American Bar Lip Decanters

by Ellen and Bill Morrison

The Rise and Fall of the American Bar Lip Decanter

The cultural history of material objects can reflect events and industrial processes in unexpected and interesting ways. They were often created to cater to specific social trends or phenomena, became part of the fabric of everyday life, but then disappeared almost as quickly as they appeared, to be replaced in time by improved versions and styles.

The bar lip decanter is one such object, and its history offers a fascinating glimpse of the social and economic development of America's first hundred years, as well as the evolution of glass manufacturing in this country. It appears that the bar lip decanter was an exclusively American form. While catalog illustrations confirm that they were manufactured elsewhere, foreign made examples appear to have been specifically made for export to the United States, as bar lip decanters do not appear to have been used elsewhere in the world.

Background

As the pioneer population gradually pushed further westward during the early nineteenth century, agriculture soon became established as the principal occupation. Grain and fruit were among the primary cash crops of the frontier, both for local sale and as barter. The problem with their wider distribution, however, was the primitive transportation system. With roads often impassable and rivers subject to flood and drought, their efficient shipment to urban centers often proved impossible.

Far from their markets, and with bruised or rotten fruit valueless, soft-fruit and grain farmers in far-flung locations turned to an ancient method of maximizing their yield: by distilling it into liquor. By the 1 830s the produc-tion of liquors had developed into a major industry and most communities had at least one distillery. In 1836 over 300 were operating in New Jersey alone.

Stills were easy to construct and wood was fuel usually abundant. The process was simple and the materials cheap and available. Distilling crops into liquor condensed them into salable form that would not spoil and was easier to transport. Three bushels of grain could be transformed into one gallon of liquor.

The quality of early American liquors was uneven at best, and unpalatable by today's standards. Most grain liquors were colorless, rough and flavorless. What they lacked in flavor, however, was compensated for by an alcoholic punch of around one hundred proof so bars and taverns commonly provided customers with a variety of mixers7 in the form of brandy or bitters to soften the sting and add some taste. The brandy was often locally distilled from fruit, such as pears, cherries, or apples, while bitters were concocted from almost anything available, from vegetables to herbs, and even tree bark. The word "cocktail" appears in the early nineteenth century and refers to liquor mixed with sugar and brandy or bitters to taste.

The mid- 1830s marked the emergence of the first branded liquor when some distillers began producing liquors that, although still largely flavorless, achieved a more consistent smoothness and alcohol content. Further, some distilleries were rectifying whiskey by adding flavoring before it was distributed. Marking the dawn of a new national industry, it became increasingly common for bars in cities and larger towns to offer a variety of branded liquors.

Meeting the expanding demand for recognized brands required distillers transport their liquor over increasing distances. However, with glass being so fragile, wooden barrels remained the shipping vessel of choice. Delivered to the tavern, barrels were usually stored in the basement, both for efficiency of space and to keep their contents cool. The difficulty of pouring individual drinks from a barrel was overcome by the most ancient method: dispensing them into pottery jugs. However, pottery had its disadvantages too, being heavy and almost as fragile as glass.

The Age of the Bar Lip Decanter

The 1830s also witnessed radical changes in the interior design of bars and saloons. The traditional layout had placed the keeper "behind bars," in a caged area with an opening to the taproom, to protect him and his inventory from unruly customers. However, as bars became more open, the ironwork disappeared and shelves were fitted to a wall behind the tender's back for displaying his range of liquors. (Plate 1- Bethpage)

Bars and saloons continued to store large quantities of liquor in barrels, but a means was required to house liquor at the counter in a manner that helped project a suitably refined image. Pottery stoneware jugs were old fashioned and suffered practical disadvantages. As John Worlidge, an English writer on alcohol, had noted in 1676, "Glass-bottles are preferred to Stone-bottles because that Stone-bottles are apt to leak, that they are rough in the mouth, that they are not easily uncork'd; also they are more apt to taint than the other; neither are they transparent, that you may discern when they are foul or clean." What was true in 1676 remained the case and provided the driving force behind the introduction of the glass bar lip decanter.

By 1845 new -style city bars had begun to resemble their modern descendants, fitted with elegant trappings and comfortable furniture, intended to attract more discerning customers than old-fashioned saloons. Newspapers began to describe some as "drinking palaces," with long rows of decanters behind the bar. On the other hand, sleazy bars and saloons were referred to as "barrel shops" because they still poured directly from barrels, not decanters.

With most liquor during the period remaining colorless, sophisticated establishments would have required decanters of differing shapes, sizes and designs to assist the bar tender in identifying specific brands. Blown molded and engraved bar lip decanters first appeared between 1830-1840 to meet this specific need. By the late 1 850s the blown decanters were being replaced by pressed versions in numerous patterns and sizes.

The earliest known depiction of a bar lip de-canter in use is a Currier and Ives cartoon dated 1853 satirizing heavy drinkers. The prominence of this de-canter in the cartoon suggests that, by this date, the bar lip decanter had become synonymous in American culture with bars and saloons. (Plate 2 -C&l)

The bar lip decanter enjoyed a heyday spanning just 45 years, between circa 1830-75, during which decanters in countless patterns, shapes, and sizes were being manufactured by dozens of American glass houses. Three factors, two technical, one sociological, combined to cause its ultimate demise.

The first technological advance was the devel-opment of Iime-based glass, which was around sixtypercent cheaper to produce than lead-based equivalents. The increased workability of lime glass allowed more efficient manufacturing methods and encouraged the introduction of cheap, labeled bottles. The second was the advent of machines for mass-producing bottles. By the 1 870s the prices of manufacturing bottles had fallen so low that distilleries were giving away bottles that advertised their brands and pattern glass bar lip decant-ers had become obsolete.

The associated cultural change was rapid nationalization of American drinking preferences. Soldiers who had traveled the country during the Civil War returned home having newly acquired tastes for
particular brands that had previously been unknown in their hometown or state. The smoother and more flavorful liquors developed by some distillers, notably in the south and east, proved particularly popular. Early Times (1860) and Jack Daniels (1866) are only two of several brands established at the time of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Bar owners were quick to recognize the commercial potential that added value brands brought to their business, and the explosive expansion of the railroads provided the routes of national distribution.

Advances in bottle-making technology encour-aged the manufacture and the distribution of new branded bottles embossed with the type of the liquor, or branded and decorated with logos identified with specific brands. (Plate 3 Bar Bottle) The first bar bottles appeared in the McKee catalog of 1871, and within four years, bar lip decanters had all but disappeared from glass catalogs.

Bitters-sized decanters survived longer as they were adapted for use as sauce bottles, with examples illustrated in catalogs into the early part of the twentieth century.

A Study of Bar Lip Decanters

Bar-Lip Decanters and Bar Bottles

First, it is important to distinguish between a bar-lip decanter, a carafe, and the innumerable other forms of decanters. The bar lip decanter is decanter-shaped but has a thick lip and/or was never designed to accept a glass stopper. Most contemporary glass company catalogs caption them as a "decanter" or a "decanter without stopper." That said, a few makers used the term "bar bottles," a fact that continues to cause problems of terminology among today's historians and collectors. However, true bar bottles, are a later form that had a label molded into the bottle as a part of the pattern, applied with paint or a printed label

Hybrid forms were produced in the 1870s that combined some features of both the bar-lip decanter and the bar bottle. One example, for instance, is a pressed Prism and Ball pattern that was manufactured in a bottle shape, but with the bar lip.

Decanters and How They Were Formed

Decanters had been free blown since the earliest days of the American glass industry. The manufacture of bar lip decanters was simply a variation of this form.

The earliest known advertising we have found that refers to bar lip type decanters appears in a circular published by the Wheeling Flint Glass Company dated October 1837. Unfortunately, it has no illustrations. It describes, "Tavern decanters...with mounted cork stoppers in neck..." in fluted, plain, and double and triple ring plain blown decanters in quart and pint sizes with and without engraving.

Manufacturers in both the Midwest and New England, including the Wheeling Flint Glass Company, mention these double ring and triple ring decanters in several advertisements. These decanters are a revival of an earlier eighteenth century shape, referred to today as a shoulder decanter. An engraved free blown double-ring decanter (Plate 4) and a plain three-ring decanter are pictured in our collection.

The quality of the engraving on these decanters ranges from very primitive, stylized floral and leaf decoration, to engraved cartouche labels identifying the contents, (Plate 4). A few bar lip decanters were deco-rated with very complex and beautiful decoration, presumably for high-class establishments or to be given as gifts. An example, elaborately decorated with an American Eagle motif, is illustrated in McKearin Ameri-can Class 200 Years...page 291, attributed to the Pittsburgh area.

Bar lip decanters began to be mold-blown from the 1830s. McKearin lists blown molded patterned decanters with bar lips in 2 shapes, G1 15 and GV 9. Both are so thin walled as to not be practical for commercial use and are very rare.

A distinct group of decanters dating from the 1840s and 50s were cut in patterns including Ashburton; various flute patterns, Diamond Point and Honeycomb. These, and others, were later copied by pressed glassmakers for many forms including bar lips.

The function and commercial viability of bar lip decanters established, variations on the theme started to appear from the late- 1840s. Mostly importantly, the continuing evolution in glass pressing during the late 1850s and early 1860s enabled decanters to be pressed for the first time. The problem had previously been that the press-plunger could not be withdrawn through the restricted necks of decanters and bottles. The solution came in two forms. The first, probably dating to c 1850, concerned the bodies of decanters with plain, undeco-rated necks. These were pressed in molds that looked similar to the over-sized tumblers known to today's collectors as flips. The base blank, now impressed with the pattern, was then fixed to a pontil, the upper part reheated at a glory hole and then tooled into a neck shape. Further reheating was required to form the bar lip.

The second probably dated from sometime between 1850 and 1860 and related to decanters with patterned necks. These could not be formed by the process outlined above, as the shaping process would have obliterated the decoration. So, the shut-&-cut method was introduced to circumvent the problem. Essentially, this reversed the traditional pressing pro-cess, with the rim and neck formed in the lower part of the mold, and the base of the decanter left open through which the plunger was withdrawn. Removed from the mold, the mouth of the decanter was grasped in an appropriately shaped sprung clamp, or snap or gadget. The base was then reheated and gradually tooled shut. A small ball of glass protruding from center of the base was then removed, or cut off, and the base flattened. A small area of thicker, darker glass, generally about the size of a pea, at the center of the base provides evidence of the use of the shut-&-cut method. These pressing tech-niques allowed decanters to be made with far thicker walls than previously possible, making them particularly well suited to commercial use.

A group of decanters dating from the period 1850 to 1860 marks the transition from the dominance of mold blown to the pressed methods. These late blown mold decanters were decorated with patterns copied from more expensive cut patterns. Slightly later, the designs of some early pressed decanters were in turn copied from these molded versions. Some patterns, notably Diamond Point (Plate 5), appear in all three types, cut, molded and pressed. As the popularity of pressed decanters grew; numerous patterns from the cutter's repertoire were plagiarized into pressed form. These include Ashburton, various flute patterns and Honeycomb.

By the early 1860s virtually every glass company producing pattern glass in the United States included some, if not numerous, forms of bar-lip decanter in their catalogs and advertising material.

Stoppers

The decanter's heavy bar lip was designed to reinforce the neck when fitted with a cork or a jigger pouring spout, similar to those used in bars today. Glassmaker's catalogs of the period invariably illustrate tavern decanters without stoppers, but supplied jigger pourers and caged marble stoppers as optional extras. The Cape Cod glass Company catalog of 1861 referred to "slide stoppers" which may have been these caged stoppers. Barlow and Kaiser (Volume 3, page 160) mention a record of the Sandwich factory importing marbles and assembling these stoppers at the factory. An illustration in a catalog issued by the Holyrod Glass Company of Leith, Scotland, c 1870 illustrates fully assembled caged stoppers. These were apparently intended for export only as there is nothing documenting their use in Great Britain.

The McKee catalogs, of 1859 to 1871 illustrate jigger stoppers and include bitters bottles with shaker tops similar to the type used on modern sauce bottles. The same company's price lists of the period illustrate Pillar Molded and Stedman decanters with cup stoppers. These decanters have long narrow necks with open mouths and were designed to be fitted with a pewter or tin cap or cup. The inverted cups were designed to protect contents from flies or dust and probably not intended for use as a drinking cup.

Size

Bar-lip decanters vary considerably in size. This is probably because they were refilled from barrels and were not required to contain a standard measure. Contempo-rary catalogs categorize them by volume, such as one quart, but they seldom hold that precise amount. The largest example we have found, which is a Giant Prism decanter in our collection, holds one quart, four ounces and weighs six pounds when full. Versions available in several sizes tend to be in flexible patterns, such as Ashburton, of which five are illustrated in the New England Glass Company catalog. Others in more complex patterns, such as Bull's eye and Diamond Point, are known in only one or two sizes.

Catalogs refer to volume, rather than height, so it is sometimes difficult to decipher one size from another. The New England Glass Company catalog illustrates two sizes of bar lips in Bull's eye and Diamond Point. We have a decanter in our collection that measures 8 i/2 inches high and contains twenty-eight ounces when filled to the brim. We have not seen any other size to compare with ours and, therefore, are uncertain which size it was intended to be.

The small decanters are invariably described in the catalogs as bitters and measure seven inches, or less, tall. Used for dispensing brandy and flavorings, they were placed on the bar for use by customers. One of the more interesting examples of this type is a Lined Long Panels formed in a mold also used to form a cologne bottle and a lamp font.

The bitters bottle enjoyed greater longevity than the bar-lip decanter because these smaller decanters could be used as sauce bottles and ultimately for bitters for mixed drinks. The New Martinsville Glass Co. continued manufacturing small bitters as late as the 1 920s. Their particular design is today often mistaken for an earlier Thumbprint decanter. (Plate 6 - New Martinsville)

Patterns

We have identified sixty-seven patterns, not including the various flute variants, which can be directly linked to catalog illustrations or known examples. These are detailed in the checklist below. We have not located surviving examples in some common patterns, such as Wedding Ring and Stedman. Bar-lips in some patterns, such as Buckle and Frosted Leaf are so rare today that they were probably never mass-produced.

Some patterns illustrated in the catalogs appear to have been designed exclusively for bar lip decanters and tumblers, as they were not manufactured in extended table sets. The New England Glass Co. catalog from the 1 860s, for example, features several of these including Honeycomb and Flute variations.

Others, including Bellflower and Thumbprint, were produced in several different variations. Thumbprint was manufactured in at least three distinct shapes and the McKee catalogs show that two different versions of Bellflower were being made in that factory. (Plate 7-Thumbprint Shapes)

Numerous Loop variants are illustrated in the catalogs. Most look very similar, but were given different names by the makers, while both the Ringwalt circular of 1860 and the J.B. Lyons catalog illustrate different Loop variants as Genella.

The checklist itemizes all the decanters illus-trated and mentioned in the period catalogs and examples examined by us. The only patterns not included are those that are minor variations on an established theme, such as examples with plain flutes or panels given fancy pattern names by catalog writers and are otherwise very similar.

Color

Bar-lip decanters and bitters bottles, like other early pattern pieces, are rarely found in colored glass. Some examples are known, most commonly Ashburton in canary yellow, or Flute variants in assorted colors. These were presumably made as special orders. The examples we have been able to identify are itemized in the check-list.

Glass Factories and Bar Lip Decanters

As with other forms in American pattern glass, there are common decanters whose source will remain unknown. Catalogs and price lists from this period remain scarce.

As previously noted, the earliest documented reference to bar lip decanters appears in the 1837 Wheeling Flint Glass Co. sales circular. They were illustrated in the catalogs of New England and the Midwestern makers from the early 1850s, but had virtually disappeared from all makers' lists and advertising material by 1875. The early McKee catalogs, from 1859, mention nine different patterns of bar-lip decanter, but typically, its 1871 catalog includes just two. .

During the 1860s numerous glassmakers were manufacturing the same patterns making catalog illustrations the key to pattern and shape attribution. The McKee catalogs from 1860 to 1870 show Huber, Gaines and Bellflower among others. The J.B. Lyons catalog of 1861 illustrates decanters in several patterns including Cincinnati, Huber, and Genella. The 1860 circular of the H.L. Ringwalt Company illustrates Genella along with other patterns.

A Cape Cod Glass Co. price list dating from the mid to late 1860s lists a variety of patterns including Mirror, Gaines and Huber "bar decanters with slide stoppers." It also advertises patterns such as Mount Washington and Ring and Ball, but these patterns can not be identified, as they are not illustrated.

The New England Glass Co. was producing numerous bar lip decanters. Its catalog, dating from the late 1860s owned by the Rakow Library of the Corning Museum of Glass, illustrates fourteen patterns. It reveals this company was manufacturing many of the common patterns including Diamond Point, Sawtooth, Ashburton, Bull's eye, Colonial and Fine Rib. Perhaps the most interesting plate number from the catalog is #22. It shows decanters in patterns that were probably manufactured for commercial use and few, if any other forms were manufactured.

The 1875 Bakewell and Pears catalog contains illustrations of three bar lip decanters, including versions of Thumbprint and Thistle, each available in two different shapes. Collectors today generally recognize this Thistle pattern as Pillar and Bull's eye. The patterns are generally associated with the 1860s and were likely to have remained in the Bakewell inventory for at least a decade prior to 1875.

A Hobbs/Brockunier catalog is indicative of transition away from bar lip decanters that was taking place in the 1870s. Probably dating from around 1876, this catalog illustrates several bar bottles and bitters but no bar lips.

Perhaps the most unexpected maker of bar-lip decanters was John Ford's Holyrood Glass Works at Leith, near Edinburgh, Scotland. The company's catalog, known as 'FR4' and dating c1870, illustrates Hotel decanters with and without caged marble stoppers referred to as "Corks." It also illustrates caged stoppers available for purchase. They were probably manufactured only for export and commercial use. It may be that the Company entered the market too late, and there was no demand for their product as the catalog illustrates drape and flute patterns that have no known equivalent to American collectors.

The checklist and bibliography (on the following page) itemize patterns that can be documented to particular factories.

Our twenty-year search for bar-lip decanters and bitters bottles, and information related to them, contin-ues. We welcome additions to the checklist or further information from any collectors and dealers who know of examples in other patterns or sizes.

Special thanks go to British glass scholar Andy McConnell who reviewed the text and offered edits and many suggestions. Thanks as well to the Old Print Shop in NYC for allowing me to copy the Currier and Ives print and to everyone at the Corning Museum who helped with the reproduction of catalog pages.

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