Old Bottle

[Scorpion68]

Hey ya'll - was reading Jessie's post on bottles and thought I'd share this one with ya. I don't usually collect this stuff but my sister used to live in a pre-civil war house in Collinsville, Illinois. The house was built on a stone foundation and had a cellar underneath. Apparently this cellar was used as part of the slave railroad and it would also appear bootlegging. There were two really large barrels (5' x 8') under there on their side and lots of broken bottles. I found on that wasn't broken and still had part of the cork in it. It doesn't have a seam anywhere so maybe it was blown glass?? Thot it was interesting. Maybe a wine bottle??? ---Chuck

[turkeytail]

Looks like a pontail on the bottom Chuck, blown into a mold. If I remember right they call those kick-up?? The bottom that is...so they could nest them and fit more in a crate. Mark.

[Scorpion68]

Mark - now that is interesting.  Any idea as to how old it may be.  Even tho the cork is still in it, there doesn't appear to be anything in it.  I thought it was strange that it didn't have seams like our more modern bottles do.  Guess being blown into a mold would take care of the seams, Huh??  ---Chuck

[turkeytail]

Is that a pontail scar on the bottom? Is it kinda rough? Might not be. There is a name for them but cant remember!!?? Got out of bottles when this artifact bug hit!

[CousinDan]

Mark and Chuck, I'm on my wires iPad cause my insight cable is f...up and I can't use my laptop...anyways I have some old bottles I'd call hand blown cause you can still see some air bubbles and things are uneven!  Hope to post pics soon....Daniel

[greywolf22]

I had a Great Uncle RC who was a bootlegger during prohibition. He had an fule truck that he drove up to Canada that had a hidden compartment that he would fill with bonded whiskey and drive it back to Roscoe TX where he would bottle it and sell it to the other local bootleggers. He was able to buy several farms, a hotel and supported a lot of the family.

[Scorpion68]

Jack - Great story.  Your Uncle is what the politically correct today would call an enterpreneur and it sounds like he was pretty successful at it.  That's a long drive from Tx to Canada and back.  But was apparently worth it.   :laugh: ---Chuck

[Scorpion68]

Mark - the bottem of the bottle is very concave and has a nipple in the middle of that.  I guess that's what ya'll are calling a "pontail."  ---Chuck

[tomclark]

I can't see if that's a pontil or a blown in mold

[greywolf22]

Long drive ,good profit, even after paying off everone along the way. LOL.

[GobyON]

Nice bottle, looks like an old wine bottle. I have seen some on wine tours up in NW PA, it is a good time.
Can anyone ID this time period? I found 2 of these. They have bubbles in the glass, and the push stopper still in the neck. It says Chautauqua fruit company ripley new york, but I haven't been able to find any record of them, so I assume they had a name change or went out of buisness a long time ago.

[CousinDan]

Cool it still has the stopper!  I'd say middle to late 1800's.

[tomclark]

Goby that looks like a Hutchinson

[turkeytail]

Tom is right, some people call them blob tops incorrectly. Hutchinson is the name of the man who invented it. You want small city ones, new york, Chicago, detroit common. If no damage worth $10-15 bucks. If ya find colored ones like cobalt blue, worth much more.

[GobyON]

Sorry for the thread hijack Chuck,
Thanks for the replies guys. I believe you are right, I did a google search and they look like those. I have them up on the shelf in the den. They are pretty neat bottles. I always thought there wouldn't be much juice that would fit in these. I would still be pretty thirsty!