Wine bottle

Object Type
This standard tall cylindrical shape of wine bottle had been established in about the mid-18th century. Ideal for storing on its side in a cellar, it has changed little since then.

Design & Designing
The various attempts by the Government to standardise the capacity of bottles resulted in the replacement of free-blown bottles by cylindrical mould-blown types. This in turn paved the way for the fully-moulded bottles (of accurate and consistent capacity) made from the early 19th century.

Ownership & Use
James Oakes, a banker of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, and afterwards of Nowton Court, Suffolk, must have had a well-stocked cellar. So many sealed bottles with his name have survived, with dates between 1770 and 1795, that early collectors of wine bottles assumed he was a wine merchant. Although it was normal to have repeated batches of bottles made, the reason for the dates on the seal is not entirely clear: in the absence of paper labels, it could have helped to identify individual wines which were known to have been bottled in various years. But the usual practice then was to store wine in vaulted cellar bins, marked with a delftware or creamware bin-label giving the name of the wine. When the bottle was removed for serving or decanting, an inscribed bottle-ticket could be hung around the bottle or decanter to inform the guests.