60s lava lamp-shaped decanter or liquor bottle?

Has anyone seen these, and can anyone tell me what they once held? I had one as a kid, broke it somehow, and have been looking for another ever since. Seen a few on eBay, usually at high prices - considering my budget has been zero for most of last year (hence why the "book of lava catalogs" has been on hiatus - I can't make one yet) I haven't been able to grab any. They are shaped a lot like the "teardrop" Hot Rock lamps:
A bulbous glass bottle, with a cap tapering smoothly from a flare where it meets the bottle to a 1/2" tip with a concave top. The bottle screws into a slightly flared base, matching the shape of the cap, which flares into a flat pedestal at the bottom. Base and top are gold-finished black plastic (like a Century screw-on cap) and both bottle and base are marked "Federal law prohibits sale or reuse of this bottle", which I assume to mean it was a liquor bottle.

I found one yesterday at a thrift store, for only $1.60. The stem of the base is hollow, so I drilled a small hole in it and fitted a candelabra socket and bulb, and filled the bottle with some cheap glitter fill I had sitting around, from a knockoff lamp - blue-green liquid with those square transprent, irridescent glitters I usually hate. End result:

I think this thing could fool a non-collector into thinking it's actually vintage as-found. The light bulb provides barely any light, but in a well-lit room the glitter moves slowly but visibly and sparkles in ambient light. As much as I usually prefer silver glitter and find the clear irridescent type screams "cheap knockoff", for some reason it has a very 60s look that fits with the space-age bottle. At first, I was upset that I had only enough liquid to fill within about 1" of the top, leaving a large, visible air space. Now that I stop and think, that (coupled with the oily residue left on the glass up in the air space, with the occasional stuck glitter square) makes it look "used" to me, as though whatever's inside has evaporated over the years.

I don't have a photo...yet. But if I find more of these bottles locally for that cheap, I'll be making more of these.
~ Jonas

▶ Reply to This