old glass Bottles

Old Glass Bottles.

Old Glass Bottles.

old glass Bottles

 are endlessly intriguing, partly because of the wide variety of attractive colours and shapes available, but also because they are disposable, everyday household items, so the survival of individual examples is all the more remarkable.

old glass Bottles

 

Many bottles that are found in antique shops, car-boot sales, or even buried in the garden, date from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Those mass produced from the 1860s onwards are especially common.

Before glass bottles became widespread, pottery vessels were used. These were generally tan or cream in colour, with lettering or decoration. After the mid-19th century, stoneware bottles

old glass Bottles

 

Full of minerals

Glass was used increasingly in the 19th century to hold liquids. In 1872 Hiram Codd invented a bottle for mineral water, with a marble used as a stopper - the fizz forced the marble up to seal the lip. Standard aquamarine examples are common and usually fetch under £5. Coloured versions, particularly blue, are more desirable and rare - some are worth up to £2,000 or more.

Aquamarine 'codd' bottles with coloured lips are also rare, while amber-coloured examples are more common and sell for about £20-30.

 

What's your poison?

old glass Bottles

Bottles that held poisons are sought after, largely because of their striking colours and unusual shapes.

Coloured versions can he found for around £10, but stranger shapes sell for much more. A coffin-shaped, cobalt-blue poison bottle with embossed coffin-nail decoration, recently sold for £10,000.

old glass Bottles

 Bottles marked Poison' tend to be older and more valuable than those marked 'Not to be taken', a wording that became compulsory in 1908.bottles to make them more appealing. 




Before this, barbers dispensed medicine in square or globe-shaped bottles with elongated necks, known as carboys'. Some are ornately faceted, and large examples with their original stoppers can be worth £500-1,000.

 Smaller medicinal bottles often have gilt, painted, or transfer-applied labels with the name of the contents. Values vary from around £15-50 for a clear example, or ±60-100 for a blue glass version with a gilt label, up to around ±100-200 or more for ceramic examples.

old glass Bottles

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Some Victorian medical substances were known as quack cures'. Warner's Safe Cure is perhaps the best known, and standard bottles can be picked up for less than ±20. Bottles for William Radam's Microbe Killer, which claimed to cure all known diseases' (until the makers were taken to court in 1911). can cost from ±20 to more than ±500, depending on condition and rarity.

old glass Bottles

 

Wine glass

Wine bottles from the mid-17th century were made from a dark green glass known as black glass', and those in good condition may cost £5,000— 10,000 or more. Wine bottles from the late 18th century can still be found for about £20-30, though. 

old glass Bottles

The original black glass bottles tended to be globe- or onion-shaped, but by the early 18th century the design was a more stable mallet shape  and by

the mid-18th century the familiar cylinder shape was established.

old glass Bottles

Gin and beer were also packaged in dark glass, which is now thought to have been a ruse to disguise impurities in the contents. A number of bottles were found on shipwrecks during the last few decades; these can be worth £100-800 when they come on sale.

Pen and ink

Ink bottles, both earthenware and i glass, are desirable and can fetch .£5-50 or more. Post-1840 glass examples are especially common, as improving literacy and the introduction of the penny post increased demand for ink

old glass Bottles

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Prices are generally under ±30. Novelty- shaped ink bottles are usually worth more - a birdcage bottle can fetch £40-60. Look out for bottles produced by fountain-pen makers such as Waterman and Parker; these are equally popular with pen and bottle collectors and can sell for £5-50 if they are in good conditio