Comments on: An Old Demijohn Container with bottle mysteries!

By: Doyal Edwards

Doyal Edwards — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:15:38 +0000

I am looking for information on a large glass bottle, or demijohn. It is a teardrop shape, approx. 27-30 in. tall. Is is a very light green color, almost clear. I am at a loss to discribe it as I have no knowledge of bottle terminology. I can send a picture if given an e mail address. I picked it up several years back in a junk/antique store in Oklahoma. Tonight, I saw one similiar to it on the TV show, "pawn stars" on the history network. It got me started wondering what I had. It is similiar, but larger and rounder, to the one pictured at the beginning of the article above, and the top is similiar, though very straight. I hope to hear from someone who can help me. Thanks.

By: gordon myers

gordon myers — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 17:10:21 +0000

red ,i'm no expert,but is it possible that the tramp glass came from the demijon being rolled on a table with a few pcs. of glass left over from a previous roll, the hot glass would pick up these slag pcs.??? just a guess.

By: Dave Baron

Dave Baron — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:52:21 +0000

Red,

You continue to amaze me with what you come up with in your search for interesting bottle stuff. This one is no exception. Very interesting container. I love seeing this stuff.

By: Antique Glass Bottles Guru

Antique Glass Bottles Guru — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:27:22 +0000

Wow, it seems that you’ve been really lucky. These glass bottles are really beautiful.

By: Kit Paulson

Kit Paulson — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:20:12 +0000

Hello, I am a glassblower in the Chicago area and I’ve just recently stumbled across the bottle collecting community in an attempt to find out more about old liquor flasks (see my Etsy page if you’re curious). I have an idea about the origin of the Y shaped marking and what you call “tramped” glass on the inside of the side wall of the demijohn.
Sometimes before a piece is blown into a mold, if it is too hot and/or of uneven thickness, it will fold inward in parts of the wall which are particularly thin. If these folds are allowed to touch back on themselves as they fall inward, it looks as though the piece has been pinched from the inside. If air is added afterward, the fold will remain in the glass but will appear as a small thick spot. If the fold is occurring as the piece is being blown in the mold, the surface touching the mold will cool more rapidly and leave a small scar on the out side of the piece. I think this accounts for the Y shaped mark on the bottom and also the “tramped” spots.

I’m not sure that glassblowers have a consistent name for this, but I’ve heard the condition described as a fold or touch-back.

The marking on the neck is puzzling because it looks exactly as though an assistant closed the mold too soon and squashed a bit of the neck but it does not seem to be on the parting line of the mold. It is clear that it was done when the glass was still very hot which suggests that it happened either very early in the process (before or as the bubble was blown into the mold) or after the piece had been puntied and was being reheated to finish the lip. I’m going to argue for early on, because I think if the entire neck would have collapsed if it had been reheated that much after puntying. My guess is that an assistant closed the mold too early or the bubble was placed crookedly in the mold, but then the mistake was realized, the mold was opened, the bubble was turned slightly and placed back in the mold and then blown into it’s final shape. This might well be an overly complicated explanation, but I’ve seen things like that happen before.

Apologies if I’ve used glassblowing terms instead of bottle collecting terms, but I’m more familiar with glassblower lingo.

Good luck with mysteries,

Kit