History and Evolution of the Wine Bottle, c. 1630-1900

Early Developments

The early history of glass making in England is somewhat obscure; no doubt the Romans brought the craft to Britain, but no evidence of its adoption by the natives exits. Later Anglo-Saxon glass in the form of coloured beads and pendants has been unearthed, and some quite beautiful cups, beakers and vases of the later Saxon period exist. Many, however, are undoubtedly imports from the Low Countries, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, where the art of glass making was already well advanced.

It is interesting to note that in A.D. 675 Bede recorded the need for French workers to be employed in order to make window glass for the newly built monastery at Wearmouth. Almost a century later the position was no better and foreign workmen has once again to be employed. Although evidence of one or two ninth and tenth century glass houses does exist, the state of affairs over the country as a whole was pitiful indeed.

The basic materials needed for the manufacture of glass are sand plus the addition of an alkali. In England such requirements led to the first of the glass workers establishing their furnaces at Chiddingford on the Surrey-Sussex border in around 1226. Here both sand, wood and bracken were in plentiful supply. The small forest glass house was established with, again, the assistance of immigrant workmen. When the immediate supply of wood dwindled these itinerant glassmen simply moved on to a different spot.

Their furnaces were so constructed that the entire series of operations could be completed on one spot. The fire for melting the "frit" (the term for the raw materials necessary to make glass) was at ground level, the work chamber above, and the annealing oven (for cooling) below.

Translation of an ancient manuscript concerning the site shows that these small forest glass houses produced "Brode glass and vessel", proving that in addition to window glass, certain other smaller articles were made such as phials, bowls, cups, urinals and bottles, etc. Excavations at this and similar sites nearby have corroborated this information.

The Wealden 'industry' must have prospered, for glass furnaces in and around this area were still operating in 1556.

Glass was already in vogue in the homes of the wealthy Tudors by the middle of the sixteenth century as an inventory of Henry VIII, dated 1542, amply illustrates. Bottles, bowls, ewers, flagons, basins, even candlesticks, are among the numerous vessels mentioned, some decorated, others of coloured glass, and all obviously of a high standard of craftsmanship. Even then there was a choice of glass to suit the pocket of the individual.; the unpretentious greenish glass of the forest workmen, or the expensive and highly esteemed Venetian imports, to which no doubt the above inventory refers. In late Elizabethan times the English were still engaged in the manufacture of the pale and fragile soda glass, which proved wholly unsuitable for the vintner, who turned to the sturdy long necked shaft and globe bottles being imported by the French.

Production of 'green' or bottle glass

The establishment of glass houses specifically intended for the production of 'green' or bottle glass, did not occur until the closing years of the sixteenth century. During the early years of the next century even greater strides were made in this direction.

Up until now, fragile, pale green, often 'wanded', containers had been the order of the day, but the need for a stronger and darker coloured vessel had long been felt, and now at last, this demand was at least partially satisfied by home manufacture.

A man named Jean Carre, previously engaged in the production of window glass in the Weald, moved to London and, in 1567, applied for a licence to make 'Venice' glass. The application was turned down, but undeterred Carre introduced Venetian workmen to assist in the running of the Crutched-friars glass house in 1570. Obviously, very few of our countrymen, if any, were well versed in the art of glass making.

Upon Carre's death in 1572, Giacomo Verzelini took over the running of the Crutched-friars site, but when this accidentally burnt down in 1575 he moved into new premises in nearby Broad Street. In the same year this able Italian obtained a monopoly to make Venetian glasses for a period of twenty-one years.

Although the above sites and information relating to them are well documented, it is unfortunate but true that as yet we know very little about contemporary sites engaged in the manufacture of 'green' glass which would include the so-called coarser products of the day, window glass, bottles, phials, etc. For evidence of these we have to rely more on the paintings of the period, old documents, inventories, and, of course, the result of modern day excavation.

Paintings proved quite conclusively that the use of bottles of one type or another was widespread in Elizabethan times. Documents, useful though they are, should be interpreted with caution, one of the main problems being their frequent failure to be specific. 'Bottles' could so easily be of ceramic composition, rather than glass. The results of archaeological digs one would assume to be of the utmost assistance, especially where these are accurately datable, but even here there are problems. Surprisingly little glass has survive from the sixteenth century; pottery being far more durable is the usual find on such sites, and glass even when present is often of a very fragmentary nature.

According to the English Housewife, London 1615, bottles for ale were already in use in 1575, and the fact that their corks were 'tied down with stout string' infers that the string-rim was employed for this purpose. Various paintings show quite conclusively just such a bottle; of a pale greenish coloured metal, round in body, with a moderately long neck and high pointed kick-up.

Other bottles of the late Tudor period appear to have been more carafe- or flask-like in character, some approach the eighteenth century bladder onions in appearance, but lack the string-rim altogether. In many instances the bottles appear to have been protected by a coating of wicker or leather, and the actual mention of these 'wanded' bottles occurs as early as 1550. This once more points to the fact that most bottles of this period were totally unlike the later wine bottles, being of much thinner metal and hence less sturdy. Wicker covered bottles, or 'flasks' if you like, continued to be used in one form or another well into the eighteenth century, and those that could not be stood on their own, were almost certainly travellers' bottles, and may even have been carried on horseback. Indded, the flat oval shaped bottles with drawn necks and pincered string-rims so often referred to as spa water bottles were undoubtedly used for wine also.

But to return to the mainstream of our discussion. By 1577, glass vessels had become so popular and sought after by the nobility, that their possession was often ranked way above that of the precious metals like gold and silver. True, such remarks apply more especially to the Venetian glass, but the 1589 patent of Miller and Scott proves beyond doubt the growing importance of the bottle and vessel side of the industry. There were now fifteen glass houses operating inn the metropolis, and by 1592 some already specialized in the production of bottles and like vessels, and this number takes no account of the innumerable smaller furnaces which must have existed in the provinces.