Illustration 40. — Octagonal, pint-size beverage bottle. 

 See figure 80. Half .size. (USNM 59.1687.) 



borough (USNM 59.1687, fig. 80, ill. 40) is 8 inches 

 high, but bears no seal. Among the glass found at 

 Marlborough arc also three bases and other fragments 

 of similar bottles. 



SquARE "gin" bottles.— Square bottles, usually 

 called "gin" botdcs, occur in the Marlborough 

 material. Two base sections and lower pieces of the 

 Ibt sides have been pardy restored (USNM 59.1685, 

 59.1086, ill. 41), and a neck and shoulder have sur- 

 vived. The bases arc 4 inches square, and the whole 

 bottles were probably about 10 inches high. They 

 did not taper but maintained a continuous dimension 

 from shoulder to base. The bases, which arc rounded 

 on the corners, have a slightly domed kick-up with a 

 ring-shaped pontil mark. The glass is olive green. 

 The necks are squat— barely % inch— and have wide 

 string rings midway in their length. 



Square "gin" bottles were designed for shipment in 

 wooden boxes with compartments in which the bottles 

 fit snugly. Although Dutch gin customarily was 



150 



Figure 80. — Oct.^go.nai, spirits bottle. 



shipped in botUes of this shape, indications are that 

 the square bottles may have been used for other 

 purposes than holding gin. For one thing, Mercer's 

 ledgers mention no purchases of gin. There is, in 

 fact, almost no exidence of the sale of gin in Virginia; 

 a single announcement of Holland gin available in 

 ^Villiamsburg in 1752 is the exception until 1773, 



