Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Silver, Room 67, The Whiteley Galleries

Bottle Ticket

1863-1864 (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. Here the contents would have been a tangerine cordial, a type of soft drink with a fruit base.

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
Brief description
Silver, London hallmarks for 1863-1864, mark of Thomas Henry Francis and Frederick Francis
Physical description
Bottle ticket (one of a set of three) with the word TANGERINE (pierced lettering). Silver, quatrefoil escutcheon with beaded border surmounted by a crest of a tiger's head erased, chain attached.
Dimensions
  • Length: 3.5cm
  • Width: 4.5cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • Mark of T.H.F & F.F for Thomas Henry Francis and Frederick Francis, sterling, leopard’s head, date letter ‘h’, duty.
  • London hallmarks for 1863-1864
  • Crest of a tiger's head, erased (unidentified)
  • TANGERINE
Gallery label
"TANGERINE" London, 1863-4 Mark of ThomasHenry and Frederick Francis Crest: a dragon's head M.1014-1944(2000)
Credit line
P. J. Cropper Bequest
Object history
Acquisition RF: 44 / 177
Bequest - P.J. Cropper
per W J Sheldrick
Tangerine is a cordial.
Subject depicted
Summary
Bottle tickets identified the contents of a bottle or decanter, which might alternatively contain spirits, sauces, toilet waters or cordials. Here the contents would have been a tangerine cordial, a type of soft drink with a fruit base.

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.
Associated objects
Collection
Accession number
M.1014-1944

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Record createdMarch 3, 2004
Record URL
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