Not currently on display at the V&A

Bottle Ticket

1852-1853 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This ticket would have hung round the neck of a bottle or decanter of Madeira wine. Bottle tickets identified the contents of a bottle or decanter, which might alternatively contain spirits, sauces, toilet waters or cordials. 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, mark of Willmore, Yapp and Woodward, Birmingham hallmarks for 1852-1853
Physical description
Bottle ticket with the word MADEIRA (pierced lettering). Silver, in the form of a vine leaf with chain attached.
Dimensions
  • Height: 1.5in
  • Length: 1.5in
Marks and inscriptions
  • Mark of Willmore, Yapp and Woodward
  • Birmingham hallmarks for 1852-3
  • MADEIRA
Credit line
P. J. Cropper Bequest
Subject depicted
Summary
This ticket would have hung round the neck of a bottle or decanter of Madeira wine. Bottle tickets identified the contents of a bottle or decanter, which might alternatively contain spirits, sauces, toilet waters or cordials. 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.800-1944

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Record createdJanuary 6, 2005
Record URL
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