January, 1909 
PVerE Re GerAGN “OWES AND GARDENS [1 
A Curious Collection of Bottles 
By Ada Walker Camehl 
MONG the numerous fads and fancies of 
the house furnisher of to-day none is more 
quaint and interesting than the decorative 
use of the vari-colored bottles and flasks of 
many shapes and sizes, which are relics of 
one of the oldest enterprises of our country. 
These bottles are found in a great variety 
of color, ranging from dark browns, blues and reds to lighter 
shades of olive, russet, claret, emer- 
ald green, pale blue and transparent 
white. When grouped upon a tall 
mahogany sideboard or table, and 
placed so that the sunlight falls upon 
them, they form a rich and effective 
mass of decoration. 
The shapes of these bottles are 
many and curious. There are tall 
bottles with long necks and fat 
bodies, short squat bottles with 
scarcely any necks at all, bottles with 
ribbed edges and bottles with plain 
edges. Each manufacturer had his 
own peculiar contour, length of neck 
or character of ribs; and, as glass- 
ware did not bear the maker’s mark 
as did the earthenware of the same 
period, the age of the bottles is 
discovered by these characteristics 
alone. 
The oldest bottles are distin- 
guished by the shape of the mouth, 
which is straight and plain, and was 
cut off with shears irregularly at the 
top while still plastic; and also by the 
rough circular scar on the bottom, 
Mt 8 SE ‘iid 
A railroad bottle of 1825 
left when the bottle was broken off from the punty rod by the 
workman. Bottles of a later date have a rim around the 
mouth and a smooth, hollow base, due to the improvement in 
manufacture whereby a case was used to hold the glass. 
Later still, bottles and flasks were made with plain, flat 
bottoms. 
Not only are these bottles interesting in form and color, 
but the decorations upon them are of peculiar historical 
value to Americans, as they bear 
portraits of many of our national 
heroes, and many of the incidents of 
our early history are recorded upon 
their sides. 
The story of our glass manufac- 
ture goes back to the time of our 
Colonies, when glass bottles and 
beads were made for trade with the 
Indians. But the chief interest to a 
bottle collector lies in the output of 
the first half of the nineteenth cen- 
tury. During those years the potters 
of Staffordshire were decorating blue 
dinner sets with portraits of our po- 
litical and military heroes, and send- 
ing them in great quantities to our 
shores. ‘The exceeding popularity of 
these historical dishes prompted the 
makers of bottles to adopt the same 
practise; and straightway the faces 
of Washington, Franklin, Lafayette 
and other national characters were 
blown in the sides of flasks. Many 
of the portraits are easily recogniz- 
able, and reflect credit upon the 
artists who made the design. 
A Charley Ross,bottle 
A Pike’s Peak bottle 
A Jenny Lind bottle 
