Object Record
Images
Metadata
Title |
Umbrella ink bottle recovered from City Centre Plaza, c. 1840-1909. |
Object Name |
Bottle, Ink |
Description |
Umbrella ink bottle recovered from City Centre Plaza, c. 1840-1909. This bottle is conical in shaped with eight-sided panels to form the sides, hand-blown tooled rim for a crudely rolled or folded-in finish. A .25 inch short neck flares out to a .75 inch double ring shoulder to a 2.25 inch body. The bottle is clear and shows evidence of glass hand-made manufacture. |
Date |
c.1840-1909 |
Catalog Number |
1999.048.346 |
Collection |
3D - Written Communication Tools & Equipment |
Creator |
Unknown |
Role |
Manufacturer |
Provenance |
20 boxes of archaeological material excavated from the City Centre Plaza site at 950 Main at Middlefield in Redwood City. Excavation for development, done by Basin Research Associates. |
Notes |
As a general statement, ink bottles (and inkwells) were designed for stability while being used to fill a pen or dip a quill. To quote Munsey (1970), "...because (pens and quills) must be dipped into the ink container frequently during writing, ink bottles were designed to minimize tipping." Although there is no universally accepted size cut-off point, generally speaking the majority of ink bottles hold 3 or 4 ounces of ink or less, typically about 2 ounces. Covill's (1971) book "Ink bottles and inkwells" is the best published source available to see the depth of variety of all types of ink bottles (glass and other materials) which is immense, surely numbering in the many thousands if not several tens of thousands of different types and/or variations. Multi-sided (more than four sides): This a large and varied class of ink bottles bound together by having more than four flattened body sides or panels. Typically the body panel conformations are either "conical" (picture to the left; bodies narrowing dramatically from the heel to the shoulder) or "vertical" (examples further below; bodies roughly equal in diameter at the heel and shoulder). Once again, there are hundreds of not thousands of different and often subtle variations of multi-sided ink bottle theme (Covill 1971; Faulkner 2009) with only a few of the more common shapes covered here. Umbrella inks were made for a very long time starting at least as early as 1840 to as late 1909 (Whitall Tatum & Co. 1879; 1902, 1911; Haggerty Brothers 1898; Robert Alther 1909; Cumberland Glass Co. 1911; McKearin & Wilson 1978). In the Whitall Tatum & Co. catalogs the "fluted pyramid" umbrella ink bottles disappear sometime between the 1902 and 1909 catalogs, although they were significantly waning in popularity to the cone ink and other styles beginning by the 1880s. By the late 1890s they were an insignificant minority of ink bottles produced (empirical observations). The author has never observed a machine-made umbrella ink nor found any reference to examples (except some modern reproductions some of which are marked JAPAN on the base) and the style is thought to have disappeared prior to the introduction of bottle machines capable of produced narrow neck bottles (Covill 1971) Conical bodies: Probably the most commonly encountered members of this group - particularly from historic sites dating before 1890 - are the "umbrella" ink bottles. The umbrella ink pictured to the right is an early American example dating from the 1840s or early 1850s. It was most likely made by a New England glass house, although it could also have been produced by a Pennsylvania, New Jersey, or New York maker. http://www.sha.org/bottle/household.htm#Small ink bottles |
Dimensions |
H-2.5 W-2.5 D-2.5 inches |
Search Terms |
Archaeology Bottles Communication Equipment Inkwell Inkwells Privy Tools Writing Accessories |
Subjects |
Bottles Commemoration Equipment Equipment & supplies Writing materials |
Credit line |
Courtesy of the City of Redwood City |