The Confederation… of Toilet Hole Adventurists of the Southern States

Lime Geeen Eagle spinning now. Light Sapphire Baltimore porter bought from R.K. next to normal color (same mold). Black COUGHLAN lip repair. Crazy color stubby from Ralph (Tekesta, FL). Baltimore WHEELER top dip mold rum, late 1830′s.

When I held them up, side by side, accounting for the slight under-blow at the shoulder (to push down for the slight neck bulge), general crudity, mold age and a reworked base cup (plus the fact that one was moderately cleaned and the other not) when you compare the mold seams and how they line up … it’s close.

I’m leaning toward an almost intentional mold copy or a modifird original … matches the high shoulder mold with a re-worked base cup. A stretch, but with Baltimore almost anything is possible.

English porters tend to have the more rounded shoulder and lower horizontal mold seam (shorter cup) in my experience. That’s why I call the Federal Hill mold the “high-shoulder” mold, as it has a short shoulder and higher horizontal cup seam than normal.

That general shape and even the lip could go either way between being a somewhat odd English porter or a very Baltimore looking reworked high shoulder mold or mold copy.

Probably something to ponder over until another bottle draws some connection.

As far as I can tell, this unembossed porter was blown in a half-pint dip mold. Very unusual for an iron pontiled half-pint. If it was a three part mold, it would have to have been severely underblown and/or fire polished to so completely remove any trace of mold seam. I see no evidence of either, under 3X magnification.

However there is clearly a whittled area which stops at what appears to be a vertical dip mold seam which encircles the body around the shoulder, as with most all dip molds of the 1800′s.

Odd color, odd lip, odd form and gnarly pontil.

Obtained at a West Virginia flea market or estate sale by the prior owner (if I recall correctly) along with a yellow-green, iron-pontiled quart of Pittsburgh origin.

Possibly from a smaller, unidentified glass house in the Atlantic or West Virginia region (I suspect there were many) this bottle is certainly not characteristic of the norm for this era, circa 1845-50.

For what it’s worth, it also employs the same short, double-taper of the orange amber ale (previously mentioned in another post) although on one side the glass ran out and displays as a short single taper.

Click thumbnails once to enlarge, click again to supersize.

It seems like this tall, slender shape is more indicative of Baltimore than Philly, but I suppose it could be either. For the most part, the Philly lager forms tend to follow TVM’s line drawing of a fatter (later) and more slender (earlier) form, but in both there is much more shoulder slope.

I think this top is also found on several Baltimore pontiled sodas including the BABB soda, and possibly the newer (formerly unlisted and still is, technically) ”small letter” lager.

Click the thumbnail once for larger image, then again to supersize.

UPDATE: Note the examples dug in Baltimore, including small letter Babb lager and check out the two dots on the base of the tall unembossed lager. It matches mine.

Three different Baltimore Glass Works (Federal Hill) 3 pt. molds here, all pre-dating 1852.
Left to right, far left: black amethyst “high shoulder” mold, so named because it has the tallest cup and shortest shoulder, making the shoulder sightly higher than most porters of this era. Center: Yellow olive “double teardrop” mold. So named for its teardrop shaped nipple at the base edge, and another nipple 1/4″ to the left of the teardrop, and 1/4″ down from the horizontal mold seam at shoulder which looks similar to the tear drop below. Far right, Yellow 5 dot base mold, so named because of the 5 evenly spaced nipples or dots at the base edge (notice also how much lower the shoulder seam is compared to high-shoulder mold).

Rather than refer to a catalog number or lengthy description each time I refer to these molds, I have used these shorter terms to distinguish between these distinct molds used at Federal Hill. These are the focal center of my collection, pre 1850 Federal Hill 3 pt. mold porters.

Here are the milk glass striation pics of the pre-cleaned double teardrop mold with the double taper blob top.

I cleaned the bottle with a two day spin containing a small amount of 1200 cutter and cerium mixed in with a normal amount of polishing oxides.

By the second day the cutter breaks down and it’s all polish from there, so you get the equivalent of a one day spin of each (cutter and polish) with this soft Federal Hill glass.

Three bottles in the same mold, 3 different majestic Federal Hill colors and 2 different tops in the “same mold” pic with the orange amber beauty that started it all, and the deep moss green example dug by Chris Vaught.

The closest item in the color contrast pic is an unembossed ten pin which is lighter and a bit clearer olive. The olive green C. A. Cole looks green by contrast. I’m calling it deep yellow olive with a touch of olive amber tone. Both my green Carter’s look green by comparison and my olive amber Carter’s looks much more amber. Nothing else comes close. Purchased from a long time New Orleans digger/dealer at the 38th Annual Mobile Bottle Show, March 26th, 2011.

Here’s a real beauty that came out of a 12 ft. deep Georgia privy, dug by a long time collector/digger of Southern artifacts. I acquired it last month. This is a slightly oversized half pint at just under 3.75″ wide (at its lopsided widest) and 7″ tall. The top is distinctive, and matches 2 known Baltimore dug half-pints (one being damaged and in the possession of Wrinkles, so was compared first hand).

This little half pint also exhibits the 2 vertical hash-marks along the base edge, mentioned in my black glass articles as being found on a number of Baltimore dug early black glass (dip mold) quarts. Like my early dip mold half-pints dug in Frederick and Havre deGrace, and dredged in coastal Atlantic waters nearby, this bottle is a deep golden amber color, There is really no trace of green or olive tone.

This is the first half-pint I’ve handled which exhibits these mold impressions (at least during the last four years, which is about how long ago I started noticing these marks on certain quart examples). The marks are worn on this example, but definately there.

The combination of lip, color and glass character, mold markings and dig context all point to an 1830′s bottle which orginally hailed from Baltimore and was discarded nearby a popular shipping depot for the southern trade some years later.

This post, my first here, substitutes for a 4th follow up black glass article at the bottleden. Click ”read more” below to be taken to the expandable photos of the bottle. Then click any thumb once to enlarge, click again to supersize.