COLLECTOR DIGS UNUSUAL THREADLESS AT GLASS FACTORY SITE

Hello to all the collector friends out there! Some of you long time readers might remember my old "Threadless Corner" and "Patent Pages" articles of days gone by. Well, I've decided to get busy and do some writing once again. Back in the late 70's there were eight or ten threadless specialists who were very active, and a large number of other collectors who bought a fair number of them. The interest seemed to reach its peak four or five years ago. For a couple years after that, things were at a standstill, and during this past year there was another big surge in interest. With the added interest in these old critters, I've decided to start up "Threadless Corner" once again.

To start things off, we have a very unusual small hat to look at. Howard Dean of Westerville, New York, wrote to me about this one. As the three photos show, there is an unusual projecting ring at the top of these insulators. Howard found several fragments of this insulator, and one almost whole one, shown in figures one and two, at a glass factory site near Saratoga, New York. The insulators were dug at the location of the works known by bottle collectors as the "Saratoga Mountain Glass Works" or "Mt. Pleasant Glass Works". For an interesting history of this glasshouse I suggest reading American Bottles & Flasks and Their Ancestry by McKearin and Wilson. 

The works was completed in 1844 by Oscar Granger. He had previously been associated with the Mount Vernon Glass Works in Vernon, New York (ca. 1810-1844). Due to a shortage of a supply of wood needed for operations by the works at Mount Vernon, it was decided to relocate, and the Mt. Pleasant site, within ten miles of Saratoga, was chosen. There was an abundant supply of wood there, and it was located near the mineral springs in the Saratoga area, which created a large demand for bottles. Mineral water bottles, flasks and medicine bottles were produced there. The plant operated at Mt. Pleasant for approximately a quarter of a century. A variety of deep colored glass was produced, including ambers and greens.

Figure 1. Insulator pieces found at Mt. Pleasant glass factory site this past sum mer. Colors include a beautiful dark amber and two variations of very deep olive amber.

Figure 2. Above is shown the nearly whole insulator found at Mt. Pleasant. The interesting projecting ring could be the result of using a mold section from a larger insulator like the one shown below.

Figure 3. This is a threadless hat displayed at Herkimer National. It has a lopsided dome and appears to have the same type mold piece used to form the top section as the Mt. Pleasant threadless.

Figure 4. This could be another Mt. Pleasant variant. By using the mold for the insulator body of this insulator, and the top portion of the mold for the item in figure three, we would end up with the hybrid shown in figure two.

The Insulator fragments shown were found in dark amber and at least two variants of deep olive or olive amber. Locating an unusual threadless like this is great, but locating it at its place of origin is fabulous! It has confirmed the manufacturer of one of our early jewels. The insulators are quite small, similar in size to the "Baby Battleford", as shown in figure five. As mentioned previously, the interesting feature on this insulator is the projecting ring that appears at the top. Whether it was made that way intentionally is a good question. All the fragments located at the site were made that way. It is quite possible there were two or more different sizes of insulators produced at the works. One of them could have been a slightly larger insulator than this hat. If that were the case, there could have been two molds of slightly different sizes that were used to form the top portion of the insulators. It's possible the top mold portion of the larger insulator was used while making smaller insulators. (See figures two through four for a better understanding of this possibility.) 

These insulators were formed in a three piece mold. The mold lines run from inside the base area, up the sides to the lower part of the projecting ring. The main body of the insulator was therefore formed in the mold which was in two halves. The top of the insulator and projecting area appear to have been formed in one piece. This one piece section can be seen in figures two and three at the top of each insulator. One can understand how the same top piece of the mold could be used for either of the lower mold pieces. In using it with the insulator in figure three the top section would be flush with the dome. In using it with the smaller diameter insulator in figure two, there would be a projecting ring.

Back in 1980 at the Herkimer National we had a conglomerate threadless display of 300 different items. Wow, does that bring back some memories. Seems like only yesterday In the display were two insulators as shown in figures three and four. The one in figure four looks identical to the Mt. Pleasant threadless, except that it doesn't have the projecting ring. Both of them, as near as I can remember, were molded in a manner very similar to the Mt. Pleasant item. Could this be the missing link? Could this be the insulator with the slightly larger dome?

I want to point out that the above mentioned molding theory is just that, my personal theory of one explanation of the unusual dome. It's rather difficult to make any positive claims without seeing "in person" all three insulators once again. The photos I have of the threadless at Herkimer are of a large group with the two hats included. It's rather difficult to see a lot of detail in a small photo. Perhaps I can locate and correspond with the owners of these other two jewels, and we will be able to learn a little more about them. I'll keep you posted on what I find out. 

Thanks so much to Howard for all the information and for sending the pieces for me to examine and photograph. Let me hear from the rest of you on what critters you have, or what you have found in your diggin's. All letters and comments are greatly appreciated, so let me hear from you. Next month will be the March subscriber issue, but come April we'll be back with more Threadless coverage, and hopefully by then some of this snow pack will be melted off to allow for some "hat diggin's". Catch you later.

 
Figure 5. The petite "Mt. Pleasant" hat shown here with a "Baby Battleford" and the huge CD 738 Chester hat.