Antique Fairbanks & Beard Star Porter Bottle Deep Teal Applied Top Boston MA F&B For Sale

This beautiful 7-inch Fairbanks & Beard bottle has the presence you hope to find in early American glass. Its rich teal color glows blue-green in the light and deepens dramatically through the thick glass at the heel. One side carries the star above FAIRBANKS & BEARD / HOWARD ST / BOSTON; the opposite side displays a large, decorative F & B.

Then there is the top: a wonderfully crude applied finish with a long, flowing drip of glass down the neck. It is the kind of hand-finished detail that makes you turn the bottle again and again.

COLOR & CHARACTER

This is deep blue-green teal, rather than ordinary pale aqua. Light passing through the body brings out its blue tones; the thicker heel looks darker and greener. The variation gives the bottle remarkable depth on display.

The hand-blown glass has appealing irregularity, and the smooth, domed bottom completes its distinctive shape.

FAIRBANKS & BEARD | HOWARD STREET, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

Moses Fairbanks and Josiah Beard operated from Boston’s Howard Athenaeum building. Period records identify their trade in mineral and soda waters, porter, ale and cider. A surviving company billhead dated 1858 also advertises brown stout.

That range of products tells us what the firm sold, although the embossing cannot tell us exactly which drink this particular bottle last held. Collectors identify this broad-shouldered form as a porter bottle.

The name, street and star made a memorable advertisement. Picture this bottle on a Howard Street counter, its contents ready for a customer and its raised lettering still advertising the business long after any paper label had disappeared.

DATE | CIRCA 1858–1867

The best-supported date range for this star-marked, hand-blown, smooth-base Fairbanks & Beard form is circa 1858–1867—centered around 1860. A precise year of manufacture cannot be proven from the bottle alone.

Its crude applied top belongs beautifully to that period. The pronounced drip was made while the glass was hot; it is part of the bottle’s original manufacture and one of its finest features.

A MOMENT IN BOSTON HISTORY

Boston in the late 1850s and 1860s was a city of horse-drawn traffic, busy wharves, crowded shops and rapidly arriving telegraph news. Ships still supplied a great port, while new technology was changing how quickly its residents heard about events beyond New England.

Medicine was changing, too, though it remained a world without antibiotics or modern germ theory. Soda and mineral waters shared the market with ales, porters, cider and stout—exactly the variety Fairbanks & Beard advertised.

The city also stood amid enormous political change. The forced return of freedom seeker Anthony Burns from Boston in 1854 had brought thousands into the streets in protest. By 1859, the Public Garden had been secured for public use. During the Civil War, the 54th Massachusetts Infantry marched through Boston in 1863 before departing for service. This bottle comes from the years in which everyday commerce continued against that extraordinary backdrop.

MEASUREMENTS & DETAILS

• Approximately 7 inches tall
• Embossed star and FAIRBANKS & BEARD / HOWARD ST / BOSTON
• Large decorative F & B on the reverse
• Deep blue-green teal glass
• Very crude applied top with a long glass drip
• Smooth, domed bottom

CONDITION

• No cracks
• No body chips
• No case wear
• Two tiny nicks on the embossed “B”; please see close-up photos
• Very faint hairline surface scuffs, especially along the heel

The bottle presents bright, clean and striking, with its rich color, bold embossing and spectacular applied top fully on display.

A PIECE OF BOSTON YOU CAN HOLD IN YOUR HAND

More than 160 years after Fairbanks & Beard did business on Howard Street, their star, address and sweeping initials remain raised in the glass. For a collector of Boston bottles, early beverage history or character-filled hand-blown glass, this one delivers from every angle.