Page 70 - Advertising & Breweriana 28 May 2023

Ink, Glue, Polish & Blacking Bottles
1750-1950
It has taken nearly 20 years to compile, but with well over 2,000 individual items pictured in colour (we counted!), the inks book is complete. The majority are ink bottles but also related ones such as glues and blacking bottles, with associated advertising. Hardback, 437 pages, this is the most complete guide yet covering packaging ink and stationery related bottles. Including trade illustrations and patent designs, total number of images is closer to 4,000 - full colour throughout.
But this is not merely a picture price guide: the maker’s and
Belgian and Dutch bottles
retailers identities are traced and company histories given,
reveal stunning diversity.
many for the first time. Never before have British makers
been so comprehensively covered, but the scope is much
Stationers sold glue, pounce and wax (with lamps to melt wider. A worldwide A to Z - from Acton’s Mexican Blacking
it) along with ink. Domestic ink bottles can be difficult to
to Zuline’s marking ink; important firms like Mordan and
distinguish from them and also, for instance, perfume categories such as cottage Inks are carefully delineated.
containers. All this is covered and help you tell the
With sizes, colours, provenance, rarity for the bottles listed
difference; doing so can make a huge difference to value. plus with prices at auction.
The majority pictured date between 1800 and 1950. The throw-away bottles of parlour writing desks and offices Modern day trading via the internet makes this the essential
of working people, bottle collectors lose interest in those International guide for collectors. The pioneering work by
dating after the 1920’s but pen collectors do not. From William Covill Jnr remains the American ink bottle bible but
Field’s to Waterman, fountain pen ink firms’ more
mn ajor US makers are
Spiral Shell Snail (Lefils / Boissac) T10.1.3a-b
Stoneware Barrel or Chest
W30.2-5
with the shell apex set slightly to one side. The rippling
The naturalistic shell is a spiral, and resembles a winkle shell,
Thomas Ink Company / Levi H Thomas Ink Co (America)
16 interesting bottles onetheless included.
Ah
for Stephen Green on the base and typically his lightly ‘toasted’ salt
alf-barrel or trunk-like desk ink, sometimes with an incised mark
mollusc’s foot stretches behind the shell and is raised on a
Reading, Michigan (1872-c1879)
Waterbury, Vermont (c1863-72) take us up to th
ttering on the body is 'Robert Whitfield
's /
that may be this bottle. The illustration lacks the base plin
plinth base. The
1878 Maurin catalogue pictured a snail figural
7059 N. Clark Street, Chicago (Rogers Pa
rk, 188
0)
glaze. In raised script le
Patent Indelible & / Safety Writing Ink / 64 Hatfield St'. It could
previously suggested that this raised writing, which is mo one in
ulded,
has be
en
229 Kinzie Street, Chicago (1892-94)
label pane as w
appea
rs to
show a
th and
ith
Dr Levi Thomas (1836-began making ink at Waterbury in Verm
921 Fulton Stre
et,
Chicago (1894-1930) The homeopathic phy
sician
The companies of
only be made by scratching into the surface of the mould..DIt might
below but embossed
the variant listed
1863 before moving to Michigan in
ontin
reverse this would be a tricky task for often illiterate potters
also have been done by ‘piping’ slip clay onto a peo been created not
era of disposable
a mould from that. In this wa
be see
y wo
rding w
for Lefils. The
in negative, but as it would
ould ha
v
sitive a
nd casting
re are
n. S
tep
he
nG
ree
n seems to have
two, possibly three known
versions. An illu
stration
in Covill of a cle
the Reading Ink Co) before moving (c 1879) to Chicago
1872. First at the Thomas Ink and Blueing Factory (probab
ly fo
rmerly
. The
Australia and New
made a feature of this tech
as well. A similar barre ould. O'Bryan is
l in
nique
scribed
d
e
p
‘B
D
l
o
.B.
ying it on ba
O'B
rrel reform flasks
example in the Sav
example [T10.1.3a] fa
ils to
convey fu
lly the
three d
imensional nature but
ar glass
com
ryan /
Schoolmaster /
Covill’s is
ground down b
age collection is likely to
elow the
upper pa
b
ef
rom
the
same mould
. The neck on
an aqua
‘Readin
pany’s labels after the move feature a trade mark blac
mucila
ge, liquid glue and bluing. Snowflake paste became one rers of writing fluids, inks,
g’ small print on text-only labels indicates earlier items. I
k cat;
of
n Ch
th
eir bes
ica
go they were ma
t se
nufac
tu
Biro.
DEPT...D’ (Au ot’s 1840 directory. Daniel Thomas Byam Martin O'Bryan was a t that was to be used by Paul’s Ink as their ‘safety Bo ign for a copying ink
listed as running a
lt collection) h eacher o ecanter des
at Butch
school there in
as ut na
ilised the same
.t
P
Born a
i
g
t
da
sea c.1815/1817 he died in 1852; this may indicate h
m
rt
of the
damage that had been gr
founta
in type bo
ttle but the
Savage one is high
tes to the mid
-1830s.
e is the son
f
vigation
ofthy
e shell, making thi m 1900 Levi
s seem a anufactur wa
ound
ck
. The Ault collection’s
er. Th
e Covill may ha d nted a
er but as an ‘ink promoter’ having sold the company in 1 s no longer listed as a
8
89. In
1
l
lers.
Zealand, who often
tfor
ba
p nk under P
896 he pate
schoolteacher, given th
er Row, Dep bottle and dis
atthew
d, Ken
ell pro
t
ba
bly
.W30.2&3
colour (clear, aqua, cob
a lip that w
ou t
ve had
ld not take a fitted ca
p, h
wh e
ilst a further gre
Covill no 1292 (clear, ground lip) [T11.3.2a] / Ault (cobalt
One known of each
alt and m
id-olive
en example has a burst
vividcobaltexamplehasartnersh10-3-5).Th
lip.
, burst or sh
eared) / Savage (
Hx
3.5L
s, but by 1894 it had bec
ip headed by industrialist Warren McArthur who rebrande
ttle’ (see
Paul’s
I
omas sold to a
Two
s
izes
of
the
plainer
green). French; 1.8
aqua, s
heared
lip) [T11.3.2a] /
brand
in the early 1920s.
ome a division of
Sa
nford
MFG Co,
d (in
the othe
r
oducing
r
big ink com
Black Ca
pany of Chicago
t)
continued the paper
barrel, a scarce item and the
, fading away as a
bought their packaging
larger being rare. M
crisp and plain
re
ended. 3.5
and fla
ost a
3
(not
t
pane, appears to be a close m
Another mould is unique in being embosse
x
atch but the mould ha
da
nd having a label
s been
swagged)
x
‘ENCRE FRANCAISES
adjusted to accommodate the ne
// LEFILS PARIS’ [T10.1.3b] to
w features.
It is embos
sed
Whether you
3.75 (not swagged
[W30.2] / 4.25
the
from British glass
/ 3.5 x 3
(n
ots
w
ag
ged
)
[W30.3]
)
the Encres Francaises bra
snail’s foot. Monsieu
r Boissac an inks and
glue maker, made
A. Lefils, 8 Avenue du Bel-Air near Place de la Nation in Paris.
nd tha
t was sol
d thr
ough t
he firm
of
collect teakettles Universal Exhibitions. This bottle would be a close match to the
Encre Francaises had won a gold medal at the 1878 and 1880
makers and potters,
as here, but the label pane is ovoid and the spout projects
Toiray / Maurin’s catalogue; there the snail’s foot has no plinth
or octagonal inks, Rope Bordered
W30.4
snails are very rare.
forwards, not pointing steeply upwards as with this. All the
are in. For the first
A more fancy version and much rarer. It has atnheunbdaurlraetlinegndbso,rdweitrhtohathned
Aqua - formerly in the Anderson Library Collection and now part of the Fynn.
inscribed lines around the two pen stands, dotting around the font hole
text and hand-incised rope edging to
with milling between this and the barrel. 3.5 x 3.25x1.75H
Tortoises or Turtles
T10.1.4
pontil bottles or time Continental
W30.5
Deeply divided cut-glass-like shell sections and scaly legs
Divided shell Tortoise?
Loaf Barrel
In additio
indicated to lower edge with a long neck terminating in a metal
is an
extremely
n there
one exam
lid. Amethyst m
ple seen and probably American; 1.5H x 4.4L
ay suggest this is not a packaging bottle; only
impressed salt European
makers are a
rare la
(two noted) that
rge version
is loaf-like, rounded off and not obviously a barrel. The same text but
$4,973
Covill fig 1287/ Norman C Heckler & Co sale #167, lot 70,
impressed and all in capitals. 4.5 x 3.5.
glaze, you will want auctions: March 2003, lot 154, £40 (with a Harwood’s well, both
T10.1.5
too. Detailed listings of copy.
BBR 2004, lot 379,£95 [W30.2]; July 2011, lot 51,
French
res y 2012, lot 33, £140 [W30.3]; April 2013, lot 89, £150
£90 en Green, Lambeth’ base ) ; BBR February 2004, lot
tore
[W30.3]; Jul
d
) [W30
.2];Marc
h
Probably Fren
ch
in aqua and cobalt, with the pa
ttern of t
he
shells as
Tortoise
only. Some earlier items and embossed bottles are singled out below. re label-
The range of 20th century packaging can be seen in their catalogue (above), most of which a
[W30.2] (‘S
tep
h
them in. The head is delineat
low embossing all over, with vestigial
ed op
en mouthed as if swallowing the
feet, the reptile having pulled
Scandinavian, Eastern
495, £20 [W30.4] (swagged damaged) & also authors collection ; impressed lettering - author’s collection [W30.5]
BBR Oct 2013,
spout. 2H
THOMAS[cd]/INK’,alongwithcone-shapedtooled-lisp[bTo1tt6le.1s][wTithonly‘L.H.
AquaglasscylinderdecanterEsmwbitohssweide‘Lc.oHll.aTrHliOpMAS/INK’-1872-1889
T16.1&2
Whiting / White - seeotutenrdiersL-asbeelsPearson, James
Whittington Moor P
3W1ildash (Thomas) & Sons
BottleCollector12,p.9&16,p7/ Covillfig.1288/OdellInksvolII,p.45,
lot 115 / Antique
European/Russian,
Wibell – see Alexandria Polish
London
66 & 67a Bartholomew Close
Savage and Anderson library collections (cobalt and aqua)
$300 & $400 (clear & aqua) / Heckler 16, lot 193 (clear) / Ault, Kerrige,
puce,lightgreen,paleblueandamber)withthesameembossi1n6g.,2](aqua,
‘PATENTED APRIL 13 1875’. The patent was assigned to Thomas Synnostst ifnogr
1889. The decanters sometimes have the additional base emabre pre-
Strafford, Essex (wpoarkns) (m1a8k9e6r)s
Varnish and Ja
Brunswick Black’.
who sold
‘Improved
T10.1.6-7
*Two other turtle figurals are listed under ‘Turtle’ Off-set Neck
Covil figsa9li0p3making tool which also formed an interior pouring lip.
-908 (decanters – at least three sizes) $30, 75-77 (cones), 323-327 cylinders.
French, German,
414
347
368
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INKS FLIER page.indd 1 27/01/2023 11:43