Page 45 - February 17 & 18 2024

English salt glaze stoneware ovoid ‘Bellarmine’ type ale bottle incised ‘J.S 1753’, 8.8ins high.
Guy Burch writes:
Bottles of this type were a staple product of many stoneware potteries in and around London. They are most likely ale bottles but might also have been used for spirits, rum for instance, or wine. Complete plain salt glazed bottles of this type from the 17th and 18th century are very scarce indeed. Value depends very much on
the individuality of the glaze, the snakeskin speckling, finger marks, dribbles and character. Those with retailer or tavern names rarely come to market, let alone those carrying a date. The lovely characterful drip to the front of this exceptional bottle identifies it as the one actually illustrated on p44 (no 73*) of Robin Hildyards classic ‘Browne Muggs’.
Dated bottles are extremely important in establishing when the less rare plain bottles were probably made. Just as seals help to plot the evolution of glass shapes, so it is with stone bottles with an identifiable retailer or inscribed year. In ‘English Brown Stoneware 1670-1900’ (1982, p.275, Appendix I, Oswald, Hildyard, and Hughes) delineate the evolution in shape of these from the late 17th to 19th century. Early bottles prior to the 19th century generally have mid to low ‘bellies’ narrow base, with the form evolving into the high-bellied flagon with a wider foot in the early 1800’s. The lips of bottles dating from the 1600’s until around 1730 have rilling or grooves - a kind of string ring below the upper lip, referred to as collared or ‘pulley’ rims. This feature is taken from the similar Rhinish imports they were trying to supplant. Bottles with the smooth blobby style to be seen on this example have been dated from about 1740 based on important documentary examples such as this.
Experiments in stoneware production began in England during the second part of the 17th century. The earliest excavated pieces in London come from the site of
a kilns at Woolwich Ferry dated 1650-1700 (see Derek Askey ‘Stoneware Bottles’, p129) but the earliest documentary evidence relates to John Dwight. He founded the Fulham Pottery in 1672 after securing a patent application granted in 1671 for what he claimed was a
Above: English Brown Stoneware 1670-1900’ (1982, p.275, Appendix I) Oswald, Hildyard, and Hughes London Bottles illustration.
Fulham Pottery in the 1880’s.
kind of porcelain. The similarity of his wares to German products of a similar era suggest that immigrant potters were working for him and 1690 a rival stoneware operation in Fulham was run by
the Dutch Elers brothers. Henry Doulton would later serve his apprentice at the pottery. The Vauxhall Pottery and the Sanders Pottery at Mortlake are known to have produced them (see Antique Collecting Sept 1994, p17 for Vauxhall excavated examples).
It is usually not possible
to assign bottles and other wares firmly unless near identical features can be compared with excavated examples from the pottery sites. For instance, the extensive finds from excavation carried out at the site of Fulham Pottery (see John Dwight’s Fulham Pottery, Chris Green/English Heritage, 1999) does allow us to attribute medallions, spriggs and decorative features to his concern.
*then in a private collection (sold Bonhams, London, 13 September 2006, lot 2, later in the Hubbard collection.
Vauxhall Pottery in 1852.