Sea Glass Stoppers, Insulators and Bottle Bottoms

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Sea Glass Stoppers, Insulators and Bottle Bottoms

Mary Beth • February 19, 2021

Today's sea glass collectors know that vintage and antique glass pieces can present a wonderful history lesson as well as an identification challenge. Most sea glass found currently during the twenty first century often originates from vintage bottles, antique serving vessels, and window glass. Historically speaking, the past 100 years have seen a mechanized bottle and glass manufacturing surge globally.

Yet many folks alive today have not had personal life experience actually utilizing antique glassware; carafes, bottles, tableware etc. That is because much of generation's-past glassware has been discarded and has even become much of today's sea glass. The good news is that with a fairly basic bottle glass and industrial glassware knowledge, much can be identified today.

By about 1910, bottle-works and glass factory production was swelling in many countries around the globe. Today, some of the most unique and rarest sea glass pieces have become what beachcombers love to hunt for and discover. Here's a compilation of some unique pieces, categorized into the following:

Bulbous Insulator Domes:

These large, beach-combed, frosty white electric insulator "domes" can be over 100 years old! Most have been tumbling for decades. We've found them individually after a lifetime collecting along remote, rocky, Pacific shores. The substantial and impeccably frosty sea glass tops are the thickest tops we've found. These were seen atop electric and telephone poles throughout neighborhoods and industrial locales since the 1840's. When each is turned over, we see the thick, wide threads typical to the underside of the insulator's heavy bulb of glass.

Bottle Stopper Finials:

100 year old bottle stopper, top finials.

The flat finials pictured here originate from the horizontal, disk-shaped top of a bottle stopper. These have been naturally snapped or tumbled from their stems by years along shore. The rounds can measure from about 1-3cm wide depending on their original stopper size and the ruggedness of shoreline they've tumbled along. On appearance, some modern day collectors might believe them to be contemporary, decorative "vase filler" pebbles. We guarantee they are not. See our video on Facebook for more*.

Antique Bottle Bases:

These fabulous, thick, and well rounded bottle bases were found years ago on rugged, pebbly shores. Most can be identified as antique, milk bottle bases, circa 1880 to mid 1900's. Historically, these were common in most homes for almost 100 years. The pieces pictured each measure at least 1cm thick x up to 3" wide and each has a tell-tale, concave divot in the center which is a common identifier of antique bottle glass bottoms. Unless the sea glass hunter searches at high tide after a strong storm, it is highly unlikely that pieces this size can be found any longer.

True Bottle Stoppers:

Various vintage, sea glass bottle stoppers.

Here we see differing plugs, "corks", and bottle stops. All featured are in frosty white, but these practical inventions have historically been manufactured in a myriad of colors. Do you spot the "gravitating" stopper? It truly is the most unique piece here. In the shape of a bowling pin at bottom right, this stopper style was invented to work under natural pressure. It consisted of a glass plug with a flared knob at one end. A rubber gasket was placed at the end of the knob which sealed the contents by pressing against the inside surface of the bottle's neck and shoulder"

Bottle Stopper Stems:

This more colorful photo shows a collection of unique "cylindrical" pieces of stem-shaped sea glass. Each measures about 1.5cm long to about 3cm long, though we have found both shorter and longer relics of these. What are they? Each capsule-shaped sea glass stem originates from an antique bottle stopper. In fact all of them have been naturally tumbling along rugged, and mostly remote Pacific Coast shores for a lifetime which we estimate from late 1880 to about 1940. See their top, "finial" discs above.

*See the West Coast Sea Glass Facebook Page for more videos and Info.

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Sea Glass Marbles: HOW DO GLASS MARBLES END UP ON THE BEACH?

By Mary Beth Beuke • June 17, 2022

HOW DO GLASS MARBLES END UP ON THE BEACH? There are several theories about why historical glass marbles occasionally wash up on the world's beaches, even today. Reason #1 : In the late 1800's an inventor named Hiram Codd designed a glass soda bottle that used a marble as the stopper at the top. Similarly, the Japanese glass Ramune bottle was also sealed-up with a marble stopper; many times blue ones! These two bottle styles were used in the US and around the world and likely account for a great many of the beach marbles that have been found (and can occasionally still be found) along shorelines globally. When a bottle was discarded, often into the sea, the bottle would break against the rocky shore and the marble might stay intact and tumble for years and likely decades! Historically, marbles were like playtime currency for children! Finding a bottle, and breaking it to get the marble out was quite common. Reason #2 : Decades ago marbles were one of the most popular toys used. Young children played dozens of marble games; Taw games, marble races down a beach slope and marbles were even used in sling shots as ammunition. The shore is usually the lowest spot in any beach town or community. Toy marbles roll downward, down stream, down sewer pipe, down runoff trenches, culverts and more. Gravity accounts for many a marble journey toward shore. Additionally, the beach made a great place for target practice. Some children played games by floating a "moving target" piece of driftwood off shore then shot their marbles out into the water toward the target. Some seagulls often became the moving targets also. The resulting marbles which landed just offshore, one day washed beachward. Reason #3 : For a span of years, post-industrial-era in the US, marbles found along the railroad lines are most likely the result of dumped over freight-glass. The 3/4", orb-like pieces were shipped all over the country for use in the manufacture of fiberglass. It is also believed that glass marbles may have been used for ease in rolling freight and cargo around. This only explains the sea glass marble locale when a rail yard or railway is situated near or along a waterfront. Reason #4 : If you are beachcombing near a coastal landfill site, you will have more luck in finding a coveted sea glass marble. Painters often dropped a handful of marbles into a can of paint to help mix the batch. When the paint was used up and the can was tossed into the city dump (often times the dump was the sea-bluffs at the edge of town) the salt water and ocean's natural biodegrading ability decomposed the paint can over the years. The marbles became what was left and each washed around upon the shore until individually beach combed. Reason #5 : Ship's ballast? For hundreds of years, ships and cargo vessels were loaded with heavy items to help provide ballast. Marbles may have provided this weight inexpensively and effectively when the boxes or barrel containers were transported in the hull of a ship. The Marble Collectors Society of America writes "Clay marbles were made in both Germany and the US. It has been reported that clay marbles were used as ballast in the keels of ships that sailed to America from Germany and then were removed and sold in the US". In the Puget Sound where the tides move fast and the inlets can be narrow, ballast is key to keeping a sailing vessel upright and true. It reminds me of the white water rafting trips my family goes on down the remote Hell's Canyon in Idaho's back-country. The heavier, more weighted-down boats fare much better in the turbulent rapids than the lighter rafts. Ships along the Pacific Ocean's rough shore also needed this kind of weight to help with navigability. Yet should they be smashed upon the rocks, the barrels of marbles would surely be lost to sea only to roll up on shore decades and sometimes even centuries later. "A sea glass collecting friend of mine, Stephanie in the Virgin Islands messaged me multiple times with a story of how, one blessed day, she found more than just one or two marble finds. She was trying to solve the mystery of why the marbles ended up there on the beach. She was hiking along a shore that was lined with steep, sandy cliffs, One afternoon she discovered one or two marbles up higher on the beach bank, above that day's high tide line! Then she discovered another that led her up, away from the water's edge to yet another. She kept walking and continued to find them! Eventually she found herself staring directly into the cliff face. With no tools, she had nothing but her bare hands, she decided to dig into the clay-like cliff's side. In just a couple scoops of sand, she said, several marbles came tumbling down, right out of the cliff wall itself at about waist height! Stephanie did some research and believes that they may have been poured out there years, and years before she even visited that beach. She'd heard early stories of the rum runners during the late 1800's that carried barrels on sloops back and forth throughout the Caribbean to fill with alcohol. She shared stories of how the barrels were oftentimes filled with heavy items prior to their pickup so that the ships had heavy ballast." - The Ultimate Guide to Sea Glass At West Coast Sea Glass, we occasionally let go of one of our beautiful, antique sea glass marbles. They can be found on this page: Collector's Rarities

West Coast Sea Glass

Genuine Sea Glass Jewelry and Bulk Sea Glass