Maryland Archeology Month

-April 2009-

Sponsored by:

St. Mary's City:
375 years old, thousands of years young

Explore!

Archeology Gallery

Blue glass ribbed flask

This very decorative glass bottle was discovered in the fill of the cellar. A second specimen was recovered from the St. John's site is a comparable shape, but is produced in aqua colored glass rather than bright blue.

This type of decoration on glass is referred to as optic molded. The gather of hot glass on the end of the blowpipe is inserted into a metal mold and air pressure is applied. After removal from the mold, the neck would be hand tooled and the base and body shaped while the glass is still molten.

Both of our specimens have sixteen ribs, so a rather simple mold with sixteen grooves would have been used. Our pair of bottles may have held medicines or even may have served as cruets for sauces or condiments