Passion bottle, blown glass containing coloured lampworked glass figures floating in liquid, France, ca. 1900 - 1948

Passion bottle, consisting of sealed clear colourless blown glass barometer bottle containing liquid, probably water. In the liquid float a number of coloured, hollow, air-filled glass tubes, the upper end bulbous. To the lower end of the tubes are tied a variety of small coloured lampworked glass pendants. These are called 'Cartesian divers' in English or 'Ludions' in French, and in this case they represent symbols of the Passion of Christ.

Bequeathed by Oppi Untracht

According to Oppi Untracht's record card for this bottle, he purchased it in Paris in 1949 from the maker at a premises on the Boulevard Raspail. The maker described it as a 'Ludion du Passion de Christe' and he also made 'Ludions de la Mer' and other subjects.
Alvin Joseph (better known as 'Oppi') Untracht was an American photographer who trained as a goldsmith, jeweller and enameller. Also an historian, teacher, writer and collector, he became an expert on the jewellery of India and Nepal. He married the Finnish jeweller and glass designer Saara Hopea in 1960 and from 1967 they lived in Porvoo, Finland. The Museum has several examples of Saara Hopea-Untracht's work (glassware, ceramics, enamel dishes, gold rings and patchwork) and one enamelled covered bowl by Oppi Untracht, made in New York in 1955.
Oppi Untracht generously bequeathed to the V&A his collections of 19th and 20th-century Indian silver jewellery, Nepalese metalwork and photographic archive recording India and Nepal in the 1950s and 1960s. He had been awarded two Fulbright grants to study metalworking and jewellery there. His books such as 'Enamelling on Copper' (1957), 'Metal Techniques for Craftsmen' (1968) and 'Jewelry Concepts and Technology' (1982) are still standard texts. In 1988, he published 'Saara Hopea-Untracht - Life and Work', and his book 'Traditional Indian Jewelry' (2000) embodied decades of research.

The Italian physicist Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642) discovered the physical principle by which the density of water changes as its temperature fluctuates. He made the first known (open bottle) thermoscope in about 1592. As water cools, it becomes denser and bubbles of glass float towards the surface. A 17th century Florentine development was the sealed bottle with enclosed glass bubbles floating in water or 'spirit of wine', with a layer of air remaining at the top of the bottle.
A further modification was the production of small pendants attached to the glass bubbles as with this example. These 'Cartesian divers', 'Cartesian devils' or 'bottle imps' were so-called after the French mathematician and philosopher, René Descartes (1596 - 1650), though no direct connection with his work.
From the 18th century, bottles said to contain water from a fountain at the pilgrimage site of the Black Madonna of Liesse, a village near Laon, northern France, were produced for sale to pilgrims. These contained Cartesian divers which were mainly in the form of symbols relating to the life and Passion of Christ. Many such bottles were made by the master glassblower Alexandre Soudart (1852-1934) who lived in Sars-Poteries, France between 1850 and 1914. However, there may have been other makers of Passion bottles and Oppi Untracht's record card for the bottle that he has bequeathed to the Museum indicates a different but as yet unknown maker retailing from the Boulevard Raspail, Paris in 1949.

This Passion bottle was made in France, probably in the period 1900 - 1948. It was purchased in Paris in 1949, apparently from the maker. Although essentially a type of barometer bottle, the development of which orginated with the experiments of Italian physicist Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), the addition of floating symbols relating to the Passion of Christ indicate an identification with pilgrimage souvenirs. Similar examples (not necessarily including this one) were sold to visitors to the pilgrimage site of the Black Madonna of Liesse, a village near Laon in northern France.

C.110-2011