Topic: Early 240mm long thin hand blown glass

[vulcangascompany]

Hello
I have had these in my possession for 25 years and am now determined to find out more and I hope you are the people to help me! Because I don't know their purpose I am having problems researching them on the net.

They came from a very old cottage (500+ yrs old and a butchers shop at some stage) and nothing in the building was post 1900, which makes me think these are interesting/old (hopefully!). Some people have suggested they have a ritual purpose, placed in a wall - but i'm not so sure about that.

They are made of thin handblown glass both are 180mm long on the body and the 'lip' is 60mm making a total length of 240mm. The thin one is 25mm and the wider one 33mm across. The opening on both is 12mm. The pontil mark is very small on one and 12mm on the other. There are no makers marks.

Hope that someone here can tell me some more.
Thanks
Gavin

[malwodyn]

Archaeologists say that something has a "ritual Purpose" when they have absolutely no idea what the object was used for...    Bottles, obviously, and not intended for table use - too thin glass, and not very stable if stood upright.  Where did you find them? Hidden away in the roof? Were there any traces of stoppers?

[malwodyn]

Following on my earlier post, you might like to know that two similar bottles are illustrated in Richard Carter BARRET's booklet on "Blown and Pressed American Glass".  This was first published in 1966, and illustrates some of the collection of the Bennington Museum, Vermont.  Plate 2, Bottom Row - nos 2 & 6 - Tall free blown cylindrical drug bottles 9½ and 8½ inches high.  They are described as being the production of Vermont Glass, which apparently was in business from 1812 to 1817.

The dimensions of the two bottles illustrated, and their shape, correspond fairly closely to those of your bottles.

Bennington Museum has a website, but there does not appear to be a link through to the collections. The homepage is

http://www.benningtonmuseum.com/index.aspx