Lawrence Old Medford Rum Bottle - Age?

[talesofthesevenseas]

My earliest Medford MA ancestor John Fulton, was a distiller and an accountant for a distillery (Not sure which yet) in Medford MA up until his death in 1790. For some time now I've kept an eye open for an old Medford Rum bottle. They don't come around often. One finally came up on Ebay, so I grabbed it, and was pleased to get it for twenty bucks. I know this bottle does not date to the time of my ancestor, but I would like to try to dial its approximate age.

Here's what I know:

Medford rum was a celebrated rum, which was produced in Medford for nearly 200 years, from about 1715 or 1720 until 1905. 1823 is when Daniel Lawrence came to Medford and went to work at John Hall's distillery, bought Hall out and produced rum under his own name and label.
http://www.medfordhistorical.org/rum.php

Street names of Sullivan and Main are still used in Boston MA in the Charlestown neighborhood. Charleston became "annexed" (became part of Boston) in 1878.
http://www.bostonhistory.org/?s=librarymuseum&p=researchguide#become

So this Daniel Lawrence bottle has to date to sometime between 1823 and 1878.

I tried to find info on T.F. Freeman & Co Grocers, and the address given, but wasn't able to find anything. Although T.F. Freeman seems to have become involved in the banking business in Charlstown MA in 1910:
http://books.google.com/books?id=jo9KAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA434&lpg=PA434&dq=%22T.F.+Freeman%22+charlestown&source=bl&ots=smIUYl5FCW&sig=In8mTNfzMUqS3Ac390qHes3t32c&hl=en&ei=dvbeS7KQAYTYtgPZ15zdBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CA8Q6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=%22T.F.%20Freeman%22%20charlestown&f=false

The bottle itself looks quite old. The glass has bubbles in it and you can see a large one in the photo of the back side. Lots of little flaws and imperfections. There is a mold mark on the bottom, I'll get a picture of it this afternoon. The label is very different from modern labels. It doesn't feel like paper. Maybe there is some linen content in the label? I'm just guessing on this.

On the label it says "Bottled for family and medicinal use" (Gotta love that!) At what point did rum cease to be considered medicinal? I know that patent medicines flourished in the 19th century, but I'm not sure when something clearly labeled as rum, would have still been considered for medical use. (Let the joking begin! LOL!)

Here are the photos:

[Texasbadger]

Okay first its silver,,,,now its rum,,,,sometimes its just too hard to stay out of trouble!  And here I am trying to behave myself.

[talesofthesevenseas]

It's always been about rum n' silver matey! Arrrr!!

I found some info on rum being used medicinally as late as WWI, to induce vomiting in soldiers exposed to gas. So I guess the medicinal label won't help dial in the date. It also looks like Lawrence's labels began around 1830, so we're looking at a date of sometimes between 1830 and 1878. I wish I could find out something about the T.F. Freeman Grocery. That would probably narrow down the dates.

[Texasbadger]

Didnt they also put rum into the water supply on ships,,,"grog" to keep the water from going bad.  Same thing in colonial times with "malt houses" everyone thinks beer but it was really barely alcohol.

[talesofthesevenseas]

You know I have seen info online saying it was used to preserve water, I have also seen that it was added to kill the taste of water after bacteria started growing in it. I'm not sure there is a lot of conflicting info and it would take a lot of looking into. I'm not an expert on rum history I'm afraid. As far as grog...
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2168/what-is-grog

[waywardangler]

There are so many lines one could use for all these posts that I am just going to have a Long Island Ice Tea (Bacardi is my favorite) and forget about my quips.  I am just going to say that bottles can be dated by how they were made.  Visit a bottle site and see if you can date this rum bottle by its mold lines, mouth, etc.

[talesofthesevenseas]

Thanks Wayward, I'll do that.

Here's the bottom of the bottle, which has a number 7 in an indented circle. The mold lines are kind of interesting, see how they are going diagonally across the bottom? They extend vertically up the sides of the bottle on each side and are incorporated into the bottle design. It's interesting that that much care was taken to hide the mold lines on the bottle!

[KC]

You have probably seen this....but here anyway....
http://www.medfordhistorical.org/rum.php

[Chinese Antique Furniture]

Hi Tales,

Go to the Antique Bottles Forum.  Lots of expertise right there.

Congrats on the bottle.

[talesofthesevenseas]

Thanks, I'll look for that C.A.F. 

I also found this site, which has a great step-by-step section on determining age. I went through it but still had questions, so I sent an email to the site owner:

http://www.sha.org/bottle/faqs.htm#Do

[talesofthesevenseas]

I got a reply from Bill Lindsay at Historic Glass Bottles:

Hi there....the bottle is what was called (by the glassmakers who made them) a Baltimore Oval style.  I discuss it on the Liquor/Spirits bottles typology page at this link:

http://www.sha.org/bottle/liquor.htm#Baltimore Oval Flasks

I'm certain that your flask dates from the early 1900s as the style didn't even come into being until the 1890s and was primarily used by liquor companies from around 1900 to National Prohibition in 1919/1920.  The "family" use on liquor bottles is also a sure sign of an early 1900s origin and part of the unsuccessful attempt during the era to fight off the groundswell of support for making liquor consumption & production illegal...by making alcohol more acceptible for "medicinal & family" use.
 
I know that the above date range conflicts with what information you noted, but the bottle is certainly from the early 1900s and not from the 1870s or earlier era as that style of flask wasn't even used prior to the 1890s, as noted.  In addition, the manufacturing features I see in the images are certainly not from before the 1880s on that style flask, althought the post-mold base is a bit unusual on that style.
 
Hope that helps...........Bil l
 
Bill Lindsey