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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Brian Warshaw, post: 4425195, member: 16674&quot;]Last Sunday I bought a clear glass wine bottle, come jug, for one Euro at a monthly street brocante.&nbsp; It was the shape of an Italian chianti bottle with a handle.&nbsp; Instead, of the bottle wearing a basket, my purchase was heavily decorated with embossed bunches of grapes and vine leaves.</p><p><br /></p><p>My intention was to display a string of LED lights in it; but my wife didn’t like it.&nbsp; In order to sell it, I need to know something about it, and determine an asking price. I knew nothing about bottles, and my first guess was just pre-World War II.&nbsp; Searching the internet and selling sites, I found very little to guide me, indeed, the sellers of a few bottles that were embossed offered no guidance as to age.</p><p><br /></p><p>Photo 1</p><p>[ATTACH=full]378197[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Photo 2</p><p>Seam on the bottle neck, and a separate one on the handle clearly seen</p><p>[ATTACH=full]378198[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Photo 3&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Seam down the bottle front, but nothing on the lip</p><p>[ATTACH=full]378199[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Photo 4&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Seam down the bottle neck, but nothing on the lip</p><p>[ATTACH=full]378200[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Photo 5&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; No seam on top of lip</p><p>[ATTACH=full]378207[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I did, however, find a very useful website <a href="https://www.truelegacyhomes.com/age-glass-bottles" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.truelegacyhomes.com/age-glass-bottles" rel="nofollow">https://www.truelegacyhomes.com/age-glass-bottles</a>, “How to tell the age of a glass bottle (Identify old bottles).&nbsp; This is what I discovered:</p><p><br /></p><p>My conclusion was that it was made within a few years either side of 1870.</p><p><br /></p><p>1.&nbsp; While there were mould seam marks down each side of the bottle, the bottle lip was free of such marks, so also was the bottom.&nbsp; The implication was that the bottle lip had been formed from a single piece of glass, then fixed to the body of the bottle, and shaped by the glassblower.&nbsp; This process changed when the automatic bottle making machine was brought into operation in 1892.&nbsp; Refer to Photo 2 to 5;</p><p><br /></p><p>2.&nbsp; It wasn’t until 1870 that clear glass came generally and widely available;</p><p><br /></p><p>3.&nbsp; Before 1821 the push-up cup bottom was not available.&nbsp; The big dimple in the bottom was to trap sediment. It had to be moulded as a separate piece and fitted after the body of the bottle had been assembled, as witnessed by the circumferential seam at the bottom.&nbsp; Bottle making was to remain this way until the 1910s.&nbsp; Refer to Photo 6;</p><p><br /></p><p>Photo 6&nbsp; &nbsp; Shows both the blind hole and seam connecting bottom to bod</p><p>[ATTACH=full]378203[/ATTACH] ;</p><p><br /></p><p>4.&nbsp; The bottle lip on my bottle/jug is known as an “applied double collar” and was used between 1840 to 1870.&nbsp; The lip is sealed with a cork, a method that has been in continuous use since the early 18th Century.&nbsp; Refer to Photos 4 and 5;</p><p><br /></p><p>5.&nbsp; The Maker’s marks are embossed on the bottom of the jug.&nbsp; Refer to Photos 7, 8 and 9 for elements of details on the bottle bottom. Quality of photos is not good:</p><p><br /></p><p>a.&nbsp; 92 698 J</p><p><br /></p><p>b.&nbsp; Zig Zag pattern within a rectangle.</p><p><br /></p><p>c.&nbsp; Flower with roots growing below [A guess – photographs are a poor quality]</p><p><br /></p><p>c.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Photo 7</p><p>[ATTACH=full]378204[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Photo 8</p><p>[ATTACH=full]378205[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Photo 9</p><p>[ATTACH=full]378206[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>A COUPLE OF QUESTIONS REMAIN OPEN:</p><p><br /></p><p>A.&nbsp; What is the blind hole that is close to the bottom of the body? It is only on one half of the body. Logic suggests it could be a tooling hole; but I can see no reason for it;</p><p><br /></p><p>B.&nbsp; I have got nowhere with the Maker’s marks;</p><p><br /></p><p>C.&nbsp; It was bought in France, and I can see no reason why it would be anything other than French.</p><p><br /></p><p>My conclusions are that the bottle/jug is Victorian, made before 1992, not made before 1870, and was probable made within five years either side of 1870.</p><p><br /></p><p>And that how I became a self-taught specialist in old bottles in less than two hours.</p><p><br /></p><p>I’m sure somebody, probably many of you, will put me right.&nbsp; Thank you all.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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