Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: David E on November 12, 2008, 10:48:38 AM
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I'm posting this on behalf of someone else, who queried it on a Birmingham forum:
http://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=20000
... worth referring to for earlier comments.
The best guess appears to be a whisky dispenser used in the brewery trade – any other suggestions?
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I think we need to know the volume between the divisions.
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Hi it's my jar, I am a bit confused with this so bear with me please, It says Qts at top and then 1 2 3 4 down the centre
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This suggests quarts, so the total volume is one gallon/eight pints - rather large for spirits then?
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OK, so it holds four quarts = 1 gallon, which means that each of the smaller divisions (each measure) is half a pint. This probably means it wasn't designed for spirits, or certainly not whisky, which has always been expensive. I would suggest something longer
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I remember similar jars being used for selling cologne in department stores and barber shops as late as the sixties. They had a little glass tap and you brought along your own cologne bottle and have it filled.
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Thanks Ivo. The size of the jar is misleading and a gallon (4.54 litres) tends to indicate larger dispensing, so cologne could certainly apply, as would the fancy engraving.
The only queries now are the reason for the large aperture at the top, and a possible country of manufacture. Any clues?
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Large aperture for easy refilling with a jug or bottle and either a cork or a glass cover, presumably something that didn't evaporate too fast
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The owner's mother used to have a candy shop. With such a large outlet and wide top, might it not have been used for some kind of candy? Just an alternative idea.
Isn't cologne kind of expensive and the bottles often pretty small? Seems like with cologne you'd want smaller gradations.
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please do not treat this as a guessing game.
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Kristi, candy wouldn't have been measured in quarts. :)
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No, but you can't have gradations of weight on something like this to measure candy, either. Hypothetically speaking, the volume gradations could have serve as approximations for weight when dishing out something like candy.
I haven't seen the cologne dispensers Ivo is talking about, but the glass urns, whiskey barrels, samovars, etc. that I've seen all had taps much smaller than the tube sticking out of this piece, and it seems odd that this one's so big. Anyone with knowledge of different kinds of taps that might be suitable here?
please do not treat this as a guessing game.
What is the standard here? Some guesses are okay and some aren't? Or is it that some people's guesses are okay, and others' aren't? What's the problem with suggesting alternatives, even if they end up being wrong?
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The best guess appears to be a whisky dispenser used in the brewery trade – any other suggestions?
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Another guess - what if the gradations are used when mixing things, rather than for measuring how much is poured?
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It was something served or sold in half pints. Possibly a soft drink like still lemonade or squash for the ladies. The large aperture may have been so you could give "it" a stir if it settled. Relatively large volume measures, larger tap for faster dispensing. Also, ready mixed cocktails both alcoholic and non-alcoholic were popular in the 1930s. See Silver Jubilee programme for 1935; there were 39 varieties of cocktail. We think alocopops are new(ish)!
I think we can rule out spirits.
Sweets came in large glass glass jars or boxes and were sold by number, weight or paper cone full. I think we can rule out sweets as well.
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http://link.marktplaats.nl/207470584
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Back to the soft drinks thought, that would fit in nicely with a sweetshop. After all you could go to the offsales dept of a pub with a jug for beer and have it filled, the same as you could go to the shop or the icecream man with a bowl for icecream
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I would not rule out spirits, gin was certainly sold by the quart into your own containers
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There you go - ready mixed cocktails! Making them would much easier with gradations on the tank and a large opening to stir the mix. Or fountain drinks? Would they have come in concentrate?
This is a pretty piece. It was made to look good and display the contents nicely. Being only a gallon, it seems like if it were made to refill pint and quart bottles of liquor on a commercial basis, it would empty pretty quickly. And why not pour that from the bottle or cask or whatever it came in?
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Given the history of the item - the enquirer's grandmother's off-licence - it would suggest an alcoholic drink of some sort, but the wide opening to allow the contents to be stirred is a good point, I feel. Surely a liquid dispenser.
On the original forum, an American soda fountain was suggested (here (http://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=20000&page=3), about half-way down), but was there ever something like that in Britain?
Would identifying the country of manufacture, or the style of glass cutting, be of help?
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I suggest emailing a photo to this pharmacy museum or one in Europe, they might know what it was.
http://www.drugstoremuseum.com/index.php (http://www.drugstoremuseum.com/index.php)
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This might be a daft question David, but have you shown your mother the photo; she might have seen something similar
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grandmother's off-licence
Is that what an "outdoor" is? And what exactly is an off-licence?
The cutting is pretty nondescript. It seems kind of odd, actually, but maybe I'm not seeing it right. Palm trees? Maybe it was for pina coladas!
Aha! Looks like the liquor dispenser idea was on the right track. (Whoever thought of a candy holder?! What a silly notion. ;D)
http://www.rubylane.com/shops/colinstrongantiques/item/8021
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Off-license is an English/Welsh license to sell alcoholic drinks that can be consumed outside the premises. So usually a shop but some English pubs, whose licenses only permits consumption on the premises, also have an off-license for take-away sales. It used to be the practise to bring home a jug of beer for Sunday dinner (lunch) for the men of the house to drink with dinner.
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Looks like David's first guess was the best after all :clap: and well done Kristi for getting the proof.
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Excellent. Given the similarities to the Ruby Lane object, that's almost certainly what it is. Possibly British-made then and apparently without its lid.
Thanks everyone.
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I would just like to thank you all so much for identifying the glass jar, it has been in my cupboard for years and I have kept meaning to try and find out what it was. it has a bit of damage on the bottom so i might see if I can get if fixed and then i might go about trying to sell it. Once again a BIG BIG thank you, and to you David who put me in touch with these wonderful people
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Except it's perhaps not for whisky per se. Those ones have no graduations on them and look more like they were for dispensing shots in a pub rather than half pints of something or other
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I agree. I personally still think the size, graduations, and the ornamentation suggest it was designed for mixed drinks of some sort, dispensed in individual servings. Tough to verify though!