Decanter

A menagerie of claret jugs, pepperettes, whisky tots and scent bottles is being offered for sale in Essex today.

ESTIMATED at £3000-4000, this 18th century mahogany decanter box retaining a pair of profusely cut double-magnum sized decanters c.1780, attracted multiple bidders at Suffolk saleroom Neal Sons & Fletcher of Woodbridge.

Among the highlights at the most recent sale conducted by advertising and bottle specialists BBR was this miniature shaft and globe bottle in dark olive green glass vessel probably used for pharmaceutical purposes c.1660-70.

The Decanter: An Illustrated History of Glass from 1650 by Andy McConnell, published by the Antique Collectors’ Club, ISBN 1851494286, £45hb.

Auctioneer Richard Bromell of Charterhouse Auctions (15% buyer’s premium), Sherborne had listened with reserved interest to a client who described a gilt blue glass decanter in his possession “almost identical” to a pair catalogued as in the manner of James Giles c.1770 that had featured in a 1968 edition of Country Life.

It is not unusual for an auctioneer to receive enquiries from members of the public who have seen items ‘identical’ to theirs in a newspaper, a magazine or on television. In reality the Queen Anne walnut chest turns out to be a 1920s reproduction worth £100 – but, yes, they do look almost identical.

DECANTERS of all types from the 18th century to the present are the subject of an exhibition running at the Broadfield House Glass Museum, Dudley, until April 18 next year.

Wine-related silver is sitting at the top table of the market at present as the luxury boozing culture of hard-working businessmen props up the value of coasters, labels, corkscrews and funnels. But one area that has not benefited so much from the interaction of wine merchants and boardroom boys in recent years has been the standard Victorian decanter and claret jug.