original and very rare c. mid-1840's lower fragment of a golden amber violin or scroll figured flask bottle dug from a chicago-area privy pit. the golden amber glass shades to a light honey near the sides. both sides feature the same distinctive design, with medial and inferior scrolls that nearly touch, and vertical ribbing at the sides. at the flat base is a crude open pontil scar. the curvaceous shape would likely have been finished with a crude sheared lip. the glass is heavily irridized and cracked, but intact would have represented a rare variation of this type of glass. the scroll flasks are recorded as group ix in the the mckearin historical flask groups, but it is unknown which of the 52 recorded molds this bottle fragment represents. this style of flask was introduced around 1830 and gained extremely popular 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.