Madeira, my dear?

In the days before the twentieth century’s marketing of alcohol with distinctive bottles and branded labels, alcohol was decanted at home into glass decanters. Wine labels, or ‘bottle tickets’ as they were sometimes known, were hung on the necks of decanters to identify the contents within – in this case, madeira and brandy. Decanters and […]

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That’s for Spirits

While the clay was still wet, a potter carefully impressed a stamp with the words ‘JAMES TAYLOR / MORPETH’ into the medallion on the collar of this two-gallon (3.8 litre) stoneware bottle. It was probably just one in a large batch of identical bottles that were fired in the kilns that day. The bottle was […]

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