The Cultural History of Marlborough, Virginia Part 27

[205] "Old English Wine Bottles," _The Wine and Spirit Trade Record_ (London, December 17, 1951), pp. 1570-1571.

BEVERAGE-BOTTLE BASES

_USNM_ _Inches in_ _No._ _Diameter_ _Provenience_

59.1688 5-1/2 Refuse pit D 59.1717 6 Structure F, firing chamber 59.1717 4-1/2 Structure F, firing chamber 59.1717 4-3/4 Structure F, firing chamber 59.1717 4-7/8 Structure F, firing chamber 59.1717 5 Structure F, firing chamber 59.1717 5-1/8 Structure F, firing chamber 59.1793 2-3/4 S.W. corner, Structure B 59.1870 5-1/4 Wall D, trench 59.1918 4 Structure E, N. side, Room X 59.1921 3-3/4 Debris area, N.E. corner, Structure E 59.1957 5 Structure F, N.E. corner of pavement 59.1957 5 Structure F, N.E. corner of pavement 59.1998 4-3/4 Structure E, N. of fireplace, Room X 59.1998 4-3/4 Structure E, N. of fireplace, Room X 59.2007 3-7/8 North of Structure E, lowest level 59.2007 4-1/4 North of Structure E, lowest level 60.83 4-1/2 Wall E, gateway 60.103 4-3/4 Trench along Wall E 60.117 5-1/8 Junction of Walls A-I and A-II 60.117 4-5/8 Junction of Walls A-I and A-II 60.120 5-1/2 Trash pit no. 2 60.123 5-1/2 Trash pit no. 2

Since beverage-bottle diameters diminished from about 5 inches in the 1750's and 1760's to about 4 inches in the 1770's and 1780's and to 3-1/2 inches in the 1790's and early 1800's, the peak of their incidence at Marlborough occurs between 1750 and 1770, the period of greatest opulence in the Mercer household.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 38.--Upper left, cylindrical beverage bottle, about 1760. One-fourth. (USNM 59.1998.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 39.--Upper right, cylindrical beverage bottle, late 18th or early 19th century. One-fourth. (USNM 59.1976, 59.2007.)]

OCTAGONAL BEVERAGE BOTTLES.--A rarely seen variation from the round beverage bottle is a club-shaped, octagonal, molded type with long neck, perhaps so shaped in order to permit packing in cases. Cider is said to have been put up in such bottles, and it is also possible that brandies and liqueurs were delivered in them. A quart-size bottle of this shape at Colonial Williamsburg bears the seal "I. Greenhow WmsBgh. 1769."

Another, purchased in England, in the G. H. Kernodle collection at the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution, also has a seal with the name "Jn^o Collings, 1736" (USNM 59.2170). A pint-size example, 9 inches high and dated 1736, is ill.u.s.trated in plate 95e in the Wine Trade Loan Exhibition catalog.[206] A restored bottle of this form from Marlborough (USNM 59.1687, fig. 80, ill. 40) is 8 inches high, but bears no seal. Among the gla.s.s found at Marlborough are also three bases and other fragments of similar bottles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 40.--Octagonal, pint-size beverage bottle.

See figure 80. Half size. (USNM 59.1687.)]

SQUARE "GIN" BOTTLES.--Square bottles, usually called "gin" bottles, occur in the Marlborough material. Two base sections and lower pieces of the flat sides have been partly restored (USNM 59.1685, 59.1686, ill.

41), and a neck and shoulder have survived. The bases are 4 inches square, and the whole bottles were probably about 10 inches high. They did not taper but maintained a continuous dimension from shoulder to base. The bases, which are rounded on the corners, have a slightly domed kick-up with a ring-shaped pontil mark. The gla.s.s is olive green. The necks are squat--barely 7/8 inch--and have wide string rings midway in their length.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 80.--OCTAGONAL SPIRITS BOTTLE.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 41.--Square gin bottle. One-fourth. (USNM 59.1686, base; 59.1685, top.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 42.--Square snuff bottle. One-half. See figure 81. (USNM 59.1680.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 81.--SNUFF BOTTLE. (See ill. 42.)]

Square "gin" bottles were designed for shipment in wooden boxes with compartments in which the bottles fit snugly. Although Dutch gin customarily was shipped in bottles of this shape, indications are that the square bottles may have been used for other purposes than holding gin. For one thing, Mercer's ledgers mention no purchases of gin. There is, in fact, almost no evidence of the sale of gin in Virginia; a single announcement of Holland gin available in Williamsburg in 1752 is the exception until 1773, when gin was again advertised in the _Virginia Gazette_.[207] Its sale had been prohibited in England in 1736.[208] For another thing, square bottles were both imported and manufactured in America for sale new. In 1760 the Germantown gla.s.sworks in Braintree, Ma.s.sachusetts, made "Round and square Bottles, from one to four Quarts; also Cases of Bottles of all Sizes ...,"[209], while George Ball, of New York, in 1775 advertised that he imported "Green gla.s.s Gallon square bottles, Two quart ditto, Pint ditto."[210]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 43.--Upper left, winegla.s.s, reconstructed from base fragment having enamel twist for stem. One-half. (USNM 59.1761.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 44.--Upper right, cordial gla.s.s. One-fourth.

(USNM 59.1607.)]

A smaller base (USNM 59.1642) has a high kick-up, the dome of which intersects the sides of the base so that the bottle rests on four points separated by arcs. This fragment measures 3 inches square. An even smaller version (USNM 59.1977) is 2-3/4 inches.

SNUFF BOTTLES.--Several items in Mercer's ledgers record the purchase of snuff, such as one for a "bottle of snuff" in 1731 for 15d., another in 1743 for 3s., and a third in 1744 for 1s. 6d. Among the artifacts is a partly restored bottle of olive-green gla.s.s, shaped like a gin bottle but of smaller dimensions, with a 2-1/4-inch-wide mouth (USNM 59.1686, fig. 81). The bottle is 3-3/4 inches square and 7 inches tall. It has a low kick-up and a smooth pontil mark. Also among the artifacts are a matching base and several sherds of similar bottles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 45.--Sherds of engraved-gla.s.s wine and cordial gla.s.ses (fig. 82c). Same size. (USNM 59.1634, 59.1864.)]

MEDICINE BOTTLES.--Only a few fragments of medicine bottles occurred in the Marlborough artifacts. This is surprising, in view of Mercer's many ailments and his statements that he had purchased "British Oyl,"

"Holloway's Citrate," and other patent nostrums of his day. A round base from a greenish, cylindrical bottle (USNM 59.2056) seems to represent an Opadeldoc bottle. Another base is rectangular with notched corners. The last, as well as the base of a molded, basket-pattern scent bottle (USNM 59.2093) may be early 19th century in date. Other medicine-bottle fragments are all 19th century, some quite late (fig. 82).

FOOTNOTES:

[206] _Wine Trade Loan Exhibition of Drinking Vessels_ [catalog] (London, 1933), no. 226, p. 26, pl. 95.

[207] CAPPON & DUFF, _Virginia Gazette Index 1736-1780_, op.

cit. (footnote 93), vol. 1, p. 451.

[208] ANDRE SIMON, _Drink_ (New York: Horizon Press, Inc., 1953), pp. 139-140.

[209] DOW, op. cit. (footnote 178), p. 104.

[210] RITA SUSSWEIN, _The Arts & Crafts in New York, 1726-1776_ (New York: J. J. Little and Ives Co., 1938), p.

99. (Printed for the New-York Historical Society.)

TABLE GLa.s.s

A minimum of table-gla.s.s sherds was recovered, and these were fragmentary. Gla.s.s is scarcely mentioned in Mercer's accounts, although there is no reason to suppose that Marlborough was any less well furnished with fine crystal than with other elegant objects that we know about. Three sherds of heavy lead gla.s.s have the thickness and contours of early 18th-century English decanters, matching more complete fragments from Rosewell and a specimen ill.u.s.trated in plate 98a in the Wine Trade Loan Exhibition catalog.[211] Two fragments are body sherds; the third is from a lip and neck.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 46.--Clear-gla.s.s tumbler blown in a ribbed mold (fig. 82b). Same size. (USNM 59.1864.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 47.--Octagonal cut-gla.s.s trencher salt (fig.

82a). Same size. (USNM 59.1830.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 82.--GLa.s.sWARE: a, cut-gla.s.s salt (ill. 47); b, tumbler base (ill. 46); c, engraved sherds (ill. 45); d, tumbler and winegla.s.s sherds; e, part of candle arm (see p. 154); f, mirror fragment; g, window gla.s.s; and h, medicine-bottle sherds.]

Several forms of drinking gla.s.ses are indicated. A fragment of a foot from a long-stemmed cordial gla.s.s shows the termini of white-enamel threads that were comprised in a double enamel-twist stem. The twists consisted of a spiral ribbon of fine threads near the surface of the stem, with a heavy single spiral at the core. The indicated diameter of the foot is 3-1/4 inches (USNM 59.1761, ill. 43).

Fragments of large knops are probably from heavy bal.u.s.ter winegla.s.ses dating from Mercer's early period before 1750. A teardrop stem from a trumpet-bowl winegla.s.s has been melted past recognition in a fire. The stem of a bucket-bowl cordial gla.s.s has suffered in the same manner (USNM 59.1607). Still with their shapes intact are two stems and base sections of bucket-bowl winegla.s.s. Two engraved bowl sherds from similar-shaped cordial gla.s.ses and a rim sherd from another engraved piece are the only fragments with surface decoration (USNM 59.1634, 59.1864, ill. 45). Several sherds of foot rims, varying in diameter, were found, including one with a folded or "welted" edge.

Tumblers, depending on their sizes, were used for strong spirits, toddy, flip, and water. The base and body sherds of a molded tumbler from Marlborough are fluted in quadruple ribs that are separated by panels 1/4-inch wide (USNM 59.1864, fig. 82c, ill. 46). Plain, blown tumbler bases have indicated diameters of 3 inches.

A few unusual, as well as more typical, forms are indicated by the Marlborough gla.s.s sherds. One small fragment comes from a large f.l.a.n.g.ed cover, probably from a sweetmeat bowl or a posset pot. A specimen of more than usual interest is a pressed or cast cut-gla.s.s octagonal trencher salt (USNM 59.1830, fig. 82a, ill. 47). This artifact reflects silver and pewter salt forms of about 1725. A curved section of a heavy gla.s.s rod is apparently from a chandelier, candelabrum, or sconce gla.s.s (USNM 59.1696, fig. 82e). We have seen that Mercer, in 1748, bought "1 superfine large gilt Sconce gla.s.s."

Although precise dates cannot be ascribed to any of this gla.s.s, it all derives without much question from the period of Mercer's occupancy of Marlborough.

FOOTNOTES:

[211] Op. cit. (footnote 206), no. 244, p. 66, pl. 68.

MIRROR AND WINDOW GLa.s.s

We know from the ledgers that there were sconce and looking gla.s.ses at Marlborough. Archeological refuse supplies us with confirmation in pieces of clear lead gla.s.s with slight surviving evidence of the tinfoil and mercury with which the backs originally were coated. One piece (USNM 59.1693) has a beveled edge 7/8 inch wide, characteristic of plate-gla.s.s wall mirrors of the colonial period. A curved groove on this piece, along which the fracture occurred, is probable evidence of engraved decoration.

Window gla.s.s is of two princ.i.p.al types. One has a pale-olive cast. A few fragments of this type have finished edges, indicating that they are from the perimeters of sheets of crown gla.s.s and that Mercer purchased whole crown sheets and had them cut up. It may be a.s.sumed that this greenish gla.s.s is the oldest, perhaps surviving from Mercer's early period.

The other type is the more familiar aquamarine window gla.s.s still to be found in 18th-century houses. A large corner of a rectangular pane has the slightly bent contour of crown gla.s.s, which is the English type of window gla.s.s made by blowing great bubbles of gla.s.s which were spun to form huge discs. The discs sometimes were cut up into panes of stock sizes and then shipped to America, or else were sent in whole sheets, to be cut up by storekeepers here or to be sold directly to planters and other users of window gla.s.s in quant.i.ty.

The centers of these sheets increased in thickness and bore large scars where the ma.s.sive pontil rods which had held the sheets during their manipulation were broken off. The center portions also were cut into panes, which were used in transom lights and windows where light was needed but a view was not. Hence they served not only to utilize an otherwise useless part of the crown-gla.s.s sheets, but also to impart a decorative quality to the window. They are still known to us as "bullseyes." A piece of a bullseye pane of aquamarine gla.s.s occurs in the Marlborough finds. The pontil scar itself is missing, but the thick curving section leaves little doubt as to its original appearance. A similar fragment was found at Rosewell.