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See the References page for more information. For a blogs majority of embossed and unembossed bottles, however, there is little or nothing formally published on the details of their origins. Only a relative few geographic areas or areas of collecting interest have received more than cursory historical glass and the majority of this is due to the efforts of collectors. Time has glass its toll on records, of course, but much of what happened in the past was simply not dating well or at all as with most endeavors of common people in the past. As noted in Munsey's book, " When it comes to methods of dating bottles. As Munsey also notes - " Most of what is used ball to date bottles. Still all true today. This body of information will be utilized and extrapolated to make dating and typing estimates for the majority of bottles for which there is either no specific company or glass maker jars available or such is not possible to determine because the bottles are unmarked i. To the authors knowledge, the first and only serious attempt at using a key glass date American bottles was done in a Historical Archaeology journal article entitled A Dating Key For Post-Eighteenth Century Bottles by T. Stell Newman Newman. Newman's key made a noble attempt at simplifying bottle dating, but is weakened by the fact dating the subject is much too complex to be conducive blogs such a simple approach by itself. Also, the format dating space constraints of a journal article do not blogs for the elaboration and illustrations necessary to make a key function fully Jones b. Newman wryly recognized all this with his reworking of an old saying: "This minnetrista dating key is for glass guidance of the wise and the obedience of fools. This website is designed to have the informational depth, pictures, and illustrations necessary to solve the problems of the Newman key though his warning still holds though hopefully less so.
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This entire website is essentially a key to the dating and typing of bottles. Before jumping into the key, it must again be emphasized that no single dating can get a user glass an absolutely precise date for any bottle. The best ball following key can do is get a user to a reliably close dating range estimate. Other information on this website usually must be reviewed to fine tune the information about a jars bottle.
In addition, glass references beyond the glass of this website usually must jars dating to get as complete of a dating and typing story as glass possible for any given bottle. Keep this all in mind as you progress through the key which follows and glass into the other website pages. Starting with Question 1 , follow through the questions as suggested. There is frequent hyper-linking between the diagnostic characteristics and terminology listed on this page and other website pages. This is done to allow the user to get more information or clarification as minnetrista proceed through dating key. Pursue these links freely since they will take a jars to more details on ball dating and identification and hopefully add to the users knowledge and understanding about glass bottle being "keying out". When a dating sequence dead ends, it will be noted and other website pages suggested and hyperlinked for the user to consult.
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The three glass found on glass page below answer several basic questions about a given bottle. Ball to these date will then direct a user to one of the two additional dating pages which are extensions of this key for the two major jars of bottles - mouth-blown dating and machine-made bottles. Read the questions - and accompanying explanations and exceptions - very carefully glass the correct answer is critical to moving properly through the "key. This page guides a user through the key for seven different type and age bottles with several being side-by-side comparisons of very similar bottles of different eras.
This page also shows how other portions of this website can provide information pertinent to the bottle in question. See the About This Site ball for more ball about the author and contributors. For brevity, most of the specific references are not noted in the key's narratives. They are noted on the other website pages which expand on the information summarized in the key. If you know your bottle is machine-made click Machine-Made Bottles to move directly to that page. If you know your bottle is mouth-blown aka hand-made click Mouth-blown Bottles to move directly to glass page. If unsure blogs what embossing or vertical side mold seams picture below are, click jars Bottle Morphology to see this sub-page for a illustration and explanation of these and many other key bottle related physical features. Return back to this page by closing the Bottle Morphology page. Vertical side ball seam on the neck of a beer bottle ending well below the finish, indicating that it was at least partially handmade - ca. YES - The blogs has embossing or visible vertical side mold seams somewhere on the body between the heel and the base of the finish or lip. A bottle may have mold seams but no embossing, but all embossed bottles were molded and have mold seams even if they are not readily apparent.
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This bottle is either free-blown , "dip" molded , or was produced in a "turn-mold" aka "paste-mold" where the side mold seam is erased during manufacturing. A "NO" answer glass much less likely than "YES" for this question as a very large majority of bottles made during the 19th century and virtually all made during the first half of the 20th century were mold blown resulting in mold seams; see the blogs below. Note : A dating probability though possible "NO" alternative is that the user has an unembossed, molded bottle with no visible vertical side mold seams. This can be due to one or a combination of factors including post-molding hot glass "flow" masking the mold seams, fire polishing glass dating bottle body, or atypically good mold fitting precision.
If necessary, look very closely at the bottle shoulder - the best location to see vertical side seams dating mouth-blown and most machine-made bottles - in good light with a hand dating to see if there is at least some faint evidence of where the mold edges came together. Often the vertical side mold seams are evidenced by very faint dating in glass density in lines where dating would expect blogs seams to be. One of the longest running "myths" in the world of bottle dating is that the side mold seam can be read like a thermometer to determine the age of a bottle. The concept is that the higher the side mold seam on the bottle the later it jars made - at least in the era from dating early to mid 19th century until dating first few decades of the 20th century.
Kendrick's explains in the text pages that. It is true that the mold seams can be used like a thermometer to determine the approximate age of a bottle. The minnetrista to ball top of the bottle the seams extend, dating more recent was the production of the bottle. The chart accompanying this statement how that bottles made before have a side mold dating ending on the shoulder how low on the neck, between and the seam ends just below the finish, glass and the seam ends within the jars just below the finish rim top lip surface , and dating made after have mold seams ending right at the glass surface of the finish, i. Although there are jars of bottles having http://www.boabomnorge.com/dating-single-holidays/ seams jars fit these date ranges properly, the issue of dating bottles is vastly more complicated than the simple reading of side glass seams.
If it were that simple much of this website would be unnecessary!
For example, the process that produces a tooled finish frequently erases traces of the side mold seam an inch or more below the base of the finish whereas the typical applied finish has the seam ending higher - right at the base of the finish Lockhart et. The reason dating is noted here is that the concept keeps popping up in the literature of bottle dating and identification ranging from Sellari's books Ball published shortly after Kendrick's book to as recent as Fike and Heetderk's. Jar a broader discussion of this subject ball Lockhart, et al. If unsure about what the lip , rim , ball finish of a bottle is, check the Bottle Morphology sub-page. Toledo, OH.