# Bottles from a distant land ...



## SAbottles (Feb 25, 2013)

Hi, haven't been digging recently, but in my birthday wishes thread, Surface asked to see some glass : so - here are some bottles from South Africa:  First, a range of chemist bottle with embossing on, mainly from suburbs around Cape Town:






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## SAbottles (Feb 25, 2013)

more 






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 and another






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 another     





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 one more 





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## SAbottles (Feb 25, 2013)

From the Catering Dept of South African Railways, Guess the passengers went through a lot of booze:






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 This one was from an old tavern which stood on a square in Central Cape Town. We have old photos which still showed the building:






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A classic - Orsmond's Great African Remedy :






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## SAbottles (Feb 25, 2013)

And a few with labels :  Snuff was very popular, this bottle is still full (and the snuff works !)






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 This one is in Afrikaans - translated it is Dr Kiessow's Essence of Life - & while it sounds great, it mainly made your stomach work. (This began way back in Germany and I have a very early version)





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 The label on this one is still in Dutch, which would put it very early 1900s (Afrikaans became an official language around 1924)






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      The illustration on this one really speaks for itself !






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## SAbottles (Feb 25, 2013)

Lastly two not specifically from South Africa. I wonder what this one really did for sea sickness ?!






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And this one I dug in Wales  (UK). I just love the fact that he specifies that he is a chemist "By Examination" !! (Better than just setting up as a chemist, I guess !)







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And if you were tired of it all, you could always have a nightcap of this :






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or possibly some of this ??!






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## cyberdigger (Feb 25, 2013)

What a GREAT post Dale!! Wonderful stuff!!!! []


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## epackage (Feb 25, 2013)

Fantastic bottles dale, I love that pumpkin seed for The Old Thatched Taverne!!!


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## frozenmonkeyface (Feb 25, 2013)

Really neat stuff!!! I would love to visit Africa! I have never been out of the country. Have you always lived there?


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## sandchip (Feb 25, 2013)

Great pile o' goodies!


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## SAbottles (Feb 26, 2013)

Thank you for all the kind comments ~ always happy to show pictures of bottle (& other goodies!) 

 Here are a few more  - the Olde Thatched Taverne flasks came in two sizes :






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and this Codd was used very near to where I live - Simon's Town - the Chemist made his own mineral water:






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a close up of the lower part showing "Simon's Town":






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## SAbottles (Feb 26, 2013)

Two Ginger Beers from the city of diamonds - Kimberley; the one on the left shows Cecil Rhodes - the right is Patrick Sullivan (of Sullivan's Ginger Beer)







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Another GB - this time from the City of Gold ! :






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## SAbottles (Feb 26, 2013)

We don't have a great number of local Pot Lids, but some of them are quite attractive. First two Tooth Paste lids 






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and a nice little Cape Town one for Corns (which has its directions for use printed inside the lid) 






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## SAbottles (Feb 26, 2013)

This one is dear to my heart - my surname being Lewis (even if it was for *non-alcohol*_ic _beverage !)






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## SAbottles (Feb 26, 2013)

Several firms used the little school inkwells for advertising - RH Morris was a construction firm:






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## SAbottles (Feb 26, 2013)

Lastly, these bottles, while fairly ordinary slicks, are very significant historically and personally;






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They come from the Glencairn Glass factory, which only ran from 1902 to 1905; this is the only surviving photograph of the factory:






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A very useful little book was brought out on the factory, its history and rediscovery:






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## SAbottles (Feb 26, 2013)

And why significant to me ? Well this is the view across the valley  from my lounge window. The arrow shows where the remains of the factory are still to be seen -






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Here is a photo showing some of the bottles produced; I have marked those in the previous photo of two "Pop" bottles and a small brandy flask :






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and lastly a shot from the book, taken during the excavations:






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## cowseatmaize (Feb 26, 2013)

That is some great stuff Dale. I just recently got into SA history. Of coarse I remember Mandela's release but I was a bit young for the boycotts and certainly the Zulu wars but I've been seeing a lot of stuff on the teli lately. Maybe because it's black history month here in the U.S.? During Feb Shaka Zulu and a bunch of other stuff is being rebroadcast and/or made.

 I'm not going political, I just find it fascinating.


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## SAbottles (Feb 26, 2013)

Gosh, Cows ~ I'm glad to hear you weren't around during the Zulu Wars !! I know you're a bit long in the tooth []  but not that much so !

Unless you're referring to the 1990s period, when the Zulus (IFP) and the Xhosas (ANC) killed each other in Kwa Zulu Natal with great relish ! [][]


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## cowseatmaize (Feb 26, 2013)

No, not that one, I'll have to get more info for that because I need to the refresh of memory. I knew after Mendela's release a lot went on but have forgotten a lot too. I wasn't in the thick of it though, we got headlines etc. when we were paying attention. I do have a release clipping that I kept but that was a couple paragraphs at best. I'll bet yours was full front page news.


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## bostaurus (Feb 26, 2013)

Our US news from South Africa at the time was a bit selective in their coverage....surprise, surprise.


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## SAbottles (Feb 26, 2013)

If you watch Shaka Zulu, keep a look out for the mention of Rowland's Macassar Oil and the bottles in which it was sold - don't think they were the right bottles !


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## SAbottles (Feb 26, 2013)

Nope - our news tends to be pretty selective too! Melissa & Cows, I'm going to try to keep this thread from getting too political; we are having far too bad a time of it to let something like that spoil bottles [:-] !


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## bostaurus (Feb 26, 2013)

I think every country does that.  I remember, as a 16 year old, getting ready to move back to the States after being in England for 5 years. (early 70's)
 I thought I was returning to a wasteland where all the forests had been cut down, the rivers ran with burning oil, and someone was standing on every corner ready to rob and shoot you.  To my surprise everyone was friendly, no one tried to rob us or kill us, and within 30 minutes of the airport we were driving in forests and farm fields.  Made an impact on me and I never really trusted what I was hearing on the the news again.


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