Topic: Pressed glass bottle seems a lot of trouble for just a bottle

[stew2u2]

any ideas what this bottle was for. it has what looks like dancers around the bottle with musical instruments in between.

[Paul S.]

modern misconception, I'm sure, to think that such a piece is overdone in terms of decoration/style, although granted most older bottles for alcohol were plain and without this decoration in relief.           On the other hand bottles for lemonade and other fizzy drinks were often provided with advertising logos, trade marks, name of the manufacturer, and various form of decoration -  all in relief.       Codd bottles usually have something along these lines.

When this was made, there probably wasn't much of an alternative to earthenware or glass in which you could convey/transport/sell a liquid  -  wages were nominal, pensions didn't exist, no welfare state, sick pay, holiday pay etc............   so overheads for a factory owner were almost non-existent, and production costs were minimal.
If you knew the market was going to be big, then a motif on your bottles would make them more attractive.

Haven't a clue about this one, but intuitive guess would suggest this is for some sort of non-alcoholic drink, and could be anywhere from 1880 to 1910 perhaps, but as I say only guessing, and origin might be anywhere.
Of course always a chance it's a repro  -  does it appear to have genuine age??

How did you acquire this bottle?   

[Anne]

I was thinking that it sounds very Bacchanalian with music and dancing and booze! 

[chopin-liszt]

My guts immediately thought "Grappa" when they saw it.
Then they turned a little on me.  

[Paul S.]

I looked on the screen and there seemed to be an endless variety of mould decorated soda/lemonade type bottles from late Victoriana to George V, so perhaps went marching down the wrong road  -  again.

sorry not heard of Grappa  -  obviously I don't get out enough  -  do I get the impression that you girls north of the Watford Gap think only of booze.

I suspect there is a forum devoted to bottle collectors  -  and they might really know the answer.

[Lustrousstone]

Whatever it is, it's not pressed, you'd never get the plunger out... It's mould blown.

[Paul S.]

if it were bacchanalian i.e. alcohol related, is it always, or even generally, the case that Bacchus himself is depicted??

[stew2u2]

i meant mould blown Christine. to me it looks like clear glass with an amber colour sprayed flashed on.

[chopin-liszt]

Grappa is a liqueuer made from the sticks and pips left over from bunches of grapes (once all the good bits have been removed).
It tends to appear in fancy bottles, often with a champagne type of stopper with a wax seal. The fancy bottle is to fool innocents into buying it.
My first (and last) experience of it was in a campsite, I was about 12 years old. Mother had thought she had bought herself a bottle of bubbly, took a swig of it, then passed it to me to test it on after she'd discovered it was something really nasty rather than bubbly.

[Ivo]

I disagree with you as much as the Grappa did. Grappa is a carefully distilled drink, taken in a small glass next to your after dinner esprresso. Some Grappas cost a fortune - just like vintage malt whisky - and for a good reason. In France they call it Marc, in Spain Oruja. Just do not ever feed it to pets or children under 16.