A partial glass flask, consisting of an intact base, four partial sides, and a small piece of the shoulder. It is dark green coloured glass and appears rather opaque from most viewpoints. The bottle was created using a two-piece mould, which is evidenced by a small ridged line that runs through the center of the base and up the short sides. Visible from the base, the pieces appear to have been moulded together slightly off-center. The long sides of the body are decorated with a raised sunburst design within an oval shape. The shoulder and on the short sides of the body are decorated with ridges, the lower most on either side being connected to create a single raised ring around the body, just above the base. The interior appears to have some air bubbles within the glass and some residue on the inner walls. The exterior surface appears iridescent and has more opaque streaked lines circling the body. The flask is pictured with the bottle finish and shoulder portion (MS3146).
A vast amount of research has been done on glass flasks, accredited predominately to McKearin and Wilson’s American Bottles & Flasks and Their Ancestry (1978). Mckearin and Wilson’s flask classifications have become the dominant standard, and sunburst flasks are classified as Group VIII. Under the general umbrella of figured flasks, the sunburst motif is considered a decorative flask, which is a sub group of pictorial flasks. Sunburst flasks are one of the earliest figured flask designs, thought to have been made as early as 1812. They all have pontil scars on their base, which is indicative of the early manufacturing techniques used. Bottle finishes were typically straight, although variations were common, and most were shades of green or amber.
