Topic: question re matching numbers engraved on decanters and stoppers

[ahremck]

Many years ago in the very early days of collecting glass I bought a Stuart Decanter (vintage c. 1950) from a pawnbroker here in Melbourne.  Both the stopper and the bottle section were scatch marked with a diamond point in matching numbers.  I enquired why that was so, having never seen it before.  His response was that he screatched them in so that the right stopper went with the right bottle section.

Ross

[flying free]

so either a pawnbroker with a sense of humour.....or there are decanters out there that may or may not have their original stoppers but were numbered by pawnbrokers anyway 
m

[chopin-liszt]

When you press gently and give a little twist to a stopper in the bottle, you should be able to lift the empty bottle a few cms off the table by the stopper.

That's the standard "test" I've been using over the years to determine whether a stopper is, or isn't, a perfect match.

[glassobsessed]

 

As a general rule I avoid twisting stoppers if at all possible. Pull them straight out,  twisting a stopper that is not a perfect fit can result in them jamming in the neck, occasionally making them next to impossible to remove.

John

[chopin-liszt]

I did stress "very gently". 
Only enough to feel if it would "catch" if you went a bit further, then only enough further to achieve the "catch". The bottle should drop if you try to lift it further.
Perhaps, having spent years working in a lab with delicate and temperamental equipment, I may have the "very gentle" bit down to a fine art - kind of like an experienced lockpicker. 

[ahremck]

A very simple but effective way to prevent problems with sticking - especially if the decanter is for show, rather than use, is to put a very light smear of vaseline on the stopper.  I remember from first year Uni Physics calculating the force to "break" the surface tension on two flat blocks of glass stuck together with a little water was ENORMOUS and trying to pull them apart would have smashed the glass.  So what one needs is a substance that does not "stick to" glass as water does.

Ross

[chopin-liszt]

Pulling them apart, yes the force is enormous.
But they'll slide apart quite happily. 

The vaseline thing is ok as long as you aren't going to use it.

To create a seal in a glass lab bottle, I used to give the thing a wee shake, so the liquid did capillary up inbetween the surfaces of ground glass, then twisted it gently to finalise it.

No vaseline - it would contaminate everything to the point it was pointless!

[neil53]

Just a comment on Chopin's point about matching stoppers by twisting and using them to lift the decanter off a table.  Any decent fitting stopper will do that, not just the original.  I know at least one trader with a large box of stoppers who uses that test to work out which replacement stopper he will use.

[chopin-liszt]

So you also need to be careful that the stem of the stopper is at the correct height (not sticking up above or sunk below the rim) - and that it actually matches the bottle too.

However, even with a very big box of spare stoppers, it's still unlikely one will fit an old bottle well enough to pass the "lift test".

I have tried, when I helped out in Oxfam. I collected a big box of spare stoppers and none of them ever fitted anything.

[johnphilip]

Often when one passes on to the glass house in the sky two siblings fight over a pair of decanters  ... as one does  at a time of grief  they decide one each ,,,, never to speak to each other again , alas two decanters with wrong stoppers are let loose on the public... when they sell their precious inheritance a couple of weeks later the buyers are wondering why the stoppers look right but dont fit . . cynical moi non .