Topic: Int. Bottle Co. Rd. 758156 - 23.09.1930

[Paul S.]

Since I was going to The National Archives today thought I'd have a look at the original application for this bottle  -  which it seems has a slightly more complex history than most Registrations  -  hope the wording is legible.                       On the reverse of the blue paper it says.....
'THE NOVELTY LIES IN THE SHAPE OR CONFIGURATION OF THE BOTTLE AS SHEWN IN THE REPRESENTATIONS'.             A comment prompted no doubt by the fact that bottles per se are round..........although I don't get the impression that square ones are either new or innovative .........  they seem to have been around for some few hundred years.

For what contents this might have been intended I'm unsure.........  the stopper has remnants of a cork insert, so presumably not a carbonated/pressured liquid  -  perhaps just a concentrate or sorts.           In view of the various extensions to the Rd., it seems copyright was maintained for fifteen years.                              I like the three birds on the stopper.

The base of the bottle shows (in relief) the Rd. No. and what are probably some factory codes/pattern Nos. etc.

Let me know if the wording isn't clear.

[agincourt17]

An interesting bottle, Paul – love the stopper.

I wonder if ‘configuration’ could be construed as being the Art deco pattern on the bottle sides?

I presumed that the design of the bottle and the design registration extensions was in some way linked to Quinnette Products / Limited who are mentioned in the details of the various registrants, so I sought help from Professor Google, who has pointed the way to Quinnettes, a mediaeval house near the centre of Churt, Farnham surrey (GU10 2NU) currently providing housing for retired people.

The following information is extracted from The Churt Parish Council website http://churt.org/36.html
“Records of the house go back to 1572; the name is said to be derived from an early English word `quinnot', meaning a small plot of land. In the grounds is a fine 17th-century barn, now used as a community centre. …References are made in deeds and other documents to Quinnettes in the 16th and 17th centuries. Over the years, it has had various names including Quinnettes, and Hale House. It was renamed College Farm when the Rector of Headley wanted to raise money for a school in his parish, and sold it to The Queen's College, Oxford. A further change of name took place in the early 1900’s when "Quinnettes" became known as Parkhurst Farm.  A local Churt resident born in 1915 recalls Parkhurst Farm (Quinnettes) in her childhood. It was a working farm with a muddy pond in the farmyard, where now stands Quinnettes' lovely garden. Later the farmhouse became two or three cottages for farm labourers. Around 1925 the tied cottages were bought by Cdr. White who converted them into a house with a garden. At some point the property reverted to the name Quinnettes. By the 1930's Mrs Palin-Evans was the owner of Quinnettes. She stripped the interior, rebuilt, decorated in the rather flamboyant style of that era, and her house was photographed and became the subject of an article in a glossy magazine.
The name “quinnette” was used for a soft drink which she and her son manufactured in their premises off Castle Street, Farnham. The quinnette logo, remembered by older Churt residents, showed three owls known as Quizit, Quoffit and Quenchit. The elegant square bottles had an attractive pressed design around the top and bottom and an elaborate stopper. At the outbreak of World War II, the vacant business premises in Farnham were taken over as the Castle Theatre, precursor to the Redgrave. Quinnettes was briefly re-named Cambrian House, but it became known as Quinnettes again in the 1940's.”

So, the three owls on the stopper are named Quizit, Quofitt and Quenchitt (though which is which is not yet obvious), and an explanation found for the bottle design, the contents, and Quinnette Products and their chequered business history. A nice human interest angle revealed, I think, from an otherwise unprepossessing bottle and the bald outline of its design registration details. 

Fred.

[Paul S.]

thanks Fred for what I would say is a very interesting and human side to part of glass history  -  I really did enjoy reading the history - and not forgetting sincere thanks also to professor Google.
I did have a feeling that the birds looked rather like owls  -  and I think the stopper is some sort of composite dense rubber - and lucky it has survived, since they go missing often.