Posted 7 years ago
hazz
(4 items)
What can anyone tell me about these two small bottles that I found at a house site in Australia dating back as far as the 1870s please?
Smallest bottle – it's screw top (65mm tall, 43mm diameter) which I guess is not so old, the bottom has a rectangular insignia at the top, IS 543 in the middle, 3 underneath. Do you know what it is please?
Small bottle – the slightly taller bottle (78mm tall, 39mm diameter) looks like an applied top maybe, on the bottom it has triangle inside of which is 3359. Any ideas please?
The screw-top is likely a mucilage (glue) or ink made after 1930 (stippling on base) and the cork-top is likely a cologne from the earlier 1900s (the opening area is finished off by hand, before machines did everything). As for if the top is applied, I cannot tell in the photograph.
I cannot give a very accurate date-range, I'm afraid, as my study is 1830-1960 American bottles. Every country's glass-making world developed at a different rate. France and America were the first to use automated bottle-making machines, while some countries are still making all their utility bottles by hand even to this day. But the form (shape) of each bottle for certain products among the 1st-world nations is usually the same.
Thanks SpiritBear. That really helps!