English equivalent of US Historical flasks

[deepbluedigger]

Picked up this flask at the Summernatioanl bottle show here in England at the weekend. One big difference between the UK and US bottle scenes is the much bigger variety of stoneware bottles and flasks we get over here. This is a 'Reform flask', the British equivalent of your historical flasks. They're called 'reform flasks' because they date from the period of political reform in the 1820s - 40s, when Britain was very turbulent and almost on the edge of revolution for a couple of decades after the end, in 1815, of the Napoleonic Wars with France.

This kind of flask includes political subjects, popular culture, royalty, and just plain decorative bottles (pistols, fish, etc). This one is political. It has Dante on one side and Napoleon on the other, with a seal for a Lincolnshire wine and spirit merchant on the Dante side. Dante and Napoleon is a reference to a series of political essays by the radical Thomas Carlyle, published in 1840 - 41. Dante / Napoleon flasks are not rare, but because Napoleon was still seen by many British people as 'the enemy' at the time this flask was made, it's a bit strange that this design was used.

This is an incredibly rare bottle: The only known example of a Dante/Napoleon flask with a proprietors name. I'll post pics of one or two other types of reform flask in this thread, too.

 

[deepbluedigger]

Here's a few more, but I've had these ones for a while.
- On the left an Old Tom flask (Old Tom was a type of gin),
- then a Princess Victoria (before she became Queen in 1837),
- then an early 1840s Victoria & Albert flask (Queen Victoria married Prince Albert in 1841),
- then a Lord Brougham flask from the early 1830s (Brougham was a political radical and helped force through political reform, and abolition of slavery),
- then an English Jim Crow flask (from a popular song of the 1830s and 40s. The same Jim Crow song as was in the US at that time, and which gave it's name to the 'Jim Crow' segregatin laws),
- then two Daniel O'Connell flasks from the 1820s - 30s (Irish emancipation was a popular radical liberal political cause in England in the 1820s - 50s).

 

[Penn Digger]

Great, beautiful and educational posts. Thank you!!! How can I get one? What do you want to trade? I'm sure something we consider El Primo may suffice as simple to you, please PM.

PD

 

[baltbottles]

Great stuff Jerry Its very interesting how tastes totally differed in the US and UK at the time.

Chris

 

[appliedlips]

Those are great flasks,I have seen a couple of stoneware flasks but nothing that compares to those.Congratulations on the latest one.

 

[bombboy]

Stunning display. Thanks for sharing and giving a valuable history lesson to boot.

Cheers, Mark

 

[epgorge]

Jerry,

Nice !!!!

I don't think Daffy's was ever produced in the U.S. or at least I came up with a deadend. Interesting though. It still could have been.Time will tell. We may not be here to hear it though.
Great collection.

Joel

 

[deepbluedigger]

Thanks guys. I like these things a lot, although I know they're not to everyone's taste. They went out of use in the late 1840s and 1850s. The latest datable example is from 1856, commemorating the end of the Crimean War (Britains largest war of the mid 19th century). There's more detail about one of my better examples on the diggersdiary website at http://www.diggersdiary.co.uk/Collections/Bottleofthemonth_1.htm

These things turn up pretty regularly and are quite affordable, especially for the ones without proprietors names. Bottom end would be about $200, up to about $3000 for the most expensive (still a lot less $$$ than top end historical flasks!). They do tend to get snapped up pretty fast though. I've had about 30 through my hands over the years, now down to less than ten as I've had to part with quite with a few to build the early meds collection. Now down to my small group of hard-core favorites.

The new addition was a bit of a bargain. Has to have been one of the best buys of the show. Made my whole weekend worth while, especially as sales from my table more than covered the cost! Even better, Lincoln is my old home town and I still visit there, and do most of my digging in that area.