Part 26 (1/2)

[196] DOW, op. cit. (footnote 178), pp. 85-95.

[197] RACKHAM, op. cit. (footnote 185), p. 29; RACKHAM and READ, op. cit. (footnote 186), pp. 107-109.

[198] W. B. HONEY, _English Pottery and Porcelain_ (London: 1947), p. 89. [F99] _Wedgwood Catalogue of Bodies, Glazes and Shapes Current for 1940-1960_ (Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent: Warwick Savage, n.d.), pp. M1, M2.

[200] ”The Editor's Attic” and cover: _Antiques_ (New York, June 1928), vol. 13, no. 6, pp. 474-475.

[201] RACKHAM and READ, op. cit. (footnote 186), p. 110.

[202] J. A. LLOYD HYDE, _Oriental Lowestoft_ (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936), p. 23.

XVI

_Gla.s.s_

BOTTLES

ROUND BEVERAGE BOTTLES.--Bottles of dark-green gla.s.s were used in the colonial period for wine, beer, rum, and other potables. Although some wines and liquors were s.h.i.+pped in the bottle, they were distributed for the most part in casks, hogsheads, and ”pipes” before 1750. John Mercer recorded the purchases of several pipes of wine--kinds unspecified--a pipe being a large or even double-size hogshead. He purchased rum by the gallon, in quant.i.ties that ranged from 2 quarts in 1744 to ”5 galls Barbadoes Spirits” in 1745 and a ”hhd 107-1/2 gall Rum” in 1748.

Bottles were used largely for household storage and for the serving of liquors. They were kept filled in the b.u.t.tery as a convenience against going to the cellar each time a drink was wanted. Bottles usually were brought directly to the table,[203] although the clear-gla.s.s decanter was apparently regarded as a more genteel dispenser. Mercer, like his contemporaries, bought his own bottles, as when he purchased ”2 doz bottles” from John Foward in 1730. The previous year he had acquired a gross of corks, which would customarily have been inserted in his bottles and secured by covering with cloth, tying around the lips or string rings with packthread, and sealing with warm resin and pitch.

Some wines were purchased in the bottle. In 1726 Mercer bought ”2 doz & 8 bottles Claret” and ”1 doz Canary” from Alexander McFarlane. In 1745 he charged Overwharton Parish for ”2 bottles Claret to Acquia,”

apparently for communion wine. Whether all this was s.h.i.+pped from the vineyards in bottles, or whether Mercer brought his own bottles to be filled from the storekeepers' casks is not revealed.

An insight into the kinds of alcoholic drinks consumed in Virginia in Mercer's early period is given in the official price-list for the sale of alcoholic beverages set forth in the York County Court Orders in 1726:[204]

This Court do Sett the Rate Liquors as followeth:

s. d.

Liquors Rated

Each diet 1

Lodging for each person 7-1/2

Stable Room & Fodder for each horse p^r night 11-1/4

Each Gallon corn 7-1/2

Wine of Virg^a produce p Quart 5

French Brandy p Quart 4

Sherry & Canary Wine p Quart 4 4-1/2

Red & white Lisbon p^r Quart & Claret 3 1-1/2

Madera Wine p Quart 1 10-1/2