Information to help ID Bottles

Bottles

There are four important characteristics for dating bottles:

-Mold Seams
-Finish Types
-Closures
-Glass Color

Because bottle-making technology changed over time, it is often possible to determine roughly when a bottle was made by looking at one (or more) of these attributes.  Of course, any labels or embossed lettering are potentially helpful, as well.
Mold Seams
Before the modern bottle-making machine, bottles were blown ? first free-blown, and then in various kinds of molds.  The different molds left tell-tale seams where the pieces of the mold came together.
Free-blown (no mold)
 No mold seams
 Asymmetrical and non-uniform
 Up to about the 1860s in the archaeological record

Simple Two-piece mold (?Hinged mold?)
 Mold seam extends from just below finish, down the neck and side, across the bottom, and up the other side
Symmetrical, uniform shapes
 May have embossed lettering on body, especially after 1869
 Ca. 1810-1880

"Cup" mold

 Mold seam on each side that extends from just below the finish down to the edge ("heel") of the base
 Most-common technology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (ca. 1850s-1920s) 

Post mold

 Bottle made in a three-piece mold with separate base plate
 Side seam continues onto base, then is interrupted by the circular (sometimes oval) post
 Dominant mold type used between about 1870 and 1900
  1840s?early 1900s (sometimes later)

Ricketts mold

  No mold seams on body; horizontal seam around circumference where body joins shoulder, and vertical seam part-way up each shoulder
  Often used for liquor and pharmaceutical bottles
  1820s?1920s

Turn mold

  Bottle turned while in mold, obliterating seams
  Often used for wine/champagne and brandy bottles (usually dark green)
  No embossed lettering; glass highly polished from turning in mold
  Ca.1870?World War I

Automatic bottle machine

 Bottles made by machine, rather than blown
 Seams run all the way up the bottle and over the finish
 Made in large numbers beginning after World War I (though the first machine was invented in the 1890s)

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http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,15211.msg97508.html#msg97508

Yeah sorry they lose value with out the painted label. If you have a large number your best bet is to sale to one of the antique shops, there are several on Westheimer that use to sale a lot of bottles. Just wash off the dirt and leave them to sun dry to much cleaning is bad. The bottle market is way down right now so you will not get a very big offer. I got 300 or more in the warehouse that I want take to the shop because all I will get is 1 or 2 bucks each hopefully the market will bounce back soon.

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http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,15211.msg119717.html#msg119717

That is a good bottle charlotte my bottle data base is on the pc at the shop will see what I can find out about it tomorrow night.

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		Quote:			Posted by seldom
	Bottles There are four important characteristics for dating bottles: -Mold Seams -Finish Types -Closures -Glass Color

Posted on: July 28, 2011, 12:49:11 AM

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Seldom, good info. I got my second bottle today. It's a  short square liquor bottle. "S.CRABFELDER&CO, LOUISVILLE KY. holds about a half pint. Thing that caught my eye was that it has a glass closure. The cork around the glass that formed the seal is gone but the glass part is still in tact. gambol

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http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,15211.msg188410.html#msg188410

gambol check this out

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http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,15211.msg188417.html#msg188417