Objects
Bottle
Alcohol
Consumption
[Taken from catalogue entry]
A Southwark delft dated blue and white bottle, dated 1649. With strap handle. Labelled for ‘WHIT’ and dated 1649 above a flourish on the globular body.
This type of vessel is known as a ‘Sack Bottle’ because many examples are inscribed with the word ‘Sack’, though, as in this case, others are labeled ‘Whit’ for white wine and a date, usually around the mid-seventeenth century.
Delftware bottles were too porous to use as storage vessels, they were most likely used for serving drink.
There is evidence (see V&A refs) that they were given as New Year gifts, explaining the inscribed dates and the fact that the bottles have survived undamaged in relatively large numbers.
[Capacity of 520ml is probably a pint of wine [473ml], particularly if this capacity was formed from filling the vessel to its brim, as it could have originally been underfilled. However, it is almost equidistant between this and a pint of ale (578ml)]
V&A refs:
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O21117/bottle-unknown/ (C.1042-1922)
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O20975/wine-bottle-unknown/ (414:818-1885)
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O20936/wine-bottle-unknown/ (302-1869)
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O21532/wine-bottle-unknown/ (3831-1901)
Production
Dates of Production: 1649
Southwark, London, England
Materials
Earthenware
Earthenware- white
Museological Details
D.O.C/35
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