Clear glass bottle stamped "1496"

[bulledelaire]

Hi, could somebody shed some light on this glass bottle which I found in a junk shop in France.
The stamp on the front says "1496", there are two letters, the first of which I can't decipher, the second one is an "R".
The glass is not at all coloured.
It's clearly hand blown with lots of bubbles going on but I can't quite believe it's as old as the date stamp says!

[cogar]

Me thinks it might be a mold "blown" bottle and the numbers are the "mold #".

[bulledelaire]

Me thinks it might be a mold "blown" bottle and the numbers are the "mold #".

Is it possible to give an idea of age at all ?

[KC]

Hard to say.  Just doesn't look "aged"  from your pictures.  Even tho the cork can look older, depending on the previous contents that could have aged it...I personally can't tell from your pictures.  Sorry.

[fancypants]

Looks like a fairly recent item out of a small 'hot shop' (glass blowing studio) to me , with beading around the neck & perhaps an applied 'coin' with an imprint .

The bottom appears to be ground a bit too , something done to hand-blown items & not so much for mold-blown ones ...

Seems like a useful , decorative hand-blown item , rather than an old antique , esp since there's pretty much perfect condition(s) on it .

[mart]

I  would agree with Fancypants !! And most likely whoever made this one was still in the learning process !!  When a bottle is blown in the mold there will be no rotation lines because the glass is usually cut from the blowpipe and smaller details added afterward !!  This one was rotated while on the pipe as you can see from the lines at the top !!  That would account for all the air bubbles as a person was learning !!

[bulledelaire]

Thanks guys! some really useful information there