SAMUEL COLTON'S SEAL BOTTLE DATED 1767.

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/27/2020

English mold-blown, olive-amber or so-called "black" glass wine bottle decorated with a seal or glob of glass on side impressed with the stamp, "S / Colton / 1767." The bottle has straight sides and has been finished out of the mold by inflating and tooling; an elongated neck and applied string of glass to form the finish or rim of the bottle; a high kick to the base of the bottle; and a large pontil mark. The bottle was made for Longmeadow, Massachusetts, merchant Samuel Colton (1727-1784) who was one of the Pioneer Valley's most successful and influential merchants. Wrapped in blankets "like Indians" and with their faces blacked, a crowd of locals gathered before the store that Samuel Colton had adjoining his Longmeadow mansion one evening in July 1776 to demand that he reduce the “extravagant prices” he was charging for West India goods, notably rum and molasses, and accused him of undervaluing “paper Currency which is very detrimental to the Liberties of America.” When Colton refused their terms, they seized his goods and hid them, later returning them. When he raised prices again a few weeks later, a mob broke into his locked store, “ransacking it from top to bottom” and delivered his goods to the town clerk, who sold them at “reasonable” prices. The crowd’s leaders later offered Colton the proceeds from the sales and when he refused such, left it on a table in his home. This bottle is believed to be a relic of that momentous event of public protest against wartime speculation, one of a handful of Colton bottles known to survive. Extremely rare and desirable. CONDITION: overall very good, but with a crack of approx. 3 in. on one side. JLK Illustrated and discussed on pp. 16-17 of "For Liberty I Live"; the July 1776 seizure has been well documented by historian Barbara Clark Smith in "Food Rioters and the American Revolution" (http://libcom.org/history/food-rioters-american-revolution-barbara-clark-smith).