Topic: Pontil marks on blown decanters, bowls, water jugs etc

[pkbird]

Hello to all,

I am a new student to glass collecting.  I have been concentrating on drinking glasses but inevitably have been finding items that I just cannot resist.  My question is,  do the pontil marks on bowls etc. act as an indication or age as they do with drinking glasses?  I recently found a bowl  with lots of marks, some wear on the base, bubbles and stones with a ground pontil mark.  That would put it in the 1800 to 1865 bracket if it was a drinking glass on my reckoning.  Does this logic work?  Thanks in advance for your thoughts and guidance.  Regards, Paul

[keith]

You can get smoothed out pontil marks on modern glass, snapped or broken pontil marks also, they are not indicative of age, good glass makers tend to polish out the pontil mark but that's not always the case. Putting an age to a piece of glass needs time,reading and most important handling the old stuff, I've been collecting for about 28 years, still learning ! hope I've not put you off ! 

[Lustrousstone]

What Keith said. I also think you can't apply such a blanket re pontil marks to drinking glasses either. There are lots of factors to consider for all glass