Page 16 - BBR magazine 140 - 30yrs issue

Glass mustards were made at least as early as 1750 and include the well-known ‘LONDON’ embossed bottles. In 1762 the Glass House in Gravel Lane,
Southwark, advertised pints and half- pints for snuffs and mustards. Olive Jones wrote about these (‘London Mustard Bottles’, Historical
Archaeology, vol 17, no 1 1983). Authoring a number of excellent books on wine bottles found in Canada she pictures several unusual mustards excavated there. Most striking is one embossed ‘. . KINS//S[UPER] FINE//DURHAM//MUSTARD’. She also shows base fragments of the square, bevelled edge bottles with ‘No 5’ and
‘No 6’ and I have an example with ‘LONDON // ‘W.D No7’. Sold in different grades/ types mustard included, but didn’t necessarily come from, Durham: the earliest district of English
production became associated with low grade stuff.
One fantastically unusual bottles shown by Olive in a line drawing is a square cross hinge bottle embossed ‘Hy WHEELER // LIVERPOOL’; Henry Wheeler and his son are found in directories between 1790 and 1829, variously described as
an oilman, a perfumer, and tea dealer. Another
maker using ‘London’ type bottles is ‘WARDALE’s
// SUPERFINE // LONDON // MUSTARD’.
Wardale & Co of London also used a labelled
bevelled rectangular bottle for Durham mustard.
The label shows a Crown device at the top. In
1851 John Cliffe Quince registered his “Royal
Mustard Bottle”, a tall neck bottle of this type
with a similar crown embossed; Morton’s used a
similar bottle too, a type that often held dried
spices. George and Francis Wardale, Allhallows
Lane Upper Thames Street in the c1820, millers
and mustard manufacturers and George Harriott
Wardale was an oilman at 20 Bread Street Hill in
London about 1838. Francis was declared
bankrupt in 1825 and there
was also a partnership with
Carrick, a name that pops
up in the list of Hull mustard
makers.
Olive’s research suggests
that the ‘London’ type
bottles were for condiment
mustard, not a medical
preparation such as Essence
of Mustard patented by
Robert Johnston in 1798 and
sold as Whitehead’s Essence of Mustard. A Mortons
liniment sold in flint glass, it was probably labelled
used in the same way as Mustard Plasters. mustard.
The bottles should not automatically be
considered American. It was extensively advertised and
sold in Britain. There is lots of evidence that bottles were ordered from any and all glasshouses, where ever they might be: basically the customer wanted the best price and a Boston druggist might order from England if he got a good deal. Another American medicinal form is ‘RUSH’S SYRUP // WHITE MUSTARD // SHEEP & DOG’S’ (aqua cylinder phials) perhaps capitalising on Charles Cooke’s 1827 book about the medicinal use of White Mustard published in America.
They were also made in American and
a perennial problem is deciding which
are which. Cross-hinge, usually
pontilled, a rolled-in lip and tubular
pontil usually flags American. Aqua
glass is taken as an American flag and
clear as a sign for British; both are not
infallible and far from certain though
and should be used as probability
pointers only. There are also very rare
green pontil bottles (‘green’ are
mentioned by A Pellatt & Green of
London in 1830). A ‘London’ type, but
embossed prominently ‘KENTUCKY’
was a mustard made by Nathan
(died 1846) Burrowes from 1810 and
later by Samuel D McCullough
Above: A very early flared lip ‘London’ Mustard c.1790-1810. The bottle ‘chimes’ when touched, an indicator of particularly early clear glass such as the flint glass ‘Solomon’s Balm of Gilead’.
Above & R:
Above: ‘LONDON/ ‘W.D No7’ bottle’.
Above: ‘WARDALE’s/ SUPERFINE/ LONDON/ MUSTARD’.
Above: Green ‘London’ bottle, & aqua flared USA example.
16
Pontilled & Early Mustards
You’ve heard of ‘London Mustard but how about Durham, Liverpool, Hull, or even Kentucky?