Pitkin Glass Works Presentation for MoCG

Dana Charlton-Zarro and Annie, January 2020 Museum of Connecticut Glass meeting.

 This past weekend the Museum of Connecticut Glass held its annual meeting at Patriots Park in Coventry, Ct. Museum president Noel Tomas passed away last year, so there were a number of difficult decisions on the agenda. After a protracted business meeting, the museum board and members adjourned for a potluck lunch and a fascinating discussion of the Pitkin Glass Works by Tom Duff of Manchester and the Pitkin Queen herself, Dana Charlton-Zarro.

Tom Duff with a Pitkin flask.

 The process of making a Pitkin-type flask was complex, involving double-dipping the initial bubble of glass (the "German half-post method" of bottle making), embossing ribs with a pattern mold, and twisting the bottle to shape the ribs into a helical swirl. One interesting point that came up in the discussion is that the swirl may have been introduced by rotating the bottle as it was being withdrawn from the pattern mold (as opposed to giving the bottle a sharp spin on the end of blowpipe after it was free of the mold, as I had heard in the past).

"Cross-swirled" Pitkin-type flask. 

 A "cross-swirled" flask was brought for display at the meeting. These flasks, with two sets of helical ribs swirled in opposite directions, are exceedingly rare, with probably fewer than half a dozen extant. It's not entirely clear how these were manufactured, but it probably involved even more skill than making the much more common single swirl or broken swirl (helix overlain by a set of plain vertical ribs) Pitkin flasks.

Pitkin-type flask from Poland. 

 Another oddity brought out for the presentation was a Pitkin-type flask from Poland. This continental flask was made by the German half-post method and has the broken-swirl pattern and basic flattened oval form often seen in New World Pitkin flasks, but is cruder and much thicker than is typical for Connecticut examples. Possibly it represents an ancestral form of this style of bottle, which was later refined and perfected by immigrant glassblowers working in America.

Sunburst flasks attributed to the Pitkin Glass Works: GVIII-5, GVIII-5a and GVIII-7, along with Pitkin-type flask and junk bottle/black glass wine bottle of the sort also made in early Connecticut glass works. 

Free blown, dip molded and pattern molded glass with very similar shapes and forms was made at many early American (and in some cases European) glass factories, so it is not really possible to associate a particular Pitkin-type flask with the actual Pitkin Glass Works. Mold-blown flasks, in contrast, leave behind distinctive shards in the archaeological record and can often be more or less definitively associated with a particular manufacturer (with the caveat that occasional stray shards from one factory could conceivably wind up at an unrelated factory site, perhaps brought in as cullet for recycling). Three different pint sunburst flasks are thought to be Pitkin products, with the GVIII-5 Pitkin sunburst in particular being firmly established by archaeological finds at the factory site in Manchester.

J.P.F. Inkwell

J.P.F. inkwell, Pitkin Glass Works. "J.P.F." with stars and dots side. 

This square inkwell embossed "J.P.F." is a representative of the only inkwell type that is attributed uniquely to the Pitkin Glass Works in Manchester Ct. The initials are thought to stand for John P. Foster, a superintendent at the Pitkin factory, and shards of this inkwell have been excavated at the glass works ruins. An eagle/cornucopia flask blown at the Pitkin Glass Works also includes the initials J.P.F. 

J.P.F. inkwell, eagle side. 

Each side of the square inkwell has a different design. The side with the initials also include dots and stars, similar to markings seen on some Masonic flasks. The other sides feature an abstract lattice and dots pattern, a basket with abundant fruits, and a bald eagle. The corners of the inkwell are beveled, with ribbing that is also reminiscent of early Connecticut Masonic and sunburst flasks. The J.P.F. inkwell was blown in a two part mold.

J.P.F. inkwell, basket of fruit side. 

The J.P.F. inkwell is extremely rare, and is probably the most valuable inkwell in existence. The example pictured here was auctioned by Norman C. Heckler and Co. this month for more than $30,000. It has a faint crack in the lip, which was likely present but not noted on at least one prior occasion when this example was sold. The Mattatuck Museum has another example, as do the Manchester Historical Society and the Connecticut Historical Society. There are another couple in collections, for a total of maybe half a dozen extant inkwells.

J.P.F. inkwell, crosshatching and dots side. 

In other inkwell news, the Museum of Connecticut Glass hosted a special exhibit from the collection of Tom Marshall this month, including dozens of early free blown, Pitkin-type pattern molded, and blown in mold inkwells, of likely Connecticut or New England origin. Tom also displayed a selection of modern reproductions of Pitkin-type inks, from Pairpoint Glass, Red Fern Glass and others.  Most of these didn't really have the finesse of the antique inks, and the shapes and forms (especially of the lips) were generally pretty wonky, but some might have caused an expert some temporary confusion. 

A portion of Tom Marshall's remarkable inkwell collection. 

According to MoCG president Noel Tomas, many years ago a member of the general public actually brought a J.P.F. inkwell in to a museum open house, in order to ask what it was. The ink had been purchased at a tag sale in East Hartford. After explanations of the origins and rarity of the inkwell, the visitor apparently left and was not heard from again. It seems to be unclear whether this example wound up in a museum or a known private collection, or is sitting, possibly forgotten, on a shelf in a house somewhere around Hartford.

Coventry Glass Works Pitchers

Free blown olive-amber pitcher, six inches tall. Attributed to Coventry Glass Works, via John Carpenter of Coventry.

 The Coventry Glass Works (1815-1848) are known, based on archaeological evidence and local lore, to have manufactured a range of free blown tableware, though tableware was probably a minor portion of their output compared to flasks and utility bottles. A fair number of "Coventry" pitchers exist in private and museum collections, though as always, the attribution of 200 year old free blown glass is subject to a certain degree of uncertainty, and similar items were made at various other nineteenth century glass factories in Connecticut and elsewhere in the Northeast.

Opposite side of the John Carpenter Coventry Glass Works pitcher

 The first Coventry pitcher that I have recently had a chance to examine supposedly came out of a house in Coventry, and is associated with an oldish note that reads: "This pitcher is guaranteed to be Coventry glass. It was bought around 1920 from John Carpenter of North Coventry and was blown by one of his ancestors. So he said." It is cracked to hell, but the provenance is better than average. This pitcher is in private hands, and will be auctioned by Norman C. Heckler & Co. in 2018.

Applied handle of John Carpenter pitcher.

Both likely-Coventry pitchers described here have a similar form, with threading wrapped around the mouth area. The handle was applied first near the top of the pitcher, then bent around and stuck to the side of pitcher, pulled out into a ribbon that was somewhat crudely flattened onto the pitcher body with a tool. The smooshed handle terminal is possibly an indication of Coventry origin.

Freeblown olive-green pitcher, 7.5 inches tall, attributed to Coventry Glass Works. Connecticut Historical Society collection.

The second Coventry Glass Works pitcher examined here is in the collection of the Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford. It's a larger example, in a lighter, greener color of glass, with more taper towards the base. It's a lovely piece of early Connecticut glass, but is not currently on display.

Applied handle of Coventry pitcher, Connecticut Historical Society.

Base of Coventry pitcher, Connecticut Historical Society.

Fall 2017 Glass Miscellany

Pitkin Glass Works ruins, October 2017.

It hasn't been the best fall foliage season here in Connecticut. A Gypsy Moth outbreak and a severe thunderstorm with hail caused trouble for the trees in a lot of places back in June, and autumn 2017 has so far alternated between too dry and warm, and a couple of periods of wind and rain that have tended to knock a lot of leaves to the ground. Still, there are scenic views here and there, including the Pitkin Glass Works ruins in Manchester.

New sign for the ruins site.

The Pitkin site has a new sign, featuring a Pitkin-type flask. The old sign had a painting of a free blown demijohn sort of bottle.

The old Center Turnpike crosses a wooden bridge in Boston Hollow, heading west into Westford.

The location of the Westford Glass Company is the most isolated of the early glass works sites in Connecticut. A moderately busy state road, Rt. 89, passes by the factory site, but Westford is a quaint and thinly populated village, and it's right on the edge of Boston Hollow and the Yale-Myers forest, an expansive undeveloped tract that is probably about as close as the Nutmeg State gets to a wilderness area.

The disused but preserved church in the center of Westford, a few hundred yards from the foundations of the Westford Glass Co.

The October 2017 Heckler & Co. live auction.

We're entering a busy couple of weeks for specialist bottle auctions, with several online sales going on now or starting soon. Here in Connecticut, Norman C. Heckler & Co. just had one of their live auctions, where there was some good local antique glass up for bidding, including an amber Willington blueberry preserve bottle and a large, light yellow olive chestnut bottle (both at upper left in the auction floor photo). The blueberry bottle went for something approaching a retail price, but the chestnut was a bargain.

PATENT insulator, Willington Glass Co.

In November, Heckler's is having an online sale. One interesting Connecticut piece is an insulator embossed PATENT (with the letters reversed). There are two or three variants of this item, all thought to be made in Willington, with reports of shards being found at the glass factory site and also along railroad tracks in the area. Apparently, insulator collectors don't necessarily think that these were insulators, and there is some speculation that they were some kind of decorative architectural accent (whether or not a big pyramidal chunk of dark muddy olive glass with "PATENT" written backwards all over it in block letters is "decorative," is, I suppose, a matter of taste).

GI-33 WASHINGTON / JACKSON pint historical flask, Coventry Glass Works (left) with three GI-32 New England Washington flasks.

The sale preview also offered a chance to examine a somewhat confusing group of flasks, the GI-31, 32 and 33 Washington/Jackson pints. These are quite similar to each other, and I've seen well-known specialists mix them up. Of interest to the staff here at Quiet Corner Glass is the GI-33, which was the Coventry Glass Works version of this type of Washington flask. The easiest field mark of the 33 is that the lettering is noticeably smaller than with the other two molds, with the W in "Washington" being placed opposite G.W.'s receding hairline. In the 31 and 32 flasks, the W is down at eye level. GI-31 is probably a Keene-Marlboro St. (NH) flask, whereas GI-32 is of uncertain New England origin.

Early Glass at the MoCG

Free blown and dip mold glassware in the Marshall collection.

 The September open house at the Museum of Connecticut Glass featured a display by Tom Marshall, who specializes in unusual and early free blown, dip molded and pattern molded glass, of the type that could have been made by the eighteenth and early nineteenth century glass works of Eastern Connecticut. Many Museum regulars turned out to admire some spectacular antique bottles and tableware, and there was also a slow but steady stream of visitors from the general public.

Crude free blown inkwell, bottles and tableware.

Pattern molded corner, with Pitkin-type flasks, inkwell, and an extremely rare Pitkin hat (likely a salt cellar, or possibly a whimsey).

Early, flat-bottomed case-gin bottle whatzit with a plain sheared lip. Smaller than the common Continental case gins, in a more Connecticut-ish or New England-y glass color, with a very rare mouth treatment for this sort of bottle.

Large (baseball-sized) free blown inkwell.

"Coventry Glass Works" sign, likely not period.

Aside from the special glass from Tom Marshall, the Museum had a recent acquisition on display: a large blue painted wooden sign reading "Coventry Glass Works." This doesn't look all that old to me; it's pretty clean and the blocky sans-serif lettering looks kind of modern. Others who have examined the sign are also of the opinion that it's a twentieth century fantasy reproduction, not something that was ever hung outside the factory 200 years ago. Apparently a similar (also possibly not authentic) sign exists for the Willington Glass Co., in a private collection in the area.

Pitkin Flask Display

Pitkin-type flask display at the Museum of Connecticut Glass. June 17, 2017.

The June open house at the Museum of Connecticut Glass hosted a unique display of about 30 Pitkin-type flasks, plus some related bottles and inkwells. Dana Charlton-Zarro, a well-regarded specialist in this style of early American glass, was kind enough to bring up a portion of her fabulous collection for the open house, and to stay around to share her extensive knowledge of the bottles.

Dana's collection focuses on New England Pitkin-type flasks, many of which were indeed made at the Pitkin Glass Works, though more or less identical bottles were produced by the Coventry, Mather, Glastenbury and probably Willington glass factories in Connecticut, as well as in New Hampshire factories. Glassware in the same general style was produced in Mid Atlantic and Midwestern glass works, though the forms, colors and rib counts of New England Pitkins seem to be fairly distinctive.

The process of blowing Pitkin-type flasks was complex and required multiple steps executed by a skilled craftsman. Various modern glass studios, including Pairpoint on Cape Cod, have attempted to recreate New England Pitkins, though the delicate patterns and eggshell-thin glass of better antique flasks seems to be very difficult to replicate. At some point, probably around 1820, Pitkin-type flasks went out of production, replaced by sunburst flasks and other styles of embossed bottles blown in two part metal molds, in a much less technically demanding procedure.

Dana Charlton-Zarro (with flask) explains the finer points of Pitkin-type flasks to some Museum visitors.

The gaffer had some difficulties with this bottle: some sections of the sides got folded over and stuck to themselves during the blowing process.

Some smaller Pitkin flasks, between four and five inches tall. Pitkins below five inches tall (or more than seven inches) are relatively rare.

Pitkin type inkwells. The squared-off example (center left) was probably expanded in a dip mold for snuffs, and was recovered from a Connecticut stream bank relatively recently. The "cross-swirled" example (center right), with ribs curved to the left and to the right, is also very rare.

Some more special Pitkins: pint and half-pint examples in a blue-green color, with barely any hint of olive (the color is more blue in person), and a greenish, wide, flattened bottle with very tight ribbing.

Timothy and Christine Hill Collection at Heckler's

Woodstock, Connecticut, May 26, 2017. One of the most beautiful parts of the country at one of the loveliest times of the year!

Norman C. Heckler & Co. is going to be selling the collection of Timothy and Christine Hill over the course of 2017. The Hill collection of bottles and related antiques was varied and very large, but with definite concentrations in historical flasks and veterinary medicine bottles. The Hill collection sales started on Friday with a large, well-attended live auction in the Heckler barn, which included some unusually fancy lots.

Norm Heckler Sr. gets the auction going in front of his old George S. McKearin, Inc. sign.

Ernie Eldridge, antique dealer and mayor of Windham, Ct,  took over conducting the auction at times.

"Dr. Lesure's Famous Remedies," goony veterinary medicine cabinet. Not really my thing, but apparently that was a $3500 plus 17% buyer's premium plus 6.35% sales tax for a total of $4355.03 and nearly the most expensive item of the sale goony veterinary medicine cabinet.

Radium Radia medicine bottle with contents (brown, not obviously luminescent) and box. Probably not actually an ionizing radiation hazard?

 And here's some of the good stuff:

GI-85 LA FAYETTE COVETRY [sic] C-T / liberty cap pint flask, Hill collection ex Brown collection. Crude, huge bubbles, in fine condition.

GV-9 railroad / eagle pint flask, Coventry Glass Works. Nice green color, good impression in a mold where the embossing is usually pretty lumpy, and it went for cheap.

GVIII-16 sunburst flask. Generally considered a Coventry product, but there is supposedly some evidence from dug shards that it was (also?) made at the Pitkin Glass Works.

GIV-16 masonic arch /eagle flask.

GIV-16 base.

The highlight of the auction was an aquamarine GIV-16 masonic flask, which went for around $5300 with buyer's premium. The manufacturer of these rare and handsome bottles is obscure; it's possibly a Coventry product, but the design of the eagle with banner and oval and the relative frequency of aquamarine examples, suggest that a New Hampshire glass works might be more likely. Norm Heckler commented that he collected GIV-16s when people thought they were from Coventry, but then sold them off when collector opinion shifted to a Keene origin.

The next Heckler online auction (#151), opening July 3, will be a large sale and include a lot more material from the Hill collection. It hasn't been organized into catalogue form yet, but everything was laid out for inspection in the online auction shed, and I spotted some good Connecticut and New England glass:

There are some Coventry ink bottles and early New England utilities in there, along with some half pint Coventry historical flasks.

Pint Coventry railroad and sunburst flasks, Willington eagles and a half pint New London anchor / eagle, in among a whole lot of other stuff.

Westford traveler's companion and sheaf of wheat flasks, with Coventry and Willington eagles, etc. etc.

GI-33 WASHINGTON / JACKSON pint flask, Coventry Glass Works.This was one of the Connecticut bottles that jumped out at me: not common (but a number have suddenly been cropping up in auctions lately), and usually seen in dark, muddy olive colors, not this sort of clear, light "chestnut glass."