Glass and British pharmacy, 1600-1900 : a survey and guide to the Wellcome Collection of British glass / J.K. Crellin and J.R. Scott.

  • Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine
Date:
1972
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Glass and British pharmacy, 1600-1900 : a survey and guide to the Wellcome Collection of British glass / J.K. Crellin and J.R. Scott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    mid-19th century) generally increase the elegance of the small amount of glass. There were exceptions, however, where a larger quantity of glass was used (cf Fig 50). The York Glass Co. in their catalogue of c.1850 described their moulded stoppers as being ‘superior to cut’ °®. c. Pontil marks This mark is the remnant of a small blob of glass that remained attached to the bottle after the pontil (an iron rod to which the partly-made bottle was affixed in order to hand-finish the neck and mouth) has been detached. The glass remain- ing on the bottle base is sharp edged, because the pontil was simply snapped off by the application of a cold surface to the juncture of it and the hot glass. Generally it was left like this, but occasion- ally the edges were flamed smooth (ie, “flamed’) or sometimes the excess glass was ground away, leaving a small saucer-shaped depression in the thick glass of the base; thus finished the bottle is described as ‘cut’. When present on bottles, pontil marks are noted in the catalogue entries. The marks are some guide to dating, in that moulded bottles without pontil marks were common from the 1860s onwards. However, some hand-made shop rounds apparently date from the early 20th century °°. d. Imperfections A large number of pieces of the glass in the collections are of poor quality, featuring air bells, orange-peel surface (a result of too rapid cooling), course, general purpose bottles and, at present, it is impossible to link them to any particular manu- facturer, especially as the number of small-scale businesses was legion. e. Tare marks Tare marks are noted on a number of bottles, indicating the practice — widespread until recent times — of weighing all liquids, rather than measuring them. f. Numbering and sizes The catalogue numbers (printed in bold type) refer to single items or a group of similar containers. All measurements are for maximum height x maximum diameter. An approximate size or size range is given for items in a large group.
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