original and scarce nearly mint mid-nineteenth century half-pint blue aqua violin or scroll figured flask bottle with fleur de lis motif. the medium blue aqua tinted glass features the same distinctive design on both sides, with vertical medial ribbing on the edge that end in a dimple-like scroll at the shoulder, and small barely touching inferior scrolls right at the heel. on each side is the same configuration: a single eight-pointed star above a pearl and a large fleur-de-lis design. at the flat base is an open pontil scar, and seams indicating use of a key hinge mold. the pear-shaped, asymmetrical glass is finished with a relatively smooth sheared lip. the intact glass is intact and in good condition, and crudities are consistent with its age and date of manufacture, including bubbles, stretch marks in the neck, and allover whittling. scroll flasks are recorded as group ix in the the mckearin historical flask groups, and of the 52 recorded molds this bottle fragment likely represents gix-34. this style of flask was introduced around 1830 and gained extreme popularity through the 1840's and 1850's, apparently waning by the beginning of the civil war; it appears that very few if any were made after that time. most scroll flasks were likely made by midwestern glassmakers, though most do not have makers marks to allow for precise attribution (and some were produced in other regions). scroll flasks were fabricated by blowing hot glass into a two piece iron mold. the hinged mold was then opened and the bottle was removed while still attached to the blowpipe. an assistant would then attach a pontil rod to the base of the bottle, and the glass blower could then detach the bottle from its lip by shearing the still soft glass. most often scroll flasks are found with a plain sheared lip. some flasks would receive additional work to finish the mouth and lip. commonly found are the applied band of glass and, infrequently, an applied lip. measures 5 3/4 inches in height.