This design of feeding bottle dates back to the late middle ages, and is the ancestor of the upright bottles so familiarly used in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The earliest examples of these rounded flasks were made of leather or wood and are thought to have originated in France or Germany.

Pewter feeding bottles were certainly known in the sixteenth century, but did not become commonplace until the metal came into wider domestic use in the seventeenth century. A great problem with all artificial feeding vessels until the twentieth century was that of hygiene: bacteria could build up in traces of milk left behind when the vessel was cleaned after use, and cause sickness and diarrhoea which often proved fatal to infants. Pewter was felt to withstand really thorough scouring better than many materials, and pewter tops for feeding bottles continued in use for some time after it became possible to make glass vessels at competitive prices. This type's simple screw-top flask design makes its inner surfaces more readily accessible than was often the case, but it nevertheless has areas which could not be seen for cleaning, and is likely to have made its own contribution to infant mortality.