11 - Analyzing Glass Bottles for Chronology, Function, and Trade Networks

Abstract

There were major technological changes in the production of glass in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Bottles can reveal much more about a site than simply providing dates. By the early 19th century, glass houses were producing bottles in fairly uniform shapes, which makes it possible to recognize a medicine bottle or wine bottle simply by its form. These standardized shapes enable one to quickly determine a bottle's function. This chapter presents the classification of the bottles into groups that share similar features and functions and it focuses on analyzing the embossed information to reconstruct trade patterns. Two late 19th and early-20th-century sites in the same region are compared to illustrate the importance of studying trade networks. By the 1870s, some major changes had occurred in the glass industry—an improvement in furnaces; the development of more complex finishing tools; and the invention of more elaborate closures. The addition of a separate gas and coal fired glory hole to the furnace allowed the glass blower to achieve a smooth neck, mouth, and lip without overheating and perhaps distorting the rest of the bottle.