Bottle, ginger beer bottle

Half pint cylindrical stoneware ginger beer bottle with brown salt glaze. Blob top with stopper missing. Incised around the shoulder 'Biucchi Bros 178'. Probably London made stoneware. This is a typical example of a stoneware ginger beer bottle used by the Biucchi Brothers mineral water and ginger beer manufacturers based at 11-15 Cromer Street, London WC, between 1892-1894 & then 33 Cromer Street 1895-1911 (probably the same address but a number change by the post office). The firm was founded in 1892 by brothers Ernesto Edward Biucchi and Basilio Biucchi, sons of Ticinese immigrants Alessandro and Apollonia Biucchi. The firm was in operation until 1934 when it was taken over by the Idris brothers. Anthony Biucchi, grandson of one of the firm's founders donated the bottle to the Museum. The Italian speaking Biucchi family came to London in the 1850s as economic migrants from the Ticino area of the Swiss Alps. Like many of their countrymen they found work in London's catering industry and branches of the family became confectioners, restaurant owners and mineral bottle retailers. Complementing the items we already have relating to the Pagani & Gatti families and the Il Ticino banner, the jar represents one of 19th century London's most closely-knit immigrant communities - the Swiss Italian Ticinese.