Possible Blown Three Mold Decanter

geofrac

Hi:

I think I found a "blown three mold decanter" it's about 7.25" tall and has a rollover lipped finish. It's aqua green and has a beautiful ribbed pattern. There are many bubbles and the glass looks stretched on the neck. There are three "seams" that run vertically down the pattern mold (120 degrees apart) from the bottom to the neck. There is a pontil mark on the bottom which has been grounded, but not polished. The glass pattern inside the glass matches the pattern outside of the bottle. There was a stopper at some time, as the are markes just inside the lip.

Note: the red areas is wax as someone used it as a candle holder.

What can you tell me about this bottle? Age and where it was made.

Greg Stanley

historic

It does sound like this bottle was blown in a 3-piece mold, and yes, it has been ground for a stopper.

I realize the bottle has something of an old look and feel about it, but the nature of the pontil mark and the grinding for the stopper suggest a modern manufacture. My sense is that it is no more than 50 years old.

Chris

BobB

As early as the 1930's Ruth Webb Lee was decrying the bubbly blue-green handmade blown glass coming out of Mexico that was confusing lots of antique collectors. SEE: R.W.Lee "Antique Fakes and Reproductions" (1938, revised 1950). I have a few pieces in my collection (I'm a sucker for handmade pieces with finished rolled edges and applied handles) and can say that all I have encountered have the swirl or twist motif. But I'm uncertain of your piece being from the Mexican trade [which apparently goes on still -- I recently saw a stack of bubbly cobalt blue 4.5" plates with rolled edges]; most all the Mexican stuff I've seen have had a raw pontil scar (not ground out) and the Mexicans' swirl comes from blowing into a mold with vertical flutes or columns, extracting the hot piece from the mold, applying the pontil rod to the base and twisting 90 degrees while still fluid to impart the swirl. But maybe an industry that is 70 years old has made some forms using techniques I haven't seen.