Topic: 18th century?

[EatGlass]

First of all. Hi to everybody here.  Can somebody ID this English apothecary bottle please. How old is it exactly? 18th century? late 18th century?. Is it worth anything? Im going to list it on ebay. Thank you in advance.

[Paul S.]

Hi welcome to the GMB                 Sorry, but I think we are going to fail you on all counts, but trying not to be too critical of your questions would suggest you reconsider your thoughts on this piece.

Do you have some reason for feeling sure this bottle is English  -  glass travels around the globe a lot, and the presence of the piece in the U.K. doesn't confirm this country as its place of origin.

Based on the appearance only of your glass, age is difficult to assess  -  pieces originating from the C18 would not have been made mechanically, so if this piece has any signs of machine production then it's almost certainly going to be a century or more later than you were suggesting.
Can't see clearly from your pix, but pieces from the C18 would, usually, has some characteristic indicating a hand made aspect - a pontil scar, or ground/polished depression on the base  -  finding a maker is out of the question, unless the bottle carries any marks to assist, and on balance of probabilities age of this piece is far more likely to be somewhere later in the C19.        What in particular makes you suggest an C18 age?

As to value, the people here do not as a rule commit themselves to values, for rather obvious reasons  -  imagine if we said it was worth £X and it sold for far less  -  you might feel strongly that our inaccurate valuation had mislead you.          Assuming this is a piece with some apothecary connection then you might find something similar on internet auction sites with which to make price comparisons.

This type of glass not remotely my area, though we do have people here who have knowledge of such wares, and hopefully they may be able to add to the above thoughts  -  have you made any research enquiries to see if this shape does compare with C18 apothecary glass.

Sorry to appear to be negative, but as you can imagine accuracy when making assertions about provenance or age is essential to help avoid mistakes - especially when selling on.

P.S.     The Welcome Museum in London has a vast archive and resource of material with medical and apothecary connections  -  you might contact them if all else fails.

[catshome]

Hello and welcome.  Your piece looks interesting.  Could you give us some measurements please.  It would also help if you could take another picture of the base at a 45 degree angle, and a picture of the whole piece against a black background.  Can you give us any history about it......where did you find it?  Is it rough or smooth to the touch?  First thought is that it looks like rock crystal, rather than glass, or perhaps glass that has been in the sea.  Is the discolouration on the base on the inside or outside?  Can it be washed off?  Look forward to your reply.

[BlueOctopus]

Hello and welcome
I just want to give some thoughts about it.

If the color of your photo come wright, this is a quite white Glas. In the 18th C one was not able to get rid of the natural color of the glass, that is the reason why so many old glasses look a little greenish or a little violet.  Of course there are areas where they had so good sand that the glass was very white, but if this glass has a color inside it is one sign that it could be older. Your glass appears on my tablet quite white. The venetian glassblower where the first which where able to get rid of the color. Green is iron, violet is mangan.
The next is the wall, and the glass itself, for a 18C glass I miss different thickness of the walls and blisters. Of course even in that time they where able to blow excellent glass, but my very old aophetekery glasses all have some blisters are not so equal in the thickness of the wall.
I think your glass is damaged inside from the chemicals it stored , that makes it less worth, try to clean it, if it is only carbonat from the water, then you will be successful, if it stays dull.....
I like the rim, that is different in thickness. I think this is more beginning of 19th C ore later.
I hope you will get more Information, and when you sell it on eBay, take the bug out.
Monika

[Scott13]

Hi - welcome

You may find this site useful......do you think it may have been dug up at some stage?

https://sha.org/bottle/bases.htm

Scott

[Paul S.]

very informative web site that I've used over the years.                   I'm very much of the opinion that this bottle has been in the ground for some period of its life  -  those wavy lines are typical of surface deterioration (sickness) that occur when glass has been buried, often accompanied by iridescence, though can't see any colours on this one.
Could be wrong, but imagine likely that these lines indicate the flow of molten glass whilst it was being forced into the mould.
Pix attached of a bottle which assume from the colour was intended for some substance of a poisonous nature, and the sickness lines can be seen clearly, plus the mouth flange shows varying width which not uncommon on utilitarian mould blown glass, though in other respects the bottle dimensions are uniform.                 Two seams, so would appear this one made in a two piece mould.

This came from my days of dump digging interest - a long time back - and whilst I'm now very ignorant of dates for these things would assume somewhere around the 1890 - 1920 period.