Not currently on display at the V&A

Bottle Ticket

ca. 1790 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Bottle tickets identified the contents of a bottle or decanter, which might alternatively contain spirits, sauces, toilet waters or cordials. The word Lisbon on this ticket refers to wine made in the area around the Portuguese capital city.

Contemporary gazettes begin to refer to ‘labels for bottles’ in the 1770s but it was not until the 1790s that they were established as wine or decanter labels. These tickets also illustrate in miniature the skills of the silversmith over the last two hundred years. While the variety of styles and materials was enormous, silver bottle tickets tended to reflect fashionable designs and technical advances in metalware generally.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Silver, pierced and engraved
Brief description
Silver, no marks, England ca.1790
Physical description
Bottle ticket with the word LISBON. Silver, crescent with pierced and engraved dog-tooth border: chain attached.
Dimensions
  • Height: 1.25in
  • Length: 1.5in
Marks and inscriptions
  • No marks
  • LISBON
Credit line
P. J. Cropper Bequest
Summary
Bottle tickets identified the contents of a bottle or decanter, which might alternatively contain spirits, sauces, toilet waters or cordials. The word Lisbon on this ticket refers to wine made in the area around the Portuguese capital city.

Contemporary gazettes begin to refer to ‘labels for bottles’ in the 1770s but it was not until the 1790s that they were established as wine or decanter labels. These tickets also illustrate in miniature the skills of the silversmith over the last two hundred years. While the variety of styles and materials was enormous, silver bottle tickets tended to reflect fashionable designs and technical advances in metalware generally.
Collection
Accession number
M.1036-1944

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Record createdFebruary 17, 2005
Record URL
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