Page 36 - BBR magazine 140 - 30yrs issue

We thought we would put David on the spot and try matching some of the seals in the SummerNational auction to Davids
researches.
Lot 236 is a rather wonderful blue bloom, maver-sided onion with seal for ‘T. Cocke/ 1715’. Turning to David’s second volume, under18th century date arranged seals (p575) there is a near identical bottle, slightly shorter, but also displaying blue dichromatic
glass.
BBR did better in capturing the
blue bloom but the neck twists and
same mavered sides made me think
it might be the very same one but, I think
(?) the seal impression is angled slightly
differently? David’s example is in a US collection. He also lists (p599) a possibly connected seal (very likely I’d guess from the similarity in matrix carving) on a half size Onion for ‘Wm/ Cocke/ 1723’. That bottle was formerly in the collection of Lt. Col. Valentine Vivian - sold at a Sotheby’s auction, 13 July 1987 for £950 to a UK buyer. Unfortunately both bottles are ones he hasn’t managed to pin to a specific owner.
Lot 238 in BBR’s
auction is a dated
Alloa type sealed
wine with ‘DN/
1826’. Again
looking at the date
listed seals I did
not find this
particular seal.
However, and this is
what I meant about just
how fantastic it is to a good encyclopaedic collection, it is immediately possible to find related bottles. The style and type of rigaree ribbons (rather soft steps) and the flared neck immediately flag up others that stylistically probably indicate the same glass house. For instance on p855 is a white spattered bottle sealed ‘D. Mc/ H. D/ 1821’ (the BBR bottle has white on the seal) is surely blown by the same mouth? As you look at other Alloa style bottles (let’s remember that the term is a bit of a catch-all) you can almost start to identify other individual blowers from how sharply, or shapely, they crimp the ribbons. Great fun.
A Rickett’s bottle, Lot 241, is one of those tricky little buggers with only ‘B/ 1837’ under a crown. Now the crown
indicates this is someone who wears
one (on special occasions only mind)
but they are normally very tricky to track down if you aren’t a member of the
College of Arms.
Fortunately David’s done all that for you
(and explains the various heraldry cues separately). On pages 879/ 80 of Vol 2 you’ll
find a similar half size bottle with the same seal. His notes tells us that Ruggles-Brise (1949) attributed these bottles to
Richard, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (1776- 1839). The Duke would have attended the Coronation of Queen Victoria in 1837 (wearing his posh hat) and
these were the souvenirs. A very full sales history of both sizes are listed and Alan may find his £120- 150+ estimate is a little out given the last one noted
sold for $800 (£521 equivalent) at American Glass Gallery, MI, auction, 18 May 2009!.
Lot 243, a stipple engraved bottle complete with its thistle stopper is fully described and shown on p1589 of Volume 3 in the great ‘bonus’ section on these bottles.
You can add a bit of provenance to it if you buy it in July: ‘sold at a Bonham’s Scottish auction 18
August 2004 hammer price £480; BBR SummerNational 2014 £?’.
Incidentally the true fanatical collector will want to look for the Bonham’s catalogue to
go with the BBR one to really fully document this bottle.
We think David passed with flying colours and both Frank and Alan will be pouring over the book in future when
putting together the catalogues!
36
Going for a Burton