Page 59 - April 22 & 23 April

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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
major US makers are
Spiral Shell Snail (Lefils / Boissac)
T10.1.3a-b
W30.2-5
The naturalistic shell is a spiral, and resembles a winkle
shell,
16
A hal
f-barrel or trunk-like desk ink, sometimes with an incised mark
Stoneware Barrel or Chest
with the shell apex set slightly to one side. The rippling
Waterbury,Vermont(c1863-72)
Thomas Ink Company / Levi H Thomas Ink Co (America)
interesting bottles nonetheless in
cluded.
for Stephen Green on the base and typically his lightly ‘toasted’ salt
mollusc’s foot stretches behind the shell and is raised on a
glaze. In raised script
lettering on the body is 'Robert Whitfield's
/
that may be this bottle. The illustration lacks the base p
plinth base.
The 1878 Maurin catalogue pictured a snail figural
7059 N. Clark Street, Chicago (Rogers Pa
Reading, Michigan (1872-c1879)
rk, 1
8
Patent Indelible & / Safety Writing Ink / 64 Hatfield St'. It d, could Dr Levi Thomas (1836-began making ink at Waterbury in Verm
previously suggested that this raised writing, which is moulde one in 1863 before moving to Michigan in
has be
en
appea
rs to
linth and
show a
921 Fulton Street, C
229 Kinzie Street, Chicago (1892-94)
80)
sician
take us up to the The companies of
only be made by scratching into the surface of the mould..DIt might
label pane as with
hicago (1894-1930) The homeopathic phy
ontin
reverse this would be a tricky task for often illiterate potters 1872. First at the Thomas Ink and Blueing Factory (proba
below but embossed
the variant listed
also have been done by ‘piping’ slip clay onto a vpeosbiteien created not
a mould from that. In this
way
wording w
ephe
ould h
a
ve and ca
sting
for Lefils
.T
here are
rsio
ns. An illustration i
bly fo
rmerly
era of disposable Australia and New
in negative, but as it would
madeafeatureofthistechchoolmaster/
nique
be see
dep
n
.
St
n Gre
en seems to have
l reform flasks
two, possibly three known ve
example in the Sava
example [T10.1.3a]
fails to convey
from
n
n Covill of a clear glas
sional nature but an
aqua
s
co
the Reading Ink Co) before moving (c 1879) to Chicago
mpany’s lab
els after the move feature a trade mark blac
k cat;
as well. A simila the same mould. O'Bryan is
lt collection) has eacher o
r barrel in
sc
ribed
utilis
‘D.B. O'
l
oying it on barre
ed gation
Bry
an / S
fully the th
ree dime
fountain type bottle but the Savage on
Covill’s is g
round dow
ge collection is likely to be
n be
low the upper part of the
the same moul
shell, makin
d. The neck on
eem
‘Reading’ s
manufac 1900 Levi was no
mucilage turer
,liquidglueandbluing.Snowflakepastebecameonesofwritingfluids,inks,
mall print on text-only labels indicates earlier items.
. The
g this s
of
In
th
Chicag
in 1889. In 1
o they were m
Bi
ro.
DEPT...D’ (Au
eir best se
llers. By
listed as running
a sch
ool the
n of
the
896 he pa
anufac
tford,
Kent.
re
in Pig
Born at
ot’s 184
se
0 directory. Daniel Thomas Byam Martin O'Bryan was a
a c.1815/1817 he died in 1852; this may indicate
he
t
is the
f navi
so
One known of each colour (clear, aqua, co
ali
damage tha ttle’
p that would not take a (in
t had been g (see
roundbaul’s
fitted ca g t
ack
. The Ault c Ink und
e
is higher. The
p, whilst a further g he Black Ca
ollection’s vi
vid cobalt examp partnersh
Covill may have ha
lehas .
d
a
decanter th
turer but as
at
was to be used by Paul’s Ink as their ‘safety Bo
an ‘ink promoter’ having sold the company
Zealand, who often
P
te
e
n
r P10-3-5)
ted a de
sign for a
lon
ger listed as a
at Butcher Row, Dep
schoolteacher, given that the
wel
obably dates t
o the mid-1830s.
ip headed by industrialist Warren McArthur who rebranded
troducin
Thomas sold to a
copying ink
l pr
.W30.2&3
T
wo sizes of
the pla
iner
Covill no 1292 (clear, groun
d lip) [T11.3.2a] / Ault (cobal
balt and mid-olive green). the other b
t, burst or sheared) /
French
; 1.8H x 3.5L
Savage (aqua, sheare
reen example has a burst lip. bottles, but b
brand in the early 1920s.
y 1894 it had become a division of
Sanford MFG
Co,
ig i
nk
com
barrel, a scarce item and the
pany of Chicago, fading away as a
t) and dis
continued the paper
bought their packaging
larger being rare.
crisp and plai
n and flat
Mos
t
are
3 (not
pane, appears to be a close match but the mould has b
Another mould is unique in being embosse
dandh
aving a la
d lip) [T11.3.2a] /
ende
d. 3.5
x
2] / 4.25
x
‘ENCRE FRANCAISES //
adjusted to accommodate the
LEFILS PARIS’ [T1
new features. It is embo
een
bel
swagged) [W30.
ssed
Whether you
from British glass
3.75 (not swa
/ 3.5 x 3 (n
ot
s
gged)
wagge
[W30.3]
d)
snail’s foot. Monsie
ur Boissac an inks and glue mak
0.1.3b] to the
A. Lefils, 8 Avenue du Bel-Air near Place de la Nation in Paris.
the Encres Francaises bran
d that was sold t
hrou
Encre Francaises had won a gold medal at the 1878 and 1880
gh the fi
er, made
rm of
collect teakettles
Toiray / Maurin’s catalogue; there the snail’s foot has no plinth
Universal Exhibitions. This bottle would be a close match to the
makers and potters,
snails are very rare.
forwards, not pointing steeply upwards as with this. All the
as here, but the label pane is ovoid and the spout projects
or octagonal inks, Rope Bordered
W30.4
are in. For the first
A more fancy version and much rarer. It has atnheunbdaurlraetlinegndbso,rdweitrhtohathned
inscribed lines around the two pen stands, dotting around the font hole
text and hand-incised rope edging to
Tortoises or Turtles
Aqua - formerly in the Anderson Library Collection and now part of the Fynn.
pontil bottles or
with milling between this and the barrel. 3.5 x 3.25x1.75H
T10.1.4
time Continental
W30.5
Deeply divided cut-glass-like shell sections and scaly legs
Divided shell Tortoise?
Loaf Barrel
In addition there
is an extremely
one example seen and probably American; 1.5H x 4.4L
lid. Amethyst may suggest this is not a packaging bottle; only
indicated to lower edge with a long neck terminating in a metal
impressed salt Euoropean makers are
rare large version
(two noted) that
is loaf-like, rounded off and not obviously a barrel. The same text but
Covill fig 1287/ Norman C Heckler & Co sale #167, lot 70,
impressed and all in capitals. 4.5 x 3.5.
$4,973
T10.1.5
glaze, you will want to . Detailed listings of
BBR rch 2004, lot 379,£95 [W30.2]; July 2011, lot 51, only. Some earlier items and embossed bottle t of which are label-
resto
red) [W30.2];Ma d
a
uctions: March 2003, lot 154, £40 (with a Harwood’s well, both
£90 [W Green, Lambeth’ base ) ; BBR February 2004, lot
30.3]; July
2012, lot 33, £140 [W30.3]; April 2013, lot 89, £150
low embossing all over,
Probably French in aqua and
cobalt, with the pattern of the shell
Tortoi
French
s as
se
The range of 20th century packaging can be seen in their catalogue (above), mos
s are single
out below.
a copy.
495, £20 [W30.4] (swagged damaged) & al Embossed ‘L.H.THOMAS / INK’ - 1
so authors collection ; impressed lettering - author’s collection [W30.5] T
[W
30.2] (‘Stephen
them in. The head is delineated
with vestigial feet, the reptile having pulled
open mouthed as if swallowing the
Scandinavian, East,ern
spout.2H16.1&2
Whiting / White
Whittingto London The decanters sometimes have the additional base embos
nMoorP
- see under La
tte
rie
s - see Pea
b
e
l
s
31 [T16.2] (aqu
Bottle Collector 12, p
lot 115 / Antique THOMAS [cd] / INK’, along with cone-shaped tooled-lip bottles
BBR Oct 2013, Aquaglasscylinderdecanterswithwidecollarlips[T16.1]with872-1889
.9
&1
6,
only ‘L.H.
European/Russian
Wibell–seeAle66&67aBartholomewCloseENTEDAPRIL131875’.ThepatentwasassignedtoThomasSynnottfor
o
Savage and Anderson sing
/ Covill fig.1288 / Odell Inks vol II, p.45, puce, ligh
xandria Polish
rson, James Wildash (Thomas) & Sons t green, pale blue and amber) with the same embossing, are
$300 & $400 (clea
r & aqua) / Heckler 16,
p7
library collections (cobalt and aqua) ‘PAT
lot 193
(clear)
/ Ault, Kerrig
e, 1889.
pre-
a,
Strafford, Essex (works) (1896)
Varnish and Japan makers
Brunswick Black’.
wh Covil figs 903-908 (decanters – at least three sizes) $3
o sold
‘Improved
T10.1.6-7 0, 75-77 (cones), 323-327 cylinders.
*Two other turtle figurals are
listed under ‘Turtle’ Off-set Neck
a lip making tool which also formed an interior pour
ing lip.
French, German,
414
347
368
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27/01/2023 11:43