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Recent additions.
Most recent at the top, so numbering starts at the bottom of the page!
11. Perry's Cordial Balm of Syriacum, 1860s. July 2009.
This ice blue bottle stands 18cm (7") high and is embossed "THE CORDIAL // BALM OF / SYRIACUM // PREPARED // ONLY // BY // PERRY & Co / SURGEONS // BERNERS St OXFORD St //LONDON". It was blown in a hinge mould. In common with other known aqua and ice blue examples this bottle isn't pontilled, although the crude arched base (below), often with stippling marks from the mould, can sometimes resemble a faint pontil mark. The Cordial Balm of Syriacum was sold from as early as the late 1830s until the 1860s or later, and was probably exploiting a gap left in the market by the disappearance, in the second quarter of the 19th century, of Samuel Solomons Cordial Balm of Gilead. The bottles used for Balm of Syriacum closely mimic the size and shape of both large and small Balm of Gilead bottles, and the advertising bore striking similarities to that used by Samuel Solomon. The Cordial Balm of Syriacum was widely advertised in Australia and New Zealand as well as thoughout the UK, and a number of these bottles have been found in Australia over the years. This example, which came from an English river, is heavily stained internally and has some damage to base and lip, but will live in Jerry's collection of British patent medicine bottles quite happily until a better example comes along.
10. Daffy's Elixir bottle, circa 1790 - 1835. 2008.
This dark aqua pontilled medicine, now in Jerry's collection, is embossed 'TRUE DAFFYs ELIXIR // DOCT A DAFFY LONDON'. It has a folded and rolled lip and a circular pontil scar. It was probably made for Anthony Swinton, a late Georgian patent medicine proprietor and notoriously violent rake, bankrupt, and fraudster who happened to be the great-grandson of the original Anthony Daffy. This bottle is one of several examples known with this embossing, in two sizes (this is the smaller type), most of which were discovered in London and south-east England, but at least two of which were dug in the eastern USA. The bottle, and Anthony Swinton, will be the subject of a future in-depth article on this website.
9. A small salt glazed ginger beer or utility bottle, circa 1860. November 2008.
This salt glazed bottle, 160mm high and 67mm wide, is impressed with the name of Mann / Rasen. Edward Mann was listed as a shopkeeper on Queens Street in Market Rasen. The only directory entry for him is 1861, so his was probably a short lived business. This bottle is now in Darrens collection.
8. A small salt glazed flagon, circa 1810 - 1830. November 2008.
This little handled bottle or flagon, now in Darren's collection, is only 170mm (a fraction under 7") tall. It is early 19th century in date, while the glaze and stoneware fabric are typical of London potteries of that period, possibly Vauxhall.
7. Salt glazed jar for turtle soup, circa 1850s - 1870s. October 2008.
This salt glazed jar is 15cm (almost exactly 6") tall and two pint capacity. It was made at one of the Derbyshire or Nottinghamshire potteries, probably in the 1850s, 1860s or 1870s, and would have originally contained turtle soup. Although it has a very large and detailed applied sprig in the shape of a marine turtle it has no writing apart from a small 'AT' on the base (probably a reference or identifier for the soup maker rather than a pottery mark). Turtle soup was a popular - but expensive - food in Britain in Victorian times, but all marine turtle are now globally endangered and trade in turtle products is illegal, so genuine turtle soup is not something that could be sold in the UK these days. The jar is now in Jerrys collection.
6. Black glass wine, spirit or ale bottle with merchants seal. 1830s - 40s. July 2008.
A black glass wine, spirit or ale bottle from the 1830s, 40s or 50s, bearing a lower body seal marked 'F D / R', now in Darren's collection. The bottle was blown in a 3-piece mould, and has a sand pontil mark in the conical kick-up in the base.
The initials on the seal stand for Francis Dewick, Retford. The bottle was found on a 1920s dump in Retford in the mid 1980s, along with approximately 200 stoneware porter bottles dating from roughly 1830 to 1860. The majority of the stoneware was impressed 'F. Dewick / Retford' but some of the bottles were marked with the names of brewers and retailers from towns all over the east midlands including Doncaster, Bawtry, Worksop, Nottingham, Newark, Lincoln, and Tuxford. The whole group was probably a late clear out of a store room or cellar, quite possibly in Francis Dewick's former premises in Retford Market Square.
Francis Dewick established his wine and spirit merchant and grocery business in 1818 or 1819. In 1851 or '52 he took his son, John M. Dewick, into partnership. Francis died in 1862. This is the only black glass sealed bottle known from Retford.
5. Slab sealed Reform flask, Dante / Napoleon, 1840s. July 2008.
A slab sealed reform flask depicting a bust of Dante on one side and of Napoleon on the other, now in Jerry's collection.
Below the bust of Dante is a slab seal impressed 'CARTLEDGE / 297 LINCOLN'. This bottle was made at one of the Nottinghamshire or Derbyshire potteries, probably Oldfields of Chesterfield, in the early 1840s. Page Cartledge Snr and Jnr were wine and spirit merchants in Lincoln in the firt half of the 19th century. The elder Cartledge died in the mid-to-late 1830s and is well known among collectors for the wide range of political reform flasks he used, all manufactured by Oldfield and which included two different types of Lord Brougham flasks (one identical in shape to the flask from Horncastle featured elsewhere on this website), as well as flasks depicting Lord Grey, Lord John Russell and William IVth.
This is the first example of this flask recorded with a Cartledge slab seal. It also seems to be the first recorded proprietor-named Dante / Napoleon flask of any kind, and was used by Page Cartledge Jnr in the early 1840s.
Above: The Cartledge flask alongside two others of similar design. On the right is another Dante / Napoleon flask, probably made at a London pottery. On the left is a very small Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire flask of similar shape to the Cartledge bottle but in a very dark salt glaze, and with the busts of a young Queen Victoria on one side, and Prince Albert on the other. This is the more common combination of busts on this style of flask, and dates to the 1840s (Victoria married Albert in 1841).
Why Dante and Napoleon?
The combination of Dante and Napoleon on decorative stoneware flasks is relatively common, although on other flasks the names of the two are usually impressed below the busts (such as the salt glazed flask in the picture above). The significance of Dante and Napoleon on these bottles may be related to the heroes identified by Thomas Carlyle in a series of lectures he gave in 1840, in which he praised 'Modern Revolutionism', saying that “We will hail the French Revolution, as shipwrecked mariners might the sternest rock, in a world otherwise all of baseless sea and waves”. In the lectures Dante, along with Shakespeare, was 'The Hero as Poet' and Napoleon (along with Cromwell) was 'The Hero as King'. The political aspects of Carlyles 'Heroes' seems to fit with Cartledge's choices of other political flasks (Brougham, Russell, etc) five to ten years earlier, in the 1830s.
4. Stoneware chemists bottles. 1820s - 30s. May 2008.
Small saltglaze bottles found in north Lincolnshire in April 2008. Less than half pint capacity, and only 140mm (5.5") tall. The initials stand for William Ostler Nicholson / Brigg. Three of these previously unrecorded little bottles came from one site. These two are now in Darren's collection, and the third is in Jerry's collection.
Nicholson is recorded as a Chemist, Druggist and Wine & Spirit Merchant in the Market Place in the Lincolnshire market town of Brigg in 1823 and 1827, but by 1834 the business was called Nicholson & Son. These bottles can be dated to an approximately ten year period from 1822 to, at the most, 1833.
On stoneware bottle this style of marking, with the use of initials for both the owner of the bottle and the town, dates almost exclusively to the 1820s - 40s. On stoneware it is a style that seems to have been used almost exclusively in the Nottinghamshire - Lincolnshire - Yorkshire area, with a few outliers in Derbyshire and Leicestershire. In contrast, the similar use of initials on glass sealed bottles (such as the F D / R bottle above) was very widespread in Britain for 200 years or more, from the 1650s.
3. Dip moulded chemists bottle. circa 1790s - 1820. April 2008.
A dip moulded medicine or utility bottle, 16cm (6.5") tall. Black glass, with a sand or glass chip pontil mark and, from the style of the lip, probably dating to the very early 19th century. There are examples of this type of bottle that probably date as early as the 1760s or 70s. Ancestor of octagonal medicine bottles everywhere. Now in Jerry's collection.
2. Pontilled half-size Daffy's Elixir. 1820s - 30s. March 2008.
A half-size Daffy's Elixir bottle in aqua glass, with a rolled lip and solid pontil mark. This is a Dicey & Co example, indistinctly embossed 'TRUE DAFFY'S ELIXIR' and 'Dicey & Co No 10 Bow Church Yard London' on the front and back, and 'See that the words Dicey & Co are printed in the stamp' on the sides.
Daffy's Elixir was probably sold in bottles of this approximate shape for 150 years or more from the mid or late 18th century onwards, so accurately dating pontilled examples is difficult. Rolled lip or flared lip examples probably date to the 18th century or the first 40 years of the 19th century. Small examples (less than half pint capacity) in pale glass, such as this example, probably date to before 1845. This one is now in Jerry's collection.
1. Surgeon / apothecary bottle. 1830s - 40s. January 2008.
A beautiful early to mid 19th century salt glazed bottle, 18cm tall and approximately half pint capacity, now in Darren's collection. John Sowden was a surgeon in Louth, Lincolnshire from the 1830s to the 1870s. The style of this bottle dates it to the very early part of that time, almost certainly pre-1850.
All contents of this page Copyright J. Kemp and D. Gray, 2007, 2008, 2009.
Page last updated 29th July 2009
