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How to Tell the Age of an Old Bottle

If you've stumbled across an antique bottle, it can be interesting to try to work out when it was made. Even though bottle dating is by no means an exact science, you can check over a few simple points on your bottle to form a general idea of the period it was produced in. There is no need to see a professional for a general estimate, because it can be done by anyone. If you want a more accurate appraisal, you may need to consult a professional.

Instructions

- 1
  Examine the lip of the bottle. This is the very top point of the bottle. Throughout the ninteenth century, the different methods used to make a bottle left a distinctive impression on the bottle's lip. For example, a lip that flares slightly out at the top, with no other distinguishing features (besides being a little misshapen, perhaps) is likely to be made from 1830 to 1850.
- 2
  Examine the neck. Later models have thick bands of glass around the neck. The neck is the thinner portion at the top of the bottle, leading up to the lip at the top. Between 1840 and 1870 it was common for bottles to have glass collars around the neck or to have thicker "blobs" of glass towards the top. Irregularities are common in bottles dating from before 1870, and so any imperfections in these types is further indicative of their age.
- 3
  Inspect the neck closely to look for faint rings on the upper part of the neck. This shows that the neck was formed using a "lipping tool," which formed bottle necks using a twisting motion, and was used after 1870. The lipping tool also erased the seam running up the side of the bottle towards the top of the neck.
- 4
  Check the body of the bottle for the seams running up the side. If there are no seams, then it could be a free-blown or dip-molded bottle. This is quite unlikely, but would make your bottle a more interesting find. Free-blown and dip-molded bottles are likely to date from the early nineteenth century, if not before. However, twisting marks on the body mean that the bottle was probably made in a turn-mold, and may date from around the turn of the twentieth century.
- 5
  Feel for the vertical seams around the lip of the bottle. If the seams extend right to the top that means the bottle was made by an automatic machine, and is most likely to be from the twentieth century.
- 6
  Turn the bottle upside-down and inspect the base. If there is a circular crevice in the middle, then the bottle is likely to date back to before 1858. This is referred to as a "pontil" mark, and comes from the stick which used to be attached to the bottle during molding.

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