GX-8a Sailboat – Star Pictorial Flask

GX – 8a

Sailboat – Star Pictorial Flask


Attributed Joel Bodine & Sons, Bridgetown, New Jersey

Cobalt Blue Half Pint

Provenance: Anonymous

Our museum example of a half-pint, cobalt blue GX-8a Sailboat – Star pictorial flask is beauty honed down to the finest of degrees. A flask design in perfect harmony. The flask is attributed to Joel Bodine & Sons in Bridgetown, New Jersey and would have been been made from 1846 to 1855.

Museum example of a GX-8a Sailboat – Star pictorial flask

The GX-8a Sailboat – Star flask has elements of both the GX-8 Sailboat – Star and GX-9 Sailboat- Star pictorial flasks. The embossed sailboat (or sloop or shallop), is sailing to the left with pennant flying to the left. The sailboat is sailing on the waves as in GX-8, but the sailboat is framed in only a single oval panel as in the GX-9 flask.

GX-8 Sailboat – Star pictorial flask design variations.

The reverse of the flask pictures a large fancy eight-point star or daisy with a small three-point ornamental or floral design in between each ray of the star or petals of the daisy as seen in the GX-8 flask. The star is framed in an oval as in GX-9 flask.

The half-pint flask has a plain lip and pontil mark. The edge is smooth

The flask is listed in McKearin’s as comparatively scarce in aqua. The cobalt blue example would be extremely rare.

Primary Image: The GX-8a Sailboat – Star flask imaged on location by the FOHBC Virtual Museum midwest studio led by Alan DeMaison.

Support Image: Auction Lot 49: Sailboat – Star Pictorial Flask, probably Joel Bodine And Sons, Bridgetown, New Jersey, 1850-1855. – Jim Hagenbuch, Glass Works Auctions

Support Images: Auction Lot 126: Sailboat – Star Pictorial Flask, probably Joel Bodine And Sons, Bridgetown, New Jersey, 1850-1855. Medium sapphire blue, sheared mouth – pontil scar, half pint; (several flakes on top edge of mouth, the largest being 1/4 inch, light to moderate exterior high point wear). GX-8 Stunning, rare color for this mold. Fine condition. – Norman Heckler, Norman C. Heckler & Company, Auction #187

Support Images: Auction Lot 185: Sailboat – Star Pictorial Flask, probably Joel Bodine & Sons, Bridgetown, New Jersey, 1846-1860. Aquamarine, sheared mouth – pontil scar, half pint; (light interior haze, light exterior high point wear). GX-8 A comparatively scarce flask with a longer neck than usual. Fine condition. – Norman Heckler, Norman C. Heckler & Company, Auction #195

Support Image: GX-8a Sailboat-Star pictorial flask image from the Richard Tucker collection.

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

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