Spirit Bottle

Dark green glass bottle with a glass seal on the shoulder dating to around the 18th century. It would have been made by blowing molten glass into shape using a wooden mould, with the neck and seal added by hand. The seal includes a crown at the top, and palm leaves at the bottom, with ‘LONDON’ and a five-pointed star or pentacle in between. The rectangular-sectioned shape indicates that it was probably made to contain gin, whilst the ‘LONDON’ seen on the glass seal was usually used to show that a bottle contained ‘London gin’, rather than the Dutch gin also available at the time. Rectangular and square section bottles were also easier to crate up safely for transport than round ones. The five-pointed star symbol below ‘LONDON’ seen in the glass seal was often used to represent the protection of the drinker from demonic powers. London gin was cheap to produce and purchase in the early 18th century, making it a very popular drink amongst the London’s poor.