Please note: I have added 17 large photos to the bottom of this listing to try and show the item in as much detail as possible so please take the time to view them all carefully.
This is a unique wine bottle decanter which is Scottish and from the early 19th Century.
First of all the glass bottle is typical ONION shape of the period and its has lots of air bubbles in it as well as a really nice ring pontil scar which is sharp. Free blown with an applied string rim type and pontil scar.
Onion sort of shape with a long neck and bulbous body. These type of bottle are often found in pubs for wine as well as chemist - druggist shops for potions on the top shelves and that is why the base rims have lots of wear marks.
The glass bottle colour is a dark brown and NOT black and not dark green.
The actual glass bottle would have had an applied lip and if you google this type of stippled - engraved glass you will see the typical neck and string rim found on the wine bottle shape.
The bottle looks OLDER than the date which is stippled onto it. It could well be as I would say the bottle is at least 50 to 100 years earlier. The Scottish bottle collectors will know !?
I think it has been a wine or chemist bottle and then someone has seen it and decided to stipple engrave it for a MARRIAGE and then get the silver mount top which is a 3 way pourer spout put on top during this 1869 period. Feeling in the very top of the neck it is not broken. It is well finished off. There is no stopper, in theory it will have had one. The makers mark is either CL or OL date letter and place are well polished away.
This silver top does have a hallmark but it is polished off. Someone has thought an awful lot about this bottle over the years, polishing it to death.
So the stipple engraving is really elaborate and I wonder HOW MANY got broken during the process of them being made. This stipple effect is glass chips off the surface of the glass !! When you look close you will see how many times the bottle has been struck with a sharp punch or chisel to create the design.
So going from the top down it has 5 rows of decoration and then the base has 4 sections created with arch tops which match the design around the neck. And 5 similar designs below right around the base of the bottle.
Front panel
JAMES * GREENHORN
FISH
and
FLESHER
1869.
Within this wording and design there is a LOVE HEART between the word FLE love heart SHER.
Also I have just noticed it has a word or two words STIPPLED OUT .. this looks like a wider band of design below the word "and" and above flesher.
So it MAY have had a ladies name here or some other profession.
Within the other panels its has really fine detail pictures of a FISH facing left with a possible SHIP carrying a CROSS below it - a STAG with antlers facing left and a wind swept TREE blowing over the stag - a BIRD facing right sat on a tree Branch.
Between the panels it has Columns with Flower Pots and Flowers on top.
Quick google into James Greenhorn, there are quite a lot of surnames like that from Lanarkshire. Fish and Flesher which means Butcher..so interesting trade he had.. or he was a fish monger and his wife was a butcher.
I am sure some of you will get to the bottom of it easy enough.
If anyone has any information about the wording on it I am all ears and will revise the listing if info comes to light..
The bottle has two dribble marks on the inside of the bottle which I think will be silver polish residue. I have NOT cleaned the bottle in any way, just as I got it in.
Interestingly the base rim where it sits is well worn as you can imagine from being picked up and put down over the years. This is not uncommon on a bottle of this type and period.
Please see photographs provided for more details and visual confirmation of condition. The bottle has NO cracks or damage. It has no stopper and the silver marks are rubbed.
It is 10 and 3/4 inch tall overall x 3 and a 1/4 inch bottom worn base rim dia. with a ring pontil scar of 2 inch dia. The widest part of the bulbous body is just over 6 and 1/2 inch dia. From the base to the bottom of the silver mount it is 8 and a 1/4 inch tall. The silver 3 way pouring mount is 2 and a 1/2 inch tall and the bottom where it joins the glass neck is very nearly 1 and a 1/2 inch dia. The pouring top is 2 and 3/4 inch wide. The hole in the very top of the bottle silver mount is 3/4 inch dia.
It weighs approx. 1.255 kilos. The shipping overseas will be with GLOBAL PRIORITY parcelforce.
I would imagine there will be any amount of family relations of JAMES GREENHORN in Australia or America. What a great find and worthy of being in any serious bottle collectors collection or museum alike.
Google STIPPLE ENGRAVED wine bottles and see them, all of which are unique.
My stock ref : in main cabinet #JR- 822.
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Scale is usually an English 1 penny coin which is 20mm in diameter which is just short of 7/8ths of an inch in diameter, or a universal Coke can, and we all know how big those are.
If you see A/F = a/f in the title or description it means "as found" condition which may have scuffs, scratches and damage.