What do I do with all of these bottles!

[EmmaSa]

Hello,

I'd really love a bit of advice as to what to do with a lot of bottles! I've been visiting a (very) old fishing lake that is being drained and it is like a bottle graveyard. I don't have a clue what to look for or what to do but I feel like if they just get filled back in or covered up again it will be a really missed opportunity.

Most of them have been there for, well, I have no idea! I started bringing a few home as I quite like the whole cleaning them up thing and seeing any names I recognise but my mum is starting to get really cross about how much mud I'm washing down the sink. I need help! Is there anything I should look for that makes a nice bottle? Do people sell them? Does anyone buy them wholesale!? If anyone has any info they could help me out with I would massively appreciate it. If you need anything else from me I can try find out a few more bits if needed.

Oh, also, there are a lot of bottles with 'Saxons Wolverhampton' (way to blow my secret location!) on them, does anyone know what that is? I thought it might be fun to collect a few of them up and return them, but so far I can't find anything!

Thank you in advance!

 

[RED Matthews]

Hello EmmaSa; I guess if you read and digest some of this, you will know a little about what identifies an old enough bottle to be worth bringing home. Read and re-read and good luck. There a lot of us here to help you.
This is a collection of material information for newbee's in the hobby of Historic Bottle Collecting. There are several approaches to bottle collecting, and every one has a different interest, that keeps them going after bottles that represent their interest. My interest in putting this together; is to look at the development of bottle making and the methods that were used when the bottles were Hand-Made and Mouth-Blown. This is intended to mainly cover the bottles that were made in the development of the American Glass Making Industry, the first industry in our country.. New diggers and collectors, need to realize how to identify bottles that were made by Hand and Mouth-Blown vs the bottles that were made on an AUTOMATIC BOTTLE MACHINE (ABM). These glass items can be left for future collecting objectives; or recycled into the batch additive to today's glass production. If there are two vertical seams on the finish of the bottle, leave it or recycle it. The logic is the value isn't going to be worth taking it home; unless it is an unusual figural or fancy bottle. There are a lot of interesting bottles made later, but ones interest has to become more specialized. For example I have a bitg collection of large advertising bottles – that were never even filled. Whiskeys, beers, perfume, Coca Cola and many products. Multiple finish Wolfe bottles, and bottles that were made with special mold designs. So you can’t leave justification for saving others also.
The number one thing to learn is how to identify and know Mouth Blown Bottles. One of the best things to learn is how to identify the pontil marks.
#1 When a bottle has a round ring of glass on the bottom, it is telling us that the ring was made by having an empontiling done with the previous blow pipe with neck glass left on the end of that blow pipe. The diameters (inside and outside) will be about the same as the neck of the bottle under the finish. So this is a Blow pipe or Open Tube Pontil, on the bottom of your bottle. That previous blowpipe was laid on a rack by the glory hole to keep that glass tube end hot enough to stick to the next bottle. These are often referred to as: an open pontil but that is up to the collectors’ use of words.
#2 When the bottle has a contact mark on the bottom that illustrates that what was used to empontil it, that mark will be a round form with different textures in the mark. The mark is made by an iron punty rod and the diameter and style is different for: small to huge heavy glass bottles. These heated punty rods were often soft coated with a sticking agent like: graphite, red lead or white lead . The coated punty is then placed in; an open boxes with: powdered iron, glass chips, glass dust, sand, to mention the main ones. It is then stuck on the bottom of the new bottle to become a handle for the bottle-maker to apply glass to the neck of the empontilled bottle.
Some punties are even just coated with some hot glass from the melting crucible. Identifying the exact method of empontiling is not as important as just realizing it has been on a punty rod.
#3 Now the last thing to look at is the finish on top of the bottle you are thinking of keeping. If the finish was applied hot glass it will be just a ring of glass or it might have lines going around it and down on the neck of the bottle indicating that a pinch action tool had been inserted in the neck and the hot glass rotated to shape the hot glass, that was put on the neck. In this looking at your bottle or jar – if you see two vertical mold lines on that finish – then it was made on an ABM (Automatic Bottle Machine) and left for a future collector. The only exception is if the bottle is a unique figural or has some other indications of being a collectors item. This will come after you have more experience. This is no doubt enough to get you on a good road. RED Matthews <bottlemysteries@yahoo.com>

 

[cadburys]

Emma, I'm assuming your from the west midlands right?

Ant

 

[EmmaSa]

I am indeed.

And thank you for that I will try look out for those kinds!

 

[deenodean]

Welcome...pictures mean more than a 1000 words so if you could post some of them that will help immensely. The experts on this website will judge your bottles accordingly. Washing off the mud outside with the garden hose will no doubt please mom and prevent the drains from clogging. Now Emma, lets get that camera rolling...[]

 

[EmmaSa]

Okay here are a few pics of what I've got at the house. They're not fancy ones like some of the others on here, it was only today I thought there might be something to this. Next time I am there I will take a few pictures of how many there are down there. So far I've just been grabbing whatever I can fit into my carrier bag and hoping they've got a bit of writing on them once I get them clean!

 

[EmmaSa]

Co Op bottle

 

[EmmaSa]

Tea Spoons bottle

 

[cadburys]

I lived in Birmingham for 10 years before I came to the states so I guess I picked up on your hint!.... and you used the word cross to describe mum being mad

Although this is an amazing forum, it is made up of mostly american collectors with focus on american glass. Production methods and styles in the UK were quite different than the US.

Are you finding any coloured poison/not to be taken bottles, bottles with marbles in them, bottles with rounded bottoms, transferred pot lids or stoneware bottles with transfers on them?

If, however, you are finding screw topped bottles you probably will be into a newer dump where there will be little interest from collectors.

When you clean off the bottles just use a garden hose and and a bucket of water instead of washing it down the kitchen sink.


Let's see some pictures !

Anthony

 

[EmmaSa]

schweppes bottle