Description:
One of 12 dark green blown glass wine bottles with an applied circular seal impressed with the college seal and "A.S.C.R." for the All Souls' Common Room, Oxford, England. According to Sheelah Ruggles-Brise in "Sealed Bottles": "Later on in the 18th century...bottles were produced bearing the initials of various Oxford colleges. It is believed that these bottles were the propery of the taverners or wine-merchants, and not of the colleges, as the buttery accounts of the latter have been searched as far back as 1700 and no charges for bottles have been found. Where on these seals the letters "C.R." (Common Room) also occur, it means that the wine was for the College Dons, but where there is no "C.R.", it is the wine provided for the undergraduates. The earliest of these bottles that I know of is dated 1744 and the latest are 19th century." The seal initials are either in block or script letters; the bottles range in height from 10 1/4" to 12". In the early 17th century, English glass manufacturers perfected a "black glass" that was suitable for making sturdy bottles for the domestic and export market. The dark color of the glass (a result of iron impurities in the sand source and the sulfurous fumes from the coal to fire the glass furnace) protected the contents from spoilage. Wine bottle was a generic term, for such bottles held porter, ale, beer, distilled liquors, fortified wines, and a variety of spirits. English bottles typically have a dark olive-green color, large sandy pontil mark, high kick or push-up base, thick walls, and an applied string finish to the lip. This bottle has an applied, deflexed string rim, shorter tapered neck, sloping shoulders, straight sides with bulging base and large, sandy pontil mark in base.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+67.257B |
