What does hand-blown glass mean?
handblown
: made by glassblowing and molded by hand.
What’s the difference between turn mold and free blown glass?
This is an important distinction to make since free-blown bottles usually date prior to the Civil War and often are much older than that; turn-mold bottles usually date from the late 19th century to early 20th century. They are discussed in more depth under the “Mold Induced Body Features” section later on this page. Body glass imperfections
Can a turn mold bottle look like a free blown bottle?
One note of caution is that turn-mold bottles will, like free-blown bottles, have no evidence of mold seams either. However, turn-mold bottles will be very symmetrical, always be round, and just not “look” as old as free-blown bottles.
How does a glass bottle get removed from a mold?
(This is particularly interesting to see and shows that shearing or cracking-off wasn’t always used or even necessary.) The mold boy then removes the bottle from the mold with tongs while the gaffer knocks off the residual glass from the end of the blowpipe and then moves back to the glass pot/tank to make another gather.
How are glass bottles made at one time?
At one time almost all bottles were completely hand blown (in the open air) without the aid of molds of any kind. Such work required skilled craftsmen and a great deal of manufacturing time. Small wonder then that in many cases the bottle was more than half the cost of the product.
This is an important distinction to make since free-blown bottles usually date prior to the Civil War and often are much older than that; turn-mold bottles usually date from the late 19th century to early 20th century. They are discussed in more depth under the “Mold Induced Body Features” section later on this page. Body glass imperfections
One note of caution is that turn-mold bottles will, like free-blown bottles, have no evidence of mold seams either. However, turn-mold bottles will be very symmetrical, always be round, and just not “look” as old as free-blown bottles.
(This is particularly interesting to see and shows that shearing or cracking-off wasn’t always used or even necessary.) The mold boy then removes the bottle from the mold with tongs while the gaffer knocks off the residual glass from the end of the blowpipe and then moves back to the glass pot/tank to make another gather.
When was the first mouth blown glass made?
The large majority of mouth-blown bottles (probably at least 95%) date to or prior to the World War I era, i.e., ≤1915-1920, with at least 75% likely dating prior to 1900 (empirical estimate). At least a few American glass companies were hand-blowing bottles into the mid-20th century (Toulouse 1971).
