Beschreibung:

A very rare engraved opalescent wine bottle, circa 1710Of 'pancake' onion form in dichroic olive-green glass with a pale blue opalescence, the large bulbous body with a short tapering neck, the wide mouth trailed with a string rim, inscribed 'J Foote/ Harwood' between cruciform flourishes in diamond-point script to the shoulder, with a basal 'kick-up', 14cm highFootnotesKnown as 'glass gall' or sandever, this rare and curious blue opalescence was caused by an excess sodium sulphate impurity in the glassmaking batch. Although considered a particularly attractive effect, whether it was deliberate or accidental remains the subject of much debate. The inscription likely relates to a John Foote of Harewood near Calstock, Cornwall. An octagonal wine bottle of circa 1770-80 bearing a commemorative seal inscribed 'Foote/ Harwood/ 1731' is illustrated by David Burton Antique Sealed Bottles (2014), pp.634-5, where it is attributed to John Pearson Foote of Harewood Manor, Calstock. John Pearson Foote was descended from a long line of John Foote's who had all lived in Harewood or Calstock since at least the early 17th century. John Pearson Foote's father, known in his will as John Foote the younger, died in 1744. This bottle may have belonged to this John Foote, or perhaps his father John Foote the elder. For a wide-mouthed 'pancake' onion bottle of very similar form, applied with a seal inscribed 'T.N/ 1705', see that illustrated by Burton (2014), p.543.