Stoneware antique bottles


		1. A group of early (17th and 18th century) stoneware bottles and pots. The two bellarmines in front are of continental manufacture, but were probably made specifically for the English market (there's a Tudor rose on the right hand example). The two bottles on the extreme left and right are London made bottles dating to approximately the mid 18th century. (Darren)
		2. A small (about 5" tall) and very rare salt glazed flask in an unusual rectangular shape, with an elaborate applied plaque of a fiddler on one side and a smoker on the other. This probably dates to the 1830s or 1840s, and would have been a spirit flask. (Darren).
		3. A rare slab sealed reform flask, made by Oldfields pottery in Chesterfield for John Caparn, a chemist and druggist in Horncastle, Lincolnshire. John Caparn was in business as a sole trader in Horncastle from about 1830 to 1839. Before that he was in partnership with two others, and after that date the business was taken over by his son, Daniel. Both John and Daniel also maintained a chemists and druggists business in Boston, and it would be very interesting to know if there are any Boston bottles from Caparn. This bottle dates to the early 1830s, and represents Lord Brougham, after whom Brougham carriages are named, and who was a key figure promoting the passage of the Great Reform Act of 1832. There is more information about this bottle on our first Featured Bottle page. (Jerry)
		4. Two very different reform flasks representing Daniel O'Connell, the Irish Catholic who was instrumental in bringing Catholic Emancipation, rather forcefully, to the attention of the British Parliament in the 1820s and 30s. The larger example is an Oldfields product, while the smaller example is a direct copy of the Joseph Bourne variation of the O'Connell flask, but is made by an unknown Notts - Derbys area pottery. (Jerry)
		5. Three ribbed neck spirit flasks used by the York business of Seller. The smaller flask dates to the 1840s, 50s or 60s and was used by Charles Seller, of Sellers Dram Shop on Fossgate in York (demolished in 1956 to make way for a new road). The two larger flasks date to after 1871, when the business was taken over by his sons George and John Thomas Seller. The very pale glaze on the two later flasks is unusual for bottles of this type. (Jerry)
		6. Two slab sealed spirit flasks of a very different shape from the three above. The larger of these two is from John Barton of Sheffield, and the smaller is from William Barrell of Spalding in south Lincolnshire. The lip of the Barton bottle is a stoneware copy of the kind of lip found on glass wine and ale bottles of the very early 19h century. (Jerry)
		7. A spirit flask dating to the 1830s - 40s, used by a Hull publican but manufactured at a London pottery. It's unusual to find London made bottles used so far north so early in the 19th century, but the position of Hull as a major port with a large volume of sea traffic with London possibly meant that London potteries were as accessible to Hull as were the potteries of Derbyshire at this time. (Jerry)
		8. A very attractive slab sealed 'porter' bottle, approximately one pint capacity and marked for 'T. West's Extra Stout'. West was the landlord of the Old George Inn in the village of Whitwell in Derbyshire in the early to mid-19th century. (Jerry)
		9. Three flagons, all with slab seals and all used by merchants in the small Nottinghamshire town of Retford. These are products of the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire potteries, and are typical of flagons used in the north of England and the midlands from the early 19th century until the 1870s or 80s. The smaller bottle is featured in the veterinary section. (Jerry)
		10. A salt glazed bottle used by Joseph Heighington of the Greyhound Inn in Leeds, in the 1820s. The pottery mark is that of Burtons Codnor Park Pottery. Burton was bankrupted in 1832 (giving a latest possible date for this bottle), and the pottery was bought by Joseph Bourne of Denby in 1833. Rare examples of stoneware bottles with the same pottery mark, but lacking Burton's name in the centre, can be dated to the period when the Codnor Park pottery continued operation under the administration of the receivers, before it was bought by Bourne (the second half of 1832 and the first few months of 1833). (Jerry)
		11. Two champagne shape slab sealed porter bottles from the Doncaster wine and spirit merchants Bentley & Son (on the right) and Beetham. These are probably the most common slab sealed bottles from Doncaster and date to approximately the 1860s - 1880s. (Jerry)
		12. Two slip glazed bottles which are unusual in being for ginger beer, and having the contents impressed on the bottle. The small Leversedge bottle from Lincoln is one of only two examples known. It came from a hole on the Scrapyard site in Lincoln close to the one where Jerry found the Horncastle slab sealed vets bottle. (Darren)
		13. This 1830s salt glazed bottle from Stowmarket in Suffolk was found in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, in 2007. It is probably a midlands pottery product, and very closely mimics the shape of glass ale and spirit bottles of the time. (Jerry)
		14. A stoneware soda water bottle of the late 1820s or early 1830s, used by Bathgate & Co, chemists in Calcutta, India. It was made by one of Joseph Bournes Derbyshire potteries, and has the Belper and Denby pottery mark. Stoneware 'hamilton' bottles like this were used for a relatively short period in the 1820s and 30s, and possibly into the 1840s. (Jerry)
		15. An unusual saltglaze bottle of about one pint capacity, with very crude scraffito writing: 'J. Godber / Eastwood / Notts. This bottle is the only example of this type of bottle recorded so far. It is difficult to date because the crudeness of the bottle could be due to a very early date (it has some characteristics of ale bottles of the 1800 to 1820 period) but could equally be due to manufacture much later (maybe 1840s - 1850s) by a small pottery with untypical output. The appearance of the bottle suggests a Notts - Derbys pottery. There is a slab sealed flagon of the 1850s known from a Godber, Chemist, of Eastwood. (Jerry)
		16. Two very different blacking bottles produced for Warrens Blacking between 1817 and 1834, when such bottles were exempt from excise duty if they were marked 'blacking bottle'. The left hand bottle is a product of a London pottery while the bottle on the right was probably made at Bournes Denby pottery. (Jerry)
		17. Now a couple of pictures for collectors of ginger beer and underglaze printed bottles. This one shows the three known variations of ginger beer bottles used by Arnold & Co of Lincoln. The bottle on the left is the latest, dating to about 1912 - 1915, and has a Lovatt & Lovatt pottery mark. The bottle on the right is the oldest, probably dating to the early 1890s before Arnold started to use Monks Abbey as a trade mark. (Jerry)
		18. Freshly dug examples of what are probably the two best transfer printed ginger beers from Lincolnshire. The story of their discovery is in the Brickyard Lane pages. (Jerry and Darren)