Not currently on display at the V&A

Bottle Ticket

1816-1817 (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. This silver ticket identifies the contents as sherry, a fortified wine from the area of Jerez de la Frontera in southern Spain.

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 the fashionable designs and technical advances in metalware generally.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Silver
Brief description
Silver, London hallmarks for 1816-17, mark of William Elliot.
Physical description
Bottle ticket (one of set of four) with the word "SHERRY" (pierced lettering). Silver, escutcheon with raised border of vines and scrolls, and a lion's mask above.
Dimensions
  • Length: 6.2cm
  • Width: 4.9cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • London hallmarks for 1816-17 (There are the remains of earlier hallmarks, (London, 1802-3) along with the mark of DS/RS for Scott and Smith, having been presumably made from a discarded piece.)
  • Mark of William Elliot.
  • SHERRY
Credit line
P. J. Cropper Bequest
Object history
Acquisition RF: 44 / 177
Bequest - P.J. Cropper
per W J Sheldrick
From four - Madeira
Subjects depicted
Summary
Bottle tickets identified the contents of a bottle or decanter, which might alternatively contain spirits, sauces, toilet waters or cordials. This silver ticket identifies the contents as sherry, a fortified wine from the area of Jerez de la Frontera in southern Spain.

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 the fashionable designs and technical advances in metalware generally.
Associated objects
Collection
Accession number
M.982-1944

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Record createdJuly 22, 2005
Record URL
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