Bottle Ticket
1850-1900 (made)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
The history of bottle tickets provides a fascinating insight into English eating, drinking and personal habits. 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. Their function was to identify the contents of a bottle or decanter, which might alternatively contain spirits, sauces, toilet waters or cordials. These tickets also illustrate in miniature, the skills of the silversmith over the last two hundred years. While the variety of styles and materials were enormous, silver bottle tickets tended to reflect fashionable designs in metalware generally. Makers were quick to adapt the many technical advances of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Materials and techniques | Boar's tusks mounted in silver, a silver label attached by two chains. |
Brief description | Bottle ticket for Brandy, boar's tusks mounted in silver, label attached, India and England, 1850-1900 |
Physical description | Bottle ticket with the word BRANDY. A pair of boar's tusks forming a down curving crescent with silver mounts, chain and a red tassel at each point; from the central mount a repoussé silver label in the form of a flying vine crowned cherub holding a festoon of drapery, hanging by two, short chains (one broken). Indian but the label itself, probably English. |
Dimensions |
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Marks and inscriptions |
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Credit line | P.J. Cropper Bequest |
Subjects depicted | |
Summary | The history of bottle tickets provides a fascinating insight into English eating, drinking and personal habits. 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. Their function was to identify the contents of a bottle or decanter, which might alternatively contain spirits, sauces, toilet waters or cordials. These tickets also illustrate in miniature, the skills of the silversmith over the last two hundred years. While the variety of styles and materials were enormous, silver bottle tickets tended to reflect fashionable designs in metalware generally. Makers were quick to adapt the many technical advances of the 18th and 19th centuries. |
Collection | |
Accession number | M.1360-1944 |
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Record created | December 4, 2006 |
Record URL |
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