Check out this HUGE sauce!!!

[CanYaDigIt]

I've never seen anything like this one before. It's huge. 11 3/4" That's a whiskey fifth it's sittin by. The mold line also goes through the panel for the label, which I've never seen before either. Super crude and attic mint. Anyone seen one of this before?

 

[glass man]

I AIN'T EVER SEEN ONE LIKE IT! CRUDE! THAT NECK IS UNBELIEVEABLY LONG! NOT SURE IF IT IS AMERICAN,BUT NO MATTER IT IS A GREAT SAUCE! JAMIE

 

[JOETHECROW]

Why am I thinking "Rose's lime juice" (That's not quite right but some distant memory bell rang...[] Joe

 

[Staunton Dan]

Nice crude bottle. I find it interesting that something that tall and slender has survived all these years. Tall, slender and crude...Kinda reminds me of my 1st wife. []

 

[glass man]

ORIGINAL: JOETHECROW

Why am I thinking "Rose's lime juice" (That's not quite right but some distant memory bell rang...[]                                  Joe                     

OK! IT RANG A BELL IN MY HEAD TOO,BUT I COULD NOT REMEMBER WHY TILL YOU SAID LIME JIUCE. JAMIE

 

[ktbi]

Nice one Aaron...where did you find it? Ron

 

[CanYaDigIt]

Nice one Aaron...where did you find it?

ebay, dirt cheep. The seller told me they took an $80 loss on it and I wouldn't doubt it for a second. I couldn't believe it went as low as it did.

Weren't the Lime Juice bottles primarily from Australia? Now that you guys mention it I'm pretty sure I've seen a similar bottle from there. Thanks for all the input.

 

[capsoda]

Great find Aaron. Never seen that type sauce in that size.

 

[Penn Digger]

Nice crude sauce. You don't see many like that. Congrats.

 

[surfaceone]

Hello Aaron,

Be it a sauce, or a lime juice or cordial, it is a wonderful bottle. Do you have any backstory on it? Hard to believe it is intact, let alone so gloriously minty looking.

I did some searching along the Rose's line and came up with some history and a couple of references.
"The Story of Lime Juice and the Royal Navy

The story of lime juice and the Royal Navy dates back over 250 years and has given the British people in general the nick-name of “Limeyâ€.

In 1747 British physician James Lind performed a now famous clinical trial on twelve of his men suffering from scurvy. He divided the men into six groups, receiving daily, in additional to their normal diets, either: 2 oranges and 1 lemon; cider; dilute sulfuric acid; vinegar; sea water; or a mixture of drugs. After 6 days the men receiving the citrus fruits were well, all ten others remained ill. This and other experiments were later published in Lind's A Treatise on Scurvy, 1753.

It appears Captain James Cook was the first to pick up on Lind’s work insisting his crew have a daily ration of sauerkraut and rob of lemon (a form of concentrated lemon juice made by evaporating it over a fire until it acquires the consistence of a syrup which will prevent fermentation).

The British Admiralty, despite the huge losses incurred from this devastating condition, and the work of Lind and the success of Cook waited 48 years until 1795 before decreeing that daily rations of fresh lime juice be given to all sailors in the British Navy.

As an interesting historical note Gavin Menzies in his book “1421 The Year China Discovered the World “claims the Chinese knew the dangers of scurvy and its cure over 300 years earlier. During the great voyages of 1421 to 1423 “enough citrus fruit – limes, lemons, oranges, pomelos and coconuts – was taken on board to give every man protection against the disease for three monthsâ€. Perhaps the Chinese should have had the "Limey" nick-name.

The next advance with lime juice came in 1865 when Lauchlin Rose , whose family was prominent in the Edinburgh ship-building industry founded L. Rose & Company. At this time ships were carrying supplies of lemon and lime preserved in rum and in 1867 Rose patented a process that preserved the citrus juice without the addition of alcohol. His alcohol-free preserved juices quickly became the popular choice of fleet owners (who were probably happy to have sober scurvy free sailors). That same year, the Merchant Shipping Act was passed, requiring all vessels of the Royal Navy and Merchant to carry lime juice for daily rations. Rose’s Lime Juice sales skyrocketed. As an additional note the L.Rose & Company produced some very attractive ornately decorated bottles for their product.

The black glass bottles marked “LIME JUICE†with the arrow date from around the late 1860’s and I would speculate they contained Rose’s patented lime juice.

I have had some interesting comments on the black glass seals that pre-date the lime juice marked bottles. Chris Addams an archaeologist working in Bermuda states “the earlier versions which had crown ownership seals were a concoction of opiates used in-conjunction with various medical practices. It was the way the "crown" controlled (or tried to) the importation and control of opiatesâ€. Chris Addams has a web site for his underwater archaeology work in Bermuda at http://www.bermudahulks.com/

Given the cost of producing sealed bottles in the late 18th and early 19th century it would make sense these bottles contained something more than lime juice." This was found at this great site on 19th Century British Military bottles.

Here's a Rose's label, circa WWI.

Grabbed the picture from this South African bottle site.

This guy,

"Chris Jacobs

Chris was fortunate to have been in Kimberley when bottle digging and collecting in South Africa was in its heyday and started in 1983. He moved to Upington and has still continued with his interest. We regularly hear from him and are amazed at how he consistently comes up with new discoveries." is a contributor here. Though the picture is small, it appears to me like your bottle may be the 2nd one from the right in the bottom right corner of his window bottles. I think there are a couple others, somewhere on the above South african site, but, I'll be darned if I can find them now.

Lastly, is a store window display bottle, Item #155, on this British auction from 2006.