286-315COVr1.qxp:style trial
12/9/10
11:50 AM
Page 304
The Golden Age of English Glass 1650–1775
114 A quart bottle with scratch-engraved decoration, bearing the name Lt. John Tittler (?) and possibly decorated by him England, c.1725, the engraving dated 1739
The extraordinary bottle illustrated in Cat. 114 is unique and heretofore unpublished. The naïve but charming decoration crowded on to the surface of the bottle was produced by scratching, but the width and depth of the lines suggest it was not done using a diamond. Anything harder than glass will scratch it, so the tool used to produce the decoration may have been a sharpened steel point or even a piece of flint or quartz.
resembling needlework samplers.) The presence of both a thistle and a heraldic rose on the bottle may reflect the Union of the Scottish and English kingdoms in 1707. The presence of the thistle might also suggest a relationship to the Jacobite movement which was active during the first half of the eighteenth century, but the date 1739 is not significant in the history of the movement (see pages 162‒167).
The name inscribed on this bottle is difficult to decipher because of the presence of two small “T”s inserted after the capital “L”, one being placed horizontally above the other. The name could be Littler, but it is also possible that the name is Lt. Tittler. No biographical information has been discovered about either name.
This bottle should not be confused with the crudely stippled bottles produced between about 1820 and 1890, a century later than the bottle in Cat. 114. They were the product of an unknown worker or workers living near the Alloa Glass Works in Scotland.1 Those bottles have crude pecked decoration produced by tapping a sharp-pointed tool, perhaps a hammer or nail, against the surface of the bottles.
The engraved flowers bear a familial resemblance to needlework produced in the same period by young girls in schools. The depictions on the bottle, however, are more lifelike and realistic than those typically appearing on samplers. (See also Cat. 90 for a diamond- engraved panel with depictions of carnations
Although the shape of the bottle is related to typical Dutch bottles of the 1730s,2 the form of the string rim and the deep, rounded kick are consistent with bottles of British origin of about 1725.
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Height 718⁄ in. (18.1cm) Diameter 618⁄ in. (15.6cm) Capacity not measured
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The rim cracked off and lightly fire-polished; very deep, rounded kick on the base, with a large rough glass pontil mark on the underside; unidentified paper collection label on the bottom, inscribed “327”. The rim chipped. Blown transparent heavy dark olive-green non-lead glass; scratch-engraved.
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Figures 178a–d. Details of Cat. 114.
The densely scratch-engraved decoration on this bottle includes the date and name “1739 [heart] Iohn: Lt. Tittler:” (?) (Figures 178a, b, d); the remainder of the surface filled with numerous flowers and other motifs, including:
a woman with both arms raised, holding a bouquet in one hand and a steaming cup (?) in the other (Figure 178a) a man smoking a pipe, a jug in one hand, resting it on a fabric-covered table, a dog underneath and a bird behind (Figure 178b) a child riding a dog (?) at the lower left side of an urn (Figure 178c) a carnation, rose and tulip emerging from an elaborate urn (Figure 178c) a large thistle and a flowering tulip plant growing from the ground (Figure 178d)
PROVENANCE
Lt. John Tittler (?) Jonathan Horne, London John H. Bryan, Chicago, IL
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