#168-CIVIL WAR SALE: 2 SHEER TOP GLASS INK BOTTLES

These "sheer top" ink bottles were packaged filled with ink with the glass melted at the top to form the "lid." Soldiers could get them from their sutler and you will notice that the two here are different in both size and style but the similarity is clear at the top. When a soldier was ready to use the ink--presumably having laid out his paper, pen, envelope and stamp--he would need to break off the top carefully, putting a cork in the top when he finished his letter.

Without the sutler and his wagon load of most everything you could imagine, soldiers would have to rely on whatever items they had purchased at a store--which easily could have been 6-12 months earlier. Generally, the sutler followed the regiment from place to place, perhaps disappearing briefly whenever they were able to purchase merchandise to maintain their stock.

You will see some paper items from sutlers in this sale and as I assemble everything, one thing you won't see are any sutler tokens. They're quite rare and thus expensive to find any. And when you do the price will be $200-400 and generally on the higher end of the range.

This price is here is for both ink bottles pictured.

I try to have a few in stock most of the time. I've been fortunate in recent years that I found a seller willing to sell 10 or 15 at a time. As i write this we have 6 or 7 remaining and won't do any more purchasing these or other CW items until quite likely the first of the year. That is subject to change, of course, such as wehn I find someone ancious to part with some wonderful items.