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A deep blue color was created with the addition of a small amount of cobalt carbonate to the mixture, while the glass was being made, inspiring the descriptive term cobalt blue.

The Antique Column

Old Bottles

By Nadja Maril

Possible illustrations: jpgs. Bottle Assortment, cobalt blue bottles, Apothecary bottles, and amber bottles.

(photo captions:

A deep blue color was created with the addition of a small amount of cobalt carbonate to the mixture, while the glass was being made, inspiring the descriptive term cobalt blue.

Apothecary bottles were produced in the U.S. , between 1790-1920 and were used to contain medicine, herbs, powders, and dry goods. They are generally collected as sets.

Amber glass was created with the addition of iron and cadmium sulfate. The rich deep color helped to protect the contents from sunlight.

Professional archeologists know one of the best places for finding treasure is in the trash. Before there was a local landfill, there were town dumps as well as areas on farms and estates where trash was tossed and eventually buried. Household containers such as crockery and bottles were thrown into the garbage pit with everything else. Many fine antique bottles, albeit sometimes broken, are found buried in old dump sites. But they also turn up in other unlikely places, tossed to the side of a rural road or washed ashore at a secluded beach—you never know where an old bottle may cross your path. Part of the attraction for bottle collectors is the lure of discovering buried—or unburied—treasure in unlikely places.

So if you happen to find one of those old bottles, how do you estimate its age? The glass used in making old bottles is usually greenish or bluish because of impurities, and it often contains bubbles and bits of stone and has surface irregularities.

Look at the bottom and sides of the glass for marks that may have been created when the bottle was manufactured. If you find a round pontil scar on the bottom of the bottle, it was blown before 1850. (A pontil is an iron rod on which molten glass is handled when being shaped and worked.) Shortly before 1850, bare iron pontils to hold the hot glass were introduced. They left circular black, red, and white marks. This coloration indicates a bottle made approximately between 1850 and 1860. After 1860, clamps, rather than a pontil, were used to hold bottles while they were being shaped, and these bottles have a smooth base. Examine the sides of the bottle. The earlier molds formed only the body of the bottle, while the neck and lip were added by hand. Bottles manufactured before 1860 have seams on each side running only the length of the body. Between 1860 and 1880, the molds were extended to within a quarter-inch of the bottle top. After 1903, a bottle-making machine came into use, making a mold seam that runs over the top of the lip.

Bottles prices can vary from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars. Age, color, shape, use, and rarity determine value. Since bottle collecting is a very specialized field, consult an up-to-date price guide.

Nowadays we have pills that claim to do everything from helping you lose weight to improving your memory. Back in the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries there were tonics. The tonics claimed to cure everything from rheumatism to baldness. Bitters were combinations of herbs and other ingredients that claimed to cleanse the system. During the temperance movement, tonics and bitters provided a respectable way to imbibe alcohol. Bitters and tonic bottles are one type of specialty bottle to collect.

The shape of a bottle was often related to the name of the product it was designed to contain. Thus Indian Queen Bitters came in a bottle shaped like an Indian maiden. McKeever's Army Bitters came in a drum-shaped bottle. Plantation Bitters was sold in a glass log cabin.

Various brands of whiskey were marketed as being sold in collectible bottles. Some were decorated with the portraits of presidents or other celebrities. Small, oddly shaped bottles, called figural s , were used as souvenir whiskey flasks, given away in saloons and liquor stores.

Bottles created to hold poison were produced in distinctive designs and shapes so as to be immediately recognizable. Some were sold in triangular bottles and others had a hobnail surface so that if someone could not read the label they would still identify the substance.

Ink bottles for desks are another type of container collectors prize. Desk-sized bottles were made in all sorts of exotic shapes, including igloos, bananas, log cabins, ribbed umbrellas, and comical figures. Other collectible nineteenth-century glass containers include globes filled with carbon tetrachloride, which were used as fire extinguishers. Glass balls also replaced live pigeons in shooting contests. These were targets made with decorative patterns and filled with smoke or confetti. With the invention of the clay pigeon in the 1880s, glass target balls went out of production.

If you plan to go digging for bottles anywhere other than in your own backyard, you need permission from the property owner or you are trespassing. Ravines or depressions behind old buildings, where trash may have been dumped, make for rich searching ground.

Other good places to hunt bottles are along and in waterways, lakes, rivers, the ocean, or the Bay. Places where boats once docked, tossing their trash overboard, can turn up some great finds. Walking the beach during low tide, snorkeling, and scuba diving are recreational ways to collect bottles while on vacation. In some states you may need a special permit to remove antique finds from the waterways. Check with local authorities.

Auctions, flea markets, estate sales, and antique shops also offer promise for the collector who does not wish to approach bottle collecting as an athletic activity. Whatever the source, bottle collecting can be an adventure.

Note: If you'd like to learn more about the work of professional archaeologists, the Anne Arundel County Archeological Society chapter of the Archeological Society of Maryland is always looking for new members. Its scheduled digs can use the aid of volunteers. The next event is Dig Day at London Town on July 14. For more information visit the Web site at www.aachapasm.org or call (410) 222-7441.

Editor Nadja Maril has been writing an antique column for various magazines and newspapers for more than 20 years. A former antique dealer, author, and consultant, she invites readers to send photographs and suggestions for future columns to 929 West St. Suite 208A , Annapolis , MD 21401 or email Nmaril@whatsupmag.com.