Not currently on display at the V&A

Bottle Ticket

ca. 1850 (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 were claret, the English name for a light, red wine made in the Bordeaux region of south-west France. 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
Electroplated nickel silver, stamped and engraved
Brief description
Electroplated nickel silver, England, ca.1850
Physical description
Bottle ticket with the word CLARET (engraved). Electroplate, oblong with cut corners, stamped, foliated border between reeds and chain attached.
Dimensions
  • Height: 0.875in
  • Length: 2.25in
Marks and inscriptions
  • No marks
  • CLARET
Credit line
P. J. Cropper Bequest
Summary
Bottle tickets identified the contents of a bottle or decanter, which might alternatively contain spirits, sauces, toilet waters or cordials. Here the contents were claret, the English name for a light, red wine made in the Bordeaux region of south-west France. 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.
Collection
Accession number
M.307-1944

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Record createdDecember 17, 2004
Record URL
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