Historical information

This green glass bottle has been handmade from about the 1840s to 1870s. The bottle, possibly used to store ale or soda or mineral water, was found in the coastal waters of Victoria. It is part of the John Chance Collection.

Glassblowers made bottles like this one by blowing air through a long pipe into the molten glass blob at the end of the pipe. The glass was blown out to fit into the shape of the cylindrical dip mould. Once it hardened, the glass was removed from the mould and the glassblower would continue using the pipe to create the neck while carefully using a tool to hold the base. The base may have been part of the dip mould, otherwise, a 'ponty' tool would have been used to flatten the base. A tool would have been used to cut off the bottle from the blowpipe and a piece of soft glass would be added to the mouth to then formed into the double collar lip. Bottles like this would usually be sealed with a cork, which may have been held in place with wax or wire and tape.

Significance

Although this bottle is not linked to a particular shipwreck, it is recognised as a historically significant example of handmade, 1840s to 1870s beverage bottles imported for use in Colonial Victoria.

The bottle is also significant for its association with John Chance, a diver in Victoria’s coastal waters in the late 1960s to early 1970s. Items that come from several shipwrecks have since been donated to the Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village’s museum collection by his family, illustrating this item’s level of historical value.

Physical description

Bottle, green glass, cork-top style. Applied mouth, lip has double collar; wide upper and flared lower. Vertical bubble in bulbous neck. Long diagonal discolouration along neck. Body has ripples around it and no seams. Heel is thick, base is shallow, has bubbles and is very uneven on a flat surface.