Gi-27 Washington – Eagle Portrait Flask

GI – 27

Washington – Eagle Portrait Flask

Olive Yellow Quart

Provenance: Anonymous

Within the historical flask designation groups, Helen McKearin and George Wilson note that the GI-27 Washington – American Eagle portrait flask is very similar to the GI-26 Washington – American Eagle portrait flask mold.

On the obverse of our subject GI-27 flask, you see a prominently embossed George Washington classical bust pose. Washington is facing left with a braid of hair or queue usually worn hanging at the back of the head. He is wearing a toga hence the name classical bust. During this period, wigs were fashionable but George Washington kept his own hair long and tied it back in a queue or ponytail.

There is a large embossed American Eagle with its head turned to the right, on the reverse of the flask. There is a shield placed on the eagle’s breast with eight vertical bars and three horizontal bars above. The wings are partly raised and the left wing is foreshortened. There are three thunderbolts in the shape of arrows in the left eagle talon and an olive branch in the right talon. There are seven, 5-pointed stars embossed in a semicircle above the eagle and five stars below in a concave arch. The flask has a plain lip and a pontil mark.

The flask edges or sides are smooth. There is a heavy vertical medial rib on each side and two narrow ribs forming the outer ovoid edge of each facia panel.

Known glass colors are aquamarine which is rare and medium blue-green, dark green, and olive-yellow which is considered very rare. The glass house is unknown but could be Baltimore Glass Works or Bridgeton Glass Works in New Jersey.

See the museum example of a quart GI-22 Washington classical bust, Baltimore Glass Works – Clay flask in olive-yellow.

See the museum example of a quart GI-25 Washington – Clay “Bridgetown Glass Works” classical bust flask in topaz with striations.

Charles Gardner had become their pen pal after the Antique Bottle Collectors Association of California had been organized by the Tibbittses in their home in 1959. Gardner had joined the group long distance. In 1962, the bottle club in appreciation had presented them with a GI-26 historical flask (depicting the image of George Washington’s head and an eagle) purchased from Gardner at half-price. It will always be our favorite bottle, John Tibbitts said.

Two Early Visits with Legendary Collectors of Antique Bottles by Bill Baab, Bottles and Extras,May-June 2016

Primary Image: GI-27 Washington – Eagle flask imaged on location by the FOHBC Virtual Museum midwest studio led by Alan DeMaison.

Support: Reference to American Bottles and Flasks and Their Ancestry by Helen McKearin and Kenneth M. Wilson, Crown Publishers Inc., New York, 1978.

Support Images: Auction Lot 43: Washington Bust – Eagle Portrait Flask, America, 1820-1840. Medium blue-green, sheared mouth – tubular pontil scar, quart; (½ inch star fissure to right of eagle, 1/8 inch chip on the medial rib, 2 ½ inch crack extends in the panel above the eagle with numerous chips and cracks in the mouth and neck). GI-26. Crisp mold impression and a rare, bright “see-through” color. Glenn Quimby collection. – Norman Heckler, Norman C. Heckler Auctions

Support Image: Reverse of similar GI-26 Washington – Eagle flask in light to medium blue aqua – Sandor P. Fuss collection.