Description:
English delft, triangular-shaped bin label painted "OLD RUM" in overglaze dark purple enamel. Ceramic bin labels, designed to hang in a wine cellar, identified the name of an alcoholic beverage and sometimes a number. Produced from the last years of the eighteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century, bin labels were first made in delftware while the later examples are in creamware, pearlware, and whiteware. Preferred over other materials for their resistance to the damp, these labels were hand cut from a flat bat of clay; this triangular shape with clipped corners was standard. The peak of the label is rounded and pierced with a circular hole for hanging on the end of a bin. Zachariah Barnes, a Liverpool potter of delftware, is credited with making "labels for liquors", and biscuit fragments of wine bin labels were found by David Redstone on the site of the William Sanders pottery at Mortlake. The shape of this label is similar to creamware examples made by Wedgwood; the London attribution is based on the color of the lettering and the glaze. The back is covered with brown paper, which hides the repair work done after the label was broken in many pieces. The term "Old Rum" probably referred to heavy-bodied rums, which were darker and sweeter and distilled by a slower fermentation process. Rum was cheap with a pleasant taste, which American colonists preferred to any other liquor. A staple in the New England economy, most rum was drunk mixed with water, juices, and other alcoholic beverages. It played an integral part in the famous triangle trade with merchants carrying sugar and molasses from the Caribbean to New England, distilled liquor to Africa, which was exchanged for slaves. Butlers were advised in The Inn Keepers' and Butlers' Guide (1806) by John Davies, to purchase "a few dozen delph bin labels with the names of different wines you keep, to hang from the top of the bins or on the outward end of casks." Rectangular bins made of brick or stone were constructed in cellars store store bottled wine, spirits, etc.. These labels proved very popular, probably because they resisted damp better than most materials. When Daniel Delaney died at his Annapolis, Maryland residence in 1753, an inventory of his personal possessions was taken. His Vault and Cellars contained: 153 bottles of claret, 23 of Memsey, 30 of Rhenish, 125 bottles of Fantinack (frontinac), 24 of old bad port, 78 of Manocosy Ale, 20 gallons of Madeira, 38 gallons of Old Rum, 66 Gallons of Rum, and several cases of Cane spirits.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+54.069C |
