A bottle is a portable container in various shapes and sizes that stores and transports liquids. Bottles can be made from a wide range of materials, the most common being glass and plastic. Glass is unique among all materials as it can be shaped and formed in many different formats. Its properties can also be altered with additives for specific functional purposes.
The term ‘bottle’ can also be used as a metaphor for an emotional state. Bottled emotions can be uncontrollable or difficult to release. A person who is bottled up can be difficult to deal with, as he or she will hold back and hide emotion from others. Often people who are bottled up will use alcohol as a means of escaping their problems or to escape reality. The act of consuming liquor to excess can have serious health consequences and lead to addictions. The term ‘hitting the bottle’ is an expression of drinking alcohol to excess or as an expression of boredom or frustration. Bottle is also an idiom for a particular type of beverage such as soda or beer.
This glossary is a reference to terms used on this website and in general within the collector community. It contains definitions of some collector jargon and technical glassmaking terminology. In some cases, alternative words/phrases are used and where possible the specific source of the term is cited. This allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the terms being used.
The Bottle Glossary is divided into several categories. Terms that can be viewed in one of these categories are displayed in green and have hyperlinks to their specific page where more detailed information is available. Click on the terms to enlarge pictures and view their definitions.
Generally speaking, the terms on this glossary pertain to bottles of historic interest and are defined as follows:
General Bottle Morphology – Bottle physical characteristics and features that can be easier to see than to describe. The majority of these terms are also covered in greater detail on other pages within the bottle typology section of this site.
Glassworker – A skilled craftsman who blows and manipulates molten glass by hand to form a bottle; usually free-blown glass (Scholes 1952).
Bottle neck – The area of the bottle between the shoulder and the neck; also referred to as the neck-shoulder or neck lip (Bridgeton Evening News 1889).
Flap – The molded, sometimes embossed shoulder at the base of a bottle. Generally found on older glass bottles and may be an indicator of the manufacture method; also called the flint or flintstone label.
Dimple – A molded depression in the bottle neck that is designed to accept the lever wire of a toggle closure device. See also the Bottle Bases Typology page for an illustration.
Flint glass – a heavy, leaded, clear, and colorless glass used in choice cut glassware; usually made from calcined flints or flints reduced to a powder as a source of silica (White 1978).
