottles for a while, but I couldn't pass this one up. It's a large, fat  9 5/8", Dr. C. W. Robacks, Cincinnati O without the apostrophe. Super nice iron pontil, whittled and no staining inside or out and no signs of being been cleaned or polished. Only the slightest indication of faint wear scattered here and there, but not noticed due to the wonderful crudity.


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## rraack (Mar 1, 2011)

Another view


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## rraack (Mar 1, 2011)

Side view with some Sun


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## rraack (Mar 1, 2011)

Finally, the piece de resistance; the base with the iron pontil


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## bottle_head9 (Mar 1, 2011)

Very nice bottle.[]


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## rraack (Mar 1, 2011)

Some of you may remember this GX-21 Pike's Peak flask, which I posted a thread on a short while back. Well I sold it recently and then as many of you probably know I sold the GXI-4 Pike's Peak flask to kungfufighter through the forum. I had sold one other lesser flask about a week ago and all together they helped to justify in my mind (probably not my wife's) buying this Robacks, which I did not even know about at the time of the other sales. At first I wished I hadn't sold the other two flasks as they were such great bottles. But now having acquired this bottle helped me to get over parting with the others. Interesting how things work out sometimes. (In the end I broke even with no money spent, but none gained either). It's exciting when you come across great bottles at a reasonable price; I simply can't resist!


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## georgeoj (Mar 2, 2011)

A very nice bottle. I would have done the same thing without a doubt. The chance to buy a great bottle at a great price does not come every day. And, if you hesitate, the opportunity could be gone very quickly.
 George


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## bottlekid76 (Mar 2, 2011)

That is a killer Roback's! I have an IP one as well, but mine has a lip chip. Hoping to upgrade it one day =)

 All the best,
 ~Tim


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## Jim (Mar 3, 2011)

That's a beauty of a barrel. Great whittle, nice color and heavy iron = sweet.  ~Jim


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## JOETHECROW (Mar 4, 2011)

> ORIGINAL:  rraack


 

 A real beauty for sure!


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## Plumbata (Mar 4, 2011)

Those barrel bitters are extremely appealing and eye-catching even from a long distance. I like the fresh IP on the bottom

 Nice bottle, though I do like the history associated with the Pike's Peak flasks as well. I need to get one as a present for my father someday soon.


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## Road Dog (Mar 4, 2011)

Great looking bottle. Never had one, but always liked them. Maybe, one day.


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## sandchip (Mar 4, 2011)

Great looking bottle.  Makes me miss the one I used to have.  Hang onto it!


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## cowseatmaize (Mar 4, 2011)

I've been very hesitant to comment on this because I don't want to sound the fool or sound offensive. I have to now so maybe I can learn. I have a problem with the IP. I do agree that it may be IP but I'm not sure about it's looks. To me it looks like like a skim coat of BondoÂ®. I have no idea why that would be done and that's why I'm asking. 
 It's a terrific bottle. I'm just curious and fool or not, I'm asking.


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## rraack (Mar 4, 2011)

I understand why you might say that. Most iron pontils I see do not look like this one; they have the darker graphite appearance. The smooth base Robacks are configured very differently on the base and the iron pontiled ones I've seen all look similar to this one, but then I've only seen four.  Someone here on the forum probably has a better answer than what I can offer. I can only speculate that it has to do with the physical make up of the particular iron deposit and that some deposits react differently to the moisture in the atmosphere over time. Can someone else shed some light on this question?


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## tigue710 (Mar 4, 2011)

That is good question, logically we would have to assume as bottles have been both dug and found undug with both the red and blackish grey pontil that the mineral composition of whatever was used to empontil the bottle was different...


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## bottlekid76 (Mar 4, 2011)

Since Eric was talking about the pontil associated with this great example rraack has, I wanted to show mine to maybe help compare and to see the pontil it has. 

 All the best,
 ~Tim


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## RED Matthews (Mar 4, 2011)

Hello all you pontil people.   I started a post and got about half-way through itâ€™s creation when I hit a wrong key and lost my work.  â€œDar n Computersâ€.

 Anyway, I have a blog for my homepage that was started a few years ago and I am still not satisfied enough to put it there.  I had listed some of the key book references and was just starting to discuss the various pontil marks when I lost it.  â€œBa Humbugâ€. 

  My objective was to point out some information regarding the punty rod types and the contact material application that resulted in different pontil marks.    
 Ã˜      The punty rods were made different for many different size bottles and contact. The intent was to put the handle on a hot first stage bottle for the neck finish application; tooling or what ever had to be done while they used a handle to hold it.  
 Ã˜      The ends of the punty rod were designed for the job. And some were flat on the round end, domed to fit a bottom, tapered to fit a push-up, what ever was needed.  
 Ã˜      The working end of a punty rod was heated. so it wouldnâ€™t shock cool the bottom of a bottle in the process.  I am sure they had them laid near or nearly in the glory hole to heat them.    
 Ã˜      The first thing they did was put an attaching paste on the contact end of the punty end, that they were going to use. This paste, as far as we know, was graphite, red lead, or white lead.    
  Ã˜      From there they had working wooden boxes in a line with segments that contained: sand, glass dust, glass chips, and powdered iron (from the machining of mold iron).    
 Ã˜      The paste coated rod was rolled or dipped in these materials depending on what the bottle maker liked to use or depending on what would hold the size of bottle he wanted a handle on.  Sometimes they just rolled the outside edge of the punty face to attach it to the bottle being made.       

 There just isnâ€™t enough written about these methods.  I have visited the Corning Museum and obtained some help getting description of these methods being used, but the early bottle books didnâ€™t spend much time covering such a mundane detail.  I hope this will help your understanding â€“ from my limited knowledge.        RED Matthews


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## Steve/sewell (Mar 4, 2011)

They are a nice looking bottle congratulations.They make for a nice window bottle.I own one barrel bottle I found as a kid.It is exactly like yours minus the embossing (it is a plain paper label where your embossing is).


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## rraack (Mar 4, 2011)

Hey RED,
 I appreciate your informative post on the various punty rod types and contact material.


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## rraack (Mar 4, 2011)

Tim, 
 I'd be interested in seeing a full upright shot of your Robacks. If you've got the time post a photo.
 Bob


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## Steve/sewell (Mar 4, 2011)

rraack,I dug mine out of the attic.I forgot it had an applied blob top.But it does have a huge Iron pontil.The color of the bottle is like yours and the iron pontil mark is almost like a womans rouge applicator.The area covered by the iron on this bottle is just in a larger diameter of coverage.


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## Steve/sewell (Mar 4, 2011)

2.


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## Steve/sewell (Mar 4, 2011)

3.


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## Steve/sewell (Mar 4, 2011)

4.The iron pontil I will get up tommorrow and take a picture in sunlight and post it here.


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## rraack (Mar 4, 2011)

Very interesting - I've never seen a barrel with a blob top before. It's really crude! That's an amazingly large pontil area also.


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## Steve/sewell (Mar 4, 2011)

The Whitney glass works where this bottle is from I believe went through a phase where even on the Booz bottles where they were using an applied blob type top.You dont see very many however.I wonder if the same person was responsible for these tops.I do have another bottle like yours a Robacks I just cant find it right now.It is buried in the attic.The only reason I found this one so fast was it was in a box I went through last week and I had remembered seeing it in there.


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