What does this say?!!!

shotdwn said:

It looks to me to read, The Geme 1899.

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CanadianBottles said:

I'm pretty sure it says Theleme. This would be a reference to a fictional secular monastery in Francois Rabelais's 1534 novel Gargantua, where the monks and nuns live by only one rule - "Do what you want". The name has been used for quite a few different things over the years, but I think there's a good chance that your decanter comes from the Abbaye de Thélème restaurant in Paris, one of the famous cafe society venues frequented by prominent artistic and literary figures of the late 19th and early 20th century. There's a very detailed write-up of it here: https://alamantra.wordpress.com/articles/l’abbaye-de-theleme-a-retrospective/
View attachment 254941

It would be pretty cool if that's where the decanter came from, a lot of major historical figures may have drank from it if that's the case! The name was also used for other things as well though, including a French left wing freemason lodge that would also have been active in 1899, but the restaurant seems more likely to have been using an ornate decanter with their name on it than the Freemasons do - it would certainly have fit with the style of the restaurant shown in the postcard above. Of course there's a good chance plenty of others were using the name around that time as well, so hard to say for sure where the bottle came from unless you can find a photo showing one in the Parisian restaurant.

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CanadianBottles said:

I'm pretty sure it says Theleme. This would be a reference to a fictional secular monastery in Francois Rabelais's 1534 novel Gargantua, where the monks and nuns live by only one rule - "Do what you want". The name has been used for quite a few different things over the years, but I think there's a good chance that your decanter comes from the Abbaye de Thélème restaurant in Paris, one of the famous cafe society venues frequented by prominent artistic and literary figures of the late 19th and early 20th century. There's a very detailed write-up of it here: https://alamantra.wordpress.com/articles/l’abbaye-de-theleme-a-retrospective/
View attachment 254941

It would be pretty cool if that's where the decanter came from, a lot of major historical figures may have drank from it if that's the case! The name was also used for other things as well though, including a French left wing freemason lodge that would also have been active in 1899, but the restaurant seems more likely to have been using an ornate decanter with their name on it than the Freemasons do - it would certainly have fit with the style of the restaurant shown in the postcard above. Of course there's a good chance plenty of others were using the name around that time as well, so hard to say for sure where the bottle came from unless you can find a photo showing one in the Parisian restaurant.

Click to expand...

CanadianBottles said:

I'm pretty sure it says Theleme. This would be a reference to a fictional secular monastery in Francois Rabelais's 1534 novel Gargantua, where the monks and nuns live by only one rule - "Do what you want". The name has been used for quite a few different things over the years, but I think there's a good chance that your decanter comes from the Abbaye de Thélème restaurant in Paris, one of the famous cafe society venues frequented by prominent artistic and literary figures of the late 19th and early 20th century. There's a very detailed write-up of it here: https://alamantra.wordpress.com/articles/l’abbaye-de-theleme-a-retrospective/
View attachment 254941

It would be pretty cool if that's where the decanter came from, a lot of major historical figures may have drank from it if that's the case! The name was also used for other things as well though, including a French left wing freemason lodge that would also have been active in 1899, but the restaurant seems more likely to have been using an ornate decanter with their name on it than the Freemasons do - it would certainly have fit with the style of the restaurant shown in the postcard above. Of course there's a good chance plenty of others were using the name around that time as well, so hard to say for sure where the bottle came from unless you can find a photo showing one in the Parisian restaurant.

Click to expand...

CanadianBottles said:

I'm pretty sure it says Theleme. This would be a reference to a fictional secular monastery in Francois Rabelais's 1534 novel Gargantua, where the monks and nuns live by only one rule - "Do what you want". The name has been used for quite a few different things over the years, but I think there's a good chance that your decanter comes from the Abbaye de Thélème restaurant in Paris, one of the famous cafe society venues frequented by prominent artistic and literary figures of the late 19th and early 20th century. There's a very detailed write-up of it here: https://alamantra.wordpress.com/articles/l’abbaye-de-theleme-a-retrospective/
View attachment 254941

It would be pretty cool if that's where the decanter came from, a lot of major historical figures may have drank from it if that's the case! The name was also used for other things as well though, including a French left wing freemason lodge that would also have been active in 1899, but the restaurant seems more likely to have been using an ornate decanter with their name on it than the Freemasons do - it would certainly have fit with the style of the restaurant shown in the postcard above. Of course there's a good chance plenty of others were using the name around that time as well, so hard to say for sure where the bottle came from unless you can find a photo showing one in the Parisian restaurant.

Click to expand...