Georgian Sealed Wine Bottles and Early Georgian Wine Bottles mat still be used.
Antique Georgian bottle collecting is, of course, a hobby and sphere of endeavour in its own right (labeorphily is confined to beer bottles, I am advised), but there is a degree of crossover with our own items of interest, and we do have antique wine bottles for sale. Old glass bottles sit alongside our other lines, particularly Georgian wine bottles and Georgian sealed glass bottles as they were obviously intended to contain something which would be best served in some form of antique stemware to ‘close the loop’ from point of sale to consumption.
Bottle glass is generally a rather derogatory term for unrefined, green tinted material used to make utilitarian wares, not just antique glass bottles. Black glass, green glass, amber colored and some very rare cobalt blue glass botttles still survive. Sealed wine bottles, that bear the crest of the family, organisation or establishment which commissioned the bottles to be made or the supply of (invariably) wine which they once contained and give a fascinating historical insight in to contemporary history, and the research required to determine to whom they may once have belonged can be a rewarding process regardless of the age, type of bottle or value.
Some sealed bottles, with their original contents intact, obviously have that additional x-factor, and the deliciously teasing decision as to whether or not they should be opened; our one experience dictates that this, sadly, is generally a waste of time, and you end up with a less-valuable bottle – and some 200 year old vinegar.
Identifiable bottle styles which can be attributed to different locations may be used to trace the way in which common usage extended along established trade routes; onion bottles which come from the upper Rhineland, the Dutch republic and eastern England illustrate the shared commerce across the North Sea, for instance, either through the spread of the bottles themselves or the commonality of the design, shared and used in different manufacturing centres – another aspect of social history.
