Onion Bottle - Info Request

[botlguy]

Welcome Robert. I certainly cannot add to our experts analysis regarding age and country of manufacture of your DROP DEAD GORGEOUS onion but the size and patina are, in my opinion, superior. I am in the camp of: " Please do not clean it". If one wants nice, clean examples of similar ware they are available but once cleaned these beautiful examples are gone forever. We can't reproduce THAT look. (Thank God)

Congratulations on your find, Good Luck on your quest for additional treasure.

 

[timmy]

WOW! AWESOME!

 

[sandchip]

ORIGINAL: epackage

Fantastic onion, don't EVER clean it!!! Welcome to the forum.. Jim

Yeah, what Jim said! That patina is as beautiful as any I've ever seen. Gorgeous bottle!

 

[reach44]

That thing aged into quite a beauty. Nice buy. Definitely no cleaning for that one. Just lots of admiration.

 

[Robert]

You guys are great! I would normaly wait weeks for such a number of replies and I got them here within a day! A masive thank you for your knowledge, advice, enthusiasm and admiration. I'm glad my instincts were right and I picked up that sweet black onion from that there dirt - it (he? she?) will remain uncleaned and I'll certainly be on the look out for more in the future!! Btw - I found it in Switzerland, so it could be Dutch or German.

Oh - just one more thing can anybody put it into context for me? Somebody mentioned above it would have been on a ship (hence the celeverly thought-out, flat-bottomed design) I assume then it would have been swilled by the crew rather than transported as cargo?

Thanks again guys!
Robert

 

[botlguy]

ORIGINAL: Robert

Oh - just one more thing can anybody put it into context for me? Somebody mentioned above it would have been on a ship (hence the celeverly thought-out, flat-bottomed design) I assume then it would have been swilled by the crew rather than transported as cargo?

Thanks again guys!
Robert

Not necessarily, could have been either or both. Methinks the preferred Adult beverage of seafarers is Old Demon Rum. (or whatever is at hand)

 

[cyberdigger]

I kinda picture the officers on board using these bottles while the poor crew had to settle for a ladle of grog from a barrel.. and yeah they were probably often shipped as cargo to colonies as well. I don't think the design was deliberately thought out for use on ships, seems to me it's just about the easiest form to create a free-blown bottle ..bear in mind my input is pure conjecture, I wasn't around at the time... []

 

[fer_de_lance]

so now that you have revealed that bottle was found in Europe that decreases the possibility that it was manufactured in North America although trade with the colonies did occur. After comparing it to my small collection of Dutch onions, I now am leaning towards a German origin as the body is of a more bulbous form.The discussion of why they made these bottles with such a low center of gravity was no doubt due to them finding the earlier Shaft and Globe form(see photo) was subject to breakage due the height to base width ratio. As17th century foreign trade grew it actually had the opposite affect on the bottle form as illustrated in the photo I posted earlier, the body of bottles became taller and smaller in diameter for packaging purposes. The wider more stable forms were probably preferred onboard ship but I've always thought due to a premium on space usage that they would have had their primary store of wine/rum in a large barrel or keg and each of the crew would draw from using a vessel that would be less susceptible to breakage than a glass vessel.

 

[cyberdigger]

There happens to be a book about these on ebay, a few copies left: CLICK HERE

 

[andy volkerts]

Really great article on these types of bottles and others, made in New York around 1640 or so. Check it out at www.peachridgeglass.com