CRUDE, Open Pontil Baltimore Black Glass Quart No Damage

  

Here's a deep olive quart with crudity, bubbles and slag that found it's way to California many years ago (where so many Baltimore torpedoes go to die and be buried). Baltimore diggers will probably recognize the iconic, applied "rounded double taper" that we sometimes find on certain "Wheeler's Berlin Bitters" and "Hamilton's Preparation" examples, as well as the C.

Cole porters and the 3-part mold black glass porters dug in Baltimore. Lightly cleaned to about perfect original condition. There are seed bubbles throughout and a few at the surface have paper thin openings with a little inclusion in them. These are centered around what appears to be more of a tooling gouge than a scratch. The opposite side of this area displays as near mint, with a bit of a lean to it (from its out of round base).

It features that gentle "push" to the neck sometimes used to get that slightly bulbous neck form. I have had 5 of the black glass 3-part molds, all dug in Baltimore, all having some form of damage.

They range in various sizes and shapes from a little half pint stubby up to a quart. When they are blown in the deep olive green or olive amber glass, they have this same top and a unique sort of concentric ring refired pontil base. When they are blown in the same mold, but in that Vaseline-lime range of colors they have a much different lip.

Those examples I have seen had the standard iron pontil base and are rare undamaged. The last pic is of a lip from one of those examples. This quart dip mold or free blown example has an unusual, deeply kicked up open pontil base, and very much the same glass character as the refired pontil 3-part mold examples.

Though the form and pontil might suggest an earlier date of manufacture, I would put this bottle in the mid to late 1840's. Probably very rare, especially undamaged - I have never seen another like it. It stands at 9 1/2" tall making it a hair taller than the standard 9 1/4" quart height. Some collectors might consider it a stretch to attribute the bottle so confidently to Baltimore, but the neck, lip, glass character and "wrong" pontil all lead to the same road for me. Hughes Street on Federal Hill.

Of course, there is a chance I could be wrong. I'm old, but I wasn't there at the glasshouse when it was blown. Still, I do believe it to be a product of the Baltimore Glass Works.

Return if unhappy for any reason. Also see my other auctions. Thanks for stopping by and Good Luck!

The item "CRUDE, Open Pontil Baltimore Black Glass Quart No Damage" is in sale since Thursday, August 2, 2018. This item is in the category "Collectibles\Bottles & Insulators\Bottles\Antique (Pre-1900)\Sodas". The seller is "wilmartindale" and is located in Tallahassee, Florida.

This item can be shipped to United States.

• Volume: Quart
• Color: Green