P'igurc 78. — Wine bottle, sealed with initials of Juhn and 

 Catherine Mercer, dated 1737 (see p. 148). Found in .Struc- 

 ture D refuse pit. Height, 8 inches. (See also ill. 37.) 



It will be noted that Bristol beer was sold by the 

 bottle, probably just as it was shipped, ai^d "Fine 

 bottled Syder" apparently came in quart bottles. 

 Probably the wines were di.spensed from casks in wine 

 measures. Mercer bought Citron water in bottles, 

 a half dozen at a time, as he did "Mint, Orange 

 flower & Tansey D"," in 1 744. 



Round beverage bottles ranged in shape from, 

 roughly, the form of a squat onion at the beginning of 



the 18th century to narrow cylindrical bottles towards 

 the end of the century. The earliest bottles were free- 

 blown without the constraint of a mold, hence there 

 were many variations in shape. After about 1730 

 bottles were blown into crude clay molds which 

 imparted a roiighh cs lindrical or taper-sided contour 

 below sloping shoulders and necks. These marked 

 the first recognition of binning as a way of storing 

 wines in bottles laid on their sides. About 1750 the 



146 



