The Cultural History of Marlborough, Virginia Part 26

[196] DOW, op. cit. (footnote 178), pp. 85-95.

[197] RACKHAM, op. cit. (footnote 185), p. 29; RACKHAM and READ, op. cit. (footnote 186), pp. 107-109.

[198] W. B. HONEY, _English Pottery and Porcelain_ (London: 1947), p. 89. [F99] _Wedgwood Catalogue of Bodies, Glazes and Shapes Current for 1940-1960_ (Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent: Warwick Savage, n.d.), pp. M1, M2.

[200] "The Editor's Attic" and cover: _Antiques_ (New York, June 1928), vol. 13, no. 6, pp. 474-475.

[201] RACKHAM and READ, op. cit. (footnote 186), p. 110.

[202] J. A. LLOYD HYDE, _Oriental Lowestoft_ (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936), p. 23.

XVI

_Gla.s.s_

BOTTLES

ROUND BEVERAGE BOTTLES.--Bottles of dark-green gla.s.s were used in the colonial period for wine, beer, rum, and other potables. Although some wines and liquors were shipped in the bottle, they were distributed for the most part in casks, hogsheads, and "pipes" before 1750. John Mercer recorded the purchases of several pipes of wine--kinds unspecified--a pipe being a large or even double-size hogshead. He purchased rum by the gallon, in quant.i.ties that ranged from 2 quarts in 1744 to "5 galls Barbadoes Spirits" in 1745 and a "hhd 107-1/2 gall Rum" in 1748.

Bottles were used largely for household storage and for the serving of liquors. They were kept filled in the b.u.t.tery as a convenience against going to the cellar each time a drink was wanted. Bottles usually were brought directly to the table,[203] although the clear-gla.s.s decanter was apparently regarded as a more genteel dispenser. Mercer, like his contemporaries, bought his own bottles, as when he purchased "2 doz bottles" from John Foward in 1730. The previous year he had acquired a gross of corks, which would customarily have been inserted in his bottles and secured by covering with cloth, tying around the lips or string rings with packthread, and sealing with warm resin and pitch.

Some wines were purchased in the bottle. In 1726 Mercer bought "2 doz & 8 bottles Claret" and "1 doz Canary" from Alexander McFarlane. In 1745 he charged Overwharton Parish for "2 bottles Claret to Acquia,"

apparently for communion wine. Whether all this was shipped from the vineyards in bottles, or whether Mercer brought his own bottles to be filled from the storekeepers' casks is not revealed.

An insight into the kinds of alcoholic drinks consumed in Virginia in Mercer's early period is given in the official price-list for the sale of alcoholic beverages set forth in the York County Court Orders in 1726:[204]

This Court do Sett the Rate Liquors as followeth:

s. d.

Liquors Rated

Each diet 1

Lodging for each person 7-1/2

Stable Room & Fodder for each horse p^r night 11-1/4

Each Gallon corn 7-1/2

Wine of Virg^a produce p Quart 5

French Brandy p Quart 4

Sherry & Canary Wine p Quart 4 4-1/2

Red & white Lisbon p^r Quart & Claret 3 1-1/2

Madera Wine p Quart 1 10-1/2

Fyall wine p Quart 1 3

French Brandy Punch p Quart 2

Rum & Virg^a Brandy p^r Quart 3-3/4

Rum punch & flip p^r Quart 7-1/2^d made with white sugar 9

Virg^a midling beer & Syder p^r Quart 3-3/4

Fine bottled Syder p^r Quart 1 3

Bristoll Beer Bottles 1

Arrack p^r Quart 10

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 78.--WINE BOTTLE, sealed with initials of John and Catherine Mercer, dated 1737 (see p. 148). Found in Structure D refuse pit. Height, 8 inches. (See also ill. 37.)]

It will be noted that Bristol beer was sold by the bottle, probably just as it was shipped, and "Fine bottled Syder" apparently came in quart bottles. Probably the wines were dispensed from casks in wine measures.

Mercer bought Citron water in bottles, a half dozen at a time, as he did "Mint, Orange flower & Tansey D^o," in 1744.

Round beverage bottles ranged in shape from, roughly, the form of a squat onion at the beginning of the 18th century to narrow cylindrical bottles towards the end of the century. The earliest bottles were free-blown without the constraint of a mold, hence there were many variations in shape. After about 1730 bottles were blown into crude clay molds which imparted a roughly cylindrical or taper-sided contour below sloping shoulders and necks. These marked the first recognition of binning as a way of storing wines in bottles laid on their sides. About 1750 the Bristol gla.s.shouses introduced cylindrical bra.s.s molds.[205]

From then on the problem of stacking bottles in bins was solved and virtually all round beverage bottles thenceforward were cylindrical with long necks.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 35.--Beverage bottle. First quarter, 18th century. Reconstruction based on whole bottle found at Rosewell.

One-half. (USNM 59.1717.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 36.--Above, beverage-bottle seal, with initials of John and Catherine Mercer, matching the tobacco-cask mark used for tobacco grown at the "home plantation" (Marlborough). See figures 8 and 79. Same size. (USNM 59.1689.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 37.--At right, complete beverage bottle, dated 1737, with initials of John and Catherine Mercer (fig. 78). Same size. (USNM 59.1688.)]

At Marlborough the earliest form of wine bottle is represented by a squat neck and a base fragment (USNM 59.1717, ill. 35), both matching onion-shaped bottles of the turn of the century, such as one excavated at Rosewell (USNM 60.660). Except for these fragments, the oldest form from Marlborough may be seen in the complete bottle found in refuse pit D (USNM 59.1688; fig. 78, ill. 37). This bottle is typical of the transitional form, sealed examples of which regularly occur bearing dates in the 1730's. Its sides are straight for about three inches above the curve of the base, tapering slightly to the irregular shoulder that curves in and up to a neck with wedge-shaped string ring. Two inches above the base is a seal, bearing the initials I^[C.]M above a decorative device and the date 1737. The arrangement of initials exactly matches that found on Mercer's tobacco-cask seals (p. 30 and footnote 89) indicating the "home plantation" at Marlborough.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 79.--BOTTLE SEALS. (See ill. 36.)]

Seals were applied by dropping a gather of gla.s.s on the hot surface of a newly blown bottle, then pressing into this deposit of gla.s.s a bra.s.s stamp bearing a design, initials, date, etc. Three similar seals from broken bottles also were found. The same arrangement of initials, but with no date or device of any kind, occurs on seven different seals (fig. 79, ills. 36 and 37).

The diameter of the base of the sealed beverage bottle is 5-1/2 inches, the widest diameter occurring on any bottle fragments from Marlborough, excepting the early specimen mentioned above. Bases in gradually decreasing dimensions vary from this size to 2-3/4 inches. Six bases run from 5 inches to 5-1/2 inches; 11 are over 4-1/2 inches and up to 5 inches; 4 are over 4 inches and up to 4-1/2 inches; 3 are over 3-1/2 inches and up to 4 inches; none, except the smallest of 2-3/4 inches, found in a mid-19th-century deposit, is less than 3-3/4 inches.

FOOTNOTES:

[203] LADY SHEELAH RUGGLES-BRISE, _Sealed Bottles_ (London: Country Life, Ltd.; New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1949), p. 18.

[204] _York County (Virginia) Orders & Wills 1716-1726_ (in York County courthouse, Yorktown, Va.), no. 15, p. 571.