What is a pontil bottle?
A pontil mark is one of the best ways to determine the age and quality of an antique glass piece and is one of many attributes that can make a glass bottle or piece of glassware more desirable and valuable. The presence of a pontil suggests that the piece was blown freehand, rather than using a mold.
What is open pontil bottle?
A pontil mark or punt mark is the scar where the pontil, punty or punt was broken from a work of blown glass. The presence of such a scar indicates that a glass bottle or bowl was blown freehand, while the absence of a punt mark suggests either that the mark has been obliterated or that the work was mold-blown.
What is an iron pontil bottle?
A pontil mark is a variable size and type of scar or roughage left on the base of a bottle by a pontil rod. A pontil rod held the bottle during the steps in the bottle blowing process where the blowpipe is removed (cracked-off) from the bottle and that break-off point is “finished”, i.e. the lip or finish is completed.
How do you date old bottles UK?
Look for side mould seams. If the seams disappear in the neck, the bottle was probably “blown-in-mould” and dates circa 1820 to early 1900s. Is the bottle highly symmetrical, but lacking mould seams? If the seams disappear in the neck, the bottle was probably “blown-in-mould” and dates circa 1820 to early 1900s.
How can you tell if a glass bottle is valuable?
The Age of the Bottle While not all old bottles are valuable, an older bottle is more likely to be worth more than a newer one. Seams and pontil marks are two of the ways you can determine a bottle’s age. The pontil mark is the mark at the bottom of the bottle where it was attached to the glass blower’s pontil rod.
When did screw top glass bottles begin?
Screw tops were invented in the early 1800s, but not standardized so they would not come into their own until the era of machine-made bottles in the 1900s. Crown tops were a Victorian innovation, circa 1890s. They also did not come into widespread use until the era of machine-made bottles in the 1900s.
What kind of old glass bottles are worth money?
Colored glass is typically more valuable than clear glass; in fact, a colored glass bottle can easily be worth $1,000 or more than the same bottle featuring clear glass.
What makes a bottle have a pontil mark on it?
Most bottles made in the United States before the 1850s, when the snap case tool virtually replaced the pontil rod (also called the punte or punty), have a pontil mark on their bases. The mark is formed when a bottle is transferred from the blowpipe to the pontil rod, which, unlike the blowpipe, is solid.
How big are the scars on a pontil bottle?
(Click HEREto view a picture of the entire bottle.) The glass tipped pontil scars are usually about the same diameter of the orifice or upper neck of the bottle – like the blowpipe pontil scar which is discussed next – but for reasons unknown (unlike the blowpipe pontil scar which is explained next).
How big is a pontil rod and what does it do?
A pontil mark is a variable size and type of scar or roughage left on the base of a bottle by a pontil rod. A typical pontil rod (aka ponty, punty or punte) was a long (4-6 feet) rod which was securely attached to the base of the just blown hot bottle (Trowbridge 1870).
How is pontil rod used in glass blowing?
Once the molten glass was gathered and formed by the blower, it was blown into a mold, removed, and then sheared from the blowpipe so that the top could be applied. The pontil rod was affixed to the base of the unfinished bottle in order to hold it steady during the shearing process and application of the top.