Old bottle/decanter: ID an Use?

Have an old/rare bottle you'd like some more info on?

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Old bottle/decanter: ID an Use?

Unread postby joel » Tue Jul 08, 2008 11:38 am

Greetings.
I just closed the deal on a nicely shaped bottle/decanter. Just a few bucks. No label, but a prominent "Est 1870" embossed in a circle on the front. Anyone can say for certain it is an Old Fitz container? Someone else's?
Bottom stampings indicate the bottle was made in 1955.
I will thoroughly wash it.
Are there any health concerns in using it for storage and display of my favorite pour?
(For example, I hear tell that old cork such as in the stopper may possess leachable toxins, but never have been able to confirm that. Maybe here...)
Thanks much.
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Re: Old bottle/decanter: ID an Use?

Unread postby bourbonv » Tue Jul 08, 2008 12:39 pm

The year 1870 was a year of many new bourbon brands (including Old Forester and OFC) and that could make it hard to place. A photograph could help determine the brand. I have seen most of the Stitzel-Weller decanters at one time or the other.

As far as using it I don't see a major problem as long as it is cleaned and disinfected. I don't know where you acquired the bottle, but I know the source of many antique bottles is from old outhouses, so if it was dug from the ground you might not want to mention that fact to people drinking from it...
Mike Veach
"Our people live almost exclusively on whiskey" - E H Taylor, Jr. 25 April 1873
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Re: Old bottle/decanter: ID an Use?

Unread postby mozilla » Tue Jul 08, 2008 12:47 pm

"that was yummy, ...BARKEEP, gimmy 'nother shot of that Old Outhouse"

Just doesn't sound right? :geek: :clown: :drunken:
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Re: Old bottle/decanter: ID an Use?

Unread postby joel » Tue Jul 08, 2008 1:58 pm

I happened to find one just like it on eBay.ca, at a few bucks cheaper than what I paid:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Clear-Liquor-Bottle- ... 0262745598
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Re: Old bottle/decanter: ID an Use?

Unread postby PaulO » Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:27 am

Yes, it is true people used to throw all sorts of unwanted items down the outhouse hole. When the hole got too full they dug a new deep hole somewhere else and moved the outhouse. The biodegradable material (how's that for a euphamism?) breaks down over time turning into soil. Items like glass and ceramics remain more or less intact. Glass that has been burried for a long time can change in appearance. Old bottles exhumed from old dumps or outhouses can get a sort of bluish and pinkish irridecent quality caused by being stained by minerals. Clear glass can also get cloudy from being burried. If your old bottle is clear and the cork is not deteriorated, it probably not burried in the past.
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