79. — Bottle seals. (Sec ill. 36.) 



Bii;iol glasshouses introduced cylindrical brass 

 molds.-"-' From then on the problem of stacking bot- 

 tles in bins was sohed and virtually all round beverage 

 bottles thenceforward were cylindrical with long necks. 

 At Marlborough the earliest form of wine botde is 

 represented by a squat neck and a base fragment 

 (USNM 59.1717, ill. 35), both matching onion- 

 shaped bottles of the turn of the century, such as one 

 excavated at Rosewell (USNM 60.660). Except for 

 these fragments, the oldest form from Marlborough 



-"^ "Old English Wine Bottles," The Wine and Sfiirit Trade 

 Record (London, Decemter 17, 1951), pp. 1570-1571. 



may be seen in the complete bottle found in refuse 

 pit D (USNM 59.1688; fig. 78, ill. 37). This bottle 

 is typical of the transitional form, sealed examples of 

 which regularly occur bearing dates in the 1730's. 

 Its sides are straight for about three inches above the 

 curve of the base, tapering slightly to the irregular 

 shoulder that curves in and up to a neck with wedge- 

 shaped string ring. Two inches above the base is a 

 seal, bearing the initials i9m above a decorative 

 device and the date 1737. The arrangement of 

 initials exactly matches that found on Mercer's 

 tobacco-cask seals (p. 30 and footnote 89) indicating 

 the "home plantation" at Marlborough. 



148 



