Imperfections in the glass..........

[woody]

Periodically I will find a bottle that has a major imperfection in the glass when it was blown.
Here's an example of a Dr. Wistar's Balsam of Wild Cherry that has some sort of black slag inside the glass.

A friend of mine found this bottle in his barn along with a few others.
Even though the Wistar's was broken, (cracked), I bought it from him because I hadn't seen such a gross imperfection in the glassmaking process such as this.

 

[woody]

Here's a picture of the whole bottle.

 

[IRISH]

It's amazing some of the things you find in glass, I've got a broken bottle with a small nail/tack in the glass, also a scnapps bottle that has a ribbon of glass stuck on one side (inside it) near the middle and hanging across the bottle to just inside the lip.
I wonder how many people ingested a bit of glass or slag by drinking out of badly made bottles.
I will try to get a clear photo of a few of my "duds" [] .

 

[kumtow]

I saw a picture of a bottle a couple of years ago that had a thin thread of glass internally that went fron one side of the bottle to the other side. It was very very thin, almost hair like. One has to wonder how such thin imperfections survived undamaged all these years.

 

[Maine Digger]

I' have a nice early 'Ert's Bros' blob top soda/beer that also has several 'spots' of black slag in it, as well as 'stretch' marks in the neck. It's a wonder that they allowed some of these to leave the bottleworks! I wore out a couple of bottle brushes before I finally realized it was slag and not dirt.[8D]

 

[KentOhio]

Don't discount it because of the crack. It looks to me to be a cooling crack, one that resulted when the black slag cooled at a different rate than the aqua glass. Odds are this has been cracked since day one. It could also be called an in-making flaw.

 

[BRIAN S.]

I love these crude imperfections in early glass ! Please share some more pics guys & gals.
They refer to the thread or larger piece of glass on the inside from one side of the bottle to the other as a " Swing ".....If anyone was interested.
A lot of Collectors really look for the crude bottles...they are very much in demand. I have seen a bottle bring 2 to 3 times more than it's actual value.....just because of the crudness. One example is in the recent Glassworks auction.... A Strawberry Puce 6 log Drake's Plantation ( est. value 250.00 - 350.00 ) went for a whopping 1700.00 + 15% buyers penalty just because of it's great crudity , whittle , wavy panels , ect.
The very crude .....have great character and are very much in demand.
I agree with Kent ...I'd say your crack is from day one. The slag cools at a different rate then the glass and caused stress that resulted in the crack.... In the same manner that some potstones do and you get the spider leg radiations from it.
GREAT looking bottle Woody ! Love the slag and the whittle ! Brian

 

[Oldtimer]

Labels ,color, crudity, condition, embossing. 5 points I look for in a bottle. Crudity is a real draw for me too. My friend and I get rid of duplicates, keeping just the crudest for ourselves.

 

[bearswede]

I've got a G.W. Weston quart I call "The Warhorse"... The left half of the saratoga is heavily scarred... It appears as tho some kind of corrosive material, perhaps a solvent, was left in the mold before the bottle was blown... It's got great character!!!

I've also got a "II" variant Dr. Townsend's with an incredibly crude lip... It looks like there's a big piece of missing glass, but it's just the way the hot glass folded over itself... Altho this bottle has a short, almost invisable heat-check crack, it's the prize of my collection...

 

[deepwoods]

So are pronounced striations caused by slag? It sounds like everyones in agreement about the appeal of crudity. I saw a VERY rare bitters once that was so "un-crude" it looked like new - and I know it wasnt a repro - a good bottle gotta have some personality! Give me a wobbly,old unembossed cylinder in a weird color with a million bubbles anytime. Nice find Woody .