Featured How old is this bottle?

I bought this very large, dirty bottle from a estate sale last week. I have been trying to determine it’s age, but can’t quite figure it out. I put it against a white backdrop hoping maybe its color would give clues to its age. The person who sold it to me said it was an antique embalming fluid bottle. But that doesn’t seem right to me. It has mold lines on both sides of the bottle. Any thoughts? As always, thanks!

 

Similar type ...
https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/d...hed-aqua-glass-spirits-bottles/id-f_30094772/
https://www.lolofrenchantiques.com/large-19th-century-french-demijohn-bottle.html#/

Rabbit hole ...
https://sha.org/bottle/index.htm

Images of this type ...
https://www.google.com/search?q=Ant...k&bih=753&biw=1600&rlz=1C5MACD_enUS1034US1035

 

@cfh is it the photo or is the neck kind of wonky? Or maybe my eyes

 

I'd guess the area below the wonky neck was in a form and the neck was too soft when it was being worked, then it cooled.

 

Mid 19th century or older - most likely 1770-1850. Applied lip, pontil scare on base. Nice bottle.

 

It appears to be a large bottle but you don't say exactly. You might want to look through the sha.org site mentioned above as there it a lot of info.

I think yours might fall in the carboy/demi-john range though size might tell if that's correct.

Here is a quicker way to get to that info:

https://sha.org/bottle/miscellaneous.htm#Carboys

One of the things I understand that throws off dating is the way the larger bottles were made long after other types were machine made. Anyway, here is just a snippet from the info on the site.


"The first is that these large bottles tended to be made by mouth-blown methods later than when a majority of most other bottle types were being made on machines. For example, the 1920 Illinois Glass Company catalog linked above notes that their new carboy factory in Alton, IL., completed in January 1919, had "...installed in it an Automatic Machine, the capacity of which is devoted exclusively to the manufacture of Carboys, Water Bottles and large Containers, ranging from two to twelve gallons." This implies that prior to that time the production of carboys and "large Containers" was likely still done by hand methods, aka "mouth-blown." In addition, Soetens (2016) noted that the first fully automatic bottle machine in Europe was first used sometime shortly after 1923. That author also mentioned that demijohns were still being produced by hand - i.e., mouth-blown - at least as late as 1950 in Germany. And finally, a recently noted YouTube video indicated to be filmed at Gayner Glass Co. (Salem, NJ) in the 1940s shows workmen still making demijohns by largely hand methods that late into the 20th century."

That video is available at the following link:

 

Love this, very helpful!

 

Definitely wonky. I sometimes like wonky things!

 

Thanks, the sight Roaring gave me led me to believe pre 1860’s. But I had no idea it could possibly be that old. Thanks!

 

Yes thanks. I think it is probably a 5 gallon. I was unsure about what to call it other than a bottle. But this explains why I was seeing all sorts of ranges in dates associated with them. Thanks!