This I think is quite a special, early one--I don't pay much attention to glass (except for ancient Roman!) but the etched decoration covering most every inch of this decanter/bottle is like my very favorite sort of early 19th century naive drawings/watercolors and needlepoint samplers. With an urn on each side giving rise to a tall, flowering stalk, and two more flowering stalks on the shorts sides, framed by joyfully zig zagging lines to either side, and a leafy vine around the neck. I've come across a few painted "Stiegel"/ Steigel-type bottles at antiques shows with which this shares many similarities, but to my sensibilities this one is much lovelier for its lack of color and the wonderful schoolgirl-ish manner of the decoration. Included in photos is are example from the Met and the RISD museums dating to the mid-late 1700s, Dutch and American respectively; this one feels to me like a looser, folkier version. Found in Maine.
6 1/2" t x x 3 1/4" w x 2 5/8" d; 1 1/4" at opening. One small, very old chip to the top edge of the threaded neck, pretty minor and smoothed over. Otherwise in very good condition, with some stains here and there; I have not cleaned it at all.
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