Featured Older Rectangular Blown w/Pontil Gold Trimmed Bottle or Flask

~8" high, ~3 3/4" X ~2 7/8" cross section; weight ~21 3/4 oz. I haven't confirmed capacity, but easily a full liter.
It's not been free-blown, as the sides are remarkably flat, but there are no discernible mold lines at the corners or the bottom edges. There's a pot-stone that seems to show that the walls are fairly thin. The upper face of the lip shows some tooling; the throat an' stopper are ground, but form a very poor fit.
What attracted me immediately was the symmetry, the uniformity of the transition from slab-sides to gracefully rounded shoulders...an' the hint of purple in the glass, though there is no reaction to UV light.
I would sure like to know more about this; when & where made, if that's obvious from its appearance, an' what it's shape may be called.
Incidental to that, something I've been curious about but never pursued: When is a bottle a flask? What criteria defines one from the other?
Thanks for lookin'!

 

Toilet water flask maybe? Back in the day women often made their own lightly scented perfumes, and it went into bottles that size. Mold-blown probably. It was the in-between stage between free-blown bottles and full-on molded glass. Guys would blow the glass into a mold.

 

I can accept that home-made toilet water may have been its purpose...but I cannot imagine how anyone would need a liter of the stuff! Must have been some stinky then, before bathing was invented?

 

Before bathing was on the Regular. No on-tap running water and no water heaters.

 

Ah, yes...I'm a pampered American, born in a major city, raised by middle-class parents in a modern home with all the appropriate comforts. We always had hot an' cold running water, an' daily bathing was an enforced duty. You're right, evelyb...my ignorance is on display.

 

think Antique !!

 

Remember the Saturday Night Bath Ritual in the old movies-once a week in the 30's whether you needed it or not,and those were the days of manual labor ! But this bottle's more like the 1820's.It's how all of Jane Austen's upper-crust but spunky heroines stayed so radiant,waiting for you Whit (or Mr. Darcy) to come courting.

 

My mother came from poor farmers. Every Saturday water was heated on the wood burning stove in the kitchen. First the baby was washed. Then my mom, older sister, Grandmom, then mom's Dad and then Granddad all in the same tub of water. After every one was bathed, grandmom scrubbed the kitchen floor with the water left over. No running water until she was in high school in 1943. that way they were all clean for church on Sunday.

 

My grandparents all grew up like that too, but they were all born pre-1900. It came with the territory.

 

Re: the last question from the OP. One pours a drink into a glass from a bottle. One takes a swig from a flask.