rare privy dug mid-nineteenth century deep blue green iron pontiled blobtop porter-shaped beer bottle. an unusual feature is that the bottle is embossed with both the manufacturer and the glass company. the squat, low-shouldered body has a slim neck finished with an applied blob that has slop and significant whittling. deeply embossed in the body, reads "philadelphia / x x / porter & ale", and just above the heel "union glassworks." the base has a shallow kick-up with a hefty ring of iron residue. according to edwin troxell freedley’s mid-nineteenth century publication, philadelphia and its manufactures, “the reputation of philadelphia ale has but strengthened with the lapse of years; and at the present time the malt liquors made in philadelphia take precedence in every market in the union. the qualities for which they are distinguished are purity, brilliancy of color, richness of flavor, and non-liability to deterioration in warm countries—qualities, the result in part of the peculiar characteristics of the schuylkill water—in part of the intelligence, care and experience of our brewers, conjoined to the use of apparatus possessing all the best modern improvements made in england and in this country."