A container, usually cylindrical with a narrow neck and a wider body, for holding liquids or other materials. It may be decorated or otherwise embellished with a wide variety of design and decoration techniques to enhance the beauty and value of the bottle and its contents. Also known as a flask, jug or pot. The word is most often used in reference to a small glass vessel for beverage purposes but can apply to other containers as well. See the Bottle Typology page for more details.
Applied color label – A common way to decorate or label a bottle by painting, etching or engraving with mineral or organge pigments in a thermoplastic medium that is baked in the furnace to form a durable surface. It was commonly called “enameling” or “fire-fused” (now mostly referred to as pyroglazing) in the past but more recently is also referred to as applied color lettering, painted or printed labels and painted bottles. See the Bottle Decoration page for more details.
Decolorizing – A process of neutralizing or eliminating iron and carbonaceous impurities in the glass mix or batch to produce clear or colorless glass. Historically, it was accomplished by adding selenium, manganese dioxide and/or arsenic. The addition of these substances was referred to by early glassmakers as “glassmakers’ soap” as they were capable of removing many of the unwanted elements from a bottle resulting in a higher quality bottle (White 1978).
Hinge mold base
A type of two-piece glass mold in which the base plate section is attached directly to the heel portion of the body and bisected the side mold seam. Typically, these bottles have no pontil mark superimposed on the side mold seam and are considered to be free-blown. See the Bottle Bases page for pictures of examples.
Ground rim/lip bottle – A finish on which the top surface has been hand ground to enhance sealing and closure fit. Generally found on hand-made bottles with outside screw-threads – especially canning and fruit jars. The term is also used in reference to other types of hand-made bottles with a flat bottom lip which has been hand ground – like the round utility bottle finishes shown on the Bottle Bases page.
Ghost seams – The lightly imprinted, meandering mold seams on the body, neck and sometimes base of a machine-made bottle that are caused by distortion of the parison as it is expanded in the second blow mold. The appearance of these seams on the body, neck and/or base is conclusive evidence that a bottle was made by machine rather than being mouth-blown. See the Machine-made Bottles page for more details.
Glossary
This glossary contains a collection of bottle related terminology that is either collector based, technical glassmaking jargon or a mixture of both. Where appropriate, definitions and references will be provided for each entry. Terms whose meanings are well understood within the collector community at large but are not widely accepted in glassmaking circles will be identified as such.
