Bottle, ginger beer bottle

This returnable stoneware bottle was used for selling ginger beer made by Mackintosh Brothers Ltd at their Kingsway Mineral Water Works at Plumstead, in south east London. The bottle was probably made by James Pearson Ltd of Brampton in Chesterfield.

Ginger originated in the East Indies and was being imported by the East India Company by the 17th century. Apart from its wider culinary use, it was being made into an alcoholic ginger beer in London by 1702, when it was noted by the Royal Society. It was popular with British soldiers serving in different parts of the Empire, but by the mid-19th century it was being replaced by a non-alcoholic variety and so became a popular drink for children. Robust jars or flagons made of stoneware replaced glass bottles by around 1900 because they were less likely to break.