Winsor and Newton first started out in Rathbone Place London in 1823 and then relocating to Harrow and Wealdstone in 1937 , so a company from my "manor" so to speak . I have a nice small collection of their bottles some still with the original contents from varnishes for oil painting , gesso , turpentine and inks etc . Some I have dug , others swapped , bought and traded and for me they make a nice display and of course the reminder from my youth and the old hometown .
The other part I like about the hobby of bottle digging is the research , one tiny inanimate object suddenly opens up a whole new dimension and gradually draws you deeper within into the history behind that one simple bottle . Most bottles are fairly common enough , household bottles etc they all have a story but none quite so interesting as a bottle with a little bit of personal use rather than an everyday generic item that has served its purpose for the moment and then discarded .
Other bottles or jars can be a little more personal and used for a much longer period , part of the artists armoury to be possibly used again after refilling the precious liquid which by all accounts was quite an expensive product .One such bottle or more correctly mini flagon came my way recently , it was from another kindly soul who knew my like for such labelled bottles from the famous artists stable and it arrived well packed and thankfully survived its journey .
The little stoneware bottle stands at just over 5 inches tall , its neat in design and has that simple but elegant form and sits well in the hand for pouring its contents onto the pallets of colours ready to be worked into the artists canvass . I like things like this , just a simple everyday item sat on the shelf of a no doubt cramped artists studio where chaos reigns where hand , eye and brush work feverishly together creating yet another longed for masterpiece .I imagine this bottle sitting on an old shelf by the window where cobwebs drape down from the old sash frames and the natural light seeps through the dusty window panes affording the painter to work the magic of brush and palette in a more natural setting rather than relying on the poor studio lighting .
My first quest was to try and date the bottle , I had been wrong in my initial assumption that it was from around 1890s era but the earlier bottles tend to have the address impressed into the stoneware rather than the stencilled address such as this bottle which in general dates them later . It isn't always the case though , I have some other artists flagons which are impressed but these are 1920s to 1930s era but it is a general rule of thumb when trying to date things .
My next part of the research was the labels and to the rear was a fine example of a label fully intact with the company details of the bottles contents .
The name and address ties this al in rather nicely and I would say with a doubt that this bottle was owned and used by this same man .
How often do we wonder about the last person to drop that coin, ring or artefact and we then find them while metal detecting and what we find puts us in some small way towards a link to the past but it is often shrouded in mystery but that is part of the charm of what we do in the hobby . We will never know anything about the last person who owned that hammered coin or medieval buckle unless we find something that has possibly been documented . Without that label with the all important name this little standard artists bottle has given me an insight into someones life which gives that bottle a whole new meaning . A fellow artist who handled this very bottle in a time way before I was born and now a 100 years later I too handle that same bottle but view it in a completely different way to its original purpose .
