Gillinder & Sons Gargoyle Monkey Face or Lion's Head Milk Glass Cologne Bottles

Glass : Gillinder & Sons : Milk Glass : Cologne Bottles : Monkey Face : Lion's Head : Gargoyle : Eapg

 

One of my favorite parts of my job is being able to identify pieces that have gone more or less unidentified. These bottles are a good example. We bought them knowing that they were Victorian milk glass dresser bottles, and that was about it. We've been researching them for a month, and my mother finally found them, in a monograph published by the West Viriginia Museum of American Glass, entitled "Early Milk Glass: 1891-1911." this monograph is basically a collection of advertisements from various glass companies. In the section for Gillinder & Sons, we hit paydirt: this pattern and indeed, this exact bottle shows up several times, always in pairs.

This pattern turns up in Warman's "Milk Glass Addenda" (Plate 62A) as "manufacturer unknown" under the heading "Gargoyle Dresser Bottle." He, in turn, references a dresser tray in Belknap (Plate 63c), with what he refers to as "Monkey faces." He also notes that "It is one of dozens of dresser trays that flooded the market at about 1900."

So the pattern is "Gargoyle," "Monkey Face," or "Lion's Head." It was manufactured in Philadelphia sometime between about 1900 and 1910. The bottles and stoppers are both mold-blown into three-piece molds. Originally, these bottles would have been cold painted, but on these examples, all that remains of the cold paint is the gold at the top lip of both bottles. The stoppers were not ground, which suggests that these were inexpensive items when they were originally made.

The bottles are 9" tall to the tops of the stoppers, 6.25" tall to the tops of the bottles. The stoppers are hollow and about 4.25" long.

Condition on both bottles is very good to excellent, , given the loss of the cold paint. One of the stoppers has a 0.25" chip along the edge. That there is so little damage is unusual in this type of bottle.

Price is for the pair.

Item ID: 0716