Monday, August 24, 2009

spin the bottle

I don't know about you, but the new moon always spins me into a
freshening and rearranging mode. This weekend, I scrubbed up my
collection of old glass bottles. Since there was some chat about
bottles over at Subby's blog, I thought I'd snap some pics to share,
while they're nice and shiny.

My collection started with a few vintage bottles when I was a girl.
Some of my favorties are the ones found by my sons in the woody
area behind the manor that was once an old trash burning dump.

I'm really nutty about all kinds of glass. I love the magical play of
light, and the delightful bubbles and imperfections in vintage glass.
I imagine myself traveling back in time and buying a glass factory
like Lucinda Laplastrier in Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda.

Anyone out there ever had a Prince Rupert's drop? I think they're
also known as Dutch tears. It's a glass curiosity created by dripping
hot molten glass into cold water. The glass cools to a tadpole shaped
droplet with a long, thin tail. If the tail is broken it explodes into a
million tiny particles. I'd love to have one. They're so pretty, tough,
I would be tempted never to burst it. Apparently, Rupert's Drops
have been around for quite some time. Here's an excerpt from Ballad
of Gresham College, 1663.

And that which makes their Fame ring louder,
With much adoe they shew'd the King
To make glasse Buttons turn to powder,
If off the[m] their tayles you doe but wring.
How this was donne by soe small Force
Did cost the Colledg a Month's discourse.


Once in a while, WT brings one back from his travels, like this pretty
little gold one from Portobello Road in London. I've always got my
eyes peeled for them in flea markets and antique stores.


Here's a video montage from the movie Oscar and Lucinda, set to
music by The Strokes which shows the breaking of a Rupert's Drop.

66 comments:

  1. What a fun post! I found an old beer jug buried in my parents garden in England. The house was built in the 1700s so who knows how old it is. I love old bottles and love the one from Portabello Rd.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful pictures! I love old bottles as well. And new ones too. We have found a few beauties around our farm -- old bitters bottles mainly.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Willow, when my glass blower friends turn their furnace on this fall, I'll see if they can make you one.

    ReplyDelete
  4. willow this is music to my eyes - i love glass, especially old glass, formed or flat. i love the way light works in and around it and through it - i love the colours - the flaws - the bubbles of air - the smooth 'cross the palm, cold against the cheek feel of glass . . . . this post is a treasure for me!!! thankyou. steven

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love old and/or coloured glass. If I'm buying new I prefer to buy recycled glass as it's often got a better character. I particularly like the play of light around tears.

    Back in the old days when I was working in a museum I came across a box full of exquisite miniature glass amphorae. They were Phoenician in origin, wonderfully patterned with bands of opaque and coloured glasses.

    ReplyDelete
  6. beautiful pics willow, nicely framed. love the one by the round window. sweet that he brings you bottles...i did that with T when i used travel a bit, only it was vases...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lovely photos and bottles, Willow. I have a small collection too; I'll share it soon.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Love the bottles! I think they're such a lovely way to decorate.

    I heard about Prince Rupert's Drops in one of my Dick Francis mysterys - the hero was a glass maker & the concept behind the drops was key to getting the bad guys. Really cool!

    ReplyDelete
  9. wonderful images... the primaries always work! -Jayne

    ReplyDelete
  10. Please come down and give my bottles some TLC! :) I want your deep window sills to display them on!

    ReplyDelete
  11. We used to find those old insulators that they used on the power lines on the old railroad tracks, I don't know if you have ever seen them, but they were very unique looking.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I didn't even know they'd made a movie of Oscar and Lucinda, it's one of my favourite books and Blanchet and Fiennes are two of my favourite actors!

    Your bottles are lovely, especially like the gold one.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Love bottles and love the blues and browns together.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Willow..that is a beautiful collection! The pictures really show them off!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Your pretty bottles remind me of sea glass - one of my most favorite things. If I lived any where near the ocean I'm afraid I'd spend way too much time looking for it, and for sea shells, and just listening to water wash up on the shore.

    ReplyDelete
  16. My sister-in-law took me bottle digging in Savannah,Georgia, USA. It was a well picked over area so we dug underneath tree roots for bottles. We found several and the glass, after many years underground, had a purple opalescent shine to it. I have also found antique bottles in the walls of my house, flasks left by 19th century workers, and smaller antique bottles left by rodents.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Otin, yes, I have some of those old insulators, too. They're cool, aren't they?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Lori, in the walls of your house?! What a fun treasure! I'd like to see them. You should post on them sometime.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Oh, Ellen, really?! I'd love one!! Thank you so much!! :D

    ReplyDelete
  20. Oh Willow! They are so lovely!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Glad you collect glass too Wllow. Glass is so wond'rous and pretty, pre fire I had some Roman glass from the 2nd. century we had bought in Cologne when we were there for six months, also Chinese perfume bottles as well as antique crystal. Now I have a collecton from our superb glass-blowers right here in Adelaine, mainly in deep blue and pink to match the Persian rugs in the Music room.

    ReplyDelete
  22. It seems we all have a love of glass. On our land here in Ireland, we have found many glass bottles and have cleaned them as best we can. Various ointment bottles are for me the most fascinating. I blogged on them once. Lovely post and I must see that film, it looks just 'me'.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Absolutely fascinating Willow!
    They say, "You learn something new every day," well, I have certainly gotten my nugget of knowledge for today!

    ReplyDelete
  24. I love this post Willow. The pics are fantastic, and so is your collection. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Beautiful colors, and scrumptious pictures. We had some old bottles in a window at home (they are still there, though I'm not). I loved watching the sunlight play with them...Thanks for the memory, too.

    ReplyDelete
  26. The bottles are so beautiful! I love all of your collections... I want to hang up these pictures on my wall and pretend they are mine! lol

    ReplyDelete
  27. Wonderful collection of bottles.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Very cool pics. I have my own collection of old bottles, dug from an old dump behind my friend's cabin in the mountains. The old house had a postmistress that was snowed in during the winter. Only access by boat. She was alone all those snowy months. We found many liquor bottles. :-)

    And she "papered" part of the kitchen with flowers cut from magazines. Wishful thinking?

    ReplyDelete
  29. Ciao Willow! Belle bottiglie!!!
    Really nice bottles, the colours, the shape, the "taste" of old.
    Ciao have a nice week!

    ReplyDelete
  30. just precious, this value of which you bring...at one point, I held my own, but 'cleaned house' ridding of all 'unnecessay'...beautiful they are, most definately. May mine have had found a home of such graciousness as your own.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Lovely old glass willow - especially with the light shining through it. I have one or two horse medicine bottles which were found on the farm when we were doing some alterations but the coloured glass looks really beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  32. The bottles are, of course, beautiful but what makes the post is the stunning photographs. I have always had a greater fondness for content rather than container, but you might be changing my mind.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Beautiful pictures of your collection. I especially like the one before the round window.

    ReplyDelete
  34. really lovely photos of your bottles

    ReplyDelete
  35. Ah! Fabulous post. I love the images! Steven (as well as I) will no doubt find many glass creatures in the reflections.

    I, too, love glass of all kinds. Did you know that according to chemists, glass "should" always be a liquid, at every temperature. It acts like a liquid even when it's a solid. Glass is pure mystery, it is.

    I've got glass blower friends - man - that's an art that takes a lot of nerve. I'm thinking too of Ellen and her glass etching and sculpture. She is kind of a badass, after all.

    I agree with you about Angelina Jolie. She creeps me out. Do you think she's an alien?

    ReplyDelete
  36. Love the bottles Willow but your photographing of them is just stunning; so creative and artful!!

    I've seen a Prince Rupert's drop/tear that a friend of mine had; she was also a bottle collector. I love all the imperfections in the old glass.

    ReplyDelete
  37. now I have to see that movie!
    I am forever finding broken glass in my garden. I've never found anything in one piece though.
    your collection is so pretty.

    ReplyDelete
  38. I had no idea about the Rupert drops... it's been too long since I saw that movie. Your collection is stunning.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Reya, yes, I think Jolie is some kind of insect alien. She's freaky.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Lovely post! I love old bottles, too & have a small collection, but not much space for display, so most stay in boxes for "now."

    I enjoy looking at bottles and glass objects in flea markets and antique shops, but must resist the desire to own them.

    Did you see this movie? It looks like a good one.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Hillary, I like this movie so much I own a copy!

    ReplyDelete
  42. beautiful beautiful photos Willow :)

    ReplyDelete
  43. I have a nice little collection of old glass and old glass bottles too; oddly most of mine are that wonderful cobalt blue color

    ReplyDelete
  44. beautiful collection - beautiful - i'm such a lover of colored glass too - bottles and sea glass - isn't it wonderful how such "little" things can bring so much joy and happiness to our lives! thanks for sharing yours!

    ReplyDelete
  45. SO BEAUTIFUL!!! My husband and I collect bottles. I will take some and post for you. Some of the old heroine bottles still have tablets in them. Crazy.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Daryl, the cobalts are my favorite. Hang on to them. They are harder to find than the brown and clear bottles.

    ReplyDelete
  47. It is always interesting to see what others are drawn to and collect. I am more attracted to earthy, textured nature based stuff-- but from your images I can see why you love the old bottles.

    ReplyDelete
  48. I will keep my eyes peeled .but such beauty get rarer........Ive got an old German Glass (honey-Pot?) I brought back from Poland years ago.i keep my coffee in these days.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Loved the movie!!! When they were digging for the drain field they dug up an old blue ink bottle and an old 'Dr.Bakers Pain Relief' bottle.

    Dr. Baker was a 'cancer doctor' in our town at the turn of the century, I can only imagine what this brew was...my Great Grandmother died under his care...of cancer.

    ReplyDelete
  50. I love the light shining through old bottles in a window. Great colors, Willow! That cobalt blue is a big fave for me.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Beautiful old bottles willow woven with the sands of time but no bottle is as beautiful as the full bottle glowing here in front of me ;)

    ReplyDelete
  52. Gosh, you have a great collection here. We have some very old bottles in the cellars and I really should dust them down one day.

    CJ xx

    ReplyDelete
  53. Glass makes my heart dance with joy and sing with praise. Your photos of your freshly spiffed collection make me happy!

    I'm curious about the picture in the sidebar. Is it peeling madrona bark??? Mysterioius and compelling, it also makes me happy!

    ReplyDelete
  54. Hi Robin, the side bar pic is shards of clay pots. I'm happy to hear it makes you happy!

    ReplyDelete
  55. Loved that movie..have an old VCR, can still play it!
    ..what magic glass is!! Blue/green my fav..I have a chunk of sea glass that I've leaned against a leaf in a palm in my living room..just so it can catch the light.
    That gold bottle from London is so special!

    ReplyDelete
  56. i've a friend who has about 100 of those funny little glass balls...she bought them mostly in Southern Indiana..they're neat; I bought one...
    and i love to see the original glass windows in very old buildings. Fun video, looks like a movie the Misses and I would enjoy.
    oh, and picking up smoothed glass from the sea and lake shore is a great find too!

    ReplyDelete
  57. Hello Willow, you have an exquisite
    bottle collection. The colors take
    on a magical hue, especially when
    the bottles are placed near a
    window. I have a tiny collection of
    green bottles & one cherised
    green bud vase.

    Oscar & Lucinda is a wonderful and
    unique movie - Loved!

    Great news - The Earrings of Madame
    de - is available on DVD- I read
    about the movie in the Times almost
    a year ago. Must try to get this
    movie!

    ReplyDelete
  58. How neat - the glass bottles are great and you have displayed them wonderfully.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Hello Willow,

    I love the matt blue in the very first pic! My mother told me that when they moved into our family house, father had to dispose of over 100 bottles that had been left by the previous occupier - and all beer bottles!!

    ReplyDelete
  60. I loved this post a lot. It totally inspired me to pull out of the cabinets some decanters I had collected some years ago. Thanks for the inspiration!

    ReplyDelete
  61. willow,
    when i was little the first thing i started to collect was old bottles.
    just like the ones in your pic.
    my mother was an antique dealer and designer, i was dragged to all the antique shows, bottles were cheap enough for me to collect.
    i have no idea where they are now, but i would love to have them on a window sill in my house.

    xx

    ReplyDelete

Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence.
― O. Henry (and me)