Part 27 (1/2)

[205] ”Old English Wine Bottles,” _The Wine and Spirit Trade Record_ (London, December 17, 1951), pp. 1570-1571.

BEVERAGE-BOTTLE BASES

_USNM_ _Inches in_ _No._ _Diameter_ _Provenience_

59.1688 5-1/2 Refuse pit D 59.1717 6 Structure F, firing chamber 59.1717 4-1/2 Structure F, firing chamber 59.1717 4-3/4 Structure F, firing chamber 59.1717 4-7/8 Structure F, firing chamber 59.1717 5 Structure F, firing chamber 59.1717 5-1/8 Structure F, firing chamber 59.1793 2-3/4 S.W. corner, Structure B 59.1870 5-1/4 Wall D, trench 59.1918 4 Structure E, N. side, Room X 59.1921 3-3/4 Debris area, N.E. corner, Structure E 59.1957 5 Structure F, N.E. corner of pavement 59.1957 5 Structure F, N.E. corner of pavement 59.1998 4-3/4 Structure E, N. of fireplace, Room X 59.1998 4-3/4 Structure E, N. of fireplace, Room X 59.2007 3-7/8 North of Structure E, lowest level 59.2007 4-1/4 North of Structure E, lowest level 60.83 4-1/2 Wall E, gateway 60.103 4-3/4 Trench along Wall E 60.117 5-1/8 Junction of Walls A-I and A-II 60.117 4-5/8 Junction of Walls A-I and A-II 60.120 5-1/2 Trash pit no. 2 60.123 5-1/2 Trash pit no. 2

Since beverage-bottle diameters diminished from about 5 inches in the 1750's and 1760's to about 4 inches in the 1770's and 1780's and to 3-1/2 inches in the 1790's and early 1800's, the peak of their incidence at Marlborough occurs between 1750 and 1770, the period of greatest opulence in the Mercer household.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 38.--Upper left, cylindrical beverage bottle, about 1760. One-fourth. (USNM 59.1998.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 39.--Upper right, cylindrical beverage bottle, late 18th or early 19th century. One-fourth. (USNM 59.1976, 59.2007.)]

OCTAGONAL BEVERAGE BOTTLES.--A rarely seen variation from the round beverage bottle is a club-shaped, octagonal, molded type with long neck, perhaps so shaped in order to permit packing in cases. Cider is said to have been put up in such bottles, and it is also possible that brandies and liqueurs were delivered in them. A quart-size bottle of this shape at Colonial Williamsburg bears the seal ”I. Greenhow WmsBgh. 1769.”

Another, purchased in England, in the G. H. Kernodle collection at the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution, also has a seal with the name ”Jn^o Collings, 1736” (USNM 59.2170). A pint-size example, 9 inches high and dated 1736, is ill.u.s.trated in plate 95e in the Wine Trade Loan Exhibition catalog.[206] A restored bottle of this form from Marlborough (USNM 59.1687, fig. 80, ill. 40) is 8 inches high, but bears no seal. Among the gla.s.s found at Marlborough are also three bases and other fragments of similar bottles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 40.--Octagonal, pint-size beverage bottle.

See figure 80. Half size. (USNM 59.1687.)]

SQUARE ”GIN” BOTTLES.--Square bottles, usually called ”gin” bottles, occur in the Marlborough material. Two base sections and lower pieces of the flat sides have been partly restored (USNM 59.1685, 59.1686, ill.

41), and a neck and shoulder have survived. The bases are 4 inches square, and the whole bottles were probably about 10 inches high. They did not taper but maintained a continuous dimension from shoulder to base. The bases, which are rounded on the corners, have a slightly domed kick-up with a ring-shaped pontil mark. The gla.s.s is olive green. The necks are squat--barely 7/8 inch--and have wide string rings midway in their length.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 80.--OCTAGONAL SPIRITS BOTTLE.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 41.--Square gin bottle. One-fourth. (USNM 59.1686, base; 59.1685, top.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 42.--Square snuff bottle. One-half. See figure 81. (USNM 59.1680.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 81.--SNUFF BOTTLE. (See ill. 42.)]

Square ”gin” bottles were designed for s.h.i.+pment in wooden boxes with compartments in which the bottles fit snugly. Although Dutch gin customarily was s.h.i.+pped in bottles of this shape, indications are that the square bottles may have been used for other purposes than holding gin. For one thing, Mercer's ledgers mention no purchases of gin. There is, in fact, almost no evidence of the sale of gin in Virginia; a single announcement of Holland gin available in Williamsburg in 1752 is the exception until 1773, when gin was again advertised in the _Virginia Gazette_.[207] Its sale had been prohibited in England in 1736.[208] For another thing, square bottles were both imported and manufactured in America for sale new. In 1760 the Germantown gla.s.sworks in Braintree, Ma.s.sachusetts, made ”Round and square Bottles, from one to four Quarts; also Cases of Bottles of all Sizes ...,”[209], while George Ball, of New York, in 1775 advertised that he imported ”Green gla.s.s Gallon square bottles, Two quart ditto, Pint ditto.”[210]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 43.--Upper left, winegla.s.s, reconstructed from base fragment having enamel twist for stem. One-half. (USNM 59.1761.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 44.--Upper right, cordial gla.s.s. One-fourth.

(USNM 59.1607.)]

A smaller base (USNM 59.1642) has a high kick-up, the dome of which intersects the sides of the base so that the bottle rests on four points separated by arcs. This fragment measures 3 inches square. An even smaller version (USNM 59.1977) is 2-3/4 inches.

SNUFF BOTTLES.--Several items in Mercer's ledgers record the purchase of snuff, such as one for a ”bottle of snuff” in 1731 for 15d., another in 1743 for 3s., and a third in 1744 for 1s. 6d. Among the artifacts is a partly restored bottle of olive-green gla.s.s, shaped like a gin bottle but of smaller dimensions, with a 2-1/4-inch-wide mouth (USNM 59.1686, fig. 81). The bottle is 3-3/4 inches square and 7 inches tall. It has a low kick-up and a smooth pontil mark. Also among the artifacts are a matching base and several sherds of similar bottles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 45.--Sherds of engraved-gla.s.s wine and cordial gla.s.ses (fig. 82c). Same size. (USNM 59.1634, 59.1864.)]

MEDICINE BOTTLES.--Only a few fragments of medicine bottles occurred in the Marlborough artifacts. This is surprising, in view of Mercer's many ailments and his statements that he had purchased ”British Oyl,”

”Holloway's Citrate,” and other patent nostrums of his day. A round base from a greenish, cylindrical bottle (USNM 59.2056) seems to represent an Opadeldoc bottle. Another base is rectangular with notched corners. The last, as well as the base of a molded, basket-pattern scent bottle (USNM 59.2093) may be early 19th century in date. Other medicine-bottle fragments are all 19th century, some quite late (fig. 82).

FOOTNOTES: